Location: Cape Town, South Africa

We flew into Cape Town from Sabi Sabi to rejoin the Silver Whisper. I now understand why there is a tour of Table Mountain – it is visually impressive like Diamond Head from Waikiki. It gets spooky when the mist flows over the top and drops down into the city.

The next day Silversea took the world cruise guests on a free trip to Paarl via a lovely restored steam train. Violinists roamed the cars and we were served fresh raw oysters by the Oyster Kings and biltong by the Biltong Queens. I was not a fan of smelling the oyster shells as the kings stood near and shucked, but what can you do?

Because I was either: 1) Lazy and did not read the hand outs, or 2) on vacation – I did not know why we were traveling two hours. Then we exited the trains for buses and drove to Drakenstein, where Nelson Mandela was released from prison. There we were spoken to by Zelda la Grange, his former private secretary and author of “Good Morning Mr. Mandela.” She avoided politics and talked about their personal relationship, which I think went very well. I did not know that Nelson Mandela’s tribal name was “Madiba”.

We then had lunch at the KWV winery. There were almost 200 guests, so we were set up in the “Cathedral Cellar” and wined and dined well for hours surrounded by giant wine barrels and stained-glass windows. The tables and room were decorated with Protea, which is South Africa’s national flower. It took so long because we were visited by a youth choir and a 15-year-old female vocalist who sung for over an hour. I was surprised the acoustics worked so well there.

We took a bus back to the ship as the sun set. Paarl has some stunning hillsides. A fun but relaxing day.

Next: Walvis Bay, Namibia