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It was a bumpy ride last night but nothing fell over and we mostly slept through it. We are eager to go sightseeing again and today we are in Namibia. Namibia has already been on my countries visited list because of a trip made to Africa a few years ago that included visits to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia as we visited the Victoria Falls area. So how did Namibia make my visited list at that time? It turns out Namibia shares part of its border with Botswana, along the Zambezi River. We went to a floating restaurant in the Zambezi River that was located on the Namibia side of the river. While there I also had a Namibian beer so I rationalized that I had indeed visited Namibia. My conscious has bothered me (somewhat) about that claim since that time so today will clear my conscious and legitimize my claim of visiting the country of Namibia.

Namibia is the driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa and is noted for its huge sand dunes and the “skeleton coast”. It is a relative new country, having gained its independence from South Africa only in 1990. Prior to that it was a German colony in the late 19th century and into the 20th century before South Africa took over after WWI.  Its population is only about 2.5 million people. Its main economy is based on agriculture, tourism and mining (diamonds, uranium, gold silver). People rave about its physical attractions and the animals that inhabit its dramatic climate. Walvis Bay is the 2nd largest city of the country with a population of 62,000 people. Its deep water port is important to the country’s economy and has been since its discovery in back in 1485.

I chose a tour (Treasures of the Namib Desert by Off-Road Vehicle) that would take us away from the city and into the desert area surrounding it to see its famous dunes and a unique plant that supposedly lives for a thousand years! The Walvis Bay port where we docked was busy when we arrived but it was only a short distance before we entered a world of sand, sand and more sand! Because of these conditions we traveled in small groups(6) in 4WD vehicles as we soon found ourselves on sand and dirt roads. We soon entered Namib-Naukluft National Park, noted for its moonscape like landscape and made several stops for pictures and explanations about the area and the vegetation that somehow manages to thrive there. The major attraction in the area is to see the endemic Welwitschia (named after the Austrian botanist and doctor, Friedrich Welwitsch, who first saw and described it in 1859) plant which can often live a thousand years. It is not a pretty plant in my opinion!

We stopped at an oasis in the park for some refreshments and snacks before proceeding to the famous Dune 7 located near Walvis Bay. It is the tallest dune in Namibia, with a height of 1,256 feet!  Its name is because it is the seventh dune after crossing the Tsauchab River. We were given time to climb it (if you hurried) which many younger people who were visiting it were doing. If you are successful the fun thing is to slide down it on a sheet of plastic or cardboard! We chose the wiser option of walking (not easy as the sand is very fine and you tend to sink in at each step) part of the way up and simply enjoying the views.

After experiencing the dune we were driven to the Walvis Bay Lagoon where a huge flock of flamingos resided. It was quite a sight.

On our way back to the ship I was impressed by some of the waterfront homes lining the shore. You would have thought you were in the USA. The homes were large and very modern and we were told the prices were cheap (by US standards). Too bad it is so hard to get here!

The entertainment this evening was a Beatles Dance Party hosted by the singers of the Production staff and the Regent Signature orchestra. We watched a bit but decided it was a bit too chaotic for us and retired to the luxury of our suite.

This is the last port of call before we reach our disembarking port of Cape Town, South Africa, but to get there we have one more day at sea to enjoy.

We had to move clocks ahead one hour again but because we had no place to go it did not cause any inconvenience. The routine on these last few days at sea have been the same; I can almost predict what was being offered at what time of the day. Geography lesson for the day: What is the largest continent?  Turns out it is Asia, but Africa is #2 in size and we really do not appreciate how really big it is!

I had received a voice mail on our suite phone last night by a fellow passenger who had seen me on TV and offered to tell me more about the Century Travel Club based in CA. I had known about this organization before but never pursued joining. It is a national club that attracts people interested in traveling. Supposedly there are local chapters that meet for lunch/dinner and talk about travel. We decided to meet them and discuss what the club had to offer. They gave us the list of countries that the century club acknowledges for their list of countries; it is much more extensive then the list of UN countries that I have been using. They did show us that there is a Seattle based group that meets regularly. I may have to revisit whether it is worth joining.

The ship’s chef created another focused luncheon buffet; today it was German and I enjoyed some authentic German sauerkraut, sausage and German potato salad for lunch.

Trivia has become very popular on this trip and they have moved the session to the big theater when it is not being used for other purposes so there would be more room for all the attendees. John, the Cruise Director, usually is the host and today he promised an easier version after the tough one he gave yesterday. Well, it worked and we took 2nd place.

Our trivia group, consisting of two couples from Australia and England plus ourselves had agreed to meet for dinner this evening and we had a pleasant discussion about a variety of topics, including travel plans (obviously), how people met, where they live, etc. We had a good time.

The Greek guitar player, Dimitris Dekavallas,  offered a second show tonight where he played more commonly known (to us) songs of varying genres. He was joined for awhile by Floggie Flax.

Added note: A most unusual and somewhat scary event occurred during one of the recent nights. I had forgotten to make a note of when it happened, so am adding it to this particular blog for historical purposes. About 1 AM we were awakened by an announcement that was broadcast in our room. The cruise director asked if there were any male passengers on board with type A+ blood as there was an emergency need for it. Neither of us could assist but we later learned from one of our trivia partners that he did have that blood type and went to assist. He was the 2nd person to arrive at the medical center and eventually was told he was not needed. We never heard what the issue was or the outcome. I did look up how common is A+ blood type and found it is very common-34% of people have that blood type so there would have been plenty of people on board who could donate blood. Yvonne though perhaps someone had fallen and severely cut him/herself, but a later conversation with an Australian doctor indicated that it could have also resulted from an internal bleeding issue. He also indicated that you simply cannot take blood from someone and immediately transfer it to another person as the blood needs to be filtered and other things done to it before it can be used. He would be surprised that the ship could do all that. Obviously they could and it is reassuring to know that it is available in the case of an emergency. End of story.

It is expected to be a bumpy ride tonight as we make our way to Walvis Bay, Namibia, our next stop.

This was another quiet day, so much so that I took hardly any pictures to share with you.

The highlight of the day might have been a lecture I attended on the history of Bossa Nova, which became extremely popular in the early 1960s and made famous by Brazilian, Antonio Carlos Jobim. And the most famous song we all remember is “The Girl from Impamena”. A bit of trivia: that song was recorded over 300 times by various singers and although Jobim’s version is the one we all know, he has not the first to record it. A fellow Brazilian, Pery Reibro, supposedly was the first. Also the lyrics were changed when the popular version came out. Another fun fact: Jobim was originally a piano player, later switching to the guitar which is how we remember him.

In November 1962 a concert featuring boss nova music was introduced to the American public in Carnegie Hall. It was soundly panned by the critics! So much for what critics know, for it became a great popular musical genre for many years. Our lecture included a few songs from that era, sung by members of the production staff with the lecturer accompanying them on his guitar. It was unique and a fun lecture.

Bingo, trvia, cocktails and dinner filled up the rest of the day, and our violinist, Susana, provided the after dinner evening entertainment with her second show since coming on board.

Thus ended another “hard day at the office”!

 

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This is day one (of three) of days at sea as we work our way from São Tomé to our next port of call, Walvis Bay, Namibia. No need to wake up early so no alarm was set and we both managed to sleep until about 9AM. Yvonne admits she has been sleeping pretty well since being on board and I suggested that maybe we should spend more time cruising which she quickly dismissed as not a good idea.

Because we had crossed the equator last night the ship performed the rituals normally done when one crosses the equator this morning on the pool deck. This ritual goes back to long ago as sailors were “baptized” on the event of their first crossing. Known as “pollywogs” before making the crossing they were baptized and made into “shellbacks”, people who have crossed the equator previously. King Neptune presided over the event which in modern days involves being doused with ice cold water and kissing a fish! John, our cruise director, donned the proper King Neptune attire, and was accompanied by the production staff dressed in appropriate nautical/ seafaring gear to oversee the ritual with much fanfare (music by Queen) and noise. Surprisingly there were about 30 people who admitted this was their first time crossing the equator and dressed appropriately (swim suits) to be “baptized” by King Neptune himself. It was all in great fun. Yvonne and I have had the privilege of multiple equator crossings so we simply watched the proceedings.

Before we knew it it was late afternoon and time for trivia, and because it was a sea day our whole team was there and we managed to finally win the event, although we only got 12/15 questions correct. It was a hard quiz!!

We cornered Terry & Barb Toth, whom we had met earlier in the cruise, and suggested having dinner together which we did. Terry has led a fascinating career as a musician (

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degree in music- trumpet), magician, editor, vineyard owner, and publication consultant including setting up the 401K program literature/training for GE. Talk about a varied career!

Foggie Flax, the UK comedian, impersonator and singer, performed another show after dinner. His impersonations of sounds and singers was outstanding. He kept us enthralled and laughing throughout the show.

This ended another “tiring(😀)” day of cruising. Good night, all…

Every hear about São Tomé & Principe? Neither had I. It is the second smallest and second least populated country of Africa (after Seychelles). They are two separate islands located 93 miles apart. The islands are located about 150 miles from the coast of Africa. São Tomé actually sits on the equator. The country was originally occupied by the Portuguese, and that is still its official language. It was settled by the Portuguese in the 15 century and throughout the 16 century it was an important part of the Atlantic slave trade. It also was a big producer of sugarcane during that period. São Tomé and Principe received its independence in 1975 and remains one of Africa’s most stable and democratic countries. Not surprisingly most people are Catholic(81%). The total population is about 221,000 with 72,000 living on the island of São Tomé.

Again there were not many tours offered and I selected one called “Highlights of São Tomé” figuring it would give us the best overview of a country we knew nothing about. There was no dock capable of handling our size ship so we had to tender in, the first (and luckily the only time) we will have to do so. It was another warm day and the tender has limited ventilation so it is not the most pleasant mode of transportation. On top of that there was a bit of a swell on the ocean so the tender would raise up and down with respect to the loading platform so the crew had to time when people could board, further slowing down the process and since the tender holds about 125 people it was a slow process of getting from the ship to the shore. Furthermore the landing area on the pier was limited in size and we had the same problem of a bobbing ship with respect to the pier so unloading was also a slow process.

However, it was accomplished and we began our local tour in fairly old, small buses that held about 20 people. It did have large windows that would open so the ride was not unpleasant. We drove along the coastline for a bit stopping at a beach where fishermen were mending their nets. Everywhere we went people were very friendly, waving and saying hello. As you will see from the pictures the homes are pretty primitive, however, everyone was dressed in clean clothes.

The next stop was at the local church where we were entertained by a group of dancers of varying ages. We also attracted a large crowd of local people who seemed interested in their visitors. After about 10 minutes of vigorous dancing the dancers all lined up and wanted to shake our hand, which we graciously accommodated.

Stop three was a quick walk through the downtown area where another set of dancers performed for us followed by a walk through their bustling market and eventually ending up at their national museum, located in a 16th century fortress on the shores of the port. A lighthouse was added to the fortress in 1866. The museum contains religious and colonial era artifacts. Unfortunately the signage is in Portuguese and a local guide was not available to explain much of what was on display, so our visit was a bit of a disappointment to me.

Returning to the ship was a bit of a hassle as it was very hot, many of the tours ended at the same time so there was a large crowd gathered at the pier and only one tender can land/board at a time. Luckily the crew was handing out cold juice and water as we waited and we managed to get one of the earlier transports back to the coolness of our ship.

We arrived back at the ship to find it decorated for Christmas-trees and garland everywhere!  We also learned that there was now an art focused scavenger hunt being held. The ship’s photographer went around and took pictures of various artwork around the ship and created a 4 page montage of pictures, including some sneaky cropping of a picture, making it more difficult to determine what it was. We had two days to locate the art and write down where it was located. Those who successfully identified the works would get additional Regent Reward points. Game on!

Tonight was another new on board entertainer-Greek classical guitarist, Dimitris Dekavalla, who has performed in many famous venues like Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and the Vatican. His show tonight focused on the Spanish guitar; he was good.

Tomorrow begins another couple of days at sea as we work our way to Namibia, our next stop.

 

 

Not much to report today other than another day of games, lectures, food and entertainment! We chose to have a quiet sit down breakfast in the dining room and were rewarded because the special of the day was a stuffed French toast, one of Yvonne’s favorites and I opted for one of my favorites-Swedish pancakes with lingonberry preserves! It was a good way to start the day.

Each evening when they do a turn-down of our room they leave a copy of “Passages”, which highlights the activities offered the next day. There is also a 4 page newspaper with nightlights of happenings around the world. There is an option to get a full blown copy of several papers but I don’t need to know that much about the world when I am on vacation.

I was intrigued and attended a 11 AM lecture given by the Chief Engineer about technical details about the ship. It is pretty impressive of what it takes to keep a ship of this size and complexity running smoothly.

I skipped the gambling tournaments as I figured I could never repeat my winning the blackjack tournament earlier in the cruise. however, I did participate in several of the competitions to win more Reward points and we participated in our daily trivia competition.

Sophie, one of the lead singers on the production staff offered a pre-dinner solo concert in one of the cocktail lounges which we attended. She is from the UK and just graduated from college. Being on this ship is her first real job and she admits to be nervous. No need to be as she is a natural!  She has a great voice and great “banter” with the audience between songs. I expect she will be a big hit someday and told her I look forward to seeing her “in lights” someday.

The after dinner show was by a new performer, Susana, a gifted violinist from Hungary, who entertained us with a variety of different music genres.   She, along with Foggie Flax, had just boarded the ship for the next few days to entertain us.  These entertainers must lead a trying life, flying in/out of often strange airports to board a ship for a few days before moving on to another gig elsewhere.

Tomorrow we will be in the small country of São Tomé & Principe, a series of islands off the coast of Africa.

Togo becomes the 100th United Nations country we have visited and it wins by default as we were not allowed to visit both Senegal and Ivory Coast prior to landing here. Coming into the harbor it became obvious that Lome is a major port. There were ships and cranes everywhere!

The official name of the country is the Togolese Republic. The official language is French. It is a small country (22,000 square miles but only 71 miles wide) with a population of about 8 million people. Its main product is agriculture. From the 16-18th centuries it was a big part of the slave trade and was known as the “slave coast”. It was ruled by the Germans, then the French and gained its independence in 1960. The capital is Lome, where we have docked.

As has become the case with these lesser developed countries the tour options were fairly limited and I selected one that would educate us a bit about their dedication to voodoo practices and experience some of their music and dance. Our first stop was at the local voodoo market where “products” are sold that are associated with voodoo and local medicine practices. It was a bit disgusting as dead animal parts were being sold that are used in voodoo rituals and medicine. If I understood our local guide properly when you are ill you go to the local hospital to be diagnosed. It the doctor feels your malady should be treated by the local tribal doctor you are sent to him for treatment. He, in turn, would send you to the voodoo market to purchase the proper animal part(s) to be returned to the tribal doctor who would transform it into the medicine needed to treat your ills! Hard to believe such practices are still in place today, but apparently old traditions are hard to break in these countries. We did not stay long in the marketplace as the sights and smells prompted us to move on fairly quickly!

Next we were driven to a local school where, even though it was a Sunday, children had gathered to meet us and entertain us with song.

From there it was a short ride to a local Ewe tribal village to experience the music, song and dance of the Togolese people. We were met at the entrance of the village by a fairly large group of singing people, and a local leader (priest?) who performed a ritual welcoming for visitors to their village. Once we entered the village we were met by a procession of village elders and the local king(?)/elder and his entourage, with much singing, drumming and dancing. We were given some free time to explore the village area. The whole event was marred by the fact that there were simply too many people from our ship here and it was difficult to see much of what was going on. Also, I had hoped there would be crafts for sale but surprisingly there were none! I was disappointed I would not be able to secure a souvenir of my visit.

Thus ended our tour of Togo. It was back to the ship for more trivia competition, dinner and a evening show that featured a recently boarded entertainer with the funky stage name of “Foggie Flax”. It turns out he was quite an entertainer and a darn good vocal impersonator, who sang some great songs mimicking the sounds of the original singer.

Tomorrow will be another day at sea, as we work our way to our next port of call, São Tomé & Principe.

 

Our port of call is the twin citiy of Sekondi-Takoradi, the largest city in the western region of the Republic of Ghana (the formal name of Ghana). Ghana is the 2nd most populated country in Africa (after Nigeria) with a population of 31 million plus people. It was the first African country to become independent, gaining its independence from the UK in 1957. Sekondi-Takoradi is basically an industrial city known for its timber, cocoa processing, plywood and more recently oil, shipping and deep water port. It served as a major staging area for British aircraft during WWII, to be used in the African conflicts.

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that we had to have our temperatures taken before we could disembark in Ghana, so several locations were set up on-board the ship where we could go for the quick test. Did not hear of anyone failing the test.

The choices for tours were very limited and I picked one that advertised we would experience local music and dance as part of the tour.  I was surprised at the bus we boarded for the tour, as it was fairly modern and decorated rather “lavishly” with heavily tinted rose colored windows and tassels hanging on all the interior windows! It reminded me of the type of buses you often see in India and Malaysian countries. driving through the streets of town it was obvious this was a poor country.

Our first stop was at the Bisa Aberwa Museum which turned out to be delightful. It is a museum dedicated to the heroes of the African struggles and civil rights movements, and contains several thousand sculptures in wood, ceramic, and other artistic representations, along with photographs. It is considered one of the best private such museums in the world. It was great but unfortunately we were not given much time to simply appreciate what it held. I could have easily spent a few hours there, it was that good.

From there we were transported to one of the more glamorous hotels in the area where we were able to have beverages (good local beer, soda, water), sample local snacks (dried banana chips) which were quite good.  We watched local dancers with their accompanying drummers perform some traditional Ghanaian folk dances. The hit of the show was two young boys (10-12 years old?) who danced vigorously for a long, long time even though it was quite hot and humid.

Because we are fairly close (5 degrees N) to the equator it was hot (86 degrees today with possible showers) and humid, so these fairly short, 4 hour tours, were just about right so we could get back to the cool confines of our ship, which we did after the entertainment at the hotel. Back where the ship was docked many locals had set up to sell their local art and clothing on the wharf, and I was able to add a small item to my collection of African street art!

Showers, lunch at the pool deck, and trivia completed the afternoon activities. Surprisingly there was no left over turkey on any of the menus. We are disappointed!  (We later heard that they ran out of turkey on Thanksgiving). The entertainment tonight was a repeat performance of “Tiano”, the piano/singing duo, which we decided to skip choosing instead to simply relax in our suite.

Tomorrow is a big day as I will be visiting my 100th UN country, which will be Togo since we had to skip Senegal and the Ivory Coast. There is a funny encounter I had that lead to being interviewed for the morning video posted on the ship’s television for people to see. I wanted to get a picture commemorating my visit to my 100th country so I borrowed some paper and a felt pen from the reception desk to make a sign showing “100” on it. As I was walking away I saw the cruise director, John Ekin, getting ready to film his morning show and he asked me what the 100 meant. I explained and he said he wanted to interview me for the show which I did! It will be interesting to see if anyone approaches me after it airs!

 

It was another very quiet day at sea. As I write this a week or so later I had to review what pictures I had taken to memorialize the day. There was not much to report.

I for one, did not realize how large the African continent is. Looking at the picture below you suddenly can see it is a VERY big continent! No wonder it takes so long to traverse the west coast to Cape Town. Just think how long ancient mariners took to do the same route.

Our eating locations varies with our mood. We have eaten a sit down breakfast in the main dining room on a couple occasions; others time we simply grab a coffee and pastry in the coffee connection. For a change of pace we did do the morning buffet in the Veranda dining area. Lunches also get varied, sometimes eating at the pool grill for sandwiches and salads, or at the Veranda for more selections. They also serve a sit down lunch in the main dining room which we have tried, because their menu always features some of the most popular dishes served in the specialty restaurants. I particularly like the Manhattan clam chowder which has a tomato base and is loaded with clams and vegetables. Our daily choice for a location is based on our mood of the day. Surprisingly there was no left over turkey on any of the menus today.  We are disappointed!  (We later heard that theyd actually ran out of turkey on Thanksgiving).

 

Surprisingly we have not attended the 4 PM tea since boarding the ship, other then me getting that scone with clotted cream once I found it was always on the menu. The rest of their offerings are more elaborate desserts and I guess we simply are not hungry when 4 PM rolls around. Of course the fact that trivia occurs at 4:30 makes us feel we do not have the time to leisurely enjoy the tea time.

The evening shows are always at 9:30 which works out to be a convenient time as we commonly head for dinner between 6:30 and 7:00. This evening the Production Staff put on one of their shows that featured the dance group.

Tomorrow we will be in Ghana, another new country for us.

Day 2 at sea. We slept until almost 9:30!  Has life at sea improved our sleep habits? Missed the morning lecture but grabbed a quick cup of coffee as the “county fair” was scheduled to begin at 10:30. This is a new event for us as we have never seen it on any previous cruises. Staff from each department created a simple game that reflected their department. Examples include rolling dice(casino), identifying a spice by smelling it (kitchen), identifying pictures from around the world (destination), ring toss on liquor bottles (beverage)-you get the idea. Depending on how well you did with the game you received tickets that would be good for prizes that would be raffled off after the fair. Gift items included ship items like baseball caps, teddy bears, ship models – I joked they were items that were not selling in the gift shops. There were, however, a few discount coupons to the spa and jewelry shops included in the mix. I did some of the contests and Yvonne was the photographer-in-residence. We collected about 10 tickets for the raffle but did not win anything. It was a fun event and everyone seemed to have a good time, especially the crew members who ran the booths.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing (or in my case competing for more Regent reward tickets). The seas were as flat as I have ever seen them, the temperature was moderated a bit by a cloud cover but you could definitely tell we were approaching the equator. We cruised along at a leisurely 16 knots as we have to spend another day at sea because we will not be stopping at the Ivory Coast.

Trivia at 4:30PM. It was getting so popular that we had to go up at 4:00PM to secure our seating area. Today we were victorious and took first place along with a bunch of other teams). Not a problem as all teams were given the 3 point prize awarded for 1st place.

We had a light lunch as we knew there would be turkey and all the trimmings on the menu tonight. On the video this morning the head chef said they slow cooked over 400 pounds of turkey for the day.

The entertainment schedule for the evening was shifted a bit today. Rather than the feature show being at 9:30 PM there was a 6 PM pre-dinner show featuring the resident pianist, Kathy Phippard, who had created a show revolving abound famous female singers from the 1940s to the present day. As pictures of the singers were projected on the big screen Kathy sang parts of the songs the singer had made famous. She even was able to imitate the vocal characteristics of the singer. It was a very good show down memory lane.

We again chose to “share a table” for dinner and had a pleasant surprise as we were escorted to a table where UK residents, David Baker and his wife were seated. David is one of the two lecturers on board the ship and what made it more interesting is that he worked for NASA during the same time as I was at Boeing so we had a delightful time talking about the “old days” of space exploration, the state of politics in both the UK and US, and  the shortcomings of today’s youth as we enjoyed our Thanksgiving turkey. It was a delightful evening.

Tonight’s 9:30 show was slated to be rock & roll dance party and realizing that those days are long gone, we retired to our suite and caught up on our reading before bidding Thanksgiving day, 2022 a fond farewell.

Tomorrow will be another day at sea with hopefully, a lot of left over turkey to enjoy!