Random thoughts from the sea
Day 71, Grand World Voyage Wednesday, March 15, 2023; Cape Town, South Africa. Raise your hand if you thought the Cape of Good Hope was the southern tip of Africa? If so, you are wrong. But didn’t we learn that in school? The most southern point in Africa is Cape
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Day 68, Grand World Voyage Sunday, March 12, 2023; Port Elizabeth/Gqeberha, South Africa. By the time I checked the Holland America excursions in Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha), South Africa, both non-safari day trips were sold out. For those who haven’t chosen to take overnight safaris, there are several day-trip safari options,
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Day 66, Grand World Voyage Friday, March 10, 2023; Kruger National Park, South Africa. How do you measure the success of an African safari? Some say by “hunting down” the Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo. At one time that meant hunting with guns, and those were
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Day 65, Grand World Voyage Thursday, March 9, 2023; Kruger National Park, South Africa. “Look, it’s a yellow bird!” “There’s a red bird.” “It’s Big Bird!” “I see another red bird through the bush … wait, it’s the elusive Red-Tailed Toyota!” Who knew there were birds among the elephants, lions,
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Day 64, Grand World Voyage Wednesday, March 8, 2023; Kruger National Park, South Africa. We weren’t in the park for more than 15 minutes when we saw impalas and then zebras near the road. And then – elephants! To be specific, a BIG elephant that seemed to challenge our much
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Day 59, Grand World Voyage Friday, March 3, 2023; La Possession, Réunion. Today ended with the disappointing news that we won’t stop at Madagascar. The reason: Tropical Cyclone Freddy, one of the longest-lived cyclones in history. Tropical Cyclone Freddy formed in early February as a “disturbance” in the Timor Sea
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Day 58, Grand World Voyage Thursday, March 2, 2023; Port Louis, Mauritius. Today we visited Mauritius — one of the small island countries scattered around the Indian Ocean on the eastern side of Africa. I didn’t know much about this island or the nearby La Réunion, which we will visit
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Day 57, Grand World Voyage Wednesday, March 1, 2023; Indian Ocean. I guess these waters of the Indian Ocean are charted – and probably well charted given satellite technology – but they are new to me. Today is our seventh day at sea since leaving Fremantle, Australia. The month of
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Day 50, Grand World Voyage Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023; Fremantle, Western Australia My last memories of Fremantle were of our abrupt end to the 2020 Grand World Voyage as the cloud of coronavirus descended upon us in late March. We never planned to visit here, but there we were rushed
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Day 48, Grand World Voyage Monday, Feb. 20, 2023; At Sea, Great Australian Bight. Leaving the ms Amsterdam suddenly almost three years ago was traumatic for the 1,000-plus passengers. We knew little about this mysterious virus coming from Asia. No one on our ship was sick, but reports from a
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