[Worldtrippers home] [Crystal home]
We landed in Cape Town yesterday afternoon. Once again, all of our luggage made it with us. And once again, we were met at the terminal by our tour guide.
There was a small problem yesterday when we checked in at Hoedspruit airport. All of Gail’s research told her we were allowed 30 kg each. When we checked in, Airlink told us we were severely overweight – the limit is 20 kg each. Gail argued that this was the exact same luggage we had flying into Hoedspruit on the same airline. She also argued that she had purchased extra weight, which Airlink had no record of. They finally let us through with no additional charge.
In Cape Town, we were met by Paul from Hotspots2C. He will be our driver for the next two days. He dropped us off at the AC Marriott Hotel, where we will stay for the next two nights. We were too tired to go out and explore the waterfront, so we ordered room service and retired early.
This morning, Paul picked us up at 9:00 am. Today’s agenda was an all-day driving tour of the Cape Town Peninsula. We are the only two passengers in a nine-person van. Paul is a great guide, and an even better storyteller.
We drove down the west coast of the Cape Town Peninsula on “Chapman’s Peak Drive,” where we got to see the backside of Table Mountain. At a scenic stop, we encountered three tour buses from Viking Sky. This is the ship we will board tomorrow, and apparently she docked in Cape Town this morning. Gail started waving joyously at the guests. They must have thought she was some kind of lunatic.
We visited Cape Point on the southeast corner of the peninsula. We took a funicular to the top, then walked down. In line for the funicular, Gail locked eyes with another woman in line. It turned out to be a Viking guest who met us two years ago on the 2023 world cruise, and who is sailing again on this year’s world cruise. She smiled and said, “We are waiting for you.”
We next visited the Cape of Good Hope on the southwest corner of the peninsula. This is also the most southwestern point of the African continent. Gail loves to visit geographic extremes, and being here fulfilled a lifelong dream.
After lunch at a seafood restaurant in Simon’s Town, we visited Boulders Beach. This is famous for its colony of African penguins. (They used to be called “Jackass penguins,” because their call sounds just like a donkey braying.) These critically endangered penguins started frequenting Boulder Beach so much that it was converted to a nature preserve.
We finished our day by driving back up the eastern side of the peninsula back to Cape Town proper. Once again, we retired to our room early. We picked up a couple of fruit salads at the hotel market, and stayed in with movie.
Tomorrow we will have one more half-day of touring, then we will board the Viking Sky. It’s hard to believe that we just left an African safari, and we are about to begin another cruise.
