Hello from civilisation. I arrived safely in Cape Town on Monday evening and had the luxury (for which I paid handsomely) of being picked up by a lovely gentleman in a sharp suit, and whisked off to my gorgeous hotel in a posh car. It was all quite surreal. I have to confess I was a bit embarrassed about my very dusty, dirty bag going into the pristine car boot, but hey - I paid for it.
I spent Monday evening switching lights on and off (electricity is great), phoning my family (Lynne who?), and soaking in a deep deep bath to try to remove some of the really ingrained dirt. I watched Sky news from the UK for a while as well. It was quite strange to see Prime Minister Brown.
Tuesday morning was weird. After a hot (oh yes!!) shower I went for breakfast in the hotel. The lobby was filled with 'suits' and there were people at tables talking loudly on mobiles in voices that are meant to make strangers think they are talking about things that are very important. After brekkie I set out in search of various items of shopping and personal maintenance. I had reasonable success - new clothes, eye drops to sort out conjunctivitis, new stationery and of course a copy of the new Harry Potter. But it felt so strange - there were too many shops with too much choice, and just altogether too much of everything. Considering I used to be such an expert consumer, it was quite an unnerving experience. It was almost as if I was seeing a shopping centre for the first time. I know that sounds daft, but it seemed so alien and I felt very dislocated. I remembered the day I walked around Gweru (Zim) town centre and there was so little for sale, shelves were half empty, there was one type of shampoo and no conditioner. As my brother will see from my credit card account though, I managed to shop very successfully. I'm particularly pleased with my new PJs; hey ho, its the little things that keep us going.
It turns out though that I am still a stationery addict as I had to buy a couple of moleskin notebooks. They are just so nice to use and they don't fall apart. On Wednesday morning my friend Dinah arrived and we have been walking and drinking coffee and tea and chatting for ages. We went to the Robben Island museum which was not so great as most of it was shut and the boat trip over was hideously rough. The best part of it was the guide who took us round the old prison is a former inmate. He described from his own first hand experience what it was like to be there, which made it very real. The discrimination was so bad that they even had separate dietary allowances for different races - Indians and "coloureds" had a greater allowance than Bantu people. Of course, there were no whites imprisoned there.
Yesterday we went to Hermanus Bay to go whale watching. I was persuaded to get on another boat, despite not quite having recovered from the pervious trip. It was quite calm to start with but conditions deteriorated while we were out there and again I felt horrible by the time we got back. This time it was worth it though as we saw several Southern Right Whales, and one even came to the boat to see what was going on. It was amazing and really a dream come true. My pics are rubbish though as everytime I thought I was going to get a good one the swell went up or down and the chance was lost. Still, I'm not madly obsesive about photos anyway; I'm just excited that I actually got the opportunity to see a huge whale that close.
From now on though, I am sticking to land based travel, and maybe the odd plane or two. Dinah and I meet up with the rest of our tour this afternoon. Tomorrow will be spent seeing the local sights and going to the Cape of Good Hope and then by Tuesday afternoon we''ll be disappearing off into the wilderness again. I'm really looking forward to Botswana and Namibia and I'll have a day back in Livingstone to catch up with friends there. I'm also quite looking forward to being back camping! Don't get me wrong, I've loved the 5* luxury but I have definitely had enough of it by now.
I'm not sure whether I'll be able to get to a computer while on the tour so don't be alarmed if you don't hear anything for the next month or so. I may end up stuck here after that anyway as both my bank cards have stopped working today, which is a bit worrying.
I'm sorry if I haven't replied to some individual emails yet. Please bear with me! I plan on having a few days in Cape Town again when I get back (beginning of Sept) and I promise to write to everyone and upload photos. After that I am going to head back to Mozambique - but more of that later!
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