April 30, 2017, Sunday, Mindelo, St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands

After seven straight days at sea, seeing nothing but a fifty mile circle of empty seas, we finally woke up to the sight of land in the near distance. We passed a number of small islands on our way to the harbor at Mindelo. Cape Verde Islands is one of the small groups of islands that the Portuguese sailors found on their voyages down the west coast of Africa. They were trying to find a marine route to India and the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Their journey took them around the Cape of Good Hope. The same area that we passed by a week and a half ago.

The islands and Mindelo were one of the places that sailing ships stopped for fresh food and water. Later on with the introduction of steam ships, the port also became a coaling depot. With the shift from coal to oil, none of the ships stopped and the islands took a severe economic decline. 

Our day was taken up by a ship's tour on one of the local buses, guided by one of the local young men who spoke very good English. The entire tour was around to town of Mindelo from the waterfront to the center of town and back to the ship.

The other pier at the harbor



The harbor at Mindelo

The band stand in the center of the plaza at Mindelo

The main administrative building in town

The main street in town, not too busy, but it was a Sunday

One of the quieter corners of the plaza

Looking across the harbor at the eastern part of the island

The Torre de Belem, a replica of the original in Lisbon on the banks of the Tagus

Another street scene on a quiet day

A dance troop in the center courtyard of a school. As in many cultures, individuals can not train to fight. However, many of the dances are in reality stylized fighting, just no contact between individuals.

Accompanied by the music from one stringed instruments
 

The dancers worn different colored sashes just like a Judo black belt 

Everyone had a good time

A different style of dancing

We could have stayed long than we did



Our ship, the Queen Elizabeth, and one third of the Cape Verde Navy

One of our high lights of the tour was a stop at the home of one of the islands most famous singers. Cesaria Evora was a grammy winning singer. She passed away in 2011.

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