BEAUTIFUL CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

LAST DAY OF THE CRUISE

Cape Town is said to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Its landmark icon, Table Mountain. is a spectacular 3500 foot backdrop right in town that overlooks the city and the water. The ocean is very cold all the time even though the monthly average temperature ranges from 64-81 degrees.

We said good-bye to our new friends and  the incredible staff and left the ship for a bus tour of Cape Town.  It was foggy when we drove up into the mountains but then it cleared up for our cameras, as you can see.  Our guide showed us some city sites too but nothing as memorable as these views.  We ended our tour at the beach with the hills called the "12 Apostles" in the background.  The bus dropped us all at the airport for what we  thought would be our flights home.  The volcano had other ideas!

Thanks for reading my blog.  Knowing I had readers gave me incentive to continue and finish.  As for the cruise..."We wouldn't have missed it for the world."

JUST A LITTLE MORE SAFARI!

John thought we should post a few more safari pictures . I will do my last blog, Cape Town, tomorrow.  Here are our able guides.  Besides finding a chameleon at night, they, also, served "sundowners" to us from the back of the jeep as we watched the sun go down.  The impala is a beautiful animal and the only one that is added to the bush--for the lions to catch!  Finally,  here is another bird to admire and John and I say "Bye from the bush."

THREE DAY SAFARI

SABI SABI PRIVATE GAME RESERVE


Before I write anything I must tell you that some of the pictures I am posting are not ours(up until now they have all been ours). We shared an open air jeep with three other couples and one girl had the most amazing camera(her husband won the European poker Championship twice)and was a talented photographer. My camera couldn’t compete but we did SEE everything she photographed!

We flew from Durban to Johannesburg and then took a small plane for an hour west. We then drove into the bush for 30 minutes to Sabi Sabi, a luxurious lodge in the middle of nowhere. We went on “game drives” twice a day--from 4PM til after dark and from 6-9AM. I will remember the cool, crisp morning rides, the silence of the bush when we turned off the jeep to listen and the night skies brilliantly blanketed by stars.

Our guide drove on bumpy dirt roads with a tracker sitting in front. We would leave the roads and drive into the bush when tracks were sighted. It was exciting to see the elephants tear down the trees to eat. We learned that the hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal. Lions can go two weeks without eating. Their main source of food is the impala which they hunt at night. There are no tigers in Africa. We got as much of a thrill seeing the beautiful birds as we did the animals.

Our guide said that the animals do not see individual people in the jeep; they see the jeep as too big to tackle. Of course, a person outside the jeep would be in real trouble.

We flew to Cape Town and arrived just in time to watch the ship come into port. Our cabin is in the back of the ship on the 8th deck, right in the middle.

HOME SWEET HOME!

HOME SAFELY!

Dear blog followers,

We arrived home on Saturday . Our original flight was cancelled due to the volcano. It was a miracle that we got a flight a day later on South African Air which took us through Johannesburg with a refueling stop in Dakar(at 2:30 a.m!) and then into Dulles. As far as we know our fellow cruisers are still in Cape Town waiting for the air to clear!

I will be posting two more entries in the next few days, one of the safari we took at Sabi Sabi and one of Cape Town. In the meantime you may want to look back to "AT SEA AND MORE" where I have posted pictures of the animals on the game reserve at Richards Bay.

P.S.  Here is the leopard I wrote about.  More to come!

AU REVOIR FROM THE VOYAGER

DAY 36--Our last night on the ship
We are back from our 3 day safari. It was incredible!  When we are home and recovered from jet lag I will tell about our safari and post pictures of some incredible animals.  We have just returned from the most remote place we have ever been.  Just this morning a leopard walked by two feet from our jeep, was stalked by a hippo and jumped into a tree.  More to follow and good bye til we are home! 

AT SEA AND MORE

DAY 33


After a “rocking and rolling “of the ship all night we went to the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve. Driving there we saw nothing but skinny eucalyptus trees. Timber is a big business here. The city of Richard’s Bay is the major port in the region and it, also, is the gateway to the land of the Zulu. The Zulus are the largest ethnic group in South Africa and Zulu art and handicrafts are must-have souvenirs!

We traveled through the game preserve in open air jeeps. Our sightings included a herd of elephants, adult and baby giraffes, beautiful brown striped zebras and other assorted animals. We saw hippos in the mud but they were a little far away. All the tigers and lions were asleep but we will see them on our safari, especially since we have early morning and late night trips.

The Zulu houses we saw today were interesting. Their houses are made of cinder blocks but they build a round hut next to their house for the :“spirits.” The Zulus do not want the spirits hiding in the corners of their square house. The houses are one room and brightly painted on the outside.

We had a dinner and a show with our friends the Cheevers. We have packed and are ready to go on our safari tomorrow. My blog will continue fom a different place!

SEA DAYS

DAY 30--SEA DAY


We are back to our routine for the three sea days--walk, fruit for breakfast by the pool, gym, read by the pool, Mass at 5PM and then dinner with friends. Tonight we saw a great show, ” Sailing through Broadway,” with the Regent singers and dancers. John described it as “peppy.” We have enjoyed our friendship with the cast.



DAY 31--SEA DAY

We attended an informative lecture on South Africa and plan to go again tomorrow for the next installment. It was another beautiful day at the pool and the luncheon was a mid-eastern bar-b-que.

ATTENTION, ATTENTION, ATTENTION……Our schedule has been changed. Because of our cancelled trip to Kenya we have booked a 3 day safari to Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve. We leave the ship in Durban and will re-join the ship in Cape Town. Needless to say my blog will be put on hold for those days but I will report later on our adventure.

We had a wonderful dinner with our friends from San Antonia, Charley and Nancy Cheever, and David and Maureen Cross from Newport Beach. David and Maureen will be with us at Sabi Sabi.



DAY 32--SEA DAY

The lecture on modern day South Africa was terrific. It is amazing the progress the country has made--and all since 1994! Now John is attending a meeting of veterans with the D-Day participant giving a talk. We are packing for our safari and for our trip home because we have no time after the safari.

This afternoon we ran into a front with 40-50 knot winds and 6-7 foot seas. Needless to say the ship is really rocking. We are glad(thank you, Michael) that we are wearing the sea patch. We made it to Mass but our dinner and show were impossible to attend. Captain Dag says the storm will pass later tonight. We ordered pizza and stayed in our room. Tomorrow we land in Richard’s Bay and we go on a 5 hour safari. Then on Monday we go on our big safari.
P.S.  Captain Dag was wrong--the storm never subsided; the boat was wild all night!!!

REUNION ISLAND

DAY 29


It was another beautiful sunrise on the Indian Ocean. We docked in Pointe des Galets on the island of Reunion. This island is owned by France and is east of Madagascar. It is part of the European Union and uses euros only. We couldn’t seem to find an ATM that worked and everyone speaks French so we just used our credit card for a few purchases. Absolutely no US currency was accepted. The island is famous

for its volcanoes and the beautiful formation of the mountains. They are lush and homes (white stucco) are built on the hills. It reminded us of La Jolla or other towns along the California coast. We went to a beach town for our excursion.  We watched the surfers and walked around the marina. An added plus was going to the Reunion Aquarium; it was so enjoyable. It was fun to see the fish I had seen while snorkeling.

PORT LOUIS MAURITIUS

DAY 28


Our tour today took us to a very well maintained Botanical Gardens. The trees were massive. Our German (she married a Mauritius man) guide was sweet but too wordy. John and I snuck away to St. Francis Church across the road to take pictures. Then when I rejoined the tour John stayed back and talked to the local people. We felt the people were more fun than the plants. Our bus climbed a mountain for a nice photo-op. Mauritius has the second oldest racetrack in the southern Hemisphere. Next we traveled the narrow streets to a handicraft market but we weren’t tempted because the prices were too high.   P.S.  Kelly,  I am wearing the necklace and earrings you gave me!

AT SEA DAYS

DAY 26


HAPPY EASTER!

We had a beautiful Easter Mass. Father Kelly managed to find some hymnals and the late night piano player was kind enough to get up early to accompany our singing. John gave one of the readings. The theatre was quite full.

We have had a change to our itinerary and as John said, “The pirates won.” Captain Dag announced that it is not safe to go to Mombasa and Zanzibar so we are heading south to Port Louis, Mauritius, on April 6th and Reunion Island on April 7th. The rest of our schedule remains the same and we will hope to add another day safari as the one we had scheduled in Mombasa is no longer possible. The “shooters” we have on board don’t have a job anymore.

We enjoyed an Easter brunch and read our books on comfy furniture on the back of Deck 5.

Our Easter dinner was in the Compass Rose restaurant with Father Kelly and four other Catholic couples from our Mass group.

DAY 27

The seas are a bit rougher on this sea day but nothing too bad. We have been wearing a sea patch(or half of one)and it seems to work. A couple renewed their vows on the ship. The woman was in a bridal gown and had a sparkling tiara and glittery bracelets. She is the same girl we see walking for an hour every day with ankle weights and carrying weights. She then cleans up, dresses up and drinks champagne on the pool deck all afternoon.

MORE HEAVENLY SEYCHELLES!

Day 25

Our ship went to Praslin, another of the Seychelles, in the early morning hours. The Seychelles have 115 islands with only 15 inhabited. Some islands are just resorts. The population is 95% Catholic. Every small village has a church, a school, a medical facility and a police station. The water,the skies and the rock formations are too beautiful to describe adequately.

John went to a world renown beach this morning while I went to CoCo Island , 45 minutes by catamaran, for the best snorkeling I have ever experienced. Every exotic fish you have seen in books I think I saw among the rocks and corral.. A huge sea turtle also swam by me. It was amazing.
We ended the day with a beautiful sunset and a "Truckstop Party."

SENSATIONAL SEYCHELLES!

DAY 24


Our tour today was Spices and Coral. We took a catamaran out to a coral reef. The snorkeling was fantastic. I saw big blue fish, yellow fish and various striped fish. The water was clear, so blue and very warm. Then we sailed on the catamaran around the island and took a Zodiak(rubber boat) into shore where we swam some more. Next was a bus trip straight up the mountain, another precarious bus ride, to a spice farm. We saw and smelled all the spices, looked at the giant tortoises and took many pictures of the sea and tropical foliage. Back at the ship John did a reading for the Good Friday services. Then we went with our San Antonio friends to a pool barbeque that the ship put on. It was unbelievable. Food, decorations, ice sculptures, music--all was first class and so much fun. The pool deck was totally transformed into a restaurant. The night was warm, balmy and full of stars. John and I danced the night away!

DAY 23


Today at sunrise the sky was the same color as the water--turquoise blue! We watched the ship dock from the top deck. Captain Dag was at the controls as he always is for the comings and goings. Just when we were about to dock, the ship backed up and we went from the port side to the starboard side. Captain Dag apologized for the delay but it seems that the loading of supplies and the unloading of garbage was reversed! The mountains(granite rock), the vegetation and the gorgeous water make the Seychelles a paradise. There are hundreds of islands nearby, all with fabulous beaches. Everywhere one looks is a “photo-op.” We left the ship with friends from New York and bought a few things at the market outside. Every port we enter has an automatic market set up for Regent cruisers! We ate at a local restaurant which was good but very hot--no air conditioning. We saw on TV that the US Navy just captured some pirates near the Seychelles. Please do not worry about us as we have “visitors” aboard ship; in fact one is next door to us!