Comment on this

to those who have, thanks!

Because of some "comment span," I turned on a little "prove I'm human" feature, but please do comment. It let's us (on the tour) know you're out there.

Photo: Ships in drydock, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town

Cape Town

After an overnight diversion to visit relatives in Hermanus, I rejoin
the tour in Cape Town. The Victoria and Albert Waterfront is a complex
of shops, upscale malls, and restaurants, plus a working harbor with
ship drydocks and Robben Island tour boat terminal.

Everything seems to cost about 150% of what it costs elsewhere in SA.
Shop space rental must be steep. I looked at a replacement pair of Ray
Ban Wayfarers, as my pair is slowly falling apart. They cost more than
back home.

Nice views, though.

Whales!

This is the whale-watching area of Hermanus, where Antarctic whales
come to calve during the austral winter. We worried that the storm-
enhanced heavy swell would drive them far out to sea, but they came
into view and performed for us.

Here, I left the tour for a visit with family, to rejoin in Cape Town
the next day.

Best restaurant so far

The group split up for dinner in the beach resort town of Wilderness.
My soon-to-be erstwhile roommate and I opted for Potjie (pronounced "poy-kee"),
named after the iron pot used by the early Boers that we'd recognize
as a "Dutch oven" (the kind you cook with, not what some of you might
be thinking of).

So, most of the 10 or so of us went into the nice little restaurant
section, done in sort of "fern bar" style, and started to ask about
wine by the glass, which dishes weren't too spicy, etc.

Chuck and I went into the adjacent pub. We had two pints each of a
good lager, brewed in nearby Knysna. The light cigarette smoke in the
pubmade the beer taste even better. Joe, the amiable Xhosa bartender,
brought us our potjies of lamb stew. We enjoyed them with the brown
bread baked on the premises, scratched the dog as we quaffed our
second lagers, and watched the local folk shoot pool, while 1970's
rock music played on the jukebox. After paying up at the bar, we
enjoyed a short walk, and came back to the bus, just in time to watch
our friends straggle out of the fern bar, complaining about "that
woman" who "took forever to bring us our [separate] checks."

Fortified with a quart of good fresh lager each, we congratulated
ourselves on having won the dinner competition.

Photo: on the trail, Featherbed

Photo: photos from the viewing platform about 2/3rds up the hill, Featherbed.

Photo: up the hill at Featherbed

Photo: Blue Duiker

In a small enclosure at the Featherbed Reserve, Africa's smallest
antelope, the Blue Duiker (smaller than the Dik Dik, made famous on
the Seattle music scene), hides in plain sight. The reserve maintains
a breeding colony running free, and keeps a couple of the elusive wee
beasties for us tourists to view.

Photo: Knysna River mouth

A spring tide is flowing into the estuary. Even with skilled pilots,
this inlet has been littered with shipwrecks.

Photo: Knysna headlands

These are the adjacent peninsulae that form the mouth of the harbor.

Across the estuary at Knysna

Still on the Indian Ocean coast, we proceeded to the village of Knysna
(pronounced like "nize-nah"). After some shopping, we boarded a tour
boat for the Featherbed Nature Reserve.

"Featherbed" is the name given the estuary by sailors, who found the
Knysna River mouth estuary as calm and comfortable as a feather bed
after months of sailing on the open ocean.

The other half of our youth contingent

Sheila. Her mother affectionately calls her "the evil spawn."

Photo: Sue, enjoying the abundance of oxygen at sea level

After the dusty, relatively hypoxic air in Joburg, the rain-washed
coast was sweet.

Photo: place setting for dinner with tiny Protea flower, George

Photo: bread and mushroom soup before singing, George

Photo: audience in George

Joint concert at the Dutch Reformed Church, Denneoord

As temperatures plunged to something like 50F, we filed into this big
church near the city of George, to prepare for our joint concert with
the George Male Choir.

It wasn't really all that cold, but we acted as if it were, as the
church building was unheated. Energy prices are high, and building
central heating on the southern Cape makes about as much sense as air
conditioning a church in Seattle. A lot of capital investment and
maintenance for use only a few days each year.

We rehearsed with the George Male Choir for the two songs we did
together. This is an Afrikaans-speaking, mainly white choir and
community. They prepared a snack of bread and soup for us after
rehearsal. We gladly put on the same robes that were so terribly hot
in Kwa Thema, and watched the (plain, stage/projector screen style)
sanctuary fill with people.

The George choir sang (beautifully), and we relaxed in side pews while
the audience enjoyed hot chocolate and pancakes at intermission. Then,
we sang, and joined the George choir for a very nice dinner.

As we were singing, electricity was restored to our hotel. A long day
of singing with very nice people ended very comfortably.

Stormy weather

We arrived at the lovely beachside town of Wilderness. The winds and
surf are wild indeed. As a consequence, there is no electricity.

This means no Wi-Fi, no CPAP, no iPhone recharge. I'll queue up posts
as long as the battery holds up, and transmit when I'm re-powered.

Storms River Gorge

Pulling up in our two huge tour busses, we did the 20 minute lunch drill:

1. Park bus, hustle the "slows" to clear the aisle.

2. Observe the masses heading to the toilets, divert to the fast food stand.

3. Select the hero instead of a burger--the long thin bun geometry eats faster than the round burger bun.

4. Eat the sandwich at the counter with water #1, leaving the "small chips" (French fries) for eating on the move.

5. Proceed to the view point (near the tallest bungee-jumping bridge on earth), while steadily eating chips.

6. Marvel at the splendor of God's creation, while steadily eating chips.

7. Snap photo while steadily eating chips.

8. Proceed to toilets, tuck bag of chips under chin, be glad that not a woman.

9. Proceed to convenience store, select dessert snacks, observe computerized cash register freezing up.

10. Abort purchase as staff begins developing a hand-writing and calculator based system while time runs out. Enjoy final chip.

11. Proceed in expedited fashion to the bus, happy to not be the last.