DAL Kalahari

http://www.safemariner.co.uk/dal_kalahari.html

This is the website for our ship, which is where we'll be now for the next three weeks until we arrive in Tilbury Docks, London, UK. The berthing of the ship in Cape Town was due today, but we've been told it will be at midnight, so asked to come at 7am tomorrow morning. That is when we'll do passports and immigration as well. Now I'm looking forward to it even more.

While we were travelling on the train, it was difficult to get to grips with the boat part, but now we're thinking about how much sea-sickness we'll have, and what to do all the time. Lots of plans! Maybe write a novel, read some books on my kindle, and study the Welsh language. Maybe. Watch this space!

Table Mountain

Our new friends, Tracy and Peter have welcomed us like family. Yesterday we set out to climb Table Mountain, but the table cloth cloud was too thick in the morning when we arrived. It was sad, because the day before had been sunny and clear.

Instead we decided to go to Robben Island, just off the coast, where Nelson Mandela was in prison for many years, so we drove around town to the habour and stood in the queue. But when we arrived at the front, the boat was full, so we couldn't go there either :^(

Instead of that, we took a boat round the harbour, "To get our sea legs in" as Peter said.

Then to cheer us up even more, we had an amazing game lunch there in the Harbour. As we were eating it, looking up at the mountain, we saw the cloth was lifting off!

Such a welcome from the maker of the Table! We drove back to the foot of the mountain and went up to the top, in the cable car! There we found, as well as the stunning view all around, it was warm, calm and peaceful. Normally there is a cold wind blowing.

At the end of the day, sleepy heads couldn't keep our eyes open, and later today, Sunday is the day we are set to board the VERY big ship in the container habour. That ship, the DAL Kalahari will be our home for the next three weeks.

Cape Town Leg

The train we took from Johannesburg to Cape Town was very different to all the others. It was the last and fifth of the overnight trains, a comfort and a delight to ride in. Kevin had booked a ticket in tourist class while we were still in Kilolo, Tanzania, but because we were not in South Africa, it was too risky to pay over the ether as required, so we lost our booking.

Our God is greater, and he gave us another of our many angels in the booking office man at Musina station. 'Dr John' found a compartment for us on the already fully booked train we wanted to take, and in addition he made sure no-one else would book into it, and we didn't even have to pay for all four seats. That meant we could totally relax and enjoy the last leg of trip South.

We went to the dining car for both dinner and a magnificent breakfast, and had some fun with the waitress taking photos for and of us. This one of Kevin, I took, though!