Life aboard a giant floating petri dish and 2 quick stops in Africa

 Before Gary and I boarded the ship, knowing we would be in a mostly enclosed giant can sharing the space with at least 3,000 of our new closest friends we took all the health precautions we could. We updated every vaccine; Covid, Flu, and RSV, and we brought a small stash of some of the over the counter medications we use at home to treat minor ailments. We are apparently in relatively good health for people our ages, but now with ancient immune systems, we no longer bounce back from even minor ailments, we seem to crawl back. We are fastidious with hand washing, which is strongly encouraged, and because we have an understanding of the potential seriousness of shipboard contamination especially with noroviruses/intestinal ailments. 

I developed a very irritating cough that is exacerbated when I lie down. So not only was I losing sleep, but Gary was too since I have nowhere else to go. For several nights I took the cough medicine we brought from home and tried my best to sleep between the coughing attacks sitting up in bed surrounding myself with a heap of pillows. It was marginally better than trying to sleep on an airplane, at least is was soft. No other symptoms, no fever, no sore throat. On the day we were scheduled to go the single most exciting tour we had signed up for the entire trip, a full day at an African Safari, in South Africa, we needed to leave the ship at 6:00am. Even though neither of us had a good night’s sleep we showed up ready to go. It was a 3 hour drive to get to the reserve and by the time we got there I could tell I had something going on with one of my eyes. It was red, itchy and starting to weep copious amounts of gook. I washed my hands trying very hard not to touch anything and the day was actually really amazing. However by the time we got back to the ship in the late afternoon the first thing I did was to call and make an appointment with the on board medical clinic for the next morning. I knew I didn’t want to mess around with an eye infection. The cough was still a big problem at night, and by morning the infection was in both eyes which I realized when I woke up after a very restless night with both eyes glued shut with mucus. 

First thing they did was test for Covid, luckily negative and ruled out flu and then diagnosed a common cold and conjunctivitis. My first reaction was I felt insulted it was a “common” cold, not intense, complex or even intriguing. They gave me some way overpriced drugs but didn’t confine me to house arrest. After a day lying/sitting abed I decided to cancel my next day’s excursion, too fatigued, but in the afternoon went out for a short visit on shore in Namibia. So I’m starting that crawl back to my usual high level of activity and very thankful so far still nothing serious and happy for the on board medical team. By the way, it was easier to get an appointment in the clinic than at the spa, so that seems like a good sign nothing serious is happening aboard the ship. 

We had 7 days at sea from the time we left Perth, Australia until we reached Port Louis, Mauritius, a small island nation located in the southern Indian Ocean, and then another 5 days at sea until we reached Cape Town, South Africa. During this time I started each day with bridge lessons, some practice bridge hands, one or two quick games of Mahjong before lunch and then I joined the no audition pop up ship choir in the afternoons, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Because I think of travel as my graduate education in life, I then devoted myself to studying a book I brought along, The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History, by Sanjeev Sanyal. Wow! I knew virtually nothing about the history of this area, and it is dynamic and dramatic. My head was spinning trying to grasp even this basic history especially since I had a very hard time keeping track of people with names I find unpronounceable and totally unknown to me. It was a very light once over, especially with no tests or grades, but I am absolutely blown away by the extent of great civilizations about which I was clueless. We do a great disservice by not learning more about our common human history. This introduction has been one of the highlights of the trip so far for me. 

I’m learning more about how to use this blog site, which is a learning process in itself. I just figured out how to enlarge the photos, but I’ve yet to figure out how to arrange them chronologically. I’m grouping them in small groups to try to keep the narrative somewhat in order. 

The following photos are between Australia and Mauritius. 

Gorilla head mountain on Mauritius. Well named. 

A view coming back to the ship from our tour of the island. 

A national park highlighting the Seven colored sands of the island. 

Several hopeful monkeys waiting at the area where the busses were parked. 

Stunning view of Black River Gorges National Park, the highest point on the island of Mauritius. 

A stunning view down valley from our home, Hush Valley, in Costa Rica taken a few years ago. I am continually amazed at the similarities I find between localities throughout the world. By the way aren’t forests a treasure no matter where you find them?

We visited a sacred lake which is a major attraction for the many Hindu people in the area. We were told that they had recently had a festival with over 500,000 people attending. I can’t even imagine that many people in one place. 

Lots of small statues honoring Hindu deities. 

We visited a workshop where model shipbuilding is featured. The women here were attaching the sails with thread. 

Here I am getting ready for the first of our two choir performances. We learned 8 songs in 3 weeks of daily practice. Our choir director, Chase Devlin, is a full time musician/performer on the ship and he is a hoot. So much fun, but so much work. 

I could make an entire photo album of pictures I have taken of the sky and clouds. So glad we have a balcony cabin to be able to catch so many awesome heavenly moving pictures.

View of the bay at Cape Town as we headed up iconic Tabletop Mountain in the cable car. 

Tabletop Mountain dominates the city. 

Further up the mountain. 

This was highlight for both us. We had lunch on our own on top of the mountain and it was a very crowded dining space. As we were standing looking for a spot to plop down this charming young woman and boyfriend who were also tourists that day invited us to join them and found chairs to add to their table.

They are from Denmark. Unfortunately I didn’t catch her name which was unfamiliar to me. She is doing a 6 month internship in Cape Town in something that sounded like a social work field. He, Victor Christensen, works in IT in Denmark and is visiting for two weeks. They seemed shocked with the extent of our combined family. It was such an unexpected and pleasant lunch. They also expressed shock at what is happening in the USA. 

View from the cable car coming down. 

The drive to the game reserve was through the heart of the wine producing country with over 200 table grape farms in this the one valley just beyond the pass. There was section of the drive through a beautiful canyon which reminded me of a more verdant Glenwood Canyon in Colorado. 

This is very minimal housing at best. No roads, no vehicles, questionable sanitation. Lots of barefoot children. Best pictures I could get from the tour bus window. 

As we drove through the valley we passed several very sad and depressing camps which I believe were the small townships that the workers live in. Unfortunately our tour guide made no comment on them and didn’t entertain any questions on the drive. This was the troublesome side of the remnants of apartheid, much like Jim Crow in the USA. Let’s not talk about unpleasant things. 

We were only shown the sights they choose to represent the country. So much more to learn, so little time while on a cruise to gain a decent understanding of it. At least we have seen it and can be more knowledgeable about the complexities. 

Now on to the day at the Aquila Safari Reserve. It is the closest big game reserve to Cape Town and it really is more of an elaborate zoo than a wild game reserve.  But this time the guests are in the cages and the animals seem to have a well thought out, if limited, environment in which to roam. There were actually very few animals, most of which to seem to be have been rehabilitated and brought to the reserve. The guides were very knowledgeable, answering all questions and giving the full safari experience, albeit not really in a wild game reserve. 

One of our new friends took this photo of us in the truck. 

Gary loved the day. All around it was a good experience to see the animals in a relatively save and open environment. 

It is surprisingly difficult to get a good picture of hippos, especially when they are underwater at a distance. If they were rocks at least they moved slowly. 

There were several rhinos. Their horns had been removed to help protect them from poachers who kill them solely for the horns. Their heads are a strange elongated shape up close. 

The single male lion doing what it does most of the time, sleep, especially during the heat of the day. 

A couple of baboons sauntered around us not showing much interest. 

We still real don’t know if zebras are white with black stripes, or back with white stripes, but we were told the pattern creates a mirage to flies which mostly keeps them away. 

The elephants heading towards the river for water. They are so majestic. 

A couple of zebras posed for us. 

What majestic animals. Tough hide, versatile noses and tiny eyes. 

I had planned on posting about all three stops in Africa but after working on this off and on for several hours today I’ve run out of steam. I’ll post more as we now head north in the Atlantic for several days.