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Published: August 26th 2012
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After two absolutely picture perfect weather days, our third day (Saturday) was gloomy, rainy, and windy. For the first time, I could definitely tell that it was winter in South Africa! On the plus side, I had a great night’s sleep. I stayed in the hotel with Roy and Yi Jiun, which is super nice. They rented a very modern 1-bedroom apartment, complete with 2 bathrooms and a kitchen. I fell asleep at about 11:00pm and I slept for almost 12 hours. It was beautiful!
After a light breakfast, we had to leave to return the rental car. After that, we would be on our own until we got picked up on Sunday morning by our “Cape to Addo” tour guide. Our plan was to take a cab to the waterfront to buy a ticket to Robbin Island, followed by a snack on the water. Nothing really went according to that plan, so we revised many times.
Our first deviation from plan was our cab ride. The rental car people called us a cab, with something like Marine Cabs. When a cab called something like Aquamarine cabs
pulled up, we got right in and told them our destination. It turned out to be a very local experience. It was a large van, with several people in it. There was a driver, but he just drove. We mainly interacted with a man in the middle seat. He quoted us a price – 6 rand per person (about 70 cents in USD). We agreed, pretending like we knew what we were doing. They then drove around looking for more people to pick up, and dropping others off. Our cab negotiator told us that it would be extra to get right to the waterfront. Thankfully, a woman in the cab was headed that way and offered to show us the way. We got dropped off several blocks from our destination, and Susan (our new friend) walked us the rest of the way. She was a lovely woman from Kenya, and she was extremely kind and hospitable. Because I am who I am, after our short walk I knew that she has a husband and two children (ages 2 and 8). She moved to South Africa for work, but she still considers Kenya her home. She travels back there as often
as possible, and she cheered for both in the London Olympics. She advised us that “we should have come in Summer” because the weather is much better, but she wholeheartedly welcomed us to her adopted country. She walked 3 extra blocks out of her way to walk us to our destination. What started out a little scary (we admitted to each other afterwards that we were a little worried that we had made a big mistake getting into the cab) ended up being a completely unique, friendly experience.
So, safely delivered to our destination – the ticket office of Robbin Island, we tried to buy tickets. Unfortunately the clerk informed us that: 1) The tickets need to be booked at least a week in advance to take the ferry. 2) All the trips for the day were cancelled due to inclement weather. Oops. We wandered around the museum for a while, and then we sat down to revise our plan. Fortunately, I will have another chance to go to Robbin Island. I’ll have to take many pictures and videos for Yi Jiun and Roy.
We ended
up spending the rest of the afternoon eating a lovely meal at Quay Four and shopping at Woolworth’s for some last minute things for our upcoming trip around the cape. We are excited for our 7 day adventure which will take us from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and back.
Yi Jiun made us a delicious home-cooked meal for dinner and then we crashed. Zzzzzz….
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