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Published: January 30th 2011
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A lot has happened over the past 2 days. I started my day yesterday wondering if I should go to Robben Island. After reading about it, I realized I should probably check it out; however I really wanted to go to the botanical gardens as I LOVE gardens! So my host convinced me as it was a beautiful day and the seas weren’t too rough that I should definitely go see Robben Island. For those of you who don’t know what Robben Island is, it is similar to Alcatraz; a very secluded prison. Nelson Mandela spent many years at this prison. The ride to the island was a nice one; it was about a 30 minute boat ride. When I got to the island, buses were waiting to give a tour with a guide who gave a good history lesson. He then passed us off to an actual ex prison inmate who gave a tour of the prison. The prison itself was underwhelming, the views from the island and some of the history were spectacular; but of course slightly disturbing. Of all the things I did in Cape Town, this was definitely not my favorite.
I arrived back at the
guesthouse pretty late as the whole ordeal took 6 hours as the 11 o’clock ferry was sold out, I ended up taking the 1pm ferry. My hosts cooked me dinner my last night and we chit chatted until it was time to go to sleep.
My roomie from Vietnam (from Cape Town area), Marley, picked me up bright and early. I mentioned how I missed out on the gardens, so we stopped their on our way to the wine vineyards. These were SPECTACULAR! It seemed like miles and miles of natural beauty… trees, grass, plants, flowers, ducks, birds, views of the mountains, a pond… it was just gorgeous. I am so happy I made it there as I am such a garden type of gal.
Afterwards, we headed to Dieu Donne located in the Franschhoek, Cape Wine Route. We had the most marvelous lunch ever! I ate venison meat which was in the antelope family (different from our typical venison). Following lunch, we went to the winery next store which was beautiful but not the best of wines. We ended up heading to one of the more popular wineries in the area called Spier (Stellenbosch area). Upon arrival
we realized there was a Cheetah Outreach on the property. I went running to see the Cheetahs. What I then found out is that you can actually pet and hang out with the Cheetahs. I was over the moon! I chose to pay a little more money to hang out with the baby Cheetahs. I met 2 of them – one was 8 months old and the other was 9 months old. They were still so big. I thought they were nervous or something but it simply turns out that heavy beating was their purr. WOW. I was super excited that I had this amazing experience!
We then went wine tasting. I signed up for 5 tastings, but I really just sipped each one and moved on to the next… To say the least this was an AMAZING day! I love my dear friend! Thank you so much for taking the day off and showing me the best time ever.
The last part of my day was interesting. Marley brought me to my new lodge where I was meeting my tour group. My roommate was an Asian chick from Canada in her 40’s who didn’t realize she had a roommate. Her stuff was EVERYWHERE. OYE. Marley helped me with my luggage so we simply looked at each other and laughed. I headed downstairs to meet my tour guide/manager, Arthur. Off the bat you can tell he is a man’s man who is South African. I started laughing and asked him if it’s too late to get my own room.
So my group is the following in hysterical order:
Me – Seasoned traveler who has the ability to rough it – I have learned to go with the flow (for the most part)
Ann – My roommate who had 5 different looking outfits on all wrapped up in one. I realized she is just a scatterbrain that will probably be quite entertaining as she asks some super silly questions. Even though she is Canadian, her English isn’t so hot… but you can tell she likes to have fun.
Coleman – a 50 something oversized teddy bear with a heart condition
Linda – a stuck up Brit with a stick so far up her ass, I wonder what the F she was thinking when she booked this trip. She didn’t even want to stay at our welcome lodge as the accommodations weren’t to her standards. The problem is this is one of the nicest places we are going to be staying over the next 20 nights. LOL. Does she not realize that we are staying in tents some nights? Did she not read the section that tells her we get a shovel to scoop a hole for our damn poop another night?
Marley left to feed her dogs and she came back to have dinner with me as she saw the look on my face. I filled her in to some extent and couldn’t stop laughing. Arthur showed up at the bar and joined us for some much needed drinks. He did such a better job explaining to Marley the madness of what went down. He said he felt the worse for me as this may be a sucky situation. I told him no matter what I am going to make the best out of this situation! No way is this biatch going to ruin my time! Normally, the age range for this trip is 20-45 as it is a harsh trip, so he is surprised by 2 of the folks doing the trip.
This may be my worst nightmare – a bratty old brit who will complain 90% of the time (which Arthur predicts). He also said he has kicked prissy brats off the tour in the past when they ruin the group dynamic so he assured me not to worry and he is still the boss.
OR
This may be an awesome trip as there are only 4 of us. With smaller groups, we do tend to get extra flexibility and attention. Arthur won’t stand for anyone’s shit – that is for sure. He was absolutely hilarious over drinks. He has been doing this for 15 years; he asked that I sit up front with him in the car as he doesn’t know what to say to anyone else.
So the journey begins. He assured us that even though there some of our guesthouses have internet, 90% of the time it will not be working…. So just in case, ciao for now!
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