We got up at 7 a.m. this morning. We were booked to take the Robben Island tour at 9 but with our late arrival last night and the miserable weather, we decided to forego it. Instead we took the hotel shuttle over to Victoria & Alfred Waterfront for breakfast. They dropped us at the Clock Tower and a short walk across the swing-aside bridge took us to a small Italian restaurant that was open. Omelettes and a cup of good strong coffee all the way round.

    
  
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After a very good breakfast we split up and toured the many shops throughout the waterfront district.

    
    
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Dominating the whole area was the enormous Victoria Mall which is very new and very modern. Trouble is that there are mostly national chain stores and we were looking for smaller, local crafty shops. After searching a bit we finally found the craft mall which was tucked off to the side but had a tremendous array of African crafts, paintings, linens etc. We managed to purchase a couple of pillow sham covers before it was time to meet back at the Clock Tower for the 11:15 shuttle back to the hotel.

    
  
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We were just about late catching the shuttle because we were on the wrong side of a channel when the foot bridge swung out of the way for a boat to pass through. Made it though and checked out of the Westin at 11:45, just in time to meet our current ride and guide, Deon Goosen (Goose) from Baleka Tours. Jackie, our host at the B&B we were going to be staying at, had arranged for Goose to pick us up and take us on a couple of tours. Unfortunately, her husband Glenn who was going to take us touring, passed away suddenly in January.

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Goose was to take us to Table Mountain before we left Cape Town but that couldn't happen because of the inclement weather. Heavy cloud blanketed the mountain and wasn't expected to lift for probably a week. So much for that plan, but more worrisome for us was it was looking like we probably weren't going to get on to the water during the next couple of days for our much anticipated shark diving adventure.

It took us about an hour and a half to reach Gordon's Bay, mainly because we did a pit stop at the local bottle store to replenish our rum, wine, beer, gin and brandy supplies. Goose kept up an interesting Cape Town history narrative the whole way. He also pointed out the local landmarks and drove us up to a high scenic viewpoint overlooking Gordon's Bay before dropping us at Berg en Zee Guest House.

    
    
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Located on the foothills of the Hottentots Holland mountain range, yet right on the beachfront, Berg en Zee on Gordon's Bay is a great base for day trips throughout the Cape. Jackie gave us a very warm welcome and gave us the cook's tour of her splendid guest house where we are going to be staying for the next three days. We settled in and unpacked in anticipation of our longest stay yet in one location. We spent the rest of the afternoon kicking back, relaxing, sorting pictures and just generally putzing.

      
      
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At around three, Jackie stopped by to tell us she had been in touch with Essie (Theunis Esterhuizen) at Shark Adventures. Conditions were starting to moderate somewhat and it was even clearing so they thought we would probably be able to go early in the morning, like 6:30 a.m. We were asked to call Essie at 5:45 in the morning to confirm that conditions would be suitable. Having no other options, we were okay with that.

      
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At 6 o'clock the four of us did the five minute walk down to the marina to a tavern named The Tavern. This place came highly recommended for seafood and as it turned out, their reputation was well deserved. Wendy had prawns in a tomato curry sauce and the rest of us had baked sole with a shrimp cream sauce. The best! And we washed it all down with some wine and Hansa Pilsner beer.

    
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After dinner we walked back to the guest house where we all decided it was going to be an early evening. It was off to bed at 9:30, after catching up on my day's notes.