Ailsa and Andy’s Travels: Day 51 Cape Town

Hooray & hello Cape Town! We woke up to beautiful sunshine and to find the ship docked in gorgeous Capetown. It’s a short walk from the cruise terminal where the ship docks, to a fabulous waterfront area called the V&A Waterfront. There are lots of fantastic shops and restaurants on the waterside and a huge artisan area called the WaterShed where I spent a couple of hours today, perusing the fabulous craft shops. There were so many beautiful shops I could easily have spent many hours there. Every shop we walked past seemed to pull us in. Andy loved the wooden animal carvings and furniture made from recycled bits of metal (everything from clock cogs to garden tools were made into garden furniture and giant animals). If it had been closer to home, we would definitely be adding some quirky items to our garden seating offerings!

We stopped for a drink at a bar right next to the pontoons where several boats were tied up - this proved to be a prime spot for people and boat watching! Unbeknown to us at the time, many of the boats were for taking tourists out on harbour cruises. Some were catamarans - twin hulled boats with masts and lots of deck space, some were like small people ferries with glass windows all round and the piece de resistance was……. A pirate ship with crew dressed as pirates! 😅. We watched families board the pirate ship, a school party of at least 20 reception age children board the harbour tour boat and numerous other people board many other craft. It was like Piccadilly Circus on the waterfront! Most of the boats seemed to just go out for 30-60 mins, come back in and then be off out again - reloaded with more eager passengers!

Whilst all the boat action was going on, an African choir arrived on the shopping front next to where we were sitting and boy, were they fabulous! There were around 15-20 people wearing traditional African brightly coloured clothes in the choir, but they didn’t only sing, they had a drummer with them and they all danced as well! Their songs were just joyous, so upbeat and involved lots of whistling and cheering as well as singing, whilst the African dancing also happened at the same time! The group were there busking so we made sure to put some money in their box when we eventually had to make a move and get some lunch.

Andy had the biggest burger in the world for lunch - the clue was in the name..”The ultimate Bomb Burger” - it was mahoosive!

After a morning of shopping, people watching and lunch we headed back to the ship for a brief rest and to do the dreaded packing. Little did we know there was more free entertainment to come…in the form of watching a huge cargo vessel manoeuvre itself into the dock right next to us on the Queen Anne. It was a bit hairy at times 🙈 but the tugs did a great job pulling and nudging the mammoth cargo vessel into place. It then opened up its 5 enormous deck cargo bifold doors, puts its 5 huge crains into action and spent the rest of the night lifting the cargo hidden in its bowels onto the harbour side.

This evening, we said tatty bye to Romulo, Arnold and Allen who have been our waiters whilst we’ve been on the Queen Anne - they were all so lovely. (Note to self, Emerson was also our waiter but he got a kidney stone last week and had to go into hospital).

The evening was finished off with a trip to the theatre to watch an African dance and drumming show which is brilliant. There were masks, drums, singing groups and African tribal war dances amongst other things.

It’s our last night on the Queen Anne tonight, it’s been a fun 17 days.