Day 8

Another early school-day wake-up, 6:15 AM. Normal morning routine of shower and breakfast before going to school again for 8:00 AM. Today was Macassar's athletics day. We waved them off with our best wishes onto the buses but although we were hoping to try and see some of it later we unfortunately were not able to. Our day consisted of "The Yusuf Tour".

First we went to the Kramat where Saint Yusuf of Bantam was buried. Straight after that we went down the road to a Mosque where the local Imam showed us around.

Charlie had previously not been with us as she had felt ill in the morning so next we went to Chantelle's, Charlie's hosts house, to see if she was alive. She was. But she didn't was not quite up to coming out . So we left her to recuperate and continued with the Yusuf Tour.

Then we went to where Yusuf grew up and he explained and showed us around the local town area and where most of the houses had been demolished in the Apartheid years.

After this we went to Yusuf's sister-in-law's house and had snacks and coeksisters (small deep-fried donut-like cakes lightly covered in sugar). This was very nice, we were very hungry by this time. Then we went back to Yusuf's house and met his wife briefly. Yusuf's wife runs a crèche from their house.

We next drove through Gordon's Bay and around the coast. We quickly stopped at the side of the road to take pictures of the sea and the view and to stretch our legs.

Next we had a long drive to Betty's Bay where there was a colony of African Penguins. There was a 10 Rand entry fee to walk along the board walk next to the penguins. We got up close and personal with the penguins and also saw a few Dassies, small brown teddy-bear-look-a-likes. The Dassies stayed hidden in the shade while the penguins waddled around the beach, the sea and around the grass a bit further in-land.

We got some good pictures of the penguins and the waves crashing into the rocks.
Right by the board walk was the Southern Cross Cafe. We had drinks here and tried to wake up, ready for the bus journey home. The view out to the sea and of the mountains behind us was amazing.

Upon realising we weren't going to make it back in time for the athletics, we dawdled back towards school with Mr. Jones-Williams at the helm. We suffered minor turbulence but he was better than the last pilot.

On the way back we took a detour up a twisty road up the side of a mountain, Mr. Rees' willpower kept us going. At the top of the road we stopped to take photos of the great view across the water to Cape Town.

We then drove back down towards Sommerset Mall where we went to the Spur Steak House for food. Jac and Gaz had the large 600g ribs, very nice, lots of food.

Next we all went around the corner and played pool and a few games of air hockey. Jac white washed Gaz but it was very fun.

After all this we eventually drove home. Mr Rees was the first to be dropped off and on the first trip past his house he strongly denied that that was his house. After turning around he admitted the house might possibly be his and feebly got out to cautiously wander to and knock on the door, despite having a key. This was his house and after dropping him off the mini-bus continued to drop everyone else off back in Macassar.

We enjoyed the day a lot and wish Charlie hadn't been ill so she could have seen the penguins again that she loved so much on Robben Island.