Knysna to Swellendam to Cape Town, Oct 27 to 31, 2012

The Double Dutch ladies, Natalie and Kate are the greatest. They gave us a great breakfast and then made reservations for us in a town half way back to Cape Town (Swellendam). We drove to Oudthoorn and went on a tour of an ostrich farm. It was a great deal of fun. Shirley was able to ride one of the ostrich for a few seconds (video attached). Besides her swearing you can see the fear in her face!! We also had the ostrich give us a hug each and we stood on their eggs to show how strong the eggs are. It was really quite educational and interesting. Drove another two hours along route 62, a windy, narrow mountainous road with great vistas of ranch and farm lands. We got Bloomestate B&B, which the Double Dutch had arranged for us. We were given a free glass of wine each and then taken to our room. Very nice but the view just didn't match the DD's. They suggested the Koornlands Restaurant for dinner and it was quite good. John had impala, continuing his attempt to eat all the animals in Africa, while Shirley had a curried chicken. Back to our B&B room and Shirley's new need to have a bath in the big bath tubs they have here.
Up early and what at first seemed like an excellent breakfast. John had a tea and a omelet while Shirley had a cappuccino and french toast with bacon. We packed up and set out for the 3 hour trip to Cape Town. About 45 minutes into the ride Shirley started getting cramps and well hung on until we got to the condo where she acted like one of those Chinese fire crackers that explode at both ends and just keep on exploding! I really got worried for her as she just couldn't eat nor could she hold anything down. She stayed in bed for rest of day, except to run to the can. I stay watch and felt so bad for her. We think it was the milk in the cappuccino - she had two and she said both were only luck warm.
On Monday, October 29 Shirley's birthday she spent most of the morning in bed and then we went to a mall for about an 1/2 hour and Shirley had to get back home where she slept for the rest of the afternoon.
That evening, we went with Norma to meet her friends from Kitimat for dinner on the beach across from Robben Island and watch the sun set. Norma had organized for a cake and the staff sang happy birthday for Shirley.
John tried to change our flights to bypass New York City, but they couldn't or wouldn't allow it to happen. Oh they did say they would fly us to South America and then maybe to Victoria all sounded to strange so we decided to keep with our scheduled flight.
On Tuesday we were still concerned about Shirley's food poisoning and trying to be on a plane for at least 20 hours but as Norma said "Shirley is a trooper!" At first I thought she said "pooper" but i was corrected!!!
Needless-to-say "Sandy" had screwed up the world of flying, even in Cape Town we were delayed. then In Johannesburg again we were delayed, but there we spent our time trying to get a flight directly to Victoria, but that turned out to be against all the rules of "Aeroplan"! We then flew our 11 hours to London with every expectation that we would be renting a hotel room there. When we landed we connected with the United Airlines people who told us to stay at the airport and report to them at 10:00 am and that maybe the 14:30 flight might be able to take us. So Shirley slept for awhile on one of benches. When we checked with the airlines they put us on a wait list and told us to wait at the gate. So four and half hours later we got on the plane, although several rows apart. Another  nine hours on a plane, much smaller seats and more crowded but it did land in Newark and was one of the first planes to get back into New York.
No problems at immigration but the line up for taxis was huge! And then we discovered that no other form of transportation was available. We stood in line and final got a taxi $78 for the fare and $32 for the tolls. We did get concerned as we drove and the driver pulled over to the side of the road. He was checking to see how to get through all the closed roads and bridges. He also tried to phone our hotel but could get a ring tone. So we were concerned that it might be closed. After an hour we got to our hotel which was open and had electricity and hot water, so all was great. We both went straight to bed and felt great that we had made it this far, although we are not sure what will be open and accessible in New York City. What we saw on the road in wasn't too encouraging.