Onward to Richards Bay, on New Year's Eve. The ship partied into the night, the whistle blew at midnight to mark the beginning of a new year. We took two tours in Richard's Bay, first to the St. Lucia lake to see the plentiful wildlife:
Hippos! Everywhere! And a major traffic jam, because here, the beaches are open. It's just that alcohol is not allowed, so the cops had a roadblock set up to look for contraband and it naturally tied up traffic in both directions. We've forgotten to mention something. Everywhere one goes, there are people just standing by the roadside with bags and boxes. What are they doing? It turns out, they're waiting for a taxi. A taxi, in South Africa, is a van that seats about 10 to 12 people. They'll pick someone off anywhere and drop them off anywhere, and they tend to travel in packs. They are illegal. They are everywhere.
Our second tour took us to the Zulu Croc Preserve. On both trips, we passed a town called Mtubatuba. Now, who's gonna forget a name like that? Our guide gave an interesting lecture on snakes. The green one is the venomous Boomslang. You thought that was just a made-up movie word, didn't you? Admit it!
The crocodiles know this guy's voice and when they hear him talking. They know they're going to get a snack, so they rush to him. Good thing, we got lots of good shots.
These birds are common in the preserves. They are called Yellow Weavers.
The males build these nests:
Then, the female comes to inspect it. If she disapproves, she cuts the suspension cord. The nest falls to the ground, and the male starts all over again. Unfortunately for the males, there were a lot of nests on the ground.
Good-bye, Richard's Bay. On to Mossel Bay. But then, came the Captain on the blower. Low pressure on the horizon. So long, Mossel Bay. Instead, an all-ahead full run for Cape Town. And the sooner we got there, the better. Our luggage was picked up in anticipation of disembarkation in the morning.
Oops. Too late. The port closed due to high winds earlier than expected. We were stranded at sea with little information. The luggage was returned to us and the day's activities were announced. We were staying at sea overnight and disembark a day late. We heard that 300 people were in a hotel Cape Town, waiting to board.
Came the Captain, on the blower. We were to approach the pilot station, a pilot was coming for a conference. Much to our surprise, two tugs approached and hooked up to us. We were apparently going into port, but nothing was said. Well, the Captain was busy. We were asked to get our luggage back together as it would be picked up shortly. Out went the luggage and we went to the bar to wait. Some groups were called for disembarkation, but not ours. After a while, we learned that we were staying overnight, and our luggage was being returned. Long story short, we finally disembarked the next day and began day two of our post-cruise tour.
