113/137 Days; 24 days remaining
Cape Town, South Africa
Embarking at 17:00
Good morning, Campers! Another fine day in Africa. Today we rejoin the Mariner and other World Cruisers. The Mariner is supposed to dock at 07:00 this morning. Not completely sure where, but they did say the V&A cruise terminal, wherever that is. It is probably safe to assume however that it isn’t very far.
Maria is still out cold from last night, and it hasn’t quite gone 07:00 yet, so I decided to find the cruise terminal. Google says it is a mile away. So, off I trot. Back down the hill to the Mall, past the Cape Town Fish Market, up the stairs, down the stairs, across a space that looks a bit like commercial office space, almost stopped at a coffee cart, but decided breakfast was included at the hotel so go where it is free, or at least already paid for, past a commercial dock, and then a sign appeared which said cruise terminal. Found it!
Walking through the terminal I begin to have doubts about the discovery. Everything is buttoned up tight. There are a few people about, but not enough to suggest a cruise ship was docking today. Even the coffee shop is closed up. There are several berths and I walk among them until I find a viewing deck. There are a couple guys up here smoking, but the view of the cruise terminal dock is unobstructed. It has gone 07:00 there is no Mariner in sight. Wrong cruise terminal?Google doesn’t have another ….
Take the escalator down to the ground floor, as I do so I spot some fellow world cruisers. They ask me where the Mariner is. Like I knew. The good news is this is where the Regent’s tour operator dropped them off. They made them get out of bed at 06:30 and get down here by 07:00. They may or may not have a tour today, but early bird gets the excursion.
Finally I stumble upon an official looking woman, about five feet tall and not a tooth in her mouth, but she is dressed in a uniform. I inquired if this is where the Mariner will dock this morning. Yes! At 10:00. Boy oh boy are those world cruisers who were on overland packages going to be pissed. Sitting here for three hours without coffee or anything else.
We are supposed to have a 10:40 Cheetahs and Olives Tasting tour. We are having second thoughts about that. We have throughly enjoyed the last couple days but really need a day off. Tomorrow is a sea day, but …. We decided to take it slowly. We go downstairs and have the buffet breakfast. Quite nice, fresh fruit, nice selection of cold meats and cheese, breads, hot food and made to order omelets.
After enjoying breakfast, we pack everything up and head down to front desk to check out. There was one charge for the cappuccino at breakfast, $2 USD. We decided to walk to the cruise terminal rather than take a taxi. The V&A area is still fairly quite at 10:00 but there are people starting to show up for work, open stores and have a coffee. We get to the cruise terminal just after it had gone 10:00. The ship is here and we are allowed to board.
We went though immigration again, then went to put our things in the room. Honestly by the time we got there we were pretty much done for the day. So, we decided to call it a day and not go on the excursion as planned. Instead we did laundry, went to lunch and took a nice nap. Basically a nice relaxing day.
We are planning on going back to Cape Town in the spring either before or after our safari in Tanzania. Now we have took again at flights. Should we fly to Tanzania, then Cape Town, then back to Europe? Or fly to Cape Town and take a local to Tanzania and back, making Cape Town a round trip destination? Such third world problems.
We were thinking about going to La Veranda for dinner, but instead opted for the pool grill. Not really that hungry anyway. It has been a good day. The internet continues to suck. Again, a third world problem, right?
Tomorrow is a day at sea, then Walvis Bay and Namibia. Another new country. See you then,
Buonanotte e Ciao, Enrico e Maria
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