Sept-Oct 2011 Pre-Caravan Trip

Erica Coarctata (not my fault if you didn't study Latin)
Rock Dassie
False Bay
Pat and Don south of Cape Town

9/14/2011-9/19/2011 Laurel, MD - Cape Town, South Africa

Before we left for the airport on 9/14, I checked on-line to find out the status of a mail delivery that was past due. According to the tracking software, it was delivered on 9/12. I called the Post Office and the carrier confirmed that he did in fact deliver the package right to our door that day. From this I could only assume that someone had stolen my mail from the doorstep. I was concerned that there was credit card statement and other information that could be used for identity theft. Since I was about ready to leave for the airport at this point, there was little I could do, but hope for the best. We drove to Dulles International Airport and took an 18 hr flight to Johannesburg. Due to a layover there, we landed in Cape Town 6 hours later. We picked up our rental car and drove to a downtown hotel.

The next morning we toured the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, we took a cable car to the top of Table Mountain and had dinner at the V&A Waterfront. The next day we drove down the west coast along False Bay to Boulder Beach where we saw lots of African penguins. We drove to the Cape of Good Hope and hiked out to Cape Point. We thought this was the southern tip of Africa but we were surprised to find out that the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about 90 mi. to the southeast. Sunday was rainy so we went to the South Africa Museum and then drove back to False Bay to whale watch from shore. We saw 8 Southern Right whales. An e-mail from Julie informed us that our mail, that we thought was stolen, was delivered to her house.

On our last day in Cape Town, we took a boat to Robbin Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 13 years. Part of the tour was given by a former prisoner. We learned a lot about what Mandela endured and accomplished. We relocated to the Atlantic Beach Hotel where we met and dined with the International Caravanning Association (ICA) group. Our group consisted of 13 couples from the UK plus us.