April 22, 2017, Walvis Bay, Namibia

Walvis Bay, Namibia, April 30, 2017

This is the second time we have visited Walvis Bay. The last time was ten years ago on our first world cruise. The town seems to have doubled in size, the port is larger and nothing looks the same. Last time, we rented a car with friends and drive around for three hours. This time, we took a ship’s excursion, a catamaran ride out onto the bay. First, a quick bus ride to the dock and then onto the boat. As soon as we got settled, one of the crew members invited a friend of his to board the front deck. A hungry pelican flew in and got a couple of fish. A pelican can fill a seven-foot space just by spreading its wings. It got a bit crowded on the front of the catamaran. After the pelican moved onto the next tour boat, a hungry sea lion came on board our catamaran. Sea lions take up almost as much space as a pelican.
 
After finishing with “the free lunch bunch,” we headed out into the bay. Passed by some oyster beds that had been installed several years ago. There were also several oil rigs in the bay, a storage place for rigs that were out of service. Also a couple of old fishing boats that were one storm away from sinking. We saw several colonies of sea lions on the beaches and playing in the water. A couple of dolphins followed along with us for a few minutes. Even caught sight of a fire boat with jet of water. Just before the end of this cruise, the captain brought out the finger food including oysters on the half shell. Back at the pier, we made our way passed several craft shops. More goodies to take home.

We had lunch on the ship and headed out to see the rest of the town. Unfortunately, it was Saturday and shops were closed in the afternoon. The best we could do were a couple of small grocery stores and a number of street vendors on our way back to the ship. At 4:30 in the afternoon, we sailed out of the harbor, turned northeast for a seven-day journey to the Cape Verde Islands.

Freddie the Freeloader

Another friend

Freddie keeping an eye on the next meal

Just a nice shot

sea lions at play

A beach of sea lions

A dolphin swimming with us

Oil rig, parked

The fire boat

Freddie again

One of his smaller friends

April 19 & 20, 2017, Cape Town, South Africa

April 19 & 20, Cape Town, South Africa

We are in Cape Town, South Africa tied up at the same pier we were at ten years ago. It is still a short walk to the Victoria and Alfred Shopping Mall about a quarter of a mile down the water front. Except this time, it was a walk through a construction zone. Some of the old grain storage towers are being converted into an upscale hotel. A lot has been done in ten years and a lot is still being done. The mall is built around the old inner harbor and dock area. In ten years, the mall has doubled in size. We spent an hour walking around before returning to the ship. We have an afternoon ferry ride to Robben Island and a tour of the prison where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner.

Robben Island is an hour’s boat ride from the Cape Town harbor. Robben Island is a two mile by one mile chunk of limestone in the middle of the bay ten miles north of Cape Town. Beautiful views of Table Mountain and Cape Town in the distance but the island is still grim. Our guide walked us into the prison, through several of barracks and exercise yards. One long description of life in the prison was held in a room that once held 65 prisoners. From the exercise yard, we could see  the window of Mandela’s cell. We later walked passed his cell and others in the same cell block. From there, it was a short drive to the village, really the living quarters for the guards and their families. We passed by the local church and the original school building. People are still living on the island but I think they work off island or in the island’s prison tourist industry. Our last stop was a small gift shop/snack shop at the end of the island overlooking Cape Town and Table Mountain. Then it was a rush back to the pier to catch the 5:00 P.M. ferry back to Cape Town.

Back on the ship, we rushed around getting showers and dressed for the World Cruise Dinner, the dinner for all those who were doing a complete world cruise. This year it was held at the Grand West Casino, in the suburbs of Cape Town. We boarded our bus, complete with driver and guide, for the 45 minute drive to the casino. Our bus had plush leather seats and a bar in back, unstocked, unfortunately. The guide told us that this particular bus had previously been used by the national soccer team.  At the casino, we were dropped off at the back entrance and escorted into a main reception area. Wine and finger food was served, while we listened to a young lady, in a plastic bubble, play the viola. In a half hour, the doors to the dining room were opened and we all filed to our seats. We lucked out, one of the couples at our table were also on our trivia team. The food was good, the wine was excellent, the entertainment was so-so, and the speaker, from the main office, was forgettable. Our Captain, Inger Klein Thorhauge, also spoke and everyone listened to her. At the end, our ride back to the ship was a lot quieter except for the occasional snoring.

The next day, we were still in Cape Town. Sail away was scheduled for 4:30 in the afternoon. It gave us enough time to ride the shuttle bus back to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront and do some more shopping. First in the mall area, upscale shops and such. We then turned our attention to a group of local craft shops. Sandra picked up quite a few gifts and such from the shops. I just found a quiet place to sit and watch the world pass by. We had lunch at a burger shop near the waterfront before finding the shuttle bus stop and a ride back to the ship. I think we did laundry for the rest of the afternoon. No lines in the laundry since a lot of people were just getting onto the ship.

Outside the prison on Robben Island

Cell block in the prison

More cell blocks

Inside the cell block

Outside in the exercise yard

Window to Nelson Mandela's cell

Interior of the cell next to Nelson Mandela's cell

Church in the village

Village building

A home in the village

Village school

A view of Table Mountain and Cape Town

Robben Island lighthouse

April 17, 2017, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

April 17, 2017, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

We are finally back on a real continent after so many islands in the Indian Ocean. We visit the city of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. This is our first visit to this port. A seems to be a nice place with many sites to see. Our ship’s tour takes us to the Addo Elephant National Park about thirty miles outside of town. At the pier, there were a number of large buses and a group of smaller 22 passenger buses. Since our group is going to be up close and personal with a number of wild animals, we get the 22 passenger bus. We must have been low persons on the totem pole. We had one lady who wanted the seat up front riding shotgun for the driver. Our guide, an older lady, was determined that she was getting that seat to be able to spot the animals. The guide won. Next problem, it had rained the night before our trip. Several of the bus windows had been left open. Therefore, there were a number of seats that were wet. That really never got totally sorted out, but our guide found a bunch of newspaper at our first stop. Those were spread out on the seats to block the water from the bottoms of the passengers. Except, those bottoms had already soaked up most of the water.

Now, back to the tour. We drove for about an hour outside of  Port Elizabeth to the Addo Elephant Park. At one time this area had been settled and farmed. The whole area has been reclaimed and turned into a nature park. Well sort of reclaimed. There were not enough water holes to support a large number of animals, so a number of artificial water holes were created. A lot of our time was spent going from water hole to water hole. Our first sighting was a group of zebra, followed by some red hartebeest with very distinctive heart-shaped horns. We had one sighting of a warthog very close to the bus. I got one good picture but did not actually see the warthog. At one of the water holes, we saw a family of elephants. Unfortunately, they did not have their best side turned to us. A bit further down the road, some people stopped their vehicle to tell us they had seen a lion attacking a buffalo. A little further down the road, the people in the front of the bus saw a buffalo dashing across the road but no lion. We will never know how all this turned out.
The tour turned out to be several hours of driving around in South African scrub land, seeing a few animals gathered around a couple of man-made watering holes, seeing a few more animals on their own, and a twenty minute stop at the gift shop.

The drive back to town took us on one of the back roads. In reality, it was rougher
than the dirt roads in the park. It also took us by one of the townships where the blacks are forced to live. It looked no better than the ones we had seen ten years ago.

We were back on the ship to clean up and for lunch at the Lido. The ship was providing a bus to one of the local shopping centers so we decided to see some more of Port Elizabeth. We ended up at The Board Walk which turned out to be part hotel, part convention center, and part amusement park. There was a small lake in the center of all the shops and restaurants. We walked through most of the shops and found nothing that caught our eye. We found an ATM for some addition rand (local money) and walked across the road to a flea market where Sandra picked up a number of locally made gifts. After all of that, it was back on the bus for a return to the ship. The evening was the usual dinner and a show.

My view from the bus

Zebra by the tree line

Hartebeest

The Warthog I didn't see

Looking out over the park

A family at one of the watering holes

A local hawk

Another of the local wild-life

At the gift shop parking lot

April 13, 2017, Reunion Island

April 13, 2017, Thursday, Reunion Island

For truth in writing. We got to New York City on May 15, 2017, flew to Oakland the same day and rested a couple of days at our daughter’s house in Berkeley. Finally, we drove home on May 17, 2017 to complete the journey. Now, back to a continuation of the blog.

Reunion Island is another of those volcanic islands in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. This was the most rugged of the islands that we have visited. We are docked at a pier in a deep water port. The container port is on the other side of the harbor. We have a ship’s tour for today that takes us by bus to the 7000-foot level of an old volcanic mountain. The roads are narrow and twisty, and the buses are big and wide. This is not a good match. We make one stop on the way up the mountain, really the last bathrooms stop until we head down.

At the top, we walk a bit further until we come to a wooden rail fence. We look out and see nothing but clouds. We look down and just make out a steep cliff at our feet. The clouds are rising from below. For the next half hour or so, the clouds are heavy and impossible to see through. Then, the clouds begin to clear and we can see the bottom of an old crater that was once the middle of this mountain. There was probably a lake in this crater until the water broke through the wall and rushed to the sea. The bottom is now well watered with may streams. There are also several villages at the bottom, however, there are no roads to these villages. You either take a helicopter or walk to the villages. I guess there are a lot of people who do eco-trekking and do the three hour hikes into the villages.

On the way down the mountain, we stop at a small restaurant and gift shop for refreshments and a restroom. As a bonus, there are a couple of working stills where they distill some of the local flowers and make oil of gardenias.  At this point, we cannot remember how it is used. The rest of the trip back to the ship was uneventful except for the local security check around the ship. It was off the bus, through the screening, back on the bus, and a short drive to the ship.

We still had time after lunch to catch a ship’s shuttle into the small city of St. Gillis. A little background is in order. Reunion is a French island, it is also a French Department, sort of like one of our states. Since it is part of France, it is in the European Union and they use the Euro as their currency. They also get a lot of money from the EU for roads and infrastructure. This makes for a beautiful island with a lot of well-maintained roads and bridges. A number of our fellow passengers had taken the bus to St Gillis just for the beach. We walked around a bit, got some Euros at an ATM and did a bit of shopping in the downtown area. We picked up the return shuttle near the harbor before the line got too long and returned to the ship. Security was still in force.

Above the tree line

A wide part of the road

2170 meters = 7119 feet

Near the top at an overlook

Looking down into the mountain

A small village

Clouds rising past our overlook

Cloud start to clear

Grand view of the crater

A couple of villages

Rest stop on the way down

A working still - oil of gardenias

Small harbor at St. Gillis

Church overlooking the harbor

April 12, 2017, Mauritius

April 12, 2017, Port Louis, Mauritius

We have an all day ship’s tour today. We start at Port Louis, the capitol of Mauritius. We travel by bus through the center of the island to the southern coast, There are a number of very modern buildings, factories, and shops along our route. This country seems to have become much more prosperous since our last visit ten years ago.

Our first stop is at La Plantation de Saint Aubin. Once a large plantation, now a small place, but with a number of displays about vanilla and rum and a restaurant. Vanilla is difficult to grow, individual plants require hand pollination. Once grown and harvested, the vanilla requires several months of aging, drying, sorting and packaging. The plantation also has sugar cane. The cane requires two years of growth before harvesting. The cane is then fed through a press to squeeze out the juice. Then comes fermentation and distillation to get to the final product, rum. We also tour some of the gardens and the attached restaurant.

Our second stop is to a tea factory, Le Domaine de Bois Cheri. We view a short video about the process of producing tea, from growing, harvesting, fermenting, drying, sorting, mixing and packaging. We also tour the factory is actually see these step for real. The final step in the process is sales. This factory also has a restaurant beside a lake and overlooking the sea. We had a buffet lunch and drinks in this restaurant.

The final stop is to an old, 1872, mansion, Le Domaine des Aubineaux. This home is very much in original condition. It has been in the original family until recent times. Everyone agreed that it was interesting but the place needs a good restoration. In addition to being a restaurant, the facilities are rented out for other functions. There was a company that was doing a team building exercise with some of its employees.

Le Domaine des Aubineaux

Vanilla Plantation

Vanilla aging chests

Vanilla sorting rack

Drying Trays

Vanilla Sales

The Gardens

One of the larger plants in the garden

La Maison du Rhum

Rum Still

Sugar Cane Press

Tea Bagging Machine

Tea bag filling machine

Le Domaine de Bois Cheri restaurant

A view from the restaurant

Sandra and the view