Don't worry, it's only a three-hour tour...

Julie and I dutifully woke this morning, went for breakfast, came back and packed up all of our things. We loaded everything up on our backs, went down stairs and said au revoir to the women in reception. They said with some surprise, "Oh, you're leaving today?"

So we walked the three blocks to the ferry and started to walk into the departure hall. The security guy comes up and says "Excuse me, the boat leaves tomorrow?"

Huh? I look at my watch and it says the 27th, I ask Julie and hers says the 26th but her watch doesn't run on a 24h clock or have am/pm so I rarely trust her for the date.

We start to pull out our ticket to see why the gigantic ferry we expected to board is not leaving until the next day; and the security guy just points to the ticket stand, indicating we should talk to them.

We walk in and it is no wonder sometimes that the African's think the tourists are dumb. We ask things like "is it Sunday?", "Is it the 27th?", "Is the boat not leaving today?". It is this last question which elicits a useful response, a deadpan "No it will leave tomorrow".

Dumbfounded, we look at the ticket again and point to the date. Again, with a nonplussed air, the woman at the window says "Yes, it has changed". No explaination. Certainly no signage or anything to indicate why the 1500 passengers and cargo will be a day late. But what still shocks me, is that it appeared to be the absolute most normal thing in the world. No one raised an eyebrow and it seems like everyone else in town knew it wouldn't go today - maybe even expected it.

We checked back into our hotel and it was as if we were expected. The cook in our hotel just smiled and said, in English, "ahh, it is just the African way". Honestly your guess is as good as mine as to what is going on.