Cape Town

After another day at sea, we sailed into Cape Town, South Africa on Friday, March 2nd for a 3-day stay. Annie & I spent 3 days here in 2004 after we got off our Crystal cruise and had a great time, so we were looking forward to visiting the area again. We arrived on a crystal-clear morning with bright blue skies - and what a beautiful place to sail into! Cape Town is bordered by prominent mountains on both sides and the city seems to rise abruptly from the sea. Directly behind the city is the magnificent Table Mountain. Jutting up some 3,500 ft. from the shoreline, the crests of Table Mountain can be spotted from up to 100 miles out at sea (or so they say!). The mountain appears completely flat at top and hence the name "Table". Adding more to the mystique of the area is what the natives call the "tablecloth" - the fleecy white clouds that can move in and appear to cover the mountain.

On Friday, we did a tour with our Virtuoso travel group to Stellenbosch, the wine country just outside of Cape Town. South Africa has made great strides in wine cultivation in the past few decades and are particularly good with whites like sauvignon blanc and lighter reds. There's even a special "Cape Wine" blend called a Pinotage, which is a blend of Pinot Noir and Cinsault. Our tour took us about an hour outside the city to an area surrounded by vineyards (or "wine farms" as they call them here). Our first stop was for a tour and tasting at one of these farms. Of course, after trying 5 different wines, we had to bring some back (to the ship, not home!) So we left with a creative mix of 6 bottles to do some tasting of our own! It will be nice to sit out on our little deck and toast our journey these warm nights.

Our tour continued to a lovely resort in the valley, where we were serenaded with Zulu songs by a youth chorus (beautiful voices!)and then treated to an elegant - and delicious - luncheon. The entree was a fish called Kingklip which is a firm white fish, similar to a nice piece of haddock, I guess. It's native to this region and really quite tasty. Even Annie enjoyed it (and yes, it was boneless). Of course there were more wines to taste with lunch. It was good we could nap on the return to the ship!

Saturday, we decided we'd try to go to Robbin Island, a small island in the harbor which was the prison facility where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for almost 20 years. You have to reach the island by boat, and normally the tour tickets are sold out far in advance. We decided to go in and try, just in case we could get tickets and,somehow we ended up in the right place at the right time and managed to get 2 tickets for the 10:00 boat. Let me just say this about the boat...they don't bother with Coast Guard inspections! They just piled people on to every available seat and standing area. There were a few life jackets (probably enough for the crew - definitely not enough for the passengers!) We were heading into the wind the whole way out to the island and it took us almost an hour. Once we arrived, we boarded buses for a tour. Our guide had been a political activist and had actually been exiled from South Africa in the 70s and 80s. Had some really interesting stories to tell of his travels around the world and his work. Our bus tour ended at the prison facility where Mandela was kept. Here, we had a new tour guide; this one had been imprisoned in the jail on Robbin Island - from the time he was 16 until the age of 21! During that entire time, he was awaiting trial. He had some moving, and horrific, true stories of life, torture and death during the dark days of apartheid. It's amazing how firm these survivors are in their belief in "reconciliation"; they all maintain that for the betterment and strength of their country - and themselves personally - they must move through it and not let hatred and anger consume them. When you hear what they have gone through, it gives a whole new meaning to "forgive and let live."

During our tour, we were told that the weather had turned stormy and the boat we had come out on at 10:00 had been the last one for the day! All others had been cancelled, but they'd get us back to the mainland. And what a trip THAT was! A & I were okay, but people were seasick and falling all over each other every time we hit a wave - and hit them we did! Quite a ride, to say the least!! We were happy to be back on terra firma, even if it was raining. After a late lunch(more Kingklip for me!), we wondered around the waterfront area and - of course - did some shopping for a few hours before heading back to the ship for some dry clothes and a good night's sleep.

Sunday morning, we headed back to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront area again. It's a great open complex of shops & restaurants. It's right on a working harbor and there are seals that come in and just lounge around the floats, plus all kinds of boat tours, etc. We had remembered it fondly from our 2004 visit, and so were happy to spend some more time there this weekend.

The ship sailed at 3:00 and we all went up on deck for a champagne toast as we sailed out of the harbor. The sun came out again and it really was another beautiful sailaway. Cape Town is one of my favorite spots and I would definitely come back here again for a longer stay.

As we rounded the Cape of Good Hope Sunday night and headed up the east coast of Africa on our way to Durban, we caught the tail end of a typhoon of some sort. Still hundreds of miles away from us, but we had a very rough ride Sunday night and into Monday afternoon. We talked with the captain and he said the waves were only about 15-18 ft., but it was rougher than we had experienced in all our time in Antarctica. But it calmed down by Monday afternoon, and we sailed into Durban this morning (Tuesday, March 6). I tried to get on a helicopter tour out to one of the game reserves, but it was sold out. No big deal really, but there isn't that much else to do in Durban (and we had seen what was here in 2004). So it's been a good day to catch up with some things. Tomorrow we arrive in Maputo, Mozambique. It's a maiden call for Crystal and they've told us it's a very raw, undeveloped area - should be interesting. Stay tuned!