The cruise ended–for us–in Cape Town. The Norwegian Dawn had a final port of call in Lisbon, and some passengers, Larry included, were cruising from Mauritius to Portugal. Mark and I had breakfast on board and left around 8:30, which was the time all passengers whose final port of call was Cape Town had to leave. We had to leave the port by bus yet spent an hour going in circles. By the time we got off the bus the place was mayhem, as two ships had disembarked and no one was directing anyone. Cars were honking and buses were trying to squeeze out of there. In the midst of it all were hundreds of passengers towing their suitcases behind them. We asked two uniformed personnel where we could catch a cab and were told two different answers within seconds. We did catch a cab that took us to our accommodation.
Still aboard the Norwegian Dawn with Table Mountain in the background:
Aboard the Norwegian Dawn, shortly before debarking. The Gardens Centre apartment building is to the lower right of the grey and white building on the left:
Our destination was the Gardens Centre, where we were staying for the next two nights. This is a tall apartment in the heart of the city which offers full accommodation for short-term stays, in addition to being a regular apartment building. It is a lot cheaper to stay there than at a hotel. A shopping centre is located on site and when I stayed at Tristan House prior to my second visit to the island in 2017, I always did my shopping at the Gardens Centre Pick n Pay. I also got my South African plug adaptor there. FYI during this trip I had to pack four different kinds of adaptors: one for North America, in order to use my laptop at the airport in Toronto, a European plug for Réunion, a UK plug for Mauritius, and finally one for South Africa. Our stateroom onboard had outlets compatible for the first three plug types, so most passengers wouldn’t even need an adaptor.
As soon as we got to the check-in desk I saw two familiar faces. I had known from Vourn Brophy, the manager of Tristan House, that many Tristanians would be staying at the Gardens Centre. It didn’t take long to meet any, for as we checked in, Jason Green and Natalie Swain, plus their children Noah and Louie, were coming out. I said hello to them, and stated that I had visited Tristan twice. I couldn’t expect them to know who I was, however it probably freaked them out to be recognized by some rando guy with a weird Canadian accent.
I had written to the Gardens Centre that morning from the ship to tell them that we would be checking in shortly, and they were excellent in making sure our room (#306) was ready when we got there and we didn’t have to wait till the standard check-in time of 2 p.m. We dropped off our bags and put the food in the fridge and headed out. Mark had booked a walking tour for 11:00 while I wanted to head to the bookshops on Long Street. We headed to the Motherland Café on St. Georges Mall where Mark’s tour was to begin. We arranged to meet at the same place after the tour, and then I went book shopping.
I headed to Clarke’s Bookshop first. All my book purchases will be in a separate blog post. When I was checking out I asked about Select Books, another second-hand shop just down the street. I was disappointed to find out that Select had relocated a bit of a ways out of town. Surely I must have known this at some point (but forgot) as I am on the Select Books mailing list. I was cutting my visit to Clarke’s short in order to give myself enough time to shop at Select, but since I wouldn’t be going there now decided to have a more thorough look around Clarke’s.
I returned to St. Georges Mall and ate my lunch as I waited for Mark. It was a beautiful clear day and perfect conditions for seeing Table Mountain. We went back to our room to drop off our things–including the bag of books I bought after an extended stay at Clarke’s–and headed for the aerial cableway terminal. We walked up some steep streets like Molteno Road, in awe of some of the mansions. Because the streets were so steep I could imagine that no one this rich would ever walk around here as people must drive everywhere. At the end of Molteno we took a path to Glencoe Avenue and explored the old Higgovale Quarry. Then we got back to the streets and walked along superrich Higgo Road and then onto Trek Road because we felt there must be an outlet there, and it was confirmed when we found a staircase that took us to Kloof Nek Road. We took Kloof Nek to the shelter for the shuttle that went to the aerial cableway.
This was my second trip up Table Mountain yet my first time ascending it via cableway:
I am standing at the top, where you can see another cruise ship exiting the harbour. While we were on the mountain we tracked the ship up the west coast. The Norwegian Dawn is still in port:
S. A. Agulhas II is in port:
The Norwegian Dawn:
The Gardens Centre apartment building. Our room faced Table Mountain, so we’re looking right at it:
As high as the mountain’s tablecloth:
This evening I had arranged to get together with Martin and Marilyn Crawford, whom I last visited in September 2017. On the cab ride over we arranged to hire the same driver to take us to the airport, yet none of us had a pen so my first interaction with Martin when he opened his door was the rather inelegant and hurried request to borrow a pen, as the cab driver was waiting. Once we got the driver’s details Mark and I went inside and enjoyed an evening talking about Tristan, the Tristanians and the Crawford family. Marilyn had made a delicious pineapple cake. They took us outside to see their small tortoises, all of which had crawled off to some corner of the backyard to sleep. They kindly drove us back to the Gardens Centre.
With Martin and Marilyn Crawford