Our wonderful guide, Mustura Abrahams, was of Arab descent. Until apartheid was abolished, her working options were limited and precluded her being employed in the travel business as a guide. This all changed after 1994. Because she had grown up in the township system she was able to take us to places that I don't think a white guide would have felt very comfortable or safe. The apartheid government established laws which forced the movement of all the nonwhite residents out of large sections of South Africa into areas set aside for them. This was the situation in Mustura's case. The areas to which the nonwhites were moved were called the "townships" and included both slums and middle-class neighborhoods. Since the fall of apartheid in 1994, many rural blacks have come to Cape Town in search of work. Because there is no housing they can afford, and few jobs available (40 % unemployment) they wind up in the poorer sections of the townships. These are truly squalid dangerous places where the bathrooms are 300 yards from the living areas and clean water only recently was provided at stations spread throughout the area.

The owner (in the white hat) gave us a warm welcome. Our guide often shopped here.

Our guide insisted I go into this mosque for a look.

A sample of the beautiful tile work decorating the walls.

There were 2 separate washrooms at the entrance.

This wall made me a little uncomfortable. This is a point of view clearly from a different prospective.

Another mosque in a very traditional motif.

The waterfront had recently been renovated with a large beautiful mall and many fine restaurants.

Mustura with Donna.

That's Mustura and Donna's silhouettes (in the foreground) at lunch with the beautiful view of the harbor in the background.

Our restaurant overlooked part of this pedestrian area.

Me and my women.

It turned out to be a beautiful fun place to spend the afternoon and a sharp contrast to the city and "Township" tour we had taken in the earlier part of the day.

There was a store selling museum quality model boats. They were wonderfully detailed and replicas of real vessels built from the real plans of the actual ships.

That's the USS Constitution in the glass case (top) with a french frigate which ultimately became British on the bottom row. We decided to try to find a place to put one of them in our home in East Hampton when we return. (If anyone is interested they have a web site at ....www.shipyard.co.za)

The afternoon brought clouds to Table Mountain.

Cape Town started the last an shortest segment of our trip. 80 new passengers boarded for the home stretch. Jamie, the cruise director and the entertainment/social staff host a small party for our departure.

Our first beautiful unset over the south Atlantic.

The next morning "pea soup fog".

David, one our fellow passengers, hams it up for us.

Our Captain, The ship's vice president of operations and the captain of Radisson's newest ship, Voyager which was launched April 1st, host a question and answer period in the theater.