On April 11, the day before Cape Town, I got email from Liz, to tell me she is back from delivering her charge to the bosom of her family in New Hampshire, and I couldn’t have been more delighted. We corresponded by email and I told her all she needed to know to meet us tomorrow, for fun around Cape Town before boarding the ship. It was all arranged that we would pick her up at her hotel, tour wine country, and she would board and check in, before the ship changed berth at 6:00pm.  The rest of the day went to travel work, logging and blogging.  I did go to the entertainment, and it was truly eye candy, Ilia and Olesja, a couple who do circus things with a ring and silks.  They were both very strong and very nice to look at. 

On April 12, 2024, we docked in Cape Town, and learned that the Queen Victoria should have docked a day and a half ago, but severe wind conditions prevented them picking up their pilot until the wee hours of this morning.   We docked behind her.  I met Lorraine at 8:45am and we were off the ship by 9.  Because Mary was behind Victoria, there was a shuttle to a place we could easily have walked, but there you are.  By a little after 9 we were in the car, with Raymond Haywood, and off to pick up Liz.  She was ready and raring to go. 

Raymond explained that there are three wine growing areas around Cape Town, Paarl, Franshoek and Stellenbosch.  Paarl is the closest and also famous for being where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for years, before he was sent to Robben Island and after.  He was incarcerated a total of 27 years.  Between the three wine growing regions, there are 320 wine farms.  We started at Fairview, where they also keep goats and make cheese.

That’s a real goat in the tower window.  The winery dates back to 1693.  Their tasting was very nice, including a different piece of cheese with each wine.  I would have bought some wine, to bring back to the ship, but I’d have been paying 25 bucks to have QM2 open $5 bottles of wine.  What a nice perk to living in South Africa that is. 

On the way to our next wine stop, we passed the prison where there is an enormous statue of Nelson Mandela, commemorating his long walk to freedom.  Everyone has their picture taken with it, so we did, too. 

Our next tasting was at La Motte in Franshoek, and their wines were delicious, too.  All this wine tasting was a little painful for me, as I am having a dry April, but I have learned to look sniff, taste and spit, and that’s what I did.

Lunch, at least, I could partake of, and what a lunch it was.  Raymond had chosen La petite Ferme, high on a mountaintop, with this fabulous view:

It was a beautiful day and we ate outside.  I took that picture from our table.  It doesn’t get a lot better than that.  The food was exquisite, too.  This was the kudu carpaccio appetizer:

Liz had lamb for her main course and Lorraine and I had Malay Seafood curry.

The whole experience was so good that we didn’t want to leave, so we just let Raymond know that we were having dessert, Jan Ellis pudding, and staying put.  We knew we wouldn’t have time for Stellenbosch, but that was OK.  We’d be arriving back at the ship, a bit early, if anything, and that was a good thing because the Queen Mary 2 was moving at 6:00pm and we wouldn’t be able to board for a couple of hours, if we timed it wrong. 

As we drove through the little town of Franshoek, Lorraine fell in love and decided she wanted her own car for the next day, just to come back here.  She was actually entertaining the idea of moving to South Africa, and Franshoek sure looked good to her.  Raymond had another couple of drivers, so he was able to arrange a trustworthy one for her.  Liz and I had a different agenda for the next day. 

It was a tad complicated getting Liz back on to the Queen Mary, which was no great surprise, and we knew whom to call.  By the time we had all that done, it was too late to go out again, and frankly, we didn’t need any more shopping or eating, so we just repaired to our rooms.  I was in bed by 8:30pm, having had a delicious dinner of the cookies they leave in our staterooms and the rest of the Easter Bunny.

We overnighted in Cape Town, and met with Raymond again at 9am, early because there was a two oceans marathon going on and he had figured out how to avoid it.  We had to be back on board at 4:00pm anyway, so an early start was in order.  Liz had her heart set on seeing Cape Town’s famous penguin colony at Boulders Beach.  It’s probably the warmest place on earth to have penguins.  The African penguin is seriously endangered but protected at Boulders Beach.   It’s actually in the middle of a residential area with houses very near to the penguins.

They nest here, digging shallow holes in the ground, that they can cover with their bodies.  We saw all ages of African Penguins, from chicks, covered in down, to “Baby Blues” in their blue grey plumage, to adults.  It was a particularly windy day, in a windy spot, so there was less going in and out of the water than there might have been, but we did see a few of them waddle in and out of the sea.  And we ate a lot of sand.

Raymond took us through some upscale seaside towns and then inland, over the Cape Flats, to Langa Township.  There we met Mizo, a local guide, for a walk-around tour.  There are various levels of housing in Langa, from corrugated iron lean-tos and containers, where new arrivals await government housing, to a neighborhood they call “Beverly Hills” where people own respectable looking houses and have cars.  In between, is the government housing and it’s pretty minimal.  Apartheid is over and anyone can go anywhere, but conditions have not improved much for the very poor.  Mzansi, the great restaurant our tour had gone to on January 31, wasn’t open today.  It was a shame, as it was because there weren’t enough clients.  Only two guides were bringing in only 4 people, and you can’t cook up all those lovely dishes for four people.  You really need forty.  So we went to Langa’s best regular restaurant, Jordan, and it was fine.  We were the only tourists.  The rest of the people were local and most of them were here because they had something to celebrate.  Mizo said that was the only time he would eat here.  The portions were gargantuan and he had a lot to take home to his mother that night.

It was a great day for us, too.  I have our driver-guide’s permission to give you his name and phone number.  If you are ever in Cape Town, he will show you a very good day for a reasonable price.  I recommend Raymond Haywood +27 72 808 8561.  We did most of our organization on WhatsApp.  I have a winery recommendation from another passenger, too.  The Roads Scholars got taken to Boschendal in Stellenbosch, where they had a fabulous tour, tasting and gourmet lunch.  I’ll have Raymond take me there next time.

I went to Deck 8 for sailaway, but there wasn’t one.  I did have a pleasant chat with a couple who had just embarked and a Pizza at the Chef’s Table.  I slept very well.

April 14, at sea, was one of those days when there’s nothing to report because I spend the whole day, well, reporting.  We did have a DV cocktail party to welcome Liz back.  Eight people came, and four of us continued on to dinner in the dining room.

On April 15, 2024, we docked in Walvis Bay, Namibia, again for the second time this voyage.  That has been happening since Colombo.  I had heard that the Dolphin tour in Walvis Bay was a winner and I really wanted to max the only three ports left before Southampton.  It was a good tour.  It boded well when a seal named “Robbie” flopped up onto the dock before we boarded our motor launch.  He was a big one and couldn’t have come on board, but a smaller tame one, whom our guides called “Junior” was up over the transom in a flash.  A few of the seals have learned that if they make nice with the tourists, the boat operators will give them fish.  So they make very nice indeed.  They even let us pet them.

I’ll bet he feels lovely when he’s dry, if ever that happens.  Junior wasn’t the only visitor we had.  A pelican couple graced us with their presence, too.

It seemed they knew about the fishy handouts, too.  We passengers weren’t forgotten, either.  We got fresh oysters from a nearby oyster farm and a number of local hors d’oeuvres, like seal balls, shrimp, and samosas, served with sparkling wine.  I was still on the wagon, so I had a coke with that which was my breakfast.  After our cocktail hour, we passed close to a seal colony, where there were a couple of dolphins frolicking, too.  It was a nice outing.  

I met up with Liz at sailaway and we went on to dinner and Foggie Flax, who just might have been the best on board entertainer of the whole voyage.  He had us with the first song, a very good imitation of Roy Orbison, singing “Pretty Woman”.  His comedy was good and all of his impersonations were spot on.  Don’t miss him, if he comes to a ship under you. 

On April 16, we were back at sea to begin a seven-day stretch. It was a very ordinary day at sea, with another Captain’s Cocktail party at the end of it.  After all the hors d’oeuvres, Liz and I didn’t need dinner, so we went and listened to Jazz in the Chart Room, instead. 

The next day was even easier.  I went to the French speakers’ lunch in Britannia, my only lunch of the entire voyage.  I had poached salmon and it was very nice.  One of my friends has a name for the mysterious illness that seems to be going around the ship.  She calls it the lurgy.  I googled it and I think she’s on to something.  I know a couple of people who have it. 

Liz and I decided to have sundowners on Deck 8, aft, as we don’t know how much more good weather we will see.  Then we had dinner and went to see Audley Anderson’s Motown show.  It was not bad, but he didn’t inspire or get us going like Foggie Flax did.