17 Sep 2014 - Where are the sharks?

Our hotel from the boardwalk.

Table Mountain is cloaked in cloud today. Good thing we went yesterday!

Corky got his wakeup call at 05:00 and was downstairs ready and waiting for his pickup only to get the call from the company...."Sorry, the water is way too rough today...can you reschedule?" He was so disappointed--this was one of the highlights of the trip for him and of course, rescheduling was not an option. We found out later that all these tours were cancelled for the next two days because of impending storms heading for Cape Town.

That changed the day for both of us. Neither one of us went back to sleep so we decided to have another mondo breakfast and then wander the waterfront and poke in some shops as souvenir shopping probably won't happen once we are on safari. We probably walked a few miles through the wonderful shops on the waterfront and given the lack of room in our duffle bags, no doubt saved hundreds of dollars as we just don't have the weight allowance or room to bring stuff home. We sure saw some amazing things though....fabulous African masks and other carved things were so cheap we said we'd almost feel guilty buying them anyway.

By noon I was dragging my proverbial butt and neither afternoon tea or a massage could keep me away from the bed. Corky went out to do a bit more poking around the harbour and I was out like a log for about 3 hours. It's a strange weather day...high winds and overcast but every once in a while the sun came through and we are digging for sunglasses.

Our hotel is right on the coastline by the harbour and there is a walking path along the shore which we decided to wander and work up an appetite for supper. There is a colony of Cormorant birds here....I've never seen so many (thousands & thousands) in one place at one time. A flight of them went by and I'm betting it took 20 minutes from the time the first and last of the bunch went by us. At Robben Island yesterday there was a rookery of Ibis which I'd been wishing I could have spent some time photographing but it's a protected sight and we couldn't get off the bus.

We went to a steak house at the waterfront for supper and had an amazing dinner. I actually refused the French fries and got mashed instead....my system says it is time for non-airline, non-fast food-food...and it was a nice change and the veggies were terrific. From what we have seen, restaurant eating is very reasonable here. As the photo above shows, we had the opportunity to choose from some traditional South African fare or the regular. Today we chose regular...tomorrow...who knows? Corky is not very adventurous when it comes to food but I don't think I can leave Africa without trying Springbok or Warthog!

We walked around the harbour for a bit and enjoyed some local bands but we are both looking forward to a quiet night in front of the television. We are up early tomorrow for a full day tour along the coast and although I slept the afternoon away, I won't have any trouble sleeping tonight.

The beds are so comfortable in this hotel which is good as my back is still recovering from the trip over. Corky sent some laundry out this morning and we laughed when we got back to our room after dinner as his jeans and t-shirt were returned, clean, ironed and gift wrapped! We had fresh rose petals on and beside the bed and our slippers were clean and ready to wear. What a wonderful place!

I suspect we are going to need our raincoats tomorrow...rain is clearly in the forecast. Until next time, love and hugs to all. xx