Wednesday April 11th 2012 - Cape Town - V&A hotel
Laps:0 Steps:0

By 9:00 we have disembarqued the ship. It was sad saying goodbye to team JERBBS  (Jack, Elaine, Rod, Robin, Barbara Su). They were a lot of fun to be with. We hope to catch them up in UK in the coming months.

Get 100% ripped off by a taxi driver taking us from the ship to the hotel. I don't begrudge this, as it is absolutely essential that this happens when you first visit a new city. Fare:150 rand. Current exchange rate is 7.8 rand to the Oz Dollar. To get an idea of prices, I divide the rand by 10 and then add back a third, thereabouts. So, 150 rand is $15 (divide by 10) + $5 (add back a third of $15) = about $20.

By 10:00 we were at the hotel. We had been advised by Arcadia that one of the best places to stay is the Victoria and Alfred (Victoria's son) waterfront area. We had booked a hotel very nearby - attached to a business school run by the universty.

Very stylish and comparatively cheap ($110 per night) compared to some of the rooms we were offered in Australia (up to $300/night).  After checking in, we went to the V&A complex - yes, another giant shopping complex. Albeit complete with waterfront, yachts, some music and a mini London eye.

We will try that when we get back from safari. We decided to walk into town - about 45 minutes. Found a nice cafe, had a meal and drank some wine. Prices are good - about 75% of that which you would pay in Australia.

                                                               Not another salad!

We get a taxi back to the V&A "Minimum fare is R50" says the taxi driver.

Thursday April 12th 2012 - Cape Town - V&A hotel 

We buy an all day "hop-on, hop-off" ticket and get to see the Cape Town sights, and hear the history. The bus also takes us to the Tabletop mountain cable car. Fare: 140 Rand each. Good value.

The Tabletop mountain absolutely dominates the city. Everywhere you look, you see bits of it. It's a fabulous view from the top when clouds are not obscuring the view. Today we are lucky - it's as clear as a bell.

Back down the mountain to the city, then dropped off in the city late afternoon.  Su buys some Tee Shirts for the grandkids in Green Market square.

                                                                   Su's new friend


 Take a taxi back - on the meter this time - R31. Getting cheaper every day!

So, we are beginning to realise that the hotel is pretty isolated, apart from easy access to the V&A shopping centre during daylight hours. We are told a taxi is the only "safe" method of getting around after dusk.  Still unsure what to believe about safety in Cape Town, we are hesitant to walk down the dark streets to the V&A for a meal, which anyway, is a bit of a tourist rip-off. We lose some weight.

Friday April 13th 2012 - Cape Town - V&A hotel 

Feeling a bit poorly with this flue thing.... Su is coughing badly, and Rod has a recurring stomach complaint as well... eeeerrrrruuuuupppppppttttt!

We decide that this hotel is wrong for us. It is nice, but tiny - and the rooms have some serious design flaws not initially recognised when we booked it. For example, the toilet and shower area is bounded by floor to ceiling glass. It is frosted up to head height and clear at the top. In the middle of the night, when someone uses the toilet, the lights shine directly into the bed area. And, for those of us with sensitive natures, sound attenuation is a big, big problem. The room is quite small - 6m x 4m x 3m high.

Time to introduce the "Body Volumes" concept.  All this started when Carolina was keening about her poor dog, Gringa, which had been placed in a kennel when she and Nick were travelling. Someone suggested that in terms of "body volumes", Gringa was doing much better in the large kennel, than living in her small dog house.  This is all very approximate.  If you convince four people to stand comfortably close together (but not cramped), they would take up a footprint of about 1 metre in floor space and around two metres in height.

This is approximately 2 cubic metres of volume. So each of the four individuals could be said to have a body volume of approximately 0.5 m3  If the room is 6x4x3 = 72m3 This means a couple will have 36 body volumes of room each. This may sound like a lot of space, but when you consider that our St Kilda house was probably 18mx6mx4m x two stories = 864 m3, then Su and I would have had approximately 430 body volumes each for living space.
 
So, back to our little cramped, badly designed hotel room. "No", the hotel had no rooms bigger than ours. They are all identically sized.  So, I did some research on the net and found a likely two bedroom apartment in Camps Bay, a beach suburb of CTown. High end, expensive, but hell we're on holidays!

Off to have a look. Taxi fare: On the meter: Rand 180. Had a feeling we went the long way round. Great body volume size (around 150m3pp), right on the beach, great balcony looking at the sea, next to cafe's, restaurants, and regularly patrolled by security people into the late hours. We agreed to take the Camps Bay apartment. www.placeonthebay.co.za    

Feeling energised, we risk taking a "local" bus back to V&A waterfront. These local buses are privately run, 14-seat vans which have a defined route, but no formal bus stops. You get picked up at the terminus, or flag them down along the route.  van camps bay  They drop you off almost anywhere you want on the route. They are cheap. We get one which says it goes to V&A, but language can be a problem. Cost 8 Rand each (Wow!! value for money here!!)

However, we end up in town and its getting dark! Nervousness starts. Should we get a taxi?? I'm determined to get a local bus, but Su is cautioned by a local South Africaan lady "Don't do it, they'll muck you round, take a taxi" However, I'm determined, so we pile in, and in ten minutes, Su recognised where we are and we stop - delivered to the door! Cost 4 rand each. I just love it!!

Saturday April 14th 2012 - Cape Town Camps Bay 

We check out, get a refund on our two unused nights accommodation, and grab a cab.

Straight there this time - 80 Rand. Better. This apartment has a kitchenette, Yippee! back to basics food! We buy some foodstuffs at a little supermarket, and eat in tonight. Baked Beans, yum.

Sunday April 15th 2012 - Cape Town Camps Bay 

Veg out today - wind gets wild tonight.


Monday April 16th 2012 - Capetown Camps Bay 

Another veg out day. Feels like a real holiday. Terrific community here in a beautiful picturesqe setting - crashing sea on a pearly white beach below rugged mountains... idyllic!

                                                                       Camps Bay

Tuesday April 17th 2012 - Cape Town Camps Bay 

Send lots of postcards.... Found free wifi at a great cafe here, .... beginning to understand why it's called "Camps Bay"

Wednesday April 18th 2012 - Capetown Camps Bay

Local bus to Seapoint, along thecoast - Rand 7 each, explore shops and sights, buy a soft sided bag for Su to take on safari, buy some liquor. Local bus back: Rand 7 each.

                                                               Another new friend

Sunsets are the best I've ever seen...

Thursday April 19th 2012 - Cape Town Camps Bay 

Sunset walk.... Beautiful.

                                                                View from our balcony

Friday April 20th 2012 - Cape Town Camps Bay 

Lazy day - write up these notes.

Saturday April 21th 2012 - Fly to Joburg

Thursday April 5th 2012 - at sea
Laps:6 Steps:85

Friday April 6th 2012 - Durban
Laps:6 Steps:85

Su's notes in italc font

Hi to all. Have succumbed as usual to the Ship virus  but spent a few hours in Durban. An hour or more getting our SA sim cards and then getting them activated. Not something to be attempted alone!

Went into the shopping mall, got thoroughly bored, and came back to the ship.

Saturday April 7th 2012 - At sea
Laps:6 Steps:85

Last night wonderful electrical storm as good as any fireworks! Ship heeling like a yacht on Port Phillip bay - 82 knot blasts hitting us side on. At last some real weather! Big white waves crashing over our balcony, drinks tables running into walls in dining room
Fabulous stuff! Tonight the same. Not sure how we’ll get down there tonight! 

Sunday April 8th 2012 - Port Elizabeth
Laps:6 Steps:85

Great day in Port Elizabeth. (we hired a six seater taxi and guide - Lester) Two parks and waddya wanna  see? 

Zebra (Burchell's with the brown stripe through the white stripe starting halfway back)  a metre from window of our car,

 giraffe and young feeding by the roadside, 






cheetahs, rhino, ostrich  and any number of gazelle, impala, nyala, blesbuck springbok,

bushpigs, lots of bambi’s, wildebeest buffalo, warthogs, meerkat, gnu, 









Cape grey mongoose, and as for lions (fun playing with dozy five month old cubs) bengal tigers a bit of a cheat. ?.. 

We haven’t even started our safaris yet!! Really good parks with natural predators which we didn't see?  Jackals and something else. .. Terrific guide we hired away from ship. ...






             Tigers, a little bit far from home.....

Monday April 9th 2012 - At Sea
Laps:0 Steps:0

9th April (hard to type with all the rolling about)
Can't get out on balcony or decks again as soon as we left the shelter of the port. Heaven knows what those little wooden ships went through coming around Cape of Good Hope after what we went through!

No walking today - weather too rough and all the promenade decks were closed. Phewww!!

Tuesday April 10th 2012 - Capetown
Laps:0 Steps:0

Too crook to do laps today. Just went into the waterfront to book our hotel.

Couple of personal notes -


Talked to Joanne Stew and Nick on Skype this morning, its great to hear the voices! 


Toni how's your training going? Keep us up to date with when and where please. We don't know any masters and you'll be a grand one.


Georgia congrats on your band result!! A national second is brilliant!! Glad you're back with the music 

African Telephone numbers

These are our South African telephone numbers:


Rod  +27 797 798 180

Su  +27 826 732 152

The "+" sign is the international code, the "27" is the country code and the remainder is the mobile SIM number.

Just type in the number exactly as shown above - the "+" sign will be suitably converted by your telephone carrier.

You can ring or send a text. Remember, we are 9 hours behind Melbourne time - when it's 6.00pm in Melbourne, it is 9:00 am in Africa.

We will shortly write up Durban, Port Elizabeth and the game parks we visited. Terrific!!

Thursday March 29th 2012 - at sea 
Laps:6 Steps:85

The sea has been very calm so far this cruise... but we are promised a change in the weather soon.

Su is a bit crook - a cold coming on?? I dine alone with our other four dinner companions.

Have I mentioned the Bose Soundlink wireless portable speaker?  I had bought some Bose sound cancelling earphones (SC3's) from  Meyers in the city, and when picking them up, I had asked idly if  Bose had a portable speaker through which I could play music from  the iPod built into my iPhone.

I was amazed at the quality of this little stereo speaker. Not that  little - 10"x5"x2" (250mm x 125mm x 50mm) and weighing a couple of  pounds (1.5kgs)

It hooks up to the iPhone wirelessly via bluetooth,  and with a rechargeable battery that last from 3-8 hours between  charges, (depending on volume), there are no trailing wires. And  excellent build quality.

It uses some of the typical Bose acoustic tricks - you set it up a  short distance from a wall and it back projects the bass frequencies  from a speaker in the rear of the unit. The treble comes from stereo  speakers in the front. An amazing sound.

So I bought one. At dusk, over a G&T or two, we have been listening  to Earl Klugh's jazz/fusion album called "Cool" with Bob James on  piano. Top stuff. This is one of the best musical bits of kit I own.  

Friday March 30th 2012 - at sea 
Laps:6 Steps:85x2

Another formal night. We have an alcohol free day and a dining-room  free day. Clocks go back one hour.

Saturday March 31st 2012 - at sea 
Laps:6 Steps:85

A pre-dinner drinks party this evening in the cabin of one of our  dinner table couples. We take some gin and the Bose portable  speaker.   Good fun. We resolve to hold another soon.

Sunday April 1st 2012 - at sea 
Laps:6 Steps:85
Clocks go back one hour.

Monday April 2st 2012 - Mauritius Isle 
Laps:6 Steps:85

We rarely take up the ship's organised tours, because they (a) cost  a lot, (b) take one to shopping centres, and (c) flood the area your  visiting, with lots of old, slow moving pensioners (us!)

The previous night, our dinner party members suggested we collectively hire a local taxi and do the sights independently. This  is the strategy Su and I nomally employ, so we gladly went along  with the idea.
One of our intrepid members duly went ashore this morning and  negotiated the hire of a local taxi for 4 hours.  We headed off towards the south of the island.

(L-R) Su, Rod, Elaine, Jack, Barbara, Robin

First port of call  was a small extinct volcano calderra, with a lookout over the  island.  Next was a diamond showroom. Groan! None of was really interested in  buying stuff, so we then banned any more shops. This raise his  eyebrows a bit, but he went along with it.





We then stopped at a hand made glass factory - very interesting. The  workers were wearing almost  no personal protective equipment (PPE) at all!!  They will all go blind and deaf without PPE.

We then stopped at a model ship factory/showroom. Despite some  initial doubts, this turned out to be a real winner. 
                       
A personalised  tour of the workshop, foundry, lathe room, assembly area, and  finally the show room, was fascinating. Check it out!!  www.mauritiusshipmodels.com


Then a drive down to the south to see the "coloured sands" - a  nature park featuring different coloured clays. Yes....

Finally, a  quick stop at a supermarket to stock up on tonic water, then the  race back to catch the ship, fighting through peak hour traffic to  get back in time.  


Tuesday April 3st 2012 - Reunion Isle 
Laps:0 Steps:0

Su's got this lurgi this morning, so I head off alone to catch the  shuttle bus, which takes us to St Gilles area, where I get some  badly needed currency out of an ATM. This island is a French  protectorate, so it uses the Euro currency, which will suit my  purposes when I get to Europe. One minor problem with visiting many  different countries, is the clutch of small notes and coins that one  ends up with at the end of the visit. I've been avoiding changing my  diminishing pile of Australian/US dollars to the point where I had  to borrow $USD10 from the taxi driver yesterday!

Anyway, in the little seaside village, I struggle to make my  intentions clear in my almost non-existent French; conversations  which ends up being part English, part schoolboy French but mostly  Italian.  Asking one shop owner the whereabouts of an internet cafe, I am  misunderstood, and am served a very good espresso coffee. With a  Gallic shrug of acceptance, I drink the coffee, and we talk about  the different ways to "correct" coffee. He then points me in the  (correct) direction of a cybercafe - "a droit!"  It was a nice, gentle, little adventure.

Finally back in digital land, where I speak the language fluently, I sit down at the computer screen, to download the latest economist!

Sacre bleu! The keyboard is French! The QWERTY keyboard is missing!  The keys are all in different places!

I have to single-finger hunt-and-peck to find the right keys to press to log on. And all the system messages, (and all the menus),  are all in French.

Lucky the Proprietor speaks excellent English, and he teaches me where the "@" sign is. You have to press a  combination of three keys to get it. I think the French have  reassigned the keyboard to fit in all those funny umlauts, graves,  ecute's etc.  So much for digital fluency.

I buy some postcards, some cheap French wine, and head back to the  ship. Good fun. Clocks go back tonight. We are now eight hours behind Melbourne  time. Su is still feeling less than 100%, so we skip dinner and have  an early night.

Wednesday April 4th 2012 - at sea
Laps:6 Steps:85

Bad weather - rain, wind, a swell, the ship is displaying a lot of movement. Not many people on the Promenade deck this morning.  I sit in the cafe and write this nonsense up….