The final curtain. We get up and finish packing our carry-on bags or should that be carry-off-bags. Looking from our balcony I can see over 1000 peoples main luggage being placed on the dockside ready for collection.

We head off to the buffet for coffee and breakfast before departing for the gangway at our allocated time of 08:30.

Goodbye QM2 and hello South African tour.

It is organised chaos. The system for finding your bag worked, except for those people who had omitted to label it and, in fact, had even forgotten what their cases looked like. We collected our bags and passed through the virtual customs to join a crowd looking for their transfers. The quay side was gridlocked with people, coaches, buses, and taxis all trying to load people for the right destination. The problem was that the queue coming in blocked those trying to get out. It took an hour to get to our hotel, which is normally only a 10-minute drive.

As we will not be able to get into our hotel room until later I have arranged to be met by a tour guide, Fred Metcalf, for a walking tour of the city. This was a good move because the hotel reception was crowded with passengers from two cruise ships disembarking and the same number embarking. With large amounts of luggage going in all different directions, we felt it was wise not to hang around. As we walked away from the hotel, we wondered if we would ever see our bags again. However, with tracking tags nestling inside our luggage, we decided to trust the system.

We walked the city sites for about 4 hours with a break for lunch.

We had lunch in a shady park, known as Company Park. This was originally an area of gardens cultivated by the first settlers. During the city walk, we saw various iconic monuments historic locations. We returned to the hotel just in time to check in, identify our luggage, and get to the bar for rehydration. It is 36° and humid.

I became a point of interest at the bar as I had a 30 min nap in the bar chair while Sue read her book. When I awoke, allsorts of people commented on the way i had spent my time as they passed, and each one of them felt the need to have a conversation.

We had only dumped our bags in the room with the intention of having a quick drink, returning to the room for a shower, before ordering dinner. The reality is that we have had three pints of local beer, Ed has had a sleep, and it is now 6pm so we have ordered dinner. We will then return to the room to sort out our luggage and then a shower before bed. Well, you have to be flexible.

It is nice to be able to sit by the pool with burger, chips, salad and a beer.