We said farewell to the South Beach Boutique Hotel this morning after a thoroughly delightful stay – I don’t think it’s likely that I’ll be back, but I can heartily recommend the hotel to anyone going to Camps Bay.

I think we had yet another different bus today. It ran, and there was a functional PA system. On the other hand, it was raining pretty hard, and there were quite a few wet seats and floors. At least we found a dry seat for the trip to Stellenbosch, but there really wasn’t much to look at because of the weather.

Our first stop was at Groot Constantia Winery, which was the first winery in South Africa in the 17th Century.

We had a wine and chocolate tasting there – 5 wines, each paired with a flavored chocolate. The white orange were paired with white chocolates, which we enjoyed more than I expected. The Pinotage was paired with a blackberry milk chocolate, and the Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blend were paired with dark chocolates. It was a very nice touch and a very interesting tasting.

We didn’t think we wanted to haul wine around for the next three weeks, so we left with just a little chocolate. I did find, though, that Groot Constantia wines are available from a couple of mail order merchants in the United States, and the pricing isn’t too terrible.

Our next stop was Morgenster Wine and Olive Estate, where we had an olive oil tasting (three different olive oils, all estate-grown), followed by two wines. The olive oil was outstanding, and I’ve found US sources for it, too. I didn’t find any reason to look for sources for their wine, however.

We got a brief break in the weather as we were leaving Morgenster, but the skies were ominous.

We were supposed to be on our own for lunch and then take a walking tour in Stellenbosch , but the weather made that impossible. Our local guide called an audible and made reservations for the entire group at De Warenmarkt, which took good care of us. Diane and I had the fish of the day, sea bream.

It was delicious, but we were surprised to be presented with whole fish!

After lunch, we walked to the Coopmanhuijs Hotel, which is from a much earlier era than the South Beach.

The rain stopped, so we decided to take a walk – as we were ready to leave, I noticed a sign in the lobby: “Load Shedding: 18:00-20:30”. I asked the clerk, who explained that the utility power would be cut at 6pm and would be back by 8:30 – and that the hotel didn’t have a generator.

We took off for our walk. I looked at my watch – 6:02. Most businesses were closed and dark, though there were a few exceptions, like the supermarket. Some of our friends had decamped to a nearby coffee shop which did have power; we joined them and had a pleasant time.

We returned to the hotel, about a block away – the streets were mostly dark. It was like being in California during the rolling blackouts!

Power was still out in the hotel, so rather than walk up unlit stairs to unlit rooms, we sat in the dimly-lit parlor enjoying the fire until power returned a few minutes after 8.

Travel is supposed to be an adventure, right?

We went to Kirstenboch Gardens today; it’s still a little too early in the season for everything to be blooming, but there was still a lot to see, including protea, coral trees, and, of course, wonderful views of Table Mountain and the adjacent peaks.

After the gardens, we got back on the bus for a tour of the city center; unfortunately, the bus broke down! We spent about an hour waiting for a replacement bus just outside the Castle of Good Hope, but at least we had an interesting view: the castle, City Hall, Lion’s Head, and a homeless encampment!

Morning came early today. We were picked up at 4:15am for the almost 3-hour drive to The Great White House in Gansbaai, for an opportunity to come face to face with Bruce. To be more accurate, I should say Bruce’s prototypes, real great white sharks.

We drove in silence and dark – I suspect some people were sleeping. I, on the other hand, did the morning Wordle long before my friends in the US would see it – sadly, I failed to get the word for the first time in over a month.

The sky started to lighten as we approached Gansbaai.

Day had broken by the time we got to The Great White House and looked down the road to Kleinbaai Harbor.

We entered and had a light breakfast. We met our guide for the day, Susie, and listened to the safety briefing – and signed the obligatory waiver. Then it was time to walk to the harbor and board the Slashfin for the trip to Shark Alley off Dyer Island.

The seagulls were hoping we’d drop something, I’m sure.

We took our seats on the top deck and had a rather bumpy ride out to the dive area.

Diane decided to stay dry and fairly warm; I stripped off and donned the wetsuit, ready for my turn in the cage.

The crew uses salmon chum to encourage the sharks to come near the boat; the gulls liked it, too.

Sometimes the sharks hung around for a while; sometimes, they took the chum and swam!

We didn’t see any great whites today, only Bronze Whalers. It was still exciting!

I was in the second group in the cage – it was COLD! Whenever a shark neared, the crew would tell us “down” and “left”, “right”, or “center” – we were supposed to pull ourselves down (we had weights on) and look in the appropriate direction to see the shark better. I found I could see more from the surface!

After everyone had had their turn in the cage, it was time to go ashore. The tides had gone out, so we couldn’t go back to Kleinbaai Harbour; instead, the ship sailed for about half an hour, passing Danger Point and the Danger Point Lighthouse. The guide told us that many ships had sunk there, including the HMS Birkenhead, which was the first ship to issue the call “Women and Children First!”

We left the Slashfin and boarded buses to return to The Great White House for some much-needed soup and bread.

After being fed, debriefed about the trip, and asked for quotes for their blog, we returned to our bus for the trip back to Cape Town. But there were more surprises in store, starting with a visit to the nearby African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary.

One last surprise awaited – a stop at Sievers Point in Hermanus to do a little whale watching. I hadn’t brought my Lumix, and the iPhone could only resolve a hint of a whale, but it was a nice place to take a photo anyway.

And finally, we were back in Camps Bay with nothing to do for a little while – so we took a walk down to the beach. On the way, we passed the town’s memorial to the Great War.

We’d seen sand sculptures on the beach on our way back to the hotel, so we walked over to one; the artist was there and explained that the project wasn’t officially-sponsored (which might explain the tip box to the left of the sculpture). I was happy to contribute.

And now we really can relax for the day – it was a long trip, but a lot of fun!

We’ll be having dinner with our group in a few minutes and have a very early pick-up tomorrow, so I’ll have to be brief.

We took an Uber past Signal Hill into central Cape Town, where we had a fantastic tour with Craig Nudelman of Mother City Jewish Tours today. He took us on a walk through four centuries of history, from the earliest Dutch settlements to today, with an eye towards the role of the Jewish community through the entire time. We walked into District Six, over to the Castle of Good Hope, past City Hall and the Houses of Parliament and onward to the Company’s Garden before returning to the Gardens Community Center (the hub of the Cape Town Jewish community). Along the way, he told us about the significance of each place we stopped, answered our questions, and even made sure we got good photos of Cape Town’s natural wonders like Devil’s Peak and (of course) Table Mountain.

After the tour, we took an Uber to the V&A Waterfront for lunch and some light shopping.

Here are a few of today’s photos – they will have to speak for themselves!

It was very nice sleeping in a real bed again. We had nothing in particular planned for the day, so we were in no hurry to get up and slept until 8am – and even then, we took our time in getting ready.

The hotel suggested using Uber to get to and from the Two Oceans Aquarium on the V&A Waterfront in downtown Capetown; we were traveling with another couple, so I ordered an Uber XL and off we went.

The Aquarium was busy but not horribly crowded, and admission was only R220 (about $13) per person. We spent about three hours there and saw pretty much all the exhibits, though we didn’t watch any feedings.

The first tanks as you come in are in the “Diversity Gallery” which is devoted to showcasing the diversity of marine life in Atlantic and Indian Oceans, which border South Africa.

The first tank we saw was filled with colorful fish – my favorite was the Trigger Clownfish.

There’s a tank dedicated to “Nemos” – fish that featured in Finding Nemo. The western clownfish were the star of that tank.

And what would an aquarium be without a display of jellies?

The tube anemones were interesting (and hard to photograph correctly – our iPhones insisted on changing the color, but my Lumix did OK in RAW mode).

Some of the animals were hard to find, like this octopus:

This sole was a little easier to see, but not much:

There was a whole room given over to moon jellies; it was a restful place.

They have a couple of large tanks to hold big collections of marine life.

When I saw this fish, I thought it should be named the “politician fish”, but it’s actually an “Old Woman Angelfish”.

The Devil Firefish looked pretty scary:

And there were many more fish to enjoy – this Red Stumpnose amused me.

We walked through the Shark Tunnel and escaped with our lives:

After that, we went outside to see the seals – it reminded me of our visit to Año Nuevo early this year.

The other couple ordered an Uber and we walked to the pickup point at the front of the Aquarium to be greeted by a nice large car and a driver asking if we were his pickup. We said ‘yes’ and got in and he started driving – after a minute or so, he asked where we were going. We told him and he took us back to the hotel; then he asked for R280 (compared to the R120 I paid this morning)! It turns out that he wasn’t an Uber – he was a regular taxicab! The other couple are not regular Uber/Lyft users and didn’t notice that the app had given the driver’s name, the car description, and the license plate to expect.

The Uber had shown up a little after we left, so there was also a cancellation fee to pay – what should have been a $8 trip (with tip) wound up costing $21!

Lessons learned: Use Uber in Cape Town, not taxis, and be sure you’re in the right car before setting out!

More of our group arrived today and many of us met for dinner at Mantra, a seven-minute walk from the hotel. It was raining hard for part of the walk, so we got pretty wet, but it was worth it – the food was good and the prices were impossibly reasonable by California standards (our dinner, with wine, salad, main, and dessert came to $60 for the two of us). And the view of the Atlantic wasn’t bad, either, once the rain stopped.

The walk back was a little less pleasant – it was blustery, and there were quite a few beggars along the way. Most of them asked politely for small change, but one guy was almost aggressive and followed the group for a block or so before giving up. Dave (our travel agent) told us about a group he’d escorted on a previous tour, where one of the travelers decided to make a donation – he had fallen behind the group and was pulling out a fat wallet from his back pocket when Dave realized what was going on and intervened before he could make himself more of a target, just in case someone was watching.

Lesson learned: it’s good to carry a little cash in a front pocket so you don’t need to pull out your wallet all the time!