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No sad partings
Entry 25 of 34 | show all | print this entry |
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After leaving Mountain Breeze, we went to a wine-tasting at 9:00 am in the morning. This was not my idea of a morning activity, although I did learn a bit about how to taste wine: to look at the color, to smell the bouquet and to taste, but not necessarily to swallow the wine. We then went to a restaurant for a second breakfast; some of the group had a full breakfast with eggs, bacon and sausages. Although I watched attentively to see if anyone would keel over after this heart unfriendly feast, no one did and so we continued on to another vineyard and more wine tasting.
We drove to Signal Hill to have a look at the view over Cape Town and then started dropping people off at their hotels. This certainly cuts down on sad partings. As Lotta and I were staying in a hostel some distance away, we went to the Nomad offices and from there took a Rikki's taxi to Zebra Crossing Lodge. Incredibly our wonderful tour was over. Lotta and I were now on our own.
My first impressions of the Zebra Crossing Lodge were terrible. Although I thought I had booked a twin room with a private bathroom, it turned out that there were no rooms at all with private bathrooms. After the type of accommodation we had on the tour, the room seemed bare and uninviting and the bedding pathetic. I convinced Lotta that we should look for somewhere less basic. Unfortunately the three other places nearby were full. Eventually by arranging some of our belongings so that the room looked a bit nicer and checking out the bathrooms - all clean and close, I gradually adjusted to the hostel and become very fond of it over the next few days. The staff is friendly and helpful. There is a great bar with a T. V. where light meals are served. The other guests turned out to be a friendly bunch and our stay was very enjoyable. I would stay there again.
We walked through the Company's Gardens and visited the South African National Gallery for a few minutes as it was about to close. We were guests of the gallery as we did not have to pay an entrance fee as it was so close to closing time. This was a great exhibit about HIV/AIDS called "Breaking the Silence." There is a particularly moving photograph of a mother and her two young children. All looked healthy and all three would be dead within a few months.
We also went by the tourism center and bought bus cards for two days of tour buses. We also visited a shop which had items related to the bushmen. I bought a bracelet made by Bushmen from ostrich eggs. Although they seemed to have used plastic fishing line instead of sinew to put the pieces together, it is a powerful piece of African jewelry which I shall treasure.
In the evening I dragged Lotta to the planetarium to see a program called "The Astronomy of the Great Pyramid." Having visited the Pyramids of Giza in 2005 it was a subject of interest to me. An interesting bit of information was that because of precession when the Pyramids were built, they pointed towards Thuban, not Polaris.
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