South Africa, Durban, Gqeberha, and Cape Town

In Durban we visited the Valley of a Thousand Hills…and had a dance performance of the Zulu tribe! The tribe demonstrated how a man could ask a woman to marry him…well sort of. The day was beautiful along with the vistas.

Up next after the Zulu dance was a walk across the parking lot to see Crocodiles, turtles, lizards and snakes.

Our next South African Port was Port Elizabeth now known as Gqeberha. The King Edward Hotel had seen better days but the architecture is still stunning. The library was only a facade but still very interesting looking. Port Elizabeth was named after Sir Rufane Donkin’s wife after she died in India while he was governor of the Cape. The name was officially changed in 2021 to Gqeberha which is after the Xhosas and southern Khoe name for the River Baakens that flows through the city. This area of South Africa has a diverse cultural heritage and a warm oceanic climate. Haru enjoyed the beautiful tiles mosaics at the harbor.

I loved this little insect! We lightened him up and enjoyed the colors! …a great mantra, LISTEN, REMEMBER, UNITE, SPEAK AND ACT…how apropos for us now!

It was difficult to see all the trash and poverty of all the African ports we saw. Needless to say, there is always LAUNDRY!

Since we stayed overnight in Gqeberha, we were able to join a Penguin Island cruise the next day. We saw penguins, dolphins and various seabirds. We saw a dolphin fishing as we made a loop toward the town to see the hotel and beach front. We enjoyed watching him/her because dolphins wack their food on the water and then the birds in turn dive after the pieces they miss!

Penguin Island or St. Croix or whatever name it had, was an island with the worlds largest colony of African Penguins. We were not able to get close but as always, penguins always make me smile!

As we left the penguins, we were able to see hundreds of dolphins. Port Elizabeth is called the bottlenose dolphin capital of the world and as our two boats coasted into a pod of dolphins cruising along, we realized there were hundreds of them! We heard and felt them cruise along with each breath they took. It was a magical afternoon!

Cape Town was a turnover for new leggers but it was only a day stop. When all cruise ships had to re-route around Africa due to the war, port space was very limited…so in and out we went. We however we able to do a Chapman peak tour and head around the table mountain to the wine area.

My favorite photo was all the side cars lined up and leaving together for their lovely afternoon!

We drove around the peaks and up into wine country. We missed Stellenbosch as I had been there in 1997 with Michael and Larkin didn’t care to do a major wine tasting. However, Groot Constantia where Michael and I had also been, was on our last stop before heading back to the Dawn. Remember to beware of Baboons!

When we arrived back at the ship, we were close to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront so we strolled along until we found a spot for lunch. We then enjoy the water views on our walk about!