Our failed adventures

It was Nathaniel's last full day and for the second time in a week we tried to reach the summit of Table Mountain and tour Robben Island. The first time we tried the weather defeated us as it was raining with gale force winds. This time we woke early, had breakfast at Empire Cafe and drove into Cape Town. It was a beautiful day with out many coulds...perfect for the views from atop the mountain and for our boat ride to the island. As we drove up to the part of the mountain with the cable car we noticed that there was a ton of traffic. We kept pushing up the road and eventually drove past a line that stretched for hundreds of yards. It looked to be over a two hour wait for the cable car that would take us to the top. We were pretty disappointed. We finally found a place to park and took a couple pictures, since we were already elevated well above Cape Town. We then headed towards the V and A waterfront where the ferry for Robben Island leaves from. Our boat was scheduled to leave at 3pm and it was recommended that we get there at 2:30. Since our trip up the mountain was canceled, we had extra time to wander the waterfront and get a bite to eat. We went into the Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island building at 2:30 sharp and waited with a few hundred others until 3:15 when an announcement was made that the 3pm ferry would not be leaving due to technical difficulties. We were pretty upset that for the second time this week we could not go to Robben Island, but what are you going to do. We went to get in line with everyone else for a refund. After another 5-10 minutes a woman's voice came over the loudspeaker and said that the ferry would actually be leaving in a couple minutes and that we should all go back to the loading area to get our tickets scanned. This started a stampede back down the ramp. Some people speculated that perhaps they had overbooked the ferry and just wanted to issue a few refunds and have some people leave so that they wouldn't end up with an overcrowded ship. We had our tickets scanned and got onto the dock, only to be held up once again. We waited on the dock for 5 minutes and the sweet sounding woman informed us that the problem had been returned and the trip was canceled, this time for real. We wandered away, truly devastated that on this beautiful day we did not get to do either of the two excursions that we had planned.