Cape Town Capers

How can I describe the beauty of the port of Cape Town while doing it justice?  As I watched the sun rise and touch the majestic Table Mountain with its golden glow, the landscape seemed to embrace us. Devil’s Peak, Signal Hill and the Twelve Apostles rose up as we sailed nearer. The port itself looks like a modern, commercialized area while still retaining its charm. We docked beside The Table Bay Hotel ($400.00 per night) and had the same view of Table Mountain without the exorbitant cost. It feels like a European city the moment you arrive, totally different than the other two ports.

 

We again waited patiently for our names to be called to pick up our passports; giving those who were on an SAS trip first advantage.

We were to meet up with friends of Maggie & George in the elegant Table Bay Hotel for coffee. Maggie’s friend Jeannie will be joining the ship after our 5 day trip into South Africa. The other couple I met were Ally & Jeff, a school friend of Maggie’s and her husband who live in Johannesburg and also have a place in Cape Town. We spent an hour visiting with them while George took Jeannie’s luggage onto the ship, dealt with customs and picked up our car.

At last we were off on our journey into the Karoo. This dry, arid area comes alive in the spring with a blanket of flowers dotting the mountains. This year, there has been a lot of rain so the flowers are exceptional. We drove over several mountain passes and at every new twist and turn the mountains seemed endless.  At one lookout point, there was a sign “Do not feed the baboons”; really??  Sure enough, along they came. I quickly took some pictures and jumped into the car to safety. I know, I’m a whimp!

We arrived at our destination in Calizdorp, home of the best port in Africa, and The Soeterus Guest Farm (it means sweet rest) was beyond our imagination. It is newly opened and is run by two wonderfully hospitable guys, Louie & Retief. Their dog Sophie (7 months ) greets you warmly as you arrive. The resident cat Johanna knows that she is the Queen of this castle; but she does allow you to give her a rub between her ears every now and again. These cuties really made me miss my own Jack & Griffin even more. After being shown to our rooms by Retief, we had the most amazing twin bedded rooms with high ceilings and stone walls, warm wooden furniture and padded headboards. Perfect! We were given directions to Zamani, the restaurant in town where we were to meet Joan, another school friend of Maggie’s, and Joan’s husband Trevor. The restaurant had authentic South African food and I couldn’t resist to order the babotie just to compare it with Frank’s recipe. I rather prefer Frank’s because of the extra spices and love he puts into it.

After dinner we returned to Soeterus and were given a welcome glass of port from Louie, who had just made the drive from work in Cape Town. He works Monday-Friday in Cape Town then spends the weekends on the farm. Retief is the chief cook & bottle washer and handles all the accounts. After a pleasant chat with Louie we retired to our rooms and fell into bed happy & content.

The next day dawned warm & sunny again. It was Heritage Day in South Africa. We wandered into the dining room and found a long wooden table beautifully set. Coffee, orange juice, fruit salad, yogurt and granola, wonderful grainy bread, eggs, bacon, mushrooms waiting on a hot plate, homemade preserves and butter …all laid out waiting. Retief packed us a huge picnic basket full of goodies to take on our trip to yet another mountain pass. This one was through the Swartberg Mountains to Prince Albert. We ate at the foot of the mountains beside a stream. George enjoyed all the wonderful birds in the area. We then continued on to the picturesque town of Prince Albert and found a rustic pub called “The Bush Pub”. It was a birdwatchers paradise. We stayed for awhile under a thatched roof patio beside a pond; George & Jeannie were in their glory. After a few beer, we then drove back to the farm.

Heritage Day in South Africa means everyone has a Braai (BBQ). Think May 24^th weekend in Canada. We were invited to Louie & Retief’s braai along with some of their friends that came for the weekend. We enjoyed wine around a fire pit while their friend cooked the meats. We then proceeded to the dinning room where they treated us like friends rather than paying guests. The meal was delicious. After much conversation, food and wine we retired to bed.

Another warm spring day arrived in the Karoo. We were joined by Maggie’s friend Joan after breakfast. She recommended a few sights to visit during the morning and invited us all for Sunday lunch at Zamani (their treat). We set out for Joan’s suggested sights, but unfortunately, took the wrong road and ended up in a funny little place called Uhuru Adventure Farm. They had monkeys, zebras, parrots and a playground for the children complete with a swimming pool & slide.  Thank goodness they had a bar! We ordered a couple of drinks and watched as one family fed the goldfish and ducks some bread cubes from the patio overlooking the pond.

We made our way back to the restaurant to meet Joan & Trevor for lunch. The meal was delicious and very filling.  Luckily, we had informed Retief that morning to please prepare just a salad for us for dinner. The day turned extremely warm and George & I went swimming in the pool. After a leisurely dinner, we all hit the hay.

We bid a fond farewell to Soeterus Guest Farm and promised to recommend them on Tripadvisor. I want to keep this a secret, but I also want them to succeed; so I suppose I will give it a great rating.

George drove us to Stellenbosch (wine country) through the Robertson Valley.  The scenery is so breathtaking!  We had tastings at a couple of wineries that, thankfully, we can get in Canada. It reminded me of Niagara-on-the-Lake. We checked into the lovely Bonne Esperance Guest House and met up with friends from the ship for dinner at Volkskombuis Restaurant. It served authentic South African food.  We had a wonderful time and it almost felt like a going away dinner for me. Only 2 more days and I will have to leave these new friends. I will miss them all so much.

Stellenbosch is a beautiful town.  We agreed to wander for 2 hours on our own after breakfast. I found a street filled with little shops and bought myself some ebony candlesticks that were handmade by the owner.

We then drove to one more winery for a tasting and a cheese plate for lunch. When the tasting was finished, we all had to use “the facilities”.  George spotted a sign out back that said “Palazzo Pi Pi” and sure enough, that’s what it was for!

As we neared Cape Town, George made a detour and drove us up Signal Hill for the spectacular views.  We could see Table Mountain, Devil’s Peak, Lion’s Head and Robben Island. We were met by the resident Guinea Fowl that live there. So funny!

My last night had arrived. George had booked us into a pub on the waterfront that was in the movie “Invictus” (Clint Eastwood directed) called Ferryman’s Pub. I had a delicious Lamb curry. We all went back to the lounge for a Drambouie night cap. I met a few friends there and started the farewell process. It was so difficult to say goodbye. I have only known these people for 5 weeks, yet I feel so close to them. It must be the shared experiences that bring people closer.

The next morning I had my last breakfast in the Dining Hall. I was reluctant to tell some of the stewards that I was leaving, but I had gotten close to a few of them and so told them goodbye.

George & Maggie walked me down the gangplank to meet my taxi. They made sure I was all tucked in and safely on my way.

After a long 36 hour day of travelling, I made it safely home. My husband Frank arranged to have my entire family waiting for me when I arrived. He had earlier picked up my daughter Laura from Guelph, called my parents to let them know I had landed and made sure that my son Andrew was home. Champagne flowed and souvenirs distributed. 

My memories of Africa will forever be in my heart.

Neptune Day

Neptune Day, 25^th Wedding Anniversary & At Sea Musings

The day after we departed from Ghana, we were to cross the equator! To mark this special occasion, they hold Neptune Day for all the pollywogs ( those who have not crossed the equator before).  The day started at 7:30am with a motley crew banging on doors for people to get up and meet on the 7^th deck at poolside. (It’s a very small pool). George had me so worried the night before, that I slept in my bathing suit!  He made it sound like they were going to yank you out of bed and throw you into the pool. I was up and ready by 7am! 

The King & Queen were flanked by their assistants who helped in the ceremony. A pledge was made to the King and then the baptisms began.  Each pollywog had to have blue liquid poured over them (George had told us it was fish guts), then they had to jump in the larger pool, climb the ladder to kiss the fish (yes, it’s real), bow to the Queen and finally kiss the ring of King Neptune.  If you forgot that part, you were kicked into the water to do it all again.

A few brave souls started the process and then seeing how much fun it really was, we all joined in. Yes, even yours truly!  How bad could it be to kiss a fish??
I’ve had worse experiences before, in my youth.  That’s me on the extreme right side getting the blue water baptism.

 

After everyone was knighted as a “shell-back”, it got really interesting.  For those who wanted to show King Neptune how dedicated they really were, they had their heads shaved; boys & girls and some adults as well.  For those of you who read my friend Maggie’s blog last year, you will find a picture of Liz Inman (80) who did it! Way to go Liz!  I on the other hand, was not so inclined.  I am happy to report that I still have all my hair. 

In the Dean’s Memo the next day there was this report from the Medical Team:  “Sunburned head alert!  The shaved head has taken over as the fashion statement on Semester at Sea. This new hairstyle is ideal for keeping cool in tropical ports, preventing head lice, and getting out quickly in the morning. However, newly shaved heads are highly susceptible to sunburn, especially considering that the equatorial sun is directly overhead. Please use sunscreen or wear a hat whenever you are outdoors for more than 5 minutes, even if it’s cloudy.” Hilarious!  Also, the hair collected went to “Wigs for Kids” for young cancer patients.

Another celebration took place the next day; George & Maggie Thomas’ 25^th Wedding Anniversary. We had a special 6 course dinner in a private room with 16 close friends.  It was also Professor Alfred Hunt’s birthday the day before and his party merged with ours.  The food was delicious and the guests enjoyed themselves wholeheartedly.  We went to the lounge afterward for some late night dancing.

Unfortunately, the sea has decided to turn a bit nasty.  The swells are 10-12ft high and it’s very difficult to walk along the corridors and even sit still in the classrooms. Keeping food down is another issue. Some of the passengers, me included, have caught a cold/flu bug that has been going around. This added to the rolling ship does not make for a pleasant crossing.  I have plied myself with Tylenol, Vitamin C and Gravol for the last two days and am happy to report that I feel myself again.  And not a moment too soon!  We get to Cape Town on Friday morning and I want to be well.

I will sign off for now.  The next stop: Cape Town.

Eastern and Volta Regions of Ghana

William wanted to leave at 7am the next morning. He was going to take us to Boti Falls, that we didn't have time for the first day, and also a huge bead market in Koforidua. We told him no problem and wrote a note about what time we wanted breakfast and also what we wanted for breakfast (it was the same as we had before). We gave it to our waitress when she delivered our dinner. No problem we thought! We were up and packed and ready for breakfast at 6:20am. We waited in the restaurant and then saw our waitress walking toward the front doors. Maggie leapt up and asked if our breakfast was ready. She said just a minute and we saw her dash toward one of the rooms in the resort. We think she had to wake up the cook because we saw Samuel a few minutes later run to the front desk and our breakfast was brought to us 15 minutes later!! What an ordeal!! We wanted to be on time for William because we had a lot to cram in that day and a lot of driving too. We were on the road by 7:15 and William was happy.

The bead market proved to be one of the best and the prices were fantastic.  At least 100 vendors were selling all types of beads and jewellery. Temptation reared its ugly head and we had a difficult time restraining ourselves.

After several purchases, we drove another hour to the falls. They were very beautiful. There were two falls side by side. We had to walk down 250 steps to get to the bottom, but it was worth it. The mist from the falls felt quite refreshing and a welcome reprieve from the humidity. Maggie bought each of us a bag of plantain chips. Delicious!

We then drove on to Akosombo and to the dam. We got to go on a private tour of the dam with a university student as our guide. He was very excited that we were from Canada because Canadians helped with the building of it. It’s the 50^th anniversary this year. We just toured the outside and took lots of pictures. We then went to our next resort. On our itinerary, it showed Afrikiko Resort. I had read in the travel book here in the library that it was "Upscale". So we were very happy to be going there. William said that Mimi (the travel agent) had booked us into Ayslon Bay Resort. William said we could check out Afrikiko and if we liked it, we would just stay there and forget the other. Ok great! The grounds were beautiful. It really looked nice and had a small swimming pool. We took a look in the small room that had 2 twin beds, and basic bathroom facilities. We had been a bit spoiled by the lake view, balcony and really large room from Lake Bosomtwe. This room was located at the entrance to the resort and we would have had to walk down a long covered pathway to the water to sit.

We drove to Ayslon Bay Resort just down the road. It was not as beautiful as Afrikiko, however the cottage was right on the water and we had a private covered porch looking out at the river plus a large covered dock area with a table and four chairs to use. (Unfortunately, when we arrived, there was already a family of three using it and then they had the nerve to stay and have dinner on it!!!) The only problem was that there was only a Queen sized bed and Maggie said that she specifically told Mimi that we wanted twin beds (or 2 beds) for each booking. There was a bit of a stand off and then the clerk said "I could bring you another mattress" I told Maggie that I was fine to sleep on the floor, but she was still disappointed that none of the rooms had 2 beds. Anyway, he came back with a mattress and then told Maggie that there would be a 10 cedis charge! “NO WAY” she said, “it was your idea to bring the mattress! Take it away!” So off he went with the mattress. We were now comparing the two places to determine which one would suffice. The latter one won out and we started to unpack a bit and get organized. We discovered that the toilet needed a bit of priming, Maggie's bedside lamp flickered and the people on the dock were annoying because WE wanted to be there! Never mind!

William went out to scout for a store that sold wine, per my request, and after 1/2 hr he came to get me to take me there. I bought 2 bottles of red South African wine. I was a bit sceptical that we had made the right choice; however, the location was so much nicer with being right on the water. My mind was totally changed when we ordered dinner. We had asked if it could be brought to our deck outside of the cabin. No problem! We had boiled yams with palava sauce. It's wonderful.

It's made with spinach, tomatoes, onion, palm oil (which is red) and is a bit spicy. The yams here are enormous; so different than our sweet potatoes. They are white inside, not orange and are very dense. A really great meal!

We ate dinner and then went inside to read in bed. The bugs were starting to get a bit thick, but they really weren’t as bad as I had thought. The lights were out by 9:30pm, we were pooped.

Again, William wanted to meet us at 8am so that we could have time for our boat ride on the river to the dam. We had a wonderful breakfast (the kitchen opened at 6:30 and we were there before the staff again!!) eggs, baked beans, toast (with butter and jam), sausage and fresh pineapple boats. My sausage turned out to be a hotdog!

We then went on our personal boat ride, with a cute, little old man, up the river to the dam and back. Again the scenery was beautiful and we got great pictures. The whole trip took about 45 mins.

We then took off for Tema and breathed a sigh of relief when there was no heavy traffic like the first day. We pulled into the meeting place just in time to catch the shuttle back to the ship. We gave William a quick hug goodbye and a good tip. He was so awesome!

It's going to feel very weird to get back to sailing again. I didn't get wobbly legs this time. I guess we were in the car so much the first day that I didn't notice. I have mixed emotions leaving Ghana. The scenery is beautiful and the people very friendly, however, it's very difficult to see all the poverty. The people live in appalling conditions. It really makes me so thankful for what I have

Ghana have a good time!

Our ship docked at 7:30am and the air was filled with excitment.  It had been one week since we had seen land. We were greeted on shore by a group of Ghanaians who were chanting and drumming.  What a great welcome!

Maggie & I waited patiently to be called to pick up our passports.  They are all held at the purser’s office until we reach a port. The SAS trips took first priority; finally it was our turn.  George offered to take us ashore and wait for our car & driver that we had hired.  There was no sign of him at the ship so we decided to take the free shuttle bus to the port gate and wait for him there.  There were hundreds of people waiting for a bus to Accra and many merchants trying to sell their wares.

We were getting a bit panicky as time went on and George asked a man, who looked like he was in charge of the taxis, if we could use his cell phone.  He was kind enough to lend it to Maggie who then called our tour operator.  She quickly told the driver where we were waiting and in 10 mins he was there.  Phew!  By now the poor guy had been waiting for us since we had docked at 7:30am even though Maggie had told them that we would not be off the ship until at least 10:30am.  It was now just passed 11am and we still needed to get our cash from an ATM machine to pay for this trip.  They do not take credit cards since there has been so much credit card theft recently. Our kind driver William took us to get our cash; the machine worked for me but unfortunately not for Maggie. We then spent the next hour trying to get a cash machine that would work for her. In the end, William told us that we needed to get going since we were so late in getting started. He was afraid it would be dark by the time we got to our resort.  He said not to worry about the money and that tomorrow would be fine to pay him. So after some terrible traffic jams, we were finally on the road to Kumasi.

We stopped for a quick lunch break at 3pm at a very nice restaurant that is situated at the crossroads; therefore it gets a lot of bus traffic. We thought we were being very clever in ordering soup and garlic bread because it would be really fast. Well, after 40 mins, Maggie went over to one of the wait staff and asked what the hold up was. William had wanted to leave at 4pm and here is was already 3:50pm!  They quickly located our waiter and he hustled into the kitchen and brought out our soup.  The vegetables were still hard and crunchy and the garlic bread was just white bread spread with butter and some garlic.  It didn’t matter; we were so hungry because our breakfast had been at 7:30am.  We quickly ate what we could and got on the road again.

 The scenery along the way was beautiful.  The country is so green and lush and the hills looked as high as our Escarpment with some interesting rock formations. All along the highway, when we went through the villages, people were selling stuff.  You name it, they have it.  Appliances, furniture, coffins, electronics, vegetables, etc. It’s like a giant flea market in some places.

The sun was going down and the clouds were threatening rain. William spotted one of the Ghana Commercial banks that was listed on our sheet as being compatible with a Master Card, and asked if Maggie wanted to try it.  She hesitated just for a moment, but then thought; OK what the heck, we are here now.

Miracles of miracles!  It worked!!  Just as she was finishing, the skies opened up and it began to pour. Now, that’s what I call “pennies from heaven”!

The rest of our journey to the resort was rather grim. The rain fell intermittently and the sheet lightning was as if someone were turning the lights on & off constantly.  It was wild!  William was afraid that the road to the resort would be washed out; thank goodness it was OK, full of potholes, but driveable. Since it was so dark, we could not see the lake but you could certainly hear it.

We were met by Samuel, the front desk clerk, who rather shyly welcomed us and apologized for the kitchen being closed. It was only 7:30pm and it was supposed to be open until 9pm. That would not do!  Both Maggie & William convinced him that we were to have food for our dinner. I also chimed in that a bottle of wine would be good too!  So they delivered a couple of nicely cooked chicken legs and French fries to our room. The wine was so old that the cork broke 3 times as I was trying to get it out. We managed to get a few glasses out of it, but it had that horrible musty taste to it. Oh well, we were so tired at this point, we didn't care! We finally relaxed and I could tell that Maggie was really relieved about the money situation. After a very long day on the road, we slept soundly.

Lake Bosomtwe Paradise Resort lived up to its name. The huge freshwater lake was believed to be created by a fallen meteorite. We had a second floor room with a balcony overlooking the lake. We were the only 2 visitors there, besides William, because it's low season and also it was in the middle of the week. We woke up the next day and had our breakfast in the restaurant that is open to the lake. Very peaceful and we watched birds, reptiles and fishermen go about their daily business. We then went to our balcony and read for a while and took pictures of the view and wildlife. The weather was cloudy and threatening and it did shower a little bit but it didn't last. William came to see what we wanted to do that day since the first day was taken up with driving to the resort. We told him to meet us at 1pm after lunch and we would go to Kumasi for some shopping. Kumasi was very busy. William stayed right with us the whole time. I was looking for a Ghana soccer jersey for my son Andrew and I thought that it would be the easiest gift to find. Not so! Apparently, they like to wear jerseys of other countries that have Ghanaian players. Who knew?? Finally I found one and went back to our hotel happy and content.

William had bought us 2 large avocados in the market in the morning so we thought we would have those for dinner with just some bread. We tried to explain this to Samuel (our front desk guy) but he didn't seem to understand. So then we said OK we will have some French fries again. We also asked him to please bring a knife so we could cut the avocados. About 45 mins later, the waitress brings us the exact same meal as the night before! We tried to explain to her that we only wanted French fries, but she couldn't do anything about it at that point. We each had 1/2 of a beautiful avocado. It would have been very good with some tortilla chips! (Sigh).  Another busy day and an early night.