Days 1-2: RDU to Cape Town
The good news is that we were able to get from Raleigh to Cape Town with only one stop. We flew from RDU to Paris nonstop on Delta, and we splurged ($190 each, I think) for a premium economy seats, which are a steal at the price. The bad news is that when I tried to upgrade to premium economy on our Air France flight from Paris to Cape Town it would have cost an extra $300 plus the premium economy upgrade fee because the flight was booked through the cruise line. It turned out to be a bad time to get cheap, because I suffered through one of the most uncomfortable (12-hour) flights in my life, crammed into a window seat next to a very large person, with very little leg room. Letter to self--go for premium economy on international flights, no matter what the cost.
When we arrived in Cape Town at about 11:00PM, we noticed signs all around the airport and the city informing us that there was a serious
water crisis. If they don't get any rain, the city will literally run out of water in April. There were even signs at our hotel telling us to use hand sanitizer instead of washing our hands.
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| Notice at the airport |
Day 3: Cape Town
We had to board the ship in the late afternoon today, so this gave us less than a day to tour Cape Town. We had been here before, about 8 years ago, so we had seen most of the major sites. Because of our limited time, we got tickets for the hop-on-hop-off double decker tour bus, and took it around town, getting off at places we wanted to check out.
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| Central Cape Town--lots of nicely maintained older buildings |
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| And some newer ones |
One of our goals was to take a cable car to the top of Table Mountain, which overlooks Cape Town. When the tour bus arrived at the cable car station bottom of the mountain, the top of the mountain was completely covered in clouds, so we decided not to go to the top.
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| View of Cape Town from the cable car station at bottom of Table Mountain |
After leaving the foot of Table Mountain, the bus headed to the coast, which was filled with beaches and resorts (still in the city). Here are a few shots from along the coast.
We continued on the bus to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, one of the main attractions in Cape Town--full of shops, hotels, museums etc. By the time we got there, the top of Table Mountain had mostly cleared.
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| A view of the V&A wharf. Table Mountain is in the background on the right. |
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| Another view of the V&A Wharf |
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| Statues of South Africa's Nobel Prize winners |
After doing some shopping and dining at the Wharf, we boarded the bus again to go back to our hotel.
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| Central Cape Town. Our hotel (Westin) is the bluish building on the left. |
From the hotel, we took a short taxi ride to the dock, where we boarded the
Silver Spirit. The ship is relatively small (about 500 passengers), and more upscale than we normally do, but it's the only ship that does the itinerary we wanted. The passengers were about 50% British, 25% American, and 25% Eastern European and German. We were definitely at the lower end of the age range.
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| The Silver Spirit |
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| View of Cape Town from the ship. Now you know why they call it Table Mountain. |
All of the cabins on the ship were suites, all drinks were free, and each cabin was assigned a butler (or a "buttress" in our case, since our "butler" was female). Since we are not really butler people, every time she came by to ask if we wanted something, we said that we didn't, which apparently disappointed her, because she
really wanted to bring us something.
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| Our suite |
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| The other part of our suite |
The ship decor was very understated, with a lot of dark wood. There were also a lot of lithographs by famous artists all over the ship. Although there was a price on each of the lithographs, they (thankfully) didn't have art auctions, nor did they sell gold chain by the foot.
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| The elevator lobby and stairwell |
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| Looking down the stairwell |
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| Inspecting the artwork |
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| A lithograph by Joan Miro that was selling for $15,000. |
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| In the main lobby |
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| Front desk staff |
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| On the pool deck |
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| More from the pool deck |
There was one main dining room, and several specialty restaurants (Japanese, French, and an outdoor restaurant where you grilled your dinner on a hot rock). In the main dining room, we ate with different people (mostly British) every night, and I spent most of the time explaining to them how Donald Trump could get elected, and apologizing for his behavior.
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| Main dining room |
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| Japanese restaurant |
There was a theater on the ship, but the only show we went to was a tribute to British 60's rock music (which was good).
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| In the theater |
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| Tribute to British Rock |
Day 3: Day at Sea
We were on our way to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and not much happened. The
Silver Spirit is one of the few ships where they do Formal Nights, and this was one of them. For formal nights, they recommend that men wear Tuxedos or dark suits, neither of which I (intentionally) had brought. Nevertheless, I was informed that I would be allowed in the main dining room with a sport coat and a tie, so we didn't starve.
Day 4: Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Port Elizabeth itself is not much of a tourist destination, so we took a shore excursion to
Addo Elephant Park, about an hour out of Port Elizabeth.
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| Under the freeway in Port Elizabeth |
Addo Elephant Park doesn't quite compare to Kruger, but we saw lots of elephants, and a few other species, too. We were in truck-like viewing vehicles, and were not allowed to get out, which is probably a good thing.
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| Warthogs, I think |
On the way back, we drove through part of Port Elizabeth--not terribly exciting
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| Soccer stadium built for the World Cup in 2010 |
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| A view from the ship of the port area and central city |
Day 5: East London, South Africa
Like Port Elizabeth, East London was not a particularly fascinating city. Our tour today featured the
East London Museum, which is notable for hosting a (no longer living)
coelacanth, a fish that was long thought to be extinct, but was found near East London in 1938.
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| Central East London |
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| East London City Hall, built in 1899 |
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| Entering the East London Museum |
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| The famous coelacanth |
From the museum, we drove around the well-to-do outskirts of East London to Nahoon Beach, which had some impressive dunes.
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| Housing on the outskirts of East London |
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| On the boardwalk, near the beach |
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| Dunes, with East London in the distance |
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| Hotels along the shoreline in East London |
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| East London, viewed from the ship |
Day 7: Durban, South Africa
Durban is the 3rd largest city in South Africa, and a major tourist destination due to its beaches. None of the shore excursions in Durban appealed to us, so we hopped on a city bus for a self-guided tour.
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| Some high-rises in central Durban |
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| Large hotels on the shoreline |
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| Stadium built for the 2010 World Cup |
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| Another large resort |
We got off the bus along the shore of the Indian Ocean and walked around a bit.
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| In a plaza between hotels and the beach |
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| Surf was a bit heavy |
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| Sand sculptures on the beach |
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| On the pier |
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| Locals (some without clothes, apparently) enjoying the beach |
We then got on another bus and headed for the center of town.
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| Lots of nice Art Deco architecture, some of it not in good shape |
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| Stores in the commercial district |
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| At the central market |
One of the interesting things we noticed about Durban was that there were virtually no white people, except for tourists. Apparently most of them have fled to the suburbs.
Days 8-9: Richards Bay, South Africa
We never actually saw the town of Richards Bay. Richards Bay has a huge industrial port area where we docked. The port is several miles from the city, which itself doesn't have many attractions. So instead of visiting the city, we took a shore excursion to
Shakaland Zulu Cultural Village, about 2 hours away.
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| Housing on the outskirts of Richards Bay |
Shakaland was originally the set of the movie
Shaka Zulu, which documented the life of Shaka, the most influential leader of the Zulu empire.
Now, it's a cultural center and re-creation of a Zulu village. I suspect that most of the "residents" while members of the Zulu people, they probably drive to Shakaland each morning and return home at night.
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| Entrance to the village |
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| Our greeting party |
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| A musical greeting |
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| A model of the village |
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| In the village |
The "natives" took us to various structures in the village and demonstrated various Zulu practices, such as cooking and making weapons.
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| Which one of these is different from the others? |
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| Lots of crafts were available for sale |
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| Making Zulu beer--it's an acquired taste.... |
Eventually, we crowded into a large hut for an excellent dance performance.
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| American tourist with newfound friend |
After a few hours at Shakaland, we headed back to the ship.
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| Shopping center on the outskirts of Richards Bay. |
The next day the ship was still docked at Richards Bay, but we decided to stay onboard and sit in the hot tub.
Next:
Days 9-12 -- Maputo, Mozambique and Mozambique Island
