Stunning South Africa

Sorry about the long silence since St Helena. First of all there was no internet access on the Royal Mail Ship. You can send emails which are collected by satellite 4 times a day but no chance to blog. That was five nights - and a wonderful journey with lots of interesting people. I do love these old-fashioned sea voyages: you can keep your cruises (unless they're of the expedition variety) but this is a sort of "cruise with a purpose", She's a working ship supplying all the transport and freight needs of the island - this time a JCB was disgorged amongst many other things! We arrived in South Africa late afternoon last Friday (over a week ago which is hard to believe) and had a wonderful stay in the Steenberg Hotel in the Constantia region of Cape Town. As we sailed in to the city Table Mountain set the scene, with the new football stadium a notable addition to the skyline. World Cup Fever is already apparent! There followed a busy couple of days with the group, visiting Table Mountain (the first time I've ever managed to get to the top - very exciting) and Kirstenbosch Gardens on the first day. Our local guide was a botanist as well as being well informed on many others aspects of Cape Town and South Africa. Her gift for conveying her knowledge in a user-friendly way meant that we stayed for well after an hour after the tour was supposed to finish, so much was everyone enjoying it. So it was a bit of a scrum to get ready to go out for dinner inn the neighbouring Constantia Uitsig. The next day we had an early-ish start and headed down the cost to Hermanus where we enjoyed some of the best whale watching I have every had - and all from the shore! The species in quesetion was the Southern Right Whale and there were lots of animals in the bay, some REALLY close to the shore. One mother with an albino calf was literally within a stone's throw. Another whale, a little further out, breached six times. Now I've done a lot of whale watching in my time but I've never seen anything like that.It was amazing. It wasn't just the whales - we met with a wonderful man called Frank Woodvine, an 80-year-old Englishman who has lived in South Africa most of his life and founded the nature reserve at Fernkloof. He led us up the mountain - and boy could he move! - showing us the unique flora of thiss beautiful place. Our final port of call was the African Penguin colony at Stony Point - far less commercialised that the one I'd previously been to at Boulder. Again we arrived back at the hotel much later than planned because we'd had such a good time. The last day (for the clients)found us heading down to the Waterfront for a look around before taking the ferry to Robben Island, famed for its role in the history of South Africa's road to freedom and, particuarly, for its prison which held Nelson Mandela for 16 of his 27 years' imprisonment. Even though I'd been there twice before, I still found it an incredibly moving experience. From here it was off to the airport to wave goodbye to the folk who had made the whole tour such an enjoyable experience for each other and for me.