14 Dec Wedesday Robben Island.. We thought.

Our plans were quite simple: Visit the Travel Agent to confirm and pay for our trip to Victoria Falls; go to Cape town and take the Ferry to Robben Island, the Prison that housed political prisoners which included Nelson Mendela , now a Tourist Trap and then go to Hermanus, some 60 KM away to the camp site that we would call "Home" for the next 7 days.
We woke up to a cool,cloudy and rainy day but as most "Cape Towners" will tell you, we are a city of four Seasons in a Day. Of course their winter means they might have a shower and I might need a sweater. Anyhow we went to the Mall where the Travel Agent was located and first had breakfast and waited until the office opened at 9 AM. We spent half an hour at the Travel office to confirm all the particulars and mostly to PAY for the trip. They said we would have to return later in the day to pick up the paperwork, which not a problem.
Now,we are off to fight the traffic to the Waterfront to board our boat to Robben Island. This trip has such a high demand that you are luckly if can get a "walk-on" ticket so we ordered ours on-line. Of course I do not have a printer to print the tickets so I just copied the Bar Code numbers which was and is sufficent. Well, we arrive at our favourite Parking lot and of course the same attendant is on Duty awaiting our R40 to park. I tried to bargin with him but Carroll over-rule and I gave him his money. It had stopped rainning by this time but it was cool and it looked like it could rain so we worn our jackets, ( which we never thought we would need here ) and we also took a rain coat. The Ferry trip is about an hour, albeit, in a covered ferry so the elements would not be a problem on the trip over and back.
We arrive at the terminal at 10 AM as we were catching the 11 AM Ferry and I had to get the tickets using my Bar code numbers, which I had hope would not be a problem, which it was not. The Ferry holds about 150 people so the terminal was getting full and crowded so we talked to a young couple from North Carolina for few minutes and then a Rain Storm hit the Waterfront accompanied but Hail; yes Hail, about pea size but it only lasted 5 mintues. At 10:30 they announce us to "Que" up to load the Ferry so it was a mad dash to the line up. We, being in No hurry where near the tail end. And then, 5 minutes later they announced " We are sorry to announced that the Ferry has been cancelled for the rest of today due to rough seas, Please return to the ticket office for a refund or another Booking". I was third in line at one wicket as there were several wickets to help you. Unforetunately I was behind " Mrs doesn't speak any offical language of the 11 spoken by the cashier " so I waited and waited and then they announced that anyone who paid by credit card would automatically be refunded to their card so there was no need to lineup unless you wanted to exchange your tickets for another day. We have 2 weeks left in this area so I said to Carroll, We're out of here. I'll get tickets on line another day.
So we walked around the Waterfront for about an hour and then headed back to the Travel Agent, which about 27 KM away and we would have to fight the traffic. But the Navagator had the turns , the circles ( roundabouts ) and the lane changes down pat and I just had to "Aim" the MH.
The Travel Agent brief us on the trip and had managed to add 3 Bonus side trip to and around Vic Falls to the package at no extra cost. One was a Sunset Curise which we would have purchase anyway. However; and you knew this was coming: the Internet was down so they could not Print our Tickets, flight times and accommodations. This is very common in ZA as there is only one Internet supplier which is the Telephone company. So we are now suppose to rec everything by email tomorrow. We hope so!!!. Then we filled the MH with diesel at R11.45 which is high and ask the Filling station owner to direct us around Cape Town if possible and to the highway that would take us to the town of Hermanus where we were going to camp. He was very helpful and got us around the Cape town traffic.
Our Camp site is probably a 2 star at best but it does met our "Minimum " standard and we have lots to see in this area for the next week. We are on/near the Indian Ocean so we should get in some Beach time.