Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Africa
Bishop’s Inn

We had breakfast at Ashanti this morning for the last time and checked out. We got an Uber to the airport, and it was A LOT cheaper than a taxi had been, only 160r instead of the taxi which was 250r.

While we were waiting at the airport I got a call from our hotel in Port Elizabeth telling us they didn’t have room for us tonight, but to go there anyway to figure something out. We had booked this hotel about two months ago, but somehow the Booking.com system never told them until this morning. I’m skeptical and think that they probably just made a mistake, but whatever. We got on the plane and then our flight was delayed for 3 hours due to a technical fault. We sat on the tarmac instead of getting off the the plane and having to board again, and finally we took off for Port Elizabeth.

When we landed in Port Elizabeth we went to Avis to pick up our rental car, and the rental car lady was a super bitch. My driver’s license is from the USA, but my passport is from the UK. I’ve used this combination to rent cars in various countries around the world (Australia and Iceland to name a couple), but for some reason she didn’t like this and didn’t want to give us the rental. This would have left us in a heap of trouble because we had no other way to get from here out to Pumba, or any of the other stops on the way back to Cape Town. Not good.

I convinced her to talk to her manager and I was able to send her a copy of my American passport to prove I am American as well. Thank god I had a scanned copy of my passport in my email! She let us take the car, begrudgingly, and we were on our way.

In the time waiting at Avis we got a call from the hotel lady saying that we now have a room at Bishops Inn, instead of the nice one we had booked online. We are there now and this hotel is not nearly as nice as the original one, but it will do for one night. It feels more like a motel than a hotel. I think this place is either for people just passing through, or you might have some people living here full time. It’s a weird place.

Even though we have a car, we took an Uber to the Boardwalk to get something to eat and drink. It was a very strange area by the Boardwalk that looked a lot like downtown Orlando. There were lakes with fountains and a big shopping center around it, but there were no people. It was really bizarre.

We found a restaurant that was putting on a good surf and turf deal, so we had dinner there with a couple of drinks. It was an okay dinner, nothing special, but it was funny how SIX people came to check on how our meal was while we were eating. It was a bit over the top.

We took an Uber home and to get in the mood for the safari tomorrow, we watched The Jungle Book. It wasn’t a great movie, but considering we will be seeing all kinds of crazy animals tomorrow, it felt like the right thing to do.