Shandle (said Shandly) & Brian are our guides. We leave in the sunshine, at about 7:20 am from Road House Rivonia…. a very budget hotel…. nothing like the place on CT.

4million people live in city of Joburg….8-9 million in area. It just looks like any huge modern city with rolling hills. I’m sure that parts of it have the slums I was expecting.

Our truck, they call, the Red Elephant. If you have to use the toilet, you just say”bushy, bushy”…lol! …. and they will stop wherever.

In city there are man-made lakes that anyone can canoe in, fish, play in the park, etc although there is also private membership probably for the golf course part and other facilities. Very nice! Again not what I was expecting.

We have Anne from Munich, Helena from Frankfurt , Katrin from Karlsruhe, Martine from Ratingen …all from Germany, Peter from Graz, Austria,

Rosie, Leif and their two boys Eric and Dennis & a girl Olivia from Stockholm, Sweden, and Jeanette and me from Canada on this trek.

We passed by one of the shanty towns on the way out. Brian said that a lot of people choose to live there because it is too expensive to live in Joburg. They have electricity, satellite dishes and public transport….. just not the homes (these are literally tin shacks) and gardens necessary to keep up with the Jones.

He says this is the beginning of rainy season. Very flat…. farms (predominantly corn) are being planted recently) for harvest around April.

I noticed large hills surrounded by farms….. enquired as to what they were??? Garbage dumps that are then covered with grass.

We passed by a couple of coal fired power plants(no smoke so thought they were nuclear) provide 10-15% of the electricity used in ZA. On the right there were 6-7 huge stacks. We also passed by open pit coal mines.

I think we are traveling on the N4 -a toll Hwy…….Nice, not too much traffic.

Men working along the highway using weed wackers….. not ride on lawn mowers or tractors. Another work project????

We stopped at Belfast for groceries, drinking water and alcohol for the next 3 days.

Dullstroom famous for fishing….head waters of Crocodile River that flows through to Kruger…. beautiful surrounding area, gorgeous little town…. touristy shops and restaurants.

Beyond Dullstroom the topography changed to something similar to the foothills of Alberta. Who would have thunk!

1776 metres above sea level at Crystal Springs mountain lodge. Pine tree and eucalyptus plantations in this area….2million hectares. We stopped at outlook to view Pilgrims Rest. We then drove down to the town yes there are the original old buildings, but it was filled with locals selling crafts….pushy!

Then on to Bourke’s Luck Pot Holes….. absolutely spectacular. After hiking down and back up again in the approx 27-28C heat I think I sweated breakfast and lunch off. The potholes have been made by the swirling waters of the Breur River (river of sorrow) converging with the Blyde River (river of joy).

Went for dinner after relaxing and cleaning up a bit to be met by pouring rain and thunder and lightning. What will tomorrow bring.

Lower Sabie tomorrow.

On the way in from the airport, I noticed that it was 17 C…. a long way from the 38 we had yesterday in CT. Lightning flashed and it’s starting to rain. That reminds me of when we were leaving Durban while on the ship, there was lightning flashing almost continuously for about an hour and half. Following that show they closed the decks and we rocked and rolled for the next couple of days. Great for sleeping! I do hope that this weather isn’t with us for the rest of our tour.

I took the hop on hop off bus while Jeanette stayed back at the hotel to try and recover before we start our safari tour. Certainly wouldn’t want her coughing while trying to see the elusive big five.

First noted landmark….Green Point Lighthouse.

The opening of the Suez and the political climate more or less killed economy and its place in the world. V&A (Victoria & Alfred)Waterfront started being built in 1990’s… rejuvenated Cape Town.

30,000 cyclists here in March for the Cape Town Cycle Tour… 109 km. annual completion .

In 1795 British took CT from the Dutch so most people speak English here.

What was the old grain silos is now the “Arts Centre”

Rump of Lions Head part of Signal Hill….. where the hang gliders take off from.

Highest water restrictions anywhere…2 minute showers only and asked to save the cold water from start …. in a bucket to be used later on plants.

Convention centre built in 2003 has also brought more life to CT.

Originally to be a penal colony.

Civic centre government etc. building on left,

On right used to be beaches now in the middle of the city.

Bo Kaap area is where the slaves moved to after being freed. Also called the Malay Quarter but were actually E. Indians. Means Upper Cape… back drop of table mountain

Because they were denied to wear coloured clothing, when freed they coloured their houses bright colours

“12 Apostles” is actually 17 buttresses….. on back of Table mountain.

The ocean water is actually colder in the summer than winter because of winds and currents

Clifton beach least windy so most expensive. Originally the government paid people to move out there….. cuz it was “too far out”. It probably would take 15 minutes with light traffic.

Bantry Bay …. most homes have their own pools cuz you can’t swim in ocean….. too rocky for one.

Some funicular tracts built for taking groceries up to houses built on the side of the hills….. it’s very steep. Also on the water side you only see street level parking lots…. actually built on top of condos that go down to the shore below 10-12 stories. Law states buildings cannot be built above the road level because it would block the view.

Some authorities say that Sea Point is in a wind-free zone???? Not ! First kind of trees (can’t remember names) lean toward the land while further toward town the pines get the winds bouncing of the buildings so lean out to the sea. Odd!!!

What an absolutely spectacular city and surrounding area! What a shame that every building has razor wire & other sharp things on the top of fortress like fences or walls. …. none of which are offensive looking. Even at our boutique hotel, the front entrance is locked and so you have to ring the buzzer get in. Everywhere there is a security guard or the place is wired for security. And at night…. taxi to return anywhere after dark.

Apparently the temperature since we have been here, has been probably 10C more than usual. ….. 36C yesterday. Too hot to really even do or go anywhere….. just zaps your energy. Consequently we spent a lot of time in the pool.

Today the 8th, we are off to get our flight to Johannesburg.

It has been a wonderful trip on the whole. The last couple of days since leaving Durban, we have been having to deal with the “motion in the ocean”. It is the best to sleep with. Actually Jeanette thinks she should get a stimulator…. I mean simulator…. she’s been sleeping so well. Walking is a totally different matter although it isn’t nearly as bad as when we were off St Tropez.

Time was spent saying our good-byes to fellow passengers, wonderful staff and the entertainment guys and gals, wishing everyone safe travels etc. Now we are laying by the pool of our “lodge” in Cape Town. The pool is a lot cooler than the ocean water we had aboard the ship but very refreshing…..it’s possibly going to 32C today. The humidity isn’t an issue here …..apparently but it is still stinking hot. We are still waiting on our room so that we can go out and explore. This lodge is so lovely & quaint…. very Italianisque…… sweet!

So far what we have seen of Cape Town is absolutely spectacular. Nothing like seeing it in person!!!. The ride coming into the harbour was a little dicey especially considering the entrance is like 150 feet wide and it was blowing like hell. The city seems to be spotless. There is about a 34% unemployment/homeless rate in Cape Town so they give the unemployed a bag to collect garbage. They are paid when they turn them in. Maybe we should do that with some of our homeless.

OMG we just heard that it is going to 38C tomorrow. Not sure how we are going to handle that. Didn’t do too well today. We never left the hotel pool and room today. Doesn’t help if you aren’t feeling well. I’m coughing a bit but Jeanette is really, really quite sick!!! I do hope she gets over it soon or maybe they won’t let her on the safari.

We walked to a restaurant about 15 minutes away … for dinner tonight but the guy at the lodge insisted that we get a taxi (Uber) back… 21Rand (about 2CAD). A little paranoid but maybe with good reason. It’s such a shame cuz this city is so spectacularly beautiful and appears peaceful…. in daylight anyway. .

We were delayed coming into Durban cuz of rough seas…. then were pushed into port by a tug. What a beautiful looking city! Spectacular beaches ….”the Golden Mile”, stadium near the waterfront, humongous port…. wow!

Because we didn’t have an excursion booked we just took the shuttle into Ushaka Marine Park (which seemed to be more of a shopping centre with great crafts & fashions). From there we bought an all day bus pass thinking we were getting a Hop on,Hop off. Not! By the way it costed about 1.50CAD each. First we got of at this Golden Mile Beach. Miami Beach, English Bay have nothing on this! This was the weekend at the start of summer holidays and Christmas shopping. Everybody was at the beach. We were definitely in the minority… probably less than 1/2% white. These beaches apparently have lifeguards and nets to protect swimmers from the sharks. ((Not so for most beaches in ZA. Something was happening at waters edge but because we were too far away, couldn’t determine if someone got hurt, drowned or what. We had a beer and wings (nice waiter named Ali) at “California Dreaming” that told us where to get the bus to the Victoria Market. But….. 2 busses didn’t stop cuz we didn’t flag them down. A lady explained that and said we didn’t have time to go there, that we should go back to the ship rather than miss it. So…. went back to Ushaka and shopped before getting back on board. Not enough time here. Not enough time in Maputo either.

I just remembered that when getting near to Richards Bay, they helicoptered the pilot on board. That was thrilling to watch him get dropped down ….. in gale force winds!!! Everybody was up top to watch.

Richards Bay is a new port, opening in 1976…. to export the minerals. Durban couldn’t handle anymore I gather.

There has been a drought here for the last 3 years so they are looking forward to rain. Not exactly what what we want today though.

They employ people to clear non-native vegetation so that they don’t poach to make money. They can take the wood that they cut and make handicrafts to sell that they can make more money from.

KwaZulu-Natal state (this state)… has a king with no political rights.

3 official language in this area…. that are compulsory ….required in school. Could be more depending on the number of black languages in each area. Up to grade 8 is compulsory.

There are 2 kinds of makaria. The one that attacks the brain….. can reoccur.

Forestry of eucalyptus planted and harvested. Also good for draining wetlands because they consume a lot of water. They also plant pine for harvest. Up to 170,000 hectare tracts … largest forestry belts in world.

Jacarandas are the beautiful blooming trees we see, also African Flamboyance (beautiful orange/red) tree.. national tree of Mozambique. African tulip tree … are brighter … blooms opposite time of the year.

Up to 3000 mm rain per year in this area.

If you install solar….half of the cost of it is born by government. RDP homes for the poor have solar included.

Automated unmanned weigh stations on the highway for all vehicles….. not just commercial trucks.

South Africa runs a point system for drivers like Canada.

Successive speed bumps on highways to slow traffic in area of school.

The St. Lucia Nature Park is 500,000 hectares. As we near the waterway, it’s pointed out that the

fences are put up to keep elephants in. Once they have come up against a fence they will never go near that fence again. Apparently they have excellent memory. Tree damage (also pointed out) caused by elephants trying to dig for food.

We are warned to not put hands in water cuz you may have a surprise…. you may lose your hand. Hippos cause more deaths than any other animals.

Wood artifacts (lots being sold along the road) should be purchased from tourist facility cause they can provide certificate saying that it has been treated.

There are 1000 crocs & 800 hippos in these St Luca Wetlands.

It was predominantly salt water but it’s becoming more fresh water. Quite a number of rivers feed into this St. Lucia Lake

Did you know that hippos can’t float so if you see them, they are walking on the bottom? They can travel up to 40 km/hr. They go on shore at night and into the water during day. They stay in the water because they have no sweat glands so have to to keep cool.

Average weight 1500 kgs. but 2000-3000 kgs have been recorded.

“Yellow Weavers” are the yellow birds with upside down nests.

Our guide on the boat showed us a hippo tooth that weight 1.5-2 kg and is one of ten teeth.

Marsh harrier—- diving bird.

These “white” mangroves don’t look like any mangroves I’ve ever seen…. look just like any deciduous tree except they grow in the water.

The 180 metre high sand dunes off in the distance are on the edge of the ocean.

This excursion was excellent. We saw so many hippos. At one place there were young ones on the shore and a couple of juvenile males play fighting. They were totally unconcerned that we were close by. So cool!

Here you swim at your own risk…… because there’s no nets off the shore to protect you from the Zambezi or Bull Sharks. They are low water sharks, can be in fresh or salt water.

Interesting things learnt from the lecturer

Mozambique uses rats to determine the existence of tuberculosis….and can do it faster than human lab techs.

They also use rats to search and clear land mines

Maputo, Mozambique is the absolute worst “point of entry” experience that probably any of us have gone through. Three immigration officers, “face to face”, pictures, finger prints, over 650 passengers plus the crew. Horrendously long procedure before going out to face the city. The day we were there the temperature was 36C with over 100% humidity….. brutal!

Maputo (inside joke…. Ray says it means “big airport”), was not what we/I was expecting esp. since we all know they had a terrible civil war not that terribly long ago. I expected Mombasa all over again. Not! First there is this 3 km long bridge span in the process of being built. It will be the longest suspension bridge in Africa. We heard that is being financed & built by the Chinese. (Amazing seeing as we can’t get our Johnson Street bridge built…..the steel which is being built by Chinese, that is nothing as elaborate as this one….. completed & in a reasonable time)! This city is huge, with all kinds of high rises, wide avenues, (I heard also with beautiful mansions…. residential areas….. had been way ahead of and more beautiful than Portugal before the civil war. The war began after Portugal gave the country its independence). We did a walking tour but were not impressed! We wanted to go back after the tour but the heat/humidity was just so oppressive…. we just couldn’t!

This place looked a lot better than Mombasa right from the get-go. It was a quite a picture as we were having breakfast on the Terrace Cafe, of the mist hanging atop the trees with the dhows in the bay but of course this one time I didn’t have my phone to get a picture.

Our excursion this day was to go to Prison Island.

Amour is our guide. When we drove through Stone Town he asked us why it was famous and why we thought it was called that. “It’s was cause the buildings are made from stone instead of coral”. Really!!!

There is a big Arab influence here because Oman had colonized it up until 1964.

There are 3 reasons the women of Tanzania wear the burka ….. for strict religious reasons, to hide their identity in places where someone may recognize them & for fashion.

Something was mentioned about a hotel or area owned by Aga Khan.

The area where we caught the dhow used to take us snorkelling, has lovely hotels… at least from the outside and beautiful whites sandy beaches… like sugar mixed with butter.

Othman Ramadhan … a nice young man of 20 I met on the dhow. He was one of 3 that came into the water and kept corralling us in the water and making sure we didn’t drown. They were all very good. The coral here was alive (as opposed to in the Seychelles), beautiful colours and shapes but not nearly the number of fish.

At Prison Island, they used to imprison unruly prisoners not slaves although the prison was built original to house the slaves but slavery was abolished before it was completed. Then the prison was used as a quarantine station for people suffering from cholera, yellow fever & smallpox.

Now it has a resort as well as a restaurant for non resort guests. There are also now 500 turtles/tortoises Alhambra turtles here… originally from Seychelles. They are fresh water turtles. The oldest being 192 years. The females have short tails… the males have longer tails.

This stop was really quite lovely. I wouldn’t mind coming back another time. It was clean and quite well taken care of. Different…… mostly Muslim it seems. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it.

As we were leaving Zanzibar, the captain informed us that we have 1469 knotical miles to go to get to Maputo….. a long way. Because we are not stoping in Madagascar (because of the “Plague”), we will be at sea for 4 days….. dodling along.

We were sailing out of Zanzibar for about an hour when there was a loud speaker announcement calling “Code Mike” to the pool deck. Less than another hour later we had turned around and were heading back to Zanzibar because of a medical emergency. I hope whoever it was makes it….. unlike the guy in the Seychelles.

Jeanette and I went into Mombasa on the shuttle , looked around for a Tuk tuk…. (those three wheeled vehicles that you see in all the poorer countries), after walking for less than3 minutes. Reason being it was so, so,sooooo very hot and steamy. OMG the thought of walking around in it was unbearable. Anyway we bartered with a young man to take us around the city for an hour for 20USD for the two of us. He wanted 50 to start. We have found in previous places, that they expect to be paid for each passenger….different than at home. There were lots of “security” on the street (but with no guns that I saw). The place was crawling with people,people eking out a living with fruit and vegetable stall(tin shacks), some clothes stalls too but the streets were piled with garbage wherever you looked. It was disgusting! There was nothing worth seeing that I could see….. no redeeming qualities whatsoever. A couple of times while on the tuk tuk, I had some temporary scary thoughts. Once was when he ran out of gas. I thought maybe this is where he demands more money or he wouldn’t take us back to where he had picked us up. No…… but he had to push it a ways to the gas station to fill up. The other time I had the thought that he was take us to god knows where and then would be demanding more money to take us back. “Same same but only different”. We did do an excursion in the afternoon to Haller Park….. previously a quarry turned into a nature park. On the way there our guide pointed out the area that we drove through, describing it as the area that the “capitalist” live in, having their own shops, grocery stores, schools, yadda, yadda. That, I am sure because their own residences are shamefully disgusting. Oh yes, the streets have speed bumps every 100 feet or so. Incredibly annoying and jarring. First animal we saw after arriving at the park, was a hippo named Leo that the guide called. He came from across the pond but not really close. There where was a huge tortoise about 150 yrs old, we saw couple of elands, several oryx (beautiful colouring), water buffalo, herds of giraffes that I/we fed (they have 18 inch tongues)and at 4 pm, the hippos came out of the water and waddled across the field to be fed. Huge,huge, fat bodies on stubby legs….. you got to wonder how they manage to hold themselves up. The water buffalos, Eland’s, oryx’ and monkeys all ate together with them. Very cool! Well I guess Mombasa does have one plus.

Once back to the pier there were men and women selling handcrafts. Beautiful work, wood… giraffes, elephants. Should have bought but I’m not sure we could carrying them in our luggage. Maybe later we’ll get another chance.

I found a hand written note from a few days ago…. notes taken from a lecture previous to arriving in the Seychelles. 
The Seychelles is a nation of 115 islands with a population of only 90,000 most of which are on the island of Mahe.. … the largest. 

El Nina from a few years ago,has affected the health of the coral reefs in the islands. I can attest to their health. So much of the reefs have died. What a shame!

The Seychelles apparently, are referred to as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean.  

93% of the islanders are Catholic. So different than the Maldives that are predominantly Muslim. Although you should be modestly clothed everywhere we have been, I didn’t feel that we “watched” like when in the Maldives. According to some “body”, the women of the Seychelles get 6th place ranking in the world. Pretty darn good if you ask me 

If you see “rursettes”(not sure of the spelling) on the menu,it is fruit bars. Yuck! I’ll pass. We did see very large ones of them flying around so I wouldn’t say they are harvesting them to extinction. 

The Coco de Mer palm that Jeanette saw, live between 290-400 years. Maybe that is why they have the worlds largest nuts. The male palm has what looks like a penis and the female counterpart looks like the human female anatomy. Hmmmmm….

In the islands (i was hoping to see them but alas did not) they have rock formations that are called “champions”…. I think. They are flat topped with vegetation. The seas erode the bottoms until they collapse. Would have loved to have seen them. Not enough time. 

The Seychelles are 1000 miles from the coast of Africa, have almost no unemployment, have to import 90% of their food and have the highest GDP of any nation in Africa. 

Last night the decks on level five were “closed for security reasons”. Probably the upper decks were closed too. The lights outside our stateroom were off, others were told to not have the lights on their balconies on & there was no “communication” according to my “Marine Traffic” app so as to not show where we were located. Do you think there was a possibility of pirates in the area??? Thankfully there were no issues. Interesting though!
Tonight we have another Captain’s cocktail party for previous guests of Oceania. Free drinks again! We have a new captain on board so we’ll have an opportunity to meet him. He is much “drier” than the last. 
Nothing much else is happening today besides needlepoint get-together and the guest lecturer (who is quite fabulous), cuz we are still at sea. Oh and don’t forget the eating. I’m sure I will have gained all I had lost. 
I forgot to mention that during our first day in the Seychelles while snorkelling, one of the guests on our excursion, suffered a heart attack and died.  
The last couple of days the air temperature and sea temperature have both been 28C. The air though has been laden with humidity….. a bit uncomfortable. I have been hiding out in the shade enjoying the breeze on the shady side of deck 5 cuz I think I over did it with the heat that last day in Praslin. Maybe by tomorrow I’ll be able to handle the temperature on my excursion while in Kenya.