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Saturday 10 June 2006 brought about the journey to the
final continent of our World Tour before returning home to England on 2
September 2006. After saying goodbye to Chris and the other guys we went
for what has to be one, well three actually, of the best curries we have
had in ten months at the Eaton Hotel in Kowloon before heading to Hong
Kong airport for the fifth and final time of this adventure. Our thirteen
and a half hour flight to Johannesburg wasn't until 11:45pm so we had time
to watch the opening game of England's World Cup campaign against
Paraguay.
On our arrival at Johannesburg airport, just before 7am
the following morning we had to borrow a suitcase from Cathay Pacific as
the baggage handlers had totally trashed one of our bags. I suppose we
should be grateful as there were three people in front of us whose bags
had not arrived from Hong Kong at all! At least it killed an hour of the
four we had to wait we had before our two hour flight to Cape Town.
Finally we got to the Cape Town Holiday Inn Waterfront,
after twenty-six hours of travelling and thirty-nine hours without sleep,
to be faced with the most grumpy, unhelpful member of staff we have ever
met. The true demonstration of their efficiency came in the form of
returning a parcel we had told the manager and concierges we were
expecting. They returned it saying we were not stopping at the hotel,
even though they had made a note it was due to arrive and it had our hotel
reservation number on it!
We decided to have a couple of weeks off again, before
embarking on our epic journey through Namibia, Botswana and finishing with
a month in South Africa again before flying home. Apart from taking a
sailing boat cruise and a visit to Cape Town Aquarium, which is still one
of the best we have ever been to, we really just chilled out and spent a
week around the hotel and the Victoria and Albert Waterfront. On the
cruise we saw the usual Seals and Penguins that live around Cape Town, but
we also saw Dolphins and were lucky enough to see a couple of Brydes
Whales.
England played Trinidad and Tobago one of the nights we
were in Cape Town which presented a fun evening in the hotel bar with
quite a few Englanders, then on the Saturday there was a rugby-fest on
with several international matches taking place, including South Africa
against Scotland on the Saturday afternoon. We went to the Waterfront
Sports Bar to watch the game and were joined by a couple of guys from the
hotel whom we had met, Steve and Paul, who worked for British Airways as
Ground Staff Trainers.
Later that evening we went out with Steve, an English
Kiwi living in Gothenburg, to an Irish Bar, although he had never been to
South Africa before, he knew the owner from back home! We got invited to
the VIP Bar upstairs and way too much beer got drunk and general frivolity
and dancing was had by all!
The following morning we were heading to Hermanus and
meant to pick up our hire-car by 10am, but we didn't get there until just
before 3pm when it closes! |