Saturday, August 17, 2013
No Great Whites Today!
We had a wakeup call set for 5:45am...as a backup we set the alarm clock for 5:35am and the clock on my iPad for 5:50am. None of this was needed at all because, I NEVER went to sleep. Well, for maybe 10 minutes I slept. We were given meds to take the night before to combat the extremely rough seas that were in the forecast for our great white shark dive. It made me very sleepy for a few minutes. I quickly fell asleep....and woke up a few minutes later! Ugh! I read a little over 1/2 of Inferno. I was dresses and ready to go well before 6am. I made the long walk up to the lodge hoping for a steaming hot white before our departure for the boat. The lodge was all lit up...but it was as quiet as a mouse. I stomped around...coughed and cleared my throat...SILENCE. About 15 minutes passed by, when Davis entered the lodge. He told me that I had left before he and daddy got the call that the ship couldn't go out because of the gale force winds (80k) and the extremely rough seas! Ugh! Next came Barry to deliver the bad news. We all went back to our cottages...after Barry woke up the sleeping staff and set up replacement activities! That is why our children call him Cappy B....short for Captain Barry! Davis was wide awake so he went on an 8am walk through the forest....he was the only guest with the expert. We went back and tried to sleep. One of us did zonk out, but one of us (me) had no such luck! After we met Davis for breakfast, which was outstanding, Davis went to his cottage and crashed! Barry and I went with the same Grootsbos fynbos and bird expert on a 3 hour 4 wheel drive around the property. A German couple joined us. It was beautiful and very educational. My expert master gardener friends would have really loved it! I also loved seeing the varied birds...'specially the ones with names like "the yellow rumped widow weaver" and the the double collared sunbird ans well as many shrikes and other names that this feeble brain can't remember. Also loved seeing a steenbok! After a great lunch and a nap (for some!) we went on another activity down to the cliffs over the beach to see an ancient Klingpat cave. I thought we would drive to the beach and walk over the sand to this cave...WRONG! I would have signed up for something else had I known that we were going to a cliff where we would descend a million steps.....and you know what that means...ya gotta climb back up! After the climb down..and my knees felt like jelly, we had to negotiate climbing and stepping on rocks and boulders with the waves crashing around us to the cave. I was constantly hanging onto or holding my hand out to both Barry and Davis for help and assurance. And they were great! After walking around the cave, learning about these ancient people, and looking and learning about kelp I had a climb back up. It was not the most fun thing I have ever done!!!! We spotted some whales and went to a house on a cliff where Grootsbos had champagne and appetizers for us waiting. Back up the mountain to our cottage to get dressed for our last dinner at Grootsbos. We had another stellar dinner with gale force winds buffeting the glass walls of the lodge. I am taking an Ambien so that I will sleep tonight! I should record the sounds that the wind and sometimes the rain is making on our cottage. Unbelievable!
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Rain, Rain Go Away!!!
Barry had organized a wakeup call for early morning....because he just does! We had no early morning appointments, no scheduled activity, nothing... We got our call. I am quite certain that Davis received one too. But we all just kept on sleeping until almost nine! Yay! When we opened our draperies we couldn't see any of Table Mountain for the clouds. We have not seen the top of Table Mountain since we have been here. Weirdly, it makes us a little happy to know that we wouldn't have been able to go to the top even if it were open. I can remember going to see Mt. Cook in New Zealand. It was shrouded in clouds. We finally caught a glimpse of the peak because it was a full moon, because we had lost our car keys and were stranded, and because I stared at it from mid afternoon till around 11:30pm. Oh well, Davis can just thumb through my photos from October 2011 and get an idea of how beautiful the views are! After a lovely breakfast, we shopped a bit around the harbor and even enjoyed a brief harbor cruise. We were fortunate that the sun was shining during that activity. As soon as we walked into a restaurant to eat lunch, the heavens opened and it poured. The rain ceased long enough for us to quickly walk back to the hotel. Our driver from our next stop "collected" us and we sadly left Cape Town. In route to Gansbaai, over the mountains and over the mountains, we drove through Hermanus, where Barry and I visited almost 2 years ago. Our driver took us past Birkenhead House where we stayed almost 2 years ago. It was whale season then and it is now, too! We saw several Southern Right Whales on our journey today. We love our new home for 2 nights, Grootsbos. We have 2 cottages...each with a fabulous ocean view. One of the dessert choices tonight at our 6 course dinner was Mississippi Mud Cake. It was very different from Memama's.....but nonetheless fabulous! It is COLD! We have a fire glowing in the fireplace! Tomorrow, we have a 5:45am wakeup call to go great white shark cave diving. It was cool when we did this on our last trip here. It is COLD this time! And we were told tonight that the seas have been and will be VERY rough! So rough in fact that we were given meds to take tonight and then again in the morning before we depart! I am just not positive that I can put on a wet, wetsuit and jump in that freezing water tomorrow. It's not the sharks that bother me... I think I am too old to do things that I know are going to make me uncomfortable! Ha! But, yes, I have already PAID to be stupid! We will see how stupid I am tomorrow!
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
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