22 April, 2018 En Route to Cape Town, South Africa!

We did it! We've visited all seven continents! The culmination was yesterday's visit to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, although our stops at The Seychelles, Mauritius, and Reunion could be termed African ports.

Let me take you back to where my last blog entry ended—En Route to Port Louis Mauritius. We had two sea days between The Seychelles and Mauritius. Friends always ask about the sea days. “Don't you get bored? “What do you do all day?” etc. As you know from the schedule of activities I posted before in this blog, the days are chock full and go very quickly. I am discouraged to announce that “A Wing and a Prayer,” our Trivia team, continues to come in second to “The Team in the Corner.” We are about to put a contract out on that team!

Saturday 14th of April was Big Band Night, and the music was great. The Queen's Room was filled with dancers.

Sunday, 15^th of April was an active one with lots of good lectures. Celebrity Speaker, Nicki Chapman spoke on “My Life in the Music Industry.” Nicki's history included working with the Spice Girls, David Bowie, Phil Collins, Annie Lennox, Van Morrison, etc. There were lots of anecdotes. Gavin Robinson lectured on “Game Capture Techniques in Southern Africa.” He focused on the different methods of translocation of wild animals. Cally Oldershaw spoke on “The Future of our Seas and Oceans—out of sight and out of mind? From this lecture, I learned that the oceans may hold the key to our dwindling natural resources, and the solution can be mining our oceans.

Speaking of oceans, being at sea for so long emphasizes the vastness of our oceans. We sail for days without spotting another ship. As we get closer to a port, small and large fishing boats appear, and just outside of ports, we may see large container ships and tankers. In Mauritius, we were mesmerized by the docking and unloading of cargo ships right next to our dock. The logistics of where to find the containers in their rows, and where to place the new containers is amazing. Heaven knows how many containers there are in use all over the world. I'm thinking of buying stock in Maersk! I wonder why countries don't convert the empty containers into refugee housing or houses for the homeless. I've read articles about them being converted into homes, swimming pools, etc. Our friend Bryan purchased one that had been used only once, to serve as storage for farm implements. Evidently, it is possible to shred these containers and convert them back to steel.

Monday, 16^th of April, our arrival in Port Louis, Mauritius was at 8 am. We were determined not to have the same experience that we had in Port Victoria. No Cunard hotel visit/beach break for us. We talked to staff members about their favorite things to do in Mauritius, and which hotel to visit, and had a plan. After a quick breakfast, we took the shuttle into town and found a taxi to take us to the Cannoniera Hotel and Resort. For the equivalent off $70 US, our driver would take us 20 kilometers outside of Port Louis to the hotel, wait for us for 3 hours and then take us back to the ship. The hotel is beautiful, with sandy beaches interspersed with boulders and natural formation swimming pools. There are several restaurants and lounges, recreation facilities such as tennis courts, pool tables, children's playgrounds, etc. It seemed like everyone that we met staying at the resort was French. We enjoyed a relaxing 3 hours using the facilities. Our driver was waiting for us, and drove us back to the ship just as the skies opened up. Just a brief note about Mauritius. The island nation has a history of being ruled by the Portuguese, the Dutch (who named it in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau, the Stadholder of the Netherlands.) The Dutch abandoned the island because of tough climatic conditions including cyclones. The British took over it seizing control from the French during the Napoleonic Wars. Mauritius gained its independence from the UK in 1968. Mauritius is known as the only home of the now extinct dodo.

Only an overnight sail of 175 kilometers from Mauritius is Reunion. The official language of Reunion is French, and Reunion became an overseas department of France in 1948. It is considered part of the Eurozone. Since we had business to take care of, we took the shuttle to St Giles les Bains, 24 kilometers away from the port. It is a beach community, with beaches for swimming with shark nets, and gorgeous spirited sea locations with crashing waves and “Do Not Swim! Sharks!” signs warning the unwary. We found a pleasant beach side cafe with free internet, and took care of business with the accompaniment of cup after cup of cappuccinos and cafe vanille's. It was a delightful morning. We ran into our friends Randell and Bobby who joined us for a while. All aboard time was 4 pm, and we were back well before that time. The island looks like suburban France, with modern, new shopping centers, schools, etc. The highways were in great condition and it appeared to have an excellent infra-structure. Reunion deserves a return visit!

We had spirited seas on our first sea day after Reunion. I finally have found my sea legs, although this merited Meclizine tablets! We had lunch with our friends Brian and Lesley Samuels, Safari Girl of Cruise Critic fame. We will be sorry to see them leave the ship in Cape Town.

Our second sea day, Thursday 19^th of April was a busy one. We had scheduled a “Cabin Party” and I got carried away inviting friends despite the size of our cabin. All total, we had 17 for our party, and lots of fun, laughter and lively conversation fueled by gin and vodka. One of my dear Lido chefs made a beautiful cheese platter, which we supplemented with chips and nuts. Chips in the ports we have visited are a bit different from our usual variety at home: chicken flavored chips, lime flavored chips, cheese and onion chips, balsamic vinegar and sea salt chips. People were crammed on the sofa, the bed, the table from the balcony, etc. But it just increased the fun!

One more sea day and then Africa! En Route to Port Elizabeth with an arrival on Saturday, 21^st April. The theme for tonight's formal ball was “African Ball.” There were not as many guests dressed in themed clothing as usual, although the ones who did dress up were pretty outrageous looking.

Saturday, 21 April, Port Elizabeth, South Africa! How appropriate that we have visited this port on HRH Queen Elizabeth's 92^nd birthday. In fact, upon our return to the ship in the early evening, we were welcomed back with glasses of champagne to toast the HRH.

This was a port I have looked forward to for quite a while. We have a private shore excursion with 2 other couples to Addo Elephant Park. We had to meet at 7:15 am for a pick up at 8 am, because we had a face to face meeting with South African Immigration officials. This took all of 60 seconds: we picked up our passports, gave them and our arrival slip to an immigration official. She did not look at the slip, stamped our passport, and then we gave the passport back to QE staff. (By the way, we had to pick up our passports today to carry in Cape Town.) We were met by our driver/guide promptly at 8 am outside the port gates. Our friend, Evana, organized our safari with Alan Safari Tours based on their excellent reviews on Trip Advisor. They didn't disappoint! We boarded our 4 wheel drive vehicle with space for 7 which meant we had plenty of room. Our safari was with Evana and Alan and Paul and Andy. We rotated seats at several stops. Mike drove us the 35 minutes to Addo Elephant Park, which is a National Park with hundreds and hundreds of acres of open land so that the animals roam freely. In the park are animals that are indigenous to that part of South Africa: elephants (over 600 live in the park), cape buffalo, wart hogs, black rhinos, lions, leopards, honey badgers, kudus and other types of antelopes, zebras, cobras and other snakes and a variety of birds including ostriches and secretary birds. I can't tell you how excited we were to see our first animals: wart hogs! Throughout the day, we saw many, many wart hogs, until it became “Only just another wart hog.” How easily jaded we became! The tusks on a wart hog can slice your arm off, and the males have four huge warts to protect them during battles with other wart hogs. There “follow me sign—which all animals have” is that they run with their tales upright at 90 degrees. The baby wart hogs were adorable!

Our next big sighting was a massive bull elephant alone in a field. I thought “OK, I've seen an elephant, I'm happy.” but we were to see HUNDREDS of elephants during the course of the day: frolicking in water of the watering holes, tossing dirt over themselves to act as protection from the the sun, play fighting, caressing their baby elephants with their trunks, calling to them if they stray too far away, etc. The elephants crossed the road within touching distance: huge, wrinkly skins with long luscious eyelashes, they moved almost silently on defying their weight and size. It was thrilling!

Zebras were amazingly beautiful with manes that look as if they have been groomed and stripes that are different one from another like fingerprints. They really can't be tamed, but didn't seemed concerned when we stopped near them.

Kudus had beautiful markings and long twisted antlers. Elegant and majestic!

One of the rarer sightings was the Secretary Bird—very large and unusual to see even in Addo Elephant National Park.

We had a lunch break and a chance to stretch our legs, and then off to try and find the lions. Unfortunately, we were not successful. They like open areas to hunt and are only successful 25% of the time when they stalk and attempt to seize another animal.

We weren't that disappointed because the day was exciting, educational and entertaining. Mike drove us back to the ship arriving just before 6 pm. It was a particularly long day, because I forgot about the clocks going back an hour before getting to Port Elizabeth, so I set the alarm for 5 am accidentally. We couldn't face going into the dining room and getting dressed up. We were dusty, dirty and tired from being jostled around in the safari vehicle, so we showered and went to the Lido for dinner. We were in bed by 8:30 and I was asleep by 9 pm! But it was a brilliant experience!

Sea day today and Cape Town tomorrow!!

P.S. One of my readers asked about the free laundry that we receive. We get 20 pieces a week and the laundry does a beautiful job. We send it out on the same day each week—all 20 at one time. We still need to do socks and underwear in the launderette every two weeks.