Day 107 CapeTown (Day1), South Africa

Tuesday 24th  April

Cape Town, situated on Table Bay on the Atlantic shore of the Cape Peninsula. Cape Town the second most populous city of South Africa remains the ‘Mother City’ for South Africans. The city surrounds the lively Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.  Its landmark Table Mountain has been a beacon to mariners for centuries and nearby is Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope.  Just off the coast, in Table Bay, is Robben Island famous as the prison where Nelson Mandela was held.

Afrikaans is the most widely spoken language followed by Xhosa and then English.

This morning berthed in CapeTown, the perfect spot for great views over the city and of Table Mountain.  Unfortunately just a bit cloudy, cloud base all the way down to the mid-floors of the local tower blocks!  Also cooler and some rain around.

View of Table Mountain, we think!

Soon ashore to join our tour, a bit better organised today so no delays.  Away through the town, lots of nice houses protected with barbed wire and electric fences.  Many itinerant workers standing on corners waiting for work, these apparently used to be undereducated South Africans, but since improved local education they are now immigrants from outside South Africa.  Also many “townships” to house them have sprung up around town, many very close to quite desirable properties.

A Township

Once out of town drove along the Atlantic Coast, around Cape Bay and on via Chapman’s Peak Drive.

Weather improving all the time, quite different this side of the mountains, looking good for at least this part of the trip.  Spectacular road carved out of steep cliffs.  Followed by a photo stop on the sea shore at the Cape of Good Hope.

Lots of seabirds around plus just one Eland up in the bush.

An Eland

Continued through the this part of the Table Mountain National Park to Cape Point.  Here we took the Flying Dutchman funicular up the overview point.  From the top just a few steps up to the lighthouse and a chance to see two oceans meeting.

Looking Back toward the Cape of Good Hope

Looking out over Cape Point

Some Local Colour

Back down for lunch at the Two Oceans restaurant.  Very nice restaurant with excellent  views.  The view mainly out over False Bay, named because in the days of sail ships clearing the point  which made them believe they had rounded the Horn, but they hadn’t, the ships would then get trapped in the bay by the Southerly winds, and there are lots of rocks for the unwary.

Back on the coach and off again.

Baboons

Passing several troops of Baboons in the park and then Ostrich farms just outside  the park, continued to Boulder Beach and it’s African Penguin colony (they used to be Jackass Penguins but they didn’t like the name so they got it changed).  Lots of very sweet little Penguins with offspring all the way from eggs to fluffy chicks bigger than their parents, what a wonderful beach to live on, very fine silver sand, clear turquoise sea and really nice decorative boulders, a great spot.

Apart from a very quick shower here as we arrived, the day has turned out very warm and sunny.

On again to circle round False Bay through lots of nice little suburbs, like Simon’s Town and Fish Hoek, many very popular with retired Cape Towners looking to get away from the city.

Driving back towards Cape Town we moved back into the poor weather, much cloudier  and  wetter.  Luckily the next stop was at the winery for our wine tasting experience.  Five splashes of local wine to keep us going.

Back into town to check if the weather had improved allowing us to reach at least the lower cable car station, unfortunately it had not and we had to abort this visit.   Instead went to visit Signal Hill, another overview spot.  Misty views as we were driving up the road.  Followed this with a short walk down in the hopes views outside the coach might be better than through the windows.  However, cloud thickening and rain starting, so could’t see anything, so soon abandoned the trip and back on the coach to return to the ship.

View Down over Cape Town from Signal Hill

Overnight in CapeTown, but a wet evening prevented any ideas of getting into town, so a dinner in the Lido and a hope for better tomorrow

Day 106 at Sea

Sunday 22nd April

Weather today nice and sunny but quite a cool wind.

A day for rest and recovery without too much to see or do.  Just the usual.  Some excitement with passing shoals of fish disturbing the sea surface with something big herding them and just a flash of a sighting, nothing clear, very frustrating.

Dinner in the Lido.  Lots of cases appearing along the corridors.  1300 disembarking tomorrow, including our team music genius, now we are in trouble.  1300 new guests will certainly cause a lot of disruption to our routine for this last sector of the cruise.

Day 105 Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Saturday 21st April 

Port Elizabeth is known as the ‘Friendly City’, with a busy commercial and industrial centre of the Eastern Cape. One of the largest cities in South Africa.  Known as the Detroit of South Africa because of automobile manufacturing.

Nearby are several outstanding game reserves. 

Five am alarm, much too early, and it’s still dark!

Ship stationary just off the coast, with docking delayed.  Everyone on time for their meeting time for tours and everyone hanging about because of delays and no announcements to avoid confusion.

Eventually things got started and we made it through immigration to join our tour bus.

Bus moved quickly out of town mostly along empty motorways and past industrial areas.  Then through the bush with hundreds of termite mounds pretty much the only things of interest.  

Eventually reached the area of all the game reserves, first sight of game being a few Zebras.  Once we arrived at our destination, Pumba Game Reserve we had a refreshing glass of lemonade before getting into our 4x4 to start the safari.

Great excitement on board as each animal was spotted with an accompaniment of camera clicks.

Slowly the cries died down to just another Impala and our ranger suggested we would get nowhere if he had to stop for every animal.

The ticks on our check list grew steadily through the morning.  Impala, Lion, Kudu, Hartebeest (a kind of antelope), Giraffe, White Rhinoceros, Wildebeest, Warthog, Zebra and a White Lion.

Female Impala's

Male Impala

A very sleepy female lion

Kudu

Hartebeest

Wildebeest

White Lion - a Pumba Reserve speciality

Also a few birds which were hardly mentioned except for the Tick Birds on the backs of the animals and the Egyptian Geese.

Time for lunch at the Game Lodge.  An excellent selection of dishes  including an Impala Stew, all eaten al fresco with Vervet Monkeys in the trees trying for a free lunch being chased off by the staff.

Vervet Monkey - eyeing up the lunch

Curtailed lunch a bit to get back to wildlife spotting before most of the other vehicles.  Our ranger found us excellent views of Elephants and a Hippopotamus to add to our species list before we had to return to reboard our coach back to the ship, all too soon.

Another long drive back without much of note to see, not passing through the town where there might have been something.

Time for a cuppa and a relax before dinner, a late sailaway and an early night, been a long day.

Days 102 to 104 at Sea

Wednesday to Friday 18th to 20th April

Wednesday

Day at sea, partly cloudy day, a long swell all day kept the ship rolling gently.

Reports of whale sightings, none in view, but did spot a pod of spinner dolphins, however not very near.

Formal night tonight and World Cruise Cocktail Party.  Decided not to go to dinner but just to take advantage of the extensive buffet provided at the party along with the free wine and cocktails.  Not too busy around the ship today, perhaps it’s the gentle roll of the ship, but can’t quite believe it.

A little treat left in our room

Thursday

Day at sea, another day of the usual entertainment.  With our extra team mate on the music quizzes we continue to win.

Lovely weather still, though a bit cloudier this afternoon and lots of thunder and lightning this evening.

The sea has calmed right down again but still no wildlife to watch worth mentioning

Friday

Day at sea.  Getting a bit cooler, but still very pleasant even if a bit cloudy.  Now moving with Agulhas Current which runs down the coast of Africa.

This evenings entertainment in the theatre, “Palladian Nights”.

Early night, very early start tomorrow.

Day 101 Le Port, Reunion

Tuesday 17th April

Reunion is an insular region of France located in the Indian Ocean, about 175km south west of Mauritius.  In every way it is French and is the outer most region of the European Union and is part of the Eurozone.   The volcanic island of Reunion  consists of jaw dropping scenery, beautiful waterfalls and vibrant coastline.  In addition to its main export of sugar the island is famous for its production of Vanilla.

Berthed this morning in Le Port, a commercial port again, nowhere near any of the islands towns or attractions.

Today we are off on a Cunard excursion.  So soon away on our trip, a busy drive along the coast road, a multi-lane dual carriageway, with another new road under construction on new embankments and piers over the sea, it’s amazing how this island being a part of France seems to have a much more European feel and a European infrastructure, EU grants?

Passing through Saint Denis, the islands capital, went on to visit a vanilla plantation to see the Vanilla Orchids growing and to be told the story of how Vanilla is cultivated and prepared for sale.  A long and labour intensive process, but ultimately a profitable one.  New plants take 3 years to produce pods.

Young Vanilla Plants

Plants can then produce for about 14 years before needing replacing, the ground being rested in between with a sugar cane crop.  Hand pollination  is needed for each flower (the normal pollinating insects won’t live here).

Mature Vanilla Plants with Pods - they look like French beans

Pods ripen in nine months.  After picking each pod needs washing, drying, sterilising and being individually checked for quality.  After six months storage to develop full fragrance then the pods are packed for delivery.

Mature Pods ready for the market

Then back on the bus for a drive inland, through a spectacular landscape of deep very steep sided gorges all very lushly clad in tropical vegetation, even on the almost vertical cliffs.

Our destination is Salazie with it’s waterfalls, particularly the Bride’s Veil Falls, so a quick stop to view and photo the falls across the valley.  Luckily plenty of water in the falls.

This waterfall was along side the main road

Back on the bus for a return journey, just one short stop in Saint Denis for a chance to visit the local market for a few minutes for any shopping, there is always a shopping stop!

The new road bridge being built

Spent what there was left of the afternoon on the ship, the length of the shuttle journey and the early sailaway pretty much prevented any other options.

Nice sunset tonight, haven’t had very many good sunsets and probably none really spectacular ones.