11 Nov 2023 Cape Town to see Darren before he goes back to Palma and to collect the GWM P Series LTD

Set off from St Francis just after 5 am and travelled to Cape Town. We collected the GWM P Series LTD from Thorp Motors in Plumstead. Shannon was great and explained most of the car media items, after which we drove to Cape Town.

Stayed at a lovely Airbnb, small and cosy and went for dinner at Don Armando as a goodbye treat for us and Darren. The food was great and very tasty.

Kingklip and salad with zucchini fries. A lovely evening with lots of mixed feelings as we then took Darren to the airport and went back to the flat.

Flowers from Darren.

The next day we had an uneventful drive back to Plett. Great to drive the GWM and get used to it. A very easy drive and I am looking forward to using it for the next 7 years.

We got to Nicky and Gavins beautiful house and enjoyed our time with them and Mat. A great dinner, slept really well and a beautiful walk the next morning with Mat, Nicky and Sheila.

We are now at Stanley island lodge. Was met and brought across on the ferry.  We going to Adrian's 60th at the Plett angling club at 6pm which is a 5 minute ferry ride across.

Zebras, buck, ducks and a blue crane.

Cruise to Japan Day 11 - Back in South Africa - 01 October 2023

Most amazing birthday today. Started with birthday cake for breakfast courtesy of Carolyn and Terrance, so beautiful and so yummy. 

Then together with Amy, Andrew and Michael, all 6 of us escaped from a room with clues based on a murdered journalist at a place in the waterfront, so much fun after which we went to JC Le Roux for wine tastings and a fantastic lunch - a complete Surprise.

Looking forward to the sexy sixties.

Cruise to Japan Day 10 - Flight back to CT - 30 September 2023

After some more retail therapy at Narita airport, we got on to our flight of 13 hours that included a stop in Seoul. We landed in Addis Ababa to catch the flight to CT. Michael tells me it is his last flight on Ethiopian Airlines. They are effective and efficient but their attention to detail is terrible. 

There were empty seats and after realising my monitor for the movies did not work, I asked the air hostess if I could switch. She said she would get back to me and promptly ignored me the rest of the flight, not a must but fairly irritating specially as the aircon also did not work.

Terrance fetched us from CT airport and after a good catch-up with Andrew, Amy, Carolyn and Terrance where we had dinner as take aways from the curry club we went to bed exhausted and happy.

Cruise to Japan Day 09 - Disembark - 29 September 2023

The last night saw Michael and I both indulging in a beer, I seem to have a taste for Asahi Super Dry a Japanese beer, whereas Michael opted for a Dos Equis.

A bit of a mess with the final bill, the cashier seems to think she gave Michael back too much money, unfortunately he placed the money in his wallet, so no idea of she was correct. Wanting to see the camera footage, which they suggested, became a breach of privacy for the other guests which were at the counter at the same time.

We left Yokahama international cruise terminal for Yokohama station walking. Had prepared the route last night only to find that my phone would not turn on. Out comes the Huawei, and using petal maps as the P40 does not have Google maps capability, we made our way and got there a lot easier than Google Maps had done. We went to the ticket office and bought 2 tickets one to Shibuya and the next one to Narita airport.

Got the train to Shibuya and changed over at Shinegawa to the green line train to Shibuya all so we could get to the One Piece Stores. We did our shopping and caught the train back from Shibuya station green line to Shinegawa station and then caught the train to Chiba and transferred to another train to Narita station clearly the path less travelled.

Magnet building for Mugiwara store and Parco buiding for Jump Store. Both had very limited stock.

Had great fun anyway and Michael and I bought some T-shirts and other merchandise, but no Luffy hat for Darren, all sold out.

Now at Narita airport waiting to board.

Cruise to Japan Day 08 - Sea Day - 28 September 2023

As it is a sea day, besides a great Zumba class and writing and rewriting the blog 5 times as the blog program kept bombing out, internet problems maybe? I have decided on all of the lovely and unusual flower pictures and gardens.

Cruise to Japan Day 07 - Hokodate - Night of the 27 September 2023

We had intended to go out at night as it was the first evening that the Diamond Princess was at a port however I was very tired and as we only ever use the stairs and with all the walking, my left knee was having some serious conversations with me. Instead of going out, we went to the buffet, not our best night, our neighbouring table had a strange gentleman, very loud and full of himself.

The food was great with parma ham and seafood stew, and about 15 different European dishes, all the normal Japanese variety of sushi and always ending with gorgeous desserts, a variety of cheeses which this time included two huge rounds of parmasen and blue cheeses as well as fruit.

Later we wondered around the ship and went to bed at 20:00 after a long day.

Cruise to Japan Day 07 - Hokodate - Preservation Area - 27 September 2023

Famous Lucky Pierre's has something for the whole family, a bar, a burger restaurant that also specialises in ice cream.

The calamari boats and their rigging waiting to go out to sea.

Catholic Church

Greek Orthodox church

Christian church

The end of one of the slopes

The red warehouses famous for storage of the herring rich era, have been repurposed as multiple shops selling food, glassware and clothes.

Having walked through a couple of warehouses, we returned to the ship. On the way we met a volunteer translator that did not know where we could purchase a pairing knife but gave me a beautiful present of an origami swan.