May 5, 2012 - Cape Town

May 5, 2012 - Cape Town

Today we drive to Cape Town. We got up at 6:30 am. After breakfast we met our driver Basil. Cape Town is 240 miles south west of George and the drive takes about 5 hours depending on the amount of road work going on. The road started out like a freeway, divided in the middle, with two lanes on each side, then a three lane road, and then two lanes until we reached Cape Town.

Before we left Evelyn got to shop at the gift shop. In general the prices in South Africa are a little better than the US. Products made in SA especially with the exchange rate still being favorable. While at the Lodge Hal ordered a Jack Daniels on the rocks, he got a very generous serving and although not made in SA, based on the exchange it was about $1.25. Not bad.

Overall I would say our experience at Botlierskop is quite positive. I think we could have paid less if we had spent more time on the Internet. We booked though Africa Travel and we met a couple at the lodge we said we could have booked using a South African travel agent and saved a lot of money. She gave us a name and promised to send us additional information. The experience though not entirely a "safari" experience was more like Jurassic Park meets the Ritz Carlton. All in all not at all disappointing.

We have been on the road for about 45 mintues and are now waiting at a stop where there is road repair and the road is only one lane. We made one stop and arrived at the Westin Hotel in Cape Town at about 1:30pm. The ride took just under 5 hours. The Westin is located near the harbor in the Convention Center area. When we were here in 2001 none of this area was developed. Although the V and A Harbor Waterfront near by opened in 1999.

We checked in and then cleaned up from the ride. Myrna and Don arrived in the early morning and we had agreed to meet for dinner. We called them about 4pm and we all took the hotel shuttle to the Victoria and Alfred Harbor Waterfront for dinner. We shopped at couple of resturants and picked one that had South Africa food. I have had so much meat over the past three days I had chicken and so did Evelyn. With wine, beer and tip the check was 900 rand about $ 115 for the four of us.

Don and Myrna are still suffering from jet lag so we returned to the hotel with a plan to meet in the morning for breakfast and then to visit Table Mountain before boarding the ship. The hotel gave us a late check until 2pm which will allow us to leave our bags in our room until we leave for the ship. Before we left home I bought the Table Mountain tickets on the Internet.


Sent from my iPad

Hal