Cape Town Day 2 / Wed Mar 13

Our second day in Cape Town started by meeting Morne at the Silo Hotel for coffee. We're going on a golf and safari trip in South Africa this fall and he's the tour organizer. He was able to give us details about the trip and answer our questions.

We then went to check out the Table Bay Hotel which is where we'll be staying when we return to Cape Town this fall.

The Cape Town waterfront is a fun place with lots of shops and restaurants so walked around there for a bit.

Next we decided to take the Hop On Hop Off bus (blue route) and go to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. When you buy tickets for the bus you get ear buds so you can listen to the information they provide about what you're seeing along the route. Unfortunately the audio wasn't working so the bus stopped and had everyone get off. It stopped at the exact same place yesterday's bus did! Instead of waiting for another bus we went to browse around the native market that was just down the street.

After checking out the market we got on another Hop On Hop Off bus and rode to the gardens. It was beautiful there with Table Mountain in the background!

After walking around the park for a couple of hours we took another HoHo bus that drove along the coast. We went past Groot Constantia (oldest wine estate in South Africa), Hout Bay (fishing village), Camp Bay (beautiful homes), the Twelve Apostles (limestone stacks formed by erosion) and some very scenic areas. We also drove by some townships where you could see the poverty.

The Twelve Apostles Hotel

It was a beautiful day and so clear that you could see the top of Table Mountain. It isn't always that way so we decided to take the cable car to the top today. Since we went at the end of the day we saw the sun set while we were on the top.

View of the city from the top

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Dakar, Senegal / Wed Mar 27

Today we docked in Dakar which is the capitol of Senegal. We took one of the ship's tours since we weren't sure what to expect safety wise. Surprisingly, the tour bus was pretty modern complete with air conditioning and our local tour guide's English was good. We spent about 4 hours going to some of the highlights of the city. We didn't always stop for photos and the windows of the bus were quite dirty so there aren't that many great photos to share. Dakar has many modern high rise buildings, well paved roads and a decent highway system yet there is so much poverty. People are set up almost everywhere selling their goods and piles of garbage are all around. On one corner we saw someone selling bed frames and in another area, selling refrigerators. There are modern cars on the road as well as horses, wagons and goats. You can see how developed the road system is in the city... We saw a number of small, colorful buses on the roads. T

Busselton / Tue Feb 19

We tendered in Busselton, Australia today. Busselton is best known for the the Busselton Jetty which was built in 1865. It's more than a mile long and is the longest timber piled jetty in the southern hemisphere. At the end of the jetty is an underwater observatory. You can get to it by walking the length of the jetty or by taking the Jetty Train which looks like a Victorian locomotive but is powered by solar panels. We spent the day in Busselton with two other couples. We sat on the beach for a couple of hours then walked into town to explore. We met Walter who was quite the character. After that we had a snack at a local restaurant then took the train to the end of the jetty and toured the underwater observatory before walking back to the tender. Fun day!

Parting Thoughts and More ...

It didn’t take too long to re-enter our normal lives. Although I did miss having our linens changed daily, Larry was delighted to get back home so he could eat dinner wearing shorts (not long pants) ... which he couldn’t do on the ship. Because I get sea (and motion) sick I used the scopalomine patch on this cruise. Usually Bonine is enough but the cruise started in rough waters (crossing to Hawaii from LA) so I decided to use the patch. It worked really, really well with no side effects so I continued using it. When it was prescribed (by two different doctors) I asked each if using it for almost 3 months would be an issue and both said 'no.' Well, I should have done more research as it turns out you can get addicted and experience withdrawal .... and I did. I wasn't able to get off it until the 3rd time I tried and even then it took about 3 weeks to be free of all symptoms. After going online to find out how to withdraw, I saw that some people have much more trouble t

Opals and Romeos

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