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Published: January 31st 2011
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So I rode shotgun during our 5 hour drive from Cape Town to Lambert’s Bay which is north up the coast. Our meeting time was supposed to be 8:30am. Lifeless Linda who was too good to stay at the lodge (I ended up with her single room for the night thanks to my brilliant tour manager, Arthur) decided 8am was too early and she needed her time to digest her breakfast. Seriously?
So at 8:30, we packed up our ride and Linda was a no show. I was egging on Arthur to leave without her. He wanted to desperately. He made the call to the company to get the go… but 20 minutes later she shows up. Then she realized what a pain it was to get to the lodge in the morning and said I should have stayed here. She wanted a receipt from the lodge stating she didn’t stay there as she was going to hunt someone down for a reimbursement. OYE. We waited another 10 minutes. The manager of the hotel winked at me and said good luck. I am smiling my head off as Arthur’s head is about to explode. He said let him do the
pissy talk and be annoyed.
My roommate wanted to see the penguins, now we are over an hour late, there is no time to. Poor Ann. Linda did apologize about 9 times. Off we go…
The ride was a lot less intense that I thought. As we are still in South Africa the roads are pretty good for the most part. There was a ton of construction along the way. The group agreed to let me play my ipod for the majority of the trip. I promised to keep it mellow and no one complained which was nice. Arthur, which is a spitting image of John Locke, enjoyed most of the music (Ann thinks he looks like Bruce Willis). Ann asked 9,000 questions… some of the silliest questions ever. She kept picking up pictures of things and asked if we can see it. Ummmm – ½ the things were back in Cape Town. She never read the itinerary. Interesting lady. As we are sharing a room, she started coughing like a crazy person. I finally asked her to cover her mouth. I know in the Asian culture, some don’t cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze… but if we are sharing breathing space, my gosh she better cover up.
Once we arrived in Lambert’s Bay (sweet ocean front town), we stopped at an ocean front restaurant for some lunch. I had some grilled fish which was nice. I had a free hour, so I went to a Bird Island. WOW. There were 1,000’s among 1,000’s of birds! Past the birds were 100’s of seals. The waves, the rocks, the sea shells were all beautiful. The funny thing about it was the smell, it was absolutely disgusting. I walked as far as you can walk on the pier. I took a few pictures and I remembered something my sister-in-law said, stop to smell the roses. Well, not roses exactly… but when you spend too much time taking pictures you tend to forget the moment itself. So, I put the camera away and watched the birds in awe as I have never seen anything like it. Before I knew it, I had to rejoin my group. We arrived to our guesthouse at around 3:30pm. I am spending my free time to nap, shower and write a bit.
As soon as I got out of the shower with my towel around me, Ann asked if I would take a picture of her. Ummm – I asked to please give me some time to get my shit in order. OYE. She is absolutely clueless. It is entertaining. I am hoping it doesn’t get too annoying. The one thing is that she is only doing the 1st half of the trip; therefore I am solo for the 2nd half.
Dinner was at one of the most amazing restaurants (apparently rated one of the top 10 dining destinations in the world). It was an open air restaurant. It is about a 3 hour feast where food is simply cooked throughout the night. It all starts out with fish (more fish than you can ever imagine). Grilled, fried, stews, paellas… of course there was corn on the cob, potatoes, sweet potatoes (which by the way are white instead of orange), salad. Then came the meats! Lamb, steak, beef stew… Anyhow, you get the idea. We watched the sun set. This I can say was one of the best meals of my life. Over food, whiskey, wine, and warm blankets, this random group of strangers started to bond a bit. We had a bit of a rocky start, but after a long day, we seemed to all hit it off. The 3 of them combined have literally traveled the world! Everywhere I have been, one of the 3 knows well and can reminisce and make suggestions on what to do next! It is MAD actually, but very enlightening!
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Jennie
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The Ultimate Tourist
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