Sunday in Ballito – Dealing with Details, SKYPE VIDEO CONFERENCE AT 9 AM Central Time, Monday, October 10. Be on line. Read the end of the blog for more details.
We woke up early on Sunday morning. This is what happens when you go to bed at 8 PM. The Dolphin Holiday Resort is basically a campground 1 block from the beach with 10 cabins of various sizes. October isn’t the best month for the beach – still a bit cool – but the Durbans schools start on Monday so the families were starting to clear out. It was very quite. Our cabin is in the jungle section. There is a pond surrounded by what look like Minnesota house plants that are growing outdoors to gargantuan size. There are yellow weaver birds building their hanging nests and making all sorts of racket. Lots of frogs at night. Our cabin is a nice 2 bedroom with living room, bath, and kitchen. Very comfortable with air conditioning.
We set off the the Tea Room across the pond for English breakfast but they don’t open until 8:30. So, we set off to do some errand. We did a test run to the Durban airport (10 minutes away) to attempt to fix a booking problem – I have a flight home that originates in Durban that I need to change to Cape Town. This is the kind of snafu that would not have occurred if Kathy was on this trip. I am good at the planning up to a point, but a few small details that slip through can leave you with no ride home on the right day. To no avail, I will need to fix it in Cape Town on Monday. On the way back we stopped at the LifeStyle Mall to visit the friendly Vodafone store to buy a data bundle for Mom’s cell modem. We figured out the most cost effective way to get MegaBytes in this country. When dealing with phone companies and airlines, it pays to look at all the details. We discovered that Mom can get her cost per Megabyte down significantly buy converting voice minutes to data bundles (an intricate procedure with the various authorization codes and related technical hocus pocus). All of this is intended to maximize Vodafone’s profit at the expense of the detail challenged.
Back at camp, a wonderful breakfast ($12 for two) at the Tea Room. We head to the beach. A long walk, crashing waves .. but we see no dolphins. No clouds, warm, and humid. The ocean was a rough with a strong on shore breeze. Exploring the beach got us to lunch. A nice deck overlooking the sea for a snack (a South African take on Nachos served by Zulu waitresses with no working knowledge of world geography – like, where is Mexico – and made with the peculiar ground beef perfected by the Boers population called “mince”). Then backhome for rest. This was planned as a more leisurely rest day. In the evening Kathy calls and we catch up. A bit later, Mary Peterson calls.
At 7:30 we head out to Al Pescatore, an interesting take on an Italian restaurant. It’s right on the beach with a deck. However, tonight it is too cool to sit outside. We get the seafood platter and shun the Italian standards that no doubt bear no resemblance to Italian food (learned my lesson with the Nachos) and focus on seafood options at Al Pescatore. The platter was delicious and enough food for 3 people. Fish filet, prawns, mussels, calamari, and veg. Our waitress hostess explains that, “South African eat a lot.” I can’t wait to order a value meal at McDonalds.
In the morning, we pack up and head out to Cape Town at 11:20 am. So no need to rush. The second week of the trip awaits. The Hilton Hotel in Cape Town promises to have wi-fi internet unlimited service. This is our best opportunity to have a video Skype conference.
We should be in the Hilton by 3:30 so I will look on line at 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM (9 AM to 10 AM Central Time in the US) for anyone who is logged into Skype and awaiting our call. Comment on this blog if you have other times in mind and we will check it through out the next 3 days. We will be at the Cape Town Hilton until Thursday morning. After that, we are off to the winelands where I am sure we will be effectively back on the low speed internet.
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