On our last day but one we decided to go to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. Our legs were still screaming from the walk down the mountain a couple of days earlier so we practised being very old folk and keeping mostly on the gentle paths and avoiding steps as much as possible. It was a peaceful interlude allowing ourselves some time to think about the days ahead. We barely covered a fraction of the gardens as they were vast. Several visits would be required to get a sense of the place.
We returned to our lodgings for 2-3 hours to rest and to pack. In the evening we went to the V&A docks area. Our first stop was the marina just in case there was someone there who we knew. There weren’t but it was nice to be down by the water. It was a bittersweet experience though as it is already beginning to look like another life, one which we sometimes find it hard to believe we’ve experienced for ourselves. We ate out in the docks area.
Upon awaking on our final day we discovered an email from South African friends of ours (Ruth and Rob on Albatross III) who are now domiciled in New Zealand. We first met them, briefly, when we were in the Rosarios in Colombia and then many times across the Pacific (including New Zealand). They have a daughter, Savannah, in Cape Town who they asked us to go and see. The biggest sacrifice cruisers make is separation from their families so we knew how much this request meant. So we dumped some admin on my sister (sorry Sue) to make time to go and give their daughter a surprise visit and proxy hugs from her Mum. We then visited the District 6 museum in town followed by a walk in The Company Gardens.
Soon, our time was up. It was back to the lodgings, pick up our luggage and off to the airport, drop off the hire car, and take the long flights home to the UK.
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