Rugby, Wild Animals & Bad Hair Dye!

6 March.

Our longest leg at sea has begun – 16 days to Barcelona with a stop for a day at Cape Verde off the coast of Senegal on March 15. Cape Town was an amazing stop and I would highly recommend it as somewhere to visit for at least a month. As we sailed in to the harbor, Table Mountain was blanketed in fog so we had a bit of a wait until we set eyes on the famous landmark. The ship could not have been in a more perfect spot at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront which was a myriad of shops, bars and restaurants on our door step. Once we had cleared immigration I was off on my mission to collect the 92 tickets for the Stormers v Crusaders match. The Stormers PR guy sorted it all out for me which was a huge help and saved a lot of hassle. Karris, one of the ship’s receptionists and Stacey came with me, Karris as the bodyguard as I had nearly $2000USD on me and given the warnings we had had about personal safety in Cape Town and SA I was a tad paranoid. We got a taxi to the stadium but the driver wasn’t quite sure of where we were meant to go and when we saw a sign that said tickets we had him stop and jumped out. It turns out we were at the railway station next to the stadium and as I was in a little bit of a fluster, I didn’t bother to take in my surroundings telling the poor girl behind the counter to stop shaking her head at me as the tickets have been arranged that she claimed to know nothing about it. How embarrassing when a train went passed and I then bothered to look around and the penny dropped that we were at a train station!! I laugh now but would have been quite happy for the ground to swallow me up at that point. You will be pleased to know that I apologized profusely once I realized what was going on and she gave us directions to the REAL ticket office! We had to go up to the Stormers office and bumped in to a couple of the players on the way and I muttered Go Crusaders as we went! I could believe that we could walk right in to the offices. We found Jason and got the tickets and then had the mission of getting a taxi back as it was a little way from the main road. The man at the Stormers security office gave us a card for a taxi company but wouldn’t phone it for us. We went in search of a public phone and ended up at the Sports Institute next to the stadium who came to our rescue and phoned the cab. We got back safely to the waterfront around 1:30pm with grumbling stomachs relieved to finally have the tickets and we bumped in to Deniz the Bulgarian (he’s found my blog site and know he will be reading this and always comments that I include “the Bulgarian”!) and also Frank who runs the Academic Support Centre, an older Italian living in USA and lots of fun. I had said to Deniz that we would go to lunch but as we had taken so long on the ticket mission he had thought we had forgotten about him so was heading to lunch so all worked out. We all headed to a Greek Restaurant -I know we were in SA but it looked out on to the harbor and the cloud covered Table Mountain and was the first one we came across and we were hungry and thirsty! We had a fantastic time and couldn’t bring ourselves to leave! The sun was gorgeous and at around 5pm the cloud fell away from Table Mountain and with our Castle Lager glasses on we all marveled at it! Finally at 6pm I headed back to the ship as we were meant to be meeting for Kerstin’s Hen Night at 7pm and I thought I might need a wee sleep! Given that it had been an afternoon of drinking in the sun, you can imagine I wasn’t walking in too much of a straight line! Sleep went out the window and I met the group at 7pm full of giggles. I had arranged with the owner of the Greek restaurant to give us all a free shot of Ouzo if we came back there for dinner. There were about 20 of us and I think the staff were a little surprised to see me back after the marathon afternoon effort! I managed another couple of beers and then had to surrender and return to the ship.

The next day a few of us went on the double decker bus tour of the city which was great. Cape Town is really stunningly beautiful and it was hard to imagine the harsh atmosphere that had been portrayed to us but sadly some students did get mugged and robbed which proved the point. We went to the District Six museum which tells the story of an area that was home to many black families until the govt introduced a bill that designated the neighbourhood a white area and the families were moved out to the townships without any say in the matter and it was a huge break up in the community and they bulldozed the lot. It is still evident today. This happened in the early 1960s. I’ve just finished reading one the inhabitants autobiography and it is so hard to comprehend that such a regime could be allowed to continue for so long. In talking to some of the locals, there is still an element of apartheid existing as we drove passed schools that has only white children in the playground as the area was still unaffordable to non-whites and then you would go passed one of the townships where many of the black population are living in makeshift shacks made of corrugated iron that would be a furnace in summer without sanitation, plumbing or services that we take for granted. We drive by the ‘Home Office’ where hundreds of refugees were lining up and sleeping outside waiting to be granted refugee status so they could stay in the country. I also read in the paper that some black families have been on housing waiting lists for 25 years!! Whilst there is now a democracy, it seems to be taking a long time to fix the wrongs of the past, kind of ironic to drive by the new stadium they are building for the 2010 Soccer World Cup at a cost of millions. We visited the Slave Lodge where they housed incoming slaves who were then onsold in the 18^th century and the Bo Kaap Museum which was in an inner city area with a muslim history that was not meant to be too safe but we survived! The bus tour took us up to Table Mountain but I didn’t bother to take the cable car up as I was enjoying the guide we had on board. The tour then went out to Camps Bay over the hill at the base of the 12 Apostles rocky mountain range and it is gorgeous. Definitely where you would want to live if you had the money. Many of the houses were protected with electric fences on top of the regular fence and just about every house in the city had bars on the windows and a sign advertising the security firm it was using to keep watch. I caught up with my boss that night and had a nice dinner on the waterfront. I always try and not eat on the ship when we are in port as it is getting really monotonous and the restaurants in Cape Town were fab and very reasonable. Friday night was rugby time and there ended up around 100 of us going. I had instructed everyone to wear red and black if poss and I ended up having to buy a t-shirt with the NZ flag on it as I didn’t have anything appropriate to wear. There was a shop selling all countries rugby tops and a lot of the students invested in kiwi clobber. The atmosphere was electric with 43,000 people in attendance and a surprising amount of support for the Crusaders judging from people’s shirts and the flags waving. The only disappointment was that you couldn’t take beers in to the stand! We had made banners so had them on display and it was awesome! It was just so good to see a game of rugby again quite frankly! The Stormers supporters were buggers for booing which just egged our lot on and we made ourselves heard. After the massive victory we headed out for some celebratory drinks and I was quite sure that I wouldn’t be going in to town for safety reasons but when the bars closed on the waterfront we were 10 foot tall and bullet proof, so made the journey downtown but didn’t last long due to excessive consumption so had a feed and came home – couldn’t quite find the equivalent of the Dragon! Day 4 I just needed some ‘me time’ so took myself off to Robben Island for the day and saw where Nelson Mandela and so many of his ‘comrades’ were incarcerated. The guides at the prison are former political inmates and ours had been there with Mandela and told us incredible tales of their fight from the inside and what the conditions were like. A really sobering experience and I could have listened to him for days but then we were whisked away on a bus tour of the rest of the island but I did get to spend some time watching an African Penguin colony and was lucky enough to come across a pair with 2 chicks and watch them feeding. It felt like a scene from National Geographic and I managed to catch it on video! Day 5 was Shore Ex time and I took a group Cycling in the Winelands which meant a 10km mountain bike – my botty is only just recovering – and then a few tastings at the stunning vineyards around Stellenbosch and Fransschoek. The wine is outstanding and sooooooo cheap. Excellent wines for around $7NZ a bottle, I couldn’t believe it and even better than NZ wines at that price! I didn’t see any pinot noir so they don’t win that contest but they would be in the running for a few others. I stocked up on a few botts to bring back to the ship. The last 2 days were on Safari 2 hours north east of Cape Town and it was out of this world. The complex itself was gorgeous, the food exceptional, accommodation outstanding complete with outdoor shower. We had 2 game drives night and morning and here is the line up of what we saw: elephants, lions, cheetah, nesper (from the antelope family), zebras, giraffe, buffalo, rhinos, hippos, springbok, ostrich and crocodiles. It was a dream come true and now I want to go to Kruger National Park or somewhere similar and spend at least a week. They told us if we came out of our rooms for the early morning drive and there was a buffalo then to stay inside and they would come and get us! We had to be escorted after dinner to our lodge rooms by one of the rangers as it was dark so we wouldn’t see anything coming at us! I could hardly sleep for the excitement of waking up to a buffalo on my verandah which was a shame as the beds were so comfy after my ship bed. Back to the ship and a quick shop for souvenirs and a last nice meal out. We were meant to sail at 6pm but with high winds got delayed until after midnight and since we had already completed departing immigration we couldn’t get off the ship so we all just stared longingly at the restaurants and headed to the dining room for more ship nosh. All in all a magnificent port and worth revisiting without the time constraints of the ship. TSS is looking at changing the itinerary for voyage 4 and we may not go back there and go to Omman and Egypt so I might change my mind about only doing one more! It’s all up in the air at this stage so will wait and see. I’m going to Baltimore on the way home for work and will be able to see Elisabeth and Dana from the last voyage which will be so wonderful. I’m also hopefully going to Miami to Royal Caribbean’s head office to meet with their head of shore ex to see if we can make a few changes with operators etc so lots of exciting things coming up. Forgot to mention the hair disaster I had while in CT. It was getting so light with the sun I thought I would dye it down a shade and bought one that turned it nearly black – what would “Iced Latte” mean to you as a colour, huh – so once I saw the disaster I went zooming back to the shop to get another and when I went to get more money from the machine it ate my card for some reason known only to the machine! I went back to the ship trying to avoid everyone with my head of disaster and get my other ATM card which fortunately worked and my next purchase was no better AND I was going to the rugger that night! I had to bite the bullet and go out with my dark hair which did not impress me but couldn’t do much about it. The next day I zoomed to the hairdresser and begged them to find me an appointment and given the state of my desperation they took me in straight away even though they didn’t have a gap and put in some much needed highlights. I have never been so pleased to have bleach on my head! The colour took very quickly (like 10 minutes!) which surprised them so I am glad they were keeping a close check otherwise it could have been another disaster. I am now happy with the outcome and it is getting back to normal with my standard one hour sitting in the sun after lunch each day. I have never had such a tan in my life! Hard to convince my boss I am actually working when she come to port!! We have Kerstin and Gianni’s wedding on 10 March as we cross the equator again so I have been working on my MC routine. It should be a wonderful event with the ceremony at sunset with lots of entertainment provided by the talented bunch we have on board and best of all they were allowed to go and buy their own wine for the night so we don’t have to have the ship’s dire offerings!

More in a couple of weeks.

Take care

K J