THE SEYCHELLES AND THE MALDIVES

THE SEYCHELLES:   Although a two-day sail from the east coast of mainland Africa, the Seychelles archipelago is still considered to be part of Africa.  The Republic of the Seychelles is Africa's smallest nation with a population of less than 100,000.  The main island of Mahe is very lush and green with imposing mountains.

Unfortunately, we arrived on a rainy Sunday.  Everything in the capital of Victoria was closed,  and as there was a heavy cloud cover we didn't see the point of spending money travelling the mountain roads around the island.  Thus, we simply walked into town, stopping occasionally for shelter from the rain.  The town/city is quite lovely and looks very prosperous.  I can't really complain about the rain as this was the first rain we saw since arriving in Africa three weeks earlier.

The Seychelles has the highest per capita prison population in the world; even higher than the United States.  Unlike the United States, however, that loves to imprison its own citizens, most of the incarcerated in The Seychelles are captured pirates from Somali.

INVESTMENT IN AFRICA:  Wherever we went in Africa we would see some construction; a bridge, a highway, etc.  This would not be unusual except that every single time a guide would say "Oh, the Chinese are building that."

THE MALDIVES:  Like the Seychelles, the Maldives is a small country in the Indian Ocean (actually a series of atolls).  However, there are many differences.  Wheras the Seychelles are mountainous, the Maldives never rise more than a very few feet above sea level.  Much, if not all of the atolls are threatened by rising sea levels caused by global warming.  Culturally the two nations are very different as well; the people of the Seychelles are largely Roman Catholic.  On the other hand, the Maldives is a Sunni Moslem country and all other religions are illegal.

After sailing around several of the small atolls (which appear to have beach resorts on them) we anchored off Male, the capital.   The entire Male atoll which appears to be about 1.0 kilometer long is crammed with 10-20 story buildings.  About 100,000 people live on the atoll which appears to have no green space at all.  After arrival in mid-afternoon we tendered to shore and spent an hour or so walking along the narrow shopping streets.  I am guessing that the national sport is picking off pedestrians with your motor bike.  The cyclists especially love to drive at high speeds along the sidewalks.  When a bike is on the street it appears that there is a rule that you must accelerate when coming to a crosswalk, especially if some elderly tourist is trying to cross.

The airport occupies the next atoll to Male.  A bridge between the two atolls is currently being constructed by the Chinese.

For our second day the Maldives we had planned an atoll-hoping tour with stops for swimming and snorkeling.  However, we awoke to rain and lightning.  After discussion with the others in our group we cancelled and spent a quiet day on the ship.

DRILL:  This morning the ship's crew practiced a "Man Overboard" drill.  They threw a life-size dummy overboard.  The next thing they did was toss a orange smoke flare into the sea to mark where the dummy was last spotted.  It seemed to take the ship forever to get stopped and turned around, after which they launched a rescue boat.  It was amazing how far the dummy got from the ship in only a few minutes.  All told it took 30 minutes to rescue the dummy, and this was in daylight and calm seas.

The Captain did say that he was involved in three overboard rescues last summer.  Most overboards occur, however, in the middle of the night and are presumed to be suicides or suicide attempts.
Should I fall overboard I don't expect to be rescued, as I doubt I could tread water for 30 minutes, especially when under the influence, which does happen to me occasionally.

                                          ZANZIBAR TO MOMBASA

ZANZIBAR:  Zanzibar is a series of islands about 20 miles off the coast of mainland Africa.  It has a population of about 800,000 people.  The main city is Zanzibar Town with a population of about 200,000.  The city is divided into Stone Town (a World Heritage Site) and New Town.

In 1964 the people of Zanzibar overthrew the Sultan and almost immediately joined with the mainland country of Tanganyika to form the Republic of Tanzania, with a total population of about 55,000,000.  At the present the citizens of Zanzibar feel overlooked and ignored and during the last Presidential election they had an almost total boycott of the vote.

Betty and I joined four others for a tour of Stone Town and the surrounding countryside.  Our guide was born in Stone Town and his family have lived in the same house for 5 generations.  Stone Town was built in the 1600's and is basically a labyrinth of narrow allies with no street names posted.  The buildings have very elaborate wooden doors which indicate the wealth of the resident.  We spent almost 3 hours on a walking tour, with only a short stop for tea part way through the morning.  There was also a little shopping and Betty purchased a beautiful jewellry box.

Upon leaving Stone Town we were driven to a hillside Spice Farm.  Our tour there began with an elaborate coffee ceremony.  Coffee and cardamon were ground together with a mortar and pestel and the resulting coffee was served with dates and other condiments.  We then walked through the spice area.   As Betty was beginning to fade from the heat one of our two Spice Farm guides carried a chair so she could sit whenever we stopped to look at something.

At the end of the Spice Tour we were taken to the home of one of the guides where his wife had cooked a "typical" Zanzibar meal for us.  We ate stew, curried beans, fish and coconut potatoes and many different exotic fruits.  This meal was the highlight of the day.

MOMBASA, KENYA:  Mombasa is a crowded, dowdy city of 1.5 million.   Unemployment runs at 50% but education has gotten HIV down to around 20%. Perhaps because our expectations were low, the day turned out to constantly surpass them.  We had pre-arranged a tour (four of us) which turned out to be in a nice van complete with both a driver and a guide.  Our guide was Christian and our driver Muslim and they both assured us that there were very good relations between the two communities.

Initially we did a tour, including some walking,  of the city with usual stuff (a fort, a temple, etc.) but we were then taken to a wood-carving co-operative.  Here, 3,000 carvers work under primitive tin shelters turning out beautiful pieces (bowls, bread baskets, etc.).  We bought not nearly enough stuff but what we thought might squeeze into our suitcases.

Lunch was at a resort where we ended up talking to a Manager who explained that tourism was down and everybody was struggling.  However, President Obama's visit helped allay the fears of many prospective tourists.

In the afternoon we visited Haller Park.  Haller Park is owned by the LaFarge Cement Co.  LaFarge has re-claimed many acres of land from their quarries and created a beautiful animal refuge.  Although the park is less wild than those we visited in South Africa, there were lots of animals.  The highlight was our  hand-feeding a herd of giraffe.  It was incredible how these huge and majestic animals could very gently take food pellets from one's hand, albeit leaving a lot of slobber behind.

TEMPERATURES:   The last several days we have been experiencing  temperatures in the mid 30's with very high humidity.  As we did a lot of walking we found ourselves to be exhausted by the time we returned to the ship.  On both of the last two nights I fell asleep during the post-dinner show.  In addition, the air conditioning quit working in our stateroom.  Nonetheless, a technician came at 11:00 at night to do a temporary fix and this morning he arrived with a whole new unit.  Earlier in the cruise Betty had the hair-dryer replaced.  Somewhere in the bowels of the ship there must be an entire cache of spare parts.

                                         MADAGASCAR TO TANZANIA

SEA DAYS:  It has been more than two weeks since we left Antigonish and it seems that we have been going more-or-less flat out since then.  Thus, we were most pleased to have two "sea days" on our way from Mozambique to Madagascar.  On Friday morning we slept in very late and missed breakfast in all the locations.  We did manage to make an 11:00 a.m. lecture by Vern Lundquist (CBS sports announcer).  This was his first of four talks and he was very amusing, with tales of working with Terry Bradshaw.  He also told some Nick Faldo stories.  He spoke for an hour without any notes, and the guy is 76.  Next week he is going to talk about his times working with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.  In the afternoon we attended an academic-style  talk on Putin--not so funny--but informative just the same.

We ran into a storm facing 40 knot winds; sea being very rough.  The ship got behind schedule because the stablizers slowed us down.  The Captain said that in the night he would take in the stablizers and try to gain some speed.  Sleep is best in the middle of the bed.

MADAGASCAR:  On Sunday we made it to Nosy Be, a large "resort" island that is part of Madagascar.  We were tendered in to the small city of Hellville (no I did not make that up) where we met up with our driver/guide and van for a half-day tour of the island.

Nosy Be is spectularly beautiful with mountains and shimmering lakes (albeit filled with crocodiles). However, it is definitely 3rd world.  As we drove through the main street of Hellville the van dodged cattle, sheep and goats.  Almost all of the housing appears to be one room huts with thatched roofs and bamboo walls.  Despite that the people seemed to be very well dressed.

We saw lots of lemurs, and some beautiful chameleon, etc.  Part way around the island we drove to the top of Mount Passot where we had great vistas.  Our guide asked if anyone wanted a "pit" stop and the four women started down a steep path toward an outhouse with a hole in the floor.   A couple of the men started to follow the women when the guide said:  "No, the men piss here", so like schoolboys we lined up at the side of the path and aimed for the jungle.  Before we got back in the van we were all given a large shot of local rum.

We stopped at a market on our return to the ship where we saw fresh meat swarming with flies and crabs nestled down in mud pools at the back.

In order to go ashore at Hellville (actually named for a Frenchman with the surname of Hell) we skipped lunch.  Thus, last night's dinner of frog legs, liquor-soaked melons, coq-au-vin, and petit fours was very, very tasty.  Needlesstosay my two glasses of Albarino and four glasses of Petit Sirah didn't taste bad either.  Our wine is included in the cost of the cruise so I am trying very hard to drink my share.

DANGEROUS WATERS:   As we are now sailing toward Tanzania and then on to Kenya (which borders Somalia) we will soon be entering Pirate waters.  This morning we had a Pirate drill, which seemed to consist of heading to the stairwells.  The crew have now installed firehoses on the fifth deck, which is an open deck.   Passengers will not be allowed there during the evenings until we are again in safe waters.

DAR ES SALAAM:  This morning we docked in Dar es Salaam, a large port city of 4.5 million, most of whom do not have indoor plumbing.  It was one of the few places for which we were unable to find an interesting tour.  It also has the reputation for being a pretty tough place.

Taxis are not allowed on the port but there was a shuttle which took us to the Hyatt Regency  Hotel, from where one could walk around a bit or take a cab if there were someplace one wanted to go.  When our bus got to the hotel it was not allowed to enter the grounds until the undercarriage was examined for bombs.  We didn't go in to the hotel itself but noticed that there were airport-style luggage x-ray machines at the entrance.  We walked for a bit in the heat (33 degrees) and made it as far as a smelly fish market.   Our shuttle bus took a different route on the way back to the port and we travelled along a shopping street.  Happy to stay on the bus.

The ship was very inviting and I was happy to have lunch  by the pool (a rare steak and a lobster tail paired with Mexican beer).

ANIMALS

ANIMALS OF SOUTH AFRICA

We were scheduled to sail out of Cape Town at 6:00 on Friday.  However, gale-force winds kept us tied up for 11 hours.  We spent, of course, the evening eating and drinking.  The after-dinner entertainer tried to get a singing competition going among the Americans, Brits, and Canadians.  Not many Canadians, so I tried very hard.  He told me I was the loudest Canadian he had ever heard.  I don't think that was a compliment.

PORT ELIZABETH:  Although we were very late leaving Cape Town the Captain stoked the engines and we docked on schedule early Sunday morning.  Port Elizabeth is an unattractive industrial city and basically manufactures cars.  Ford, GM, Volkswagon, and some Chinese truck factory all have plants here.

After being met on the pier by our guide we drove quickly through Port Elizabeth on our way to the Addo National Park.  Here we spent the day driving through the park looking for animals.  Although we didn't see any lions there were many others to see up close.  These included warthogs, kudus (a type of antelope), hartebeeste, zebras, monkeys, ostrich, and many herds of elephants.  While in the park you are not allowed to get out of your vehicle.  One guide told us about a Chinese couple who were found after having been slain by lions.  On the man's camera the last picture showed his wife stroking a sleeping lioness.

EAST LONDON:  Another industrial city based on automobile manufacturing (Mercedes).  However, East London has an almost all Black population.  The downtown core looks reasonably prosperous, even though the unemployment rate approaches 30%.  However, just outside the city is a huge township (shacks without indoor plumbing).

We visited the Mpongo Game Preserve and drove around in open jeeps.  Saw lots of animals including giraffe, impala, gnu, hippo, plus ones we had seen the day before.  However, the lions had been sectioned off from the other animals, so we looked at them in a fenced enclosure.

DURBAN:  Our day in Durban was spent on a tour of the city and the surrounding area.  Durban is a quite attractive city of 3.5 million.  Again, there is car manufacturing, this time Toyota.  The city centre appears to be reasonably prosperous despite the fact the the unemployment rate hovers near 30 per cent.   A second social issue is the HIV rate of in excess of 60 %.  Durban is in the area called Zululand and during the entire day we did not see a white face, excluding our travelling companions.  The area outside the city is called the Valley of 1000 hills and is spectacularly beautiful.  Needlesstosay the wealthy live in this area.

HLUHLUWE IMFOLOZI GAME RESERVE:  Our last port of call in South Africa was Richard's Bay.  However, we didn't really get to see the city as we were hell bent on proceeding to South Africa's Oldest Game Reserve.  In fact, we met our fellow travellers at 5:45 a.m. in order to start the venture.  The ship kindly allowed us to have room service breakfasts before the normal starting time.
This game preserve is very large and contains many different species, many that we had seen in previous places.  However, this time we saw many white rhinos quite close up.  The white rhino was almost extinct a few years ago but has come back primarly through the efforts of Gary Player's brother (if you don't know who Gary Player is then shame on you).  Incidentally the white rhino is not white in color.  The name comes from a language misunderstanding between the Dutch and the English and it really means wide rhino (referring to the mouth).

Basically we spent the day riding through the park on open jeeps, with a stop for a wonderful picnic lunch served with "champagne", beer, red and white wine.

MOZAMBIQUE:  Today (Jan. 12) we docked at the Maputo.  Maputo is a large bustling city still recovering a bit from the civil war that ended in 1992.  There is a lot of construction going on and many of the buildings are architecturally magnificent.  We took a shuttle to the city centre and did a little shopping before we could no longer abide the very aggressive street vendors.  Betty did buy a little folk art in order to use up our South African rands.

We had been warned repeatedly about pick pockets and the possibility of other street crimes.  However, we made it back safely after viewing the beautiful train station (mistakeningly attributed to Eiffel).  However, one guy on the cruise told me that he lost his money, which he had been carrying in a zippered front pocket of his pants.

Cape Town

Cape Town -South Africa

On getting there:   From Antigonish to Cape Town turned out to take 42 hours.  Because we had saved enough points to fly Business Class most of the trip was quite pleasant.  Although our overnight  flight to London via Air Canada was nice  the overnight from London to Johannesbury via South African Airlines was nicer; the seats were better, the food was much better and the wine experience showed how little Air Canada understands about service.  On Air Canada on New Year's Eve we did get French Champagne (but in a juice glass).  South African had proper flutes.  With dinner Air Canada served a decent Malbec, while South African let you taste their wines before choosing the meal accompaniment.

The only qlitch was in Johannesburg where the time alloted for changing planes was just adequate.  However our flight from London was a little late.  We had to clear customs, pick-up our luggage and transfer to a second terminal.  What we didn't know was that in South Africa the luggage of Business Class travellers is taken off separately.  We watched the carousal for about one-half hour before clueing in to look elsewhere.  By the time we started to the second terminal our gate was closing.  For an outrageous tip, however, a hustler took  our carry-ons and ran us through endless twists and turns.  When we finally reached our gate it had been closed for a some time, but I guess the sight of two sweat-dripping septagenarians was sufficient to arouse enough sympathy for the gate to be re-opened.

Cape Town:  Our first experience in the city itself was at a fantastic restaurant where we spent the evening listening to great live music while dining on prawns, langostina, and springbok.  On Tuesday morning (our first full day in Cape Town) we decided to walk to the Victoria and Alfred district  (no I did not mean Albert) where we could catch the Hop-on-hop-off bus.  The walk was about 1/2 hour, but part-way there a silver-haired lady in a fancy car stopped and said we looked like we could use a lift.  And this happened in a city of several million.  We then spent the rest of the day getting sun-burned sitting on the top of  several double-decker buses.

Wednesday morning we were picked up by  a tour guide who took us for a day of wine tasting in Stellenbosch and Franschoek.  Six of us were in the group, and as several people were golfers the guide decided to start us at Ernie Els' winery.  Here we toured his trophy room and then hit a few golf balls before settling down to serious wine tasting.  The landscape is very beautiful with spectacular mountains and beautiful valleys. However, everything is very dry in mid summer and we could see at least two forest fires.  For a time last night we couldn't see Table Mountain (normally visible from our hotel room window) because of heavy smoke.

Hard Rock:  In the evening we were invited to join another couple (cruisers on our ship that Betty met on line) at a Cape Town dinner theatre.  Our cab driver was unfamiliar with the address but eventually found the theatre in a warehouse district under a bridge.  Inside, however, the large area was hopping.  Waiters/singers were local university students, most of whom had good voices.  The meal was North African and took hours to come as the waiters were always busy on stage.  As the evening progressed the music got louder, more hard rock and even Rap.  We realized that the other patrons were on average 20 years younger than our kids.  We were not able to escape until around 11:30 at which time the music was at an ear-shattering pitch and all the patrons, except us of course, had climbed on top of their tables to dance.  And I thought the M-C was joking when he told the audience that the tables had all been steel reinforced.  Boy, was the taxi ride back to our hotel a few moments of peaceful bliss.

South Africa:  The little bit of South Africa that we have seen is quite beautiful.  Streets in the city are clean and the architecture is elegant.  The countryside is somewhat marred by the sprawling townships where tin shanties cover many, many acres.  The population is about 55 million and only 8% are white.  Another 3 million are referred to as Black Diamonds, these being Blacks who have achieved middle-class status.  Guess that leaves a lot of very poor people.

Last day before sailing:  Although we boarded our ship yesterday we don't actually sail until this evening.  We arranged a tour to the Cape of Good Hope.  We were to meet our guide at a hotel near the cruise terminal.  He had sent several message saying that if we were late he wouldn't wait.   Thus, four of us were ready well ahead of the 7:30 pick-up.  There were supposed to be six of us on the tour, but at 7:40 our guide called the other two and said "Forget it, we are leaving" and we left.  It was a great day and we were ahead of all the other vans, cars and buses.  We stopped at a penguin sanctuary, stopped to see baboons, had several wonderful vistas as we drove up several mountainsides.  We are exciting about sailing but slightly sad about leaving the Cape Town area.