FRIDAY, APR 30TH--BANJUL, THE GAMBIA

We arrived in the port city of Banjul at 10am. We both went to the gym in the morning as we had a “Banjul Highlights” 4 hour tour that began at 1pm. They warned us that the tour buses would not be air conditioned and they weren’t. Luckily it was not a really hot day and humidity was not bad either. It did get stuffy when on the bus but there was a pleasant breeze when outside in the shade. We left the port area on a very rough road and drove through the city of Banjul. Our tour guide spoke very good English as that is there national language. It did not take very long to see that The Gambia was a VERY poor country. It reminded of the living conditions in Haiti. Hopefully you will see the poverty reflected in my photos. Our first stop was at a jewelry shop. It was so small and with two buses dumping 60 people out it was pretty much a waste. The shop was on a back street. I overheard a woman behind me say, “This is the jewelry store?”. Next we drove to the much larger city of Sierre-Kunda where we visited a tie-dying demonstration that really was a market place selling tie-dyed materials so was more of a shopping stop. Back on the bus for a short ride to a little open air restaurant for a soda, local beer, or cold water. Here I met a young man who was wearing an interesting cap. He was very friendly so we talked for quite a while and then he led me a few doors down from the restaurant to his music shop. He proudly displayed a collection of old 78 LP records. He even had a record player for them. He tried to sell me his cap and the jewelry he was wearing--he would sell me ANYTHING. Next stop was at a small market with local crafts and souvenirs. After some shopping time we boarded smaller buses for a ride down narrow streets to the museum and crocodile pool. After reboarding the small buses that took us to the larger bus we headed back down the highway to Banjul. We made brief photo stops at a mosque and Arch 22 before heading back to the ship. The whole pier had became a huge market place with wood, leather, jewelry, and clothing products. We were shopped out and had to get ready for our 6:30 reservation in Prime 7 for dinner with our friends, Cynthia & John. Our day in The Gambia was very interesting for sure. It was a dirty place with dust covering everything, open sewers running along some streets, and garbage everywhere. Despite the poverty and dirt, the people seemed very friendly and happy. It would be interesting to see Gambia 10 years from now to see if things have improved. I hope so!

THURSDAY, APR 29TH--AT SEA

We took our weekly anti-malaria pills last night at dinner. At least the side effects of the med is minimal now. I have yet to see even one mosquito since arriving in Africa. Oh, well, better safe than sorry. Another nice day here cruising just off the coast of Guinea. It’s now 91F at 3pm and still have a smooth ride. We were planning to dock in Banjul, Gambia, tomorrow morning at 8am but the port ask our Captain to plan on arriving at 10am instead. Guess our parking space is occupied until then. So our planned morning tour was moved to 1pm. Gambia is the smallest country in Africa and is only 30 miles wide. The Gambia River flows down the middle of the country which is bordered on all three sides by the country of Senegal, and of course, the Atlantic Ocean forms its western border. Gambia gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1965. It has a population of 1.7 million, 1/3rd of which make less than $1.25 a day. 70% of its work force is employed in agriculture. Peanut growing and processing is a big part of their ag industry. In case you are thinking of invading Gambia, think again. They have a 1900 person army! Tonight we will be dining up in the La Veranda restaurant as several different pastas are featured there this week. The phone connection was good today so talked with my parents and our friends in Pensacola. Time to head to the gym.

WEDNESDAY, APR 28TH--AT SEA

Sad to say but two weeks from today and our incredible cruise around the world will be history. Well, we still have lots of time left so will make the most out of it. We still have a few evenings open for dinner with our friends but that is rapidly being filled. So this morning I uploaded the Togo & Ghana photos on the blog for you and made the posting for yesterday. So both Tuesday and Wednesday’s posting will have been added today. From 11am to after 1pm we went to a “white elephant” auction that benefit’s the “crew fund“. Jamie did a wonderful and entertaining job as auctioneer and squeezed a lot of extra “nickels” out of every bidder. The item that brought the most money was an Italian dinner with the Captain, General Manager, and his wife in the Captain’s quarters plus the Captain, an Italian, will make the pasta. The high bid was $2300. All together they raised over $30,000 during the 2 hours. We have some very generous passengers for sure! Tonight is a formal night so have to dust of the ole tuxedo. The headline entertainer for tonight is a pianist & singer named Marty Henne. We have not heard him but sounds like it will be a good show. Sorry, but still could not handle the flute player last night. It turned into a pretty nice day with a few clouds, 83F, and smooth sailing again. Even though the Captain said on the PA at 1:30pm that we were offshore of Liberia, we are mid way up the coast of Sierra Leone. Maybe I get a job as navigation officer?? We have another sea day tomorrow and will arrive at our next port, Banjul, Gambia, at 10am on Friday.

TUESDAY, APR 27TH--AT SEA

I am a day behind on writing. I got sidetracked yesterday as received an email from Toni & Tom, our friends back in Pensacola, Florida. We have cruised with them a couple of times plus went to Las Vegas with them last July. Toni said they were going to Las Vegas for 5 nights from June 28th to July 3rd to celebrate their 47th anniversary and Tom’s birthday and wanted us to come along. Why not!! So I spent most of the day trying to get it booked. With the snail pace internet here on ship I had problems with either Travelocity timing out or my internet session timing out. Took some time to get booked on same flights as they will be flying through DFW on way to Vegas. Finally got it all booked. I also managed to get the photos I took in Togo and Ghana edited and ready to upload but it was after 4pm by then and had to go to the gym and workout for a couple of hours. We had dinner with our friends from Chicago, Karen & Larry. Larry really helped me a lot prior to this World Cruise as they had done one in 2007. Yesterday we sailed offshore of the Ivory Coast and last night offshore Liberia. It was a cloudy day with an occasional rain shower and some thunderstorms last night but the ride is smooth so no complaints.

MONDAY, APR 26TH--TAKORADI, GHANA

This morning we arrived at Takoradi, one of the deep port cities for the West African country of Ghana. Takoradi is the largest city closest to the Equator and the Prime Meridian making it the most central location on the world map. Our ship’s present location is 5N and 1W. Ghana has a population of nearly 25 million, and sadly, 28% of them make less than $1.25 a day. The country exports the metal ores manganese & bauxite and also mines gold and diamonds. It also exports lumber and plywood from its rainforests in the north. Ghana is #2 in the world in exporting cocoa butter and the quality of it is #1. Cocoa bean production is the main agricultural crop and employs 40% of the agriculture sector. Our “Twin City Tour of Takoradi & Sekondi” departed at 8:30 this morning and the first stop was at the West African Mills, a cocoa processing factory. The beans are brought to the factory in burlap sacks for processing. They go several different screening machines to remove leaves, pods, and other foreign materials before being roasted in high heat kilns for only 5 minutes to dry them out. Next they up in huge hydraulic presses. Lastly they go into centrifuges and the cocoa butter extracted. Then it is packaged into 25 kilo (55 lb) boxes for exporting mainly to the USA and England. This was definitely the best smelling factory I have ever been in. From here our buses drove through the cities to show us how the Ghana people live. I was most impressed with their friendliness. Everywhere we went the men, women, and children had big smiles and waves to us. Many of the smiles revealed an interesting set of teeth or lack there of. Well, it is now later in the afternoon and I am just back from taking the shuttle down to the market. I walked around for about 40 minutes and got a completely different feel from the people. They did not seem as friendly but think that is because I was carrying my camera. I soon figured out that they did not like photos taken of them. Guess if I was in their place I would not appreciate it either. When you see the photos you will see that the market was not a tourist market place but purely for the locals to buy and sell to each other. Ok, now back to our tour this morning. The last stop was at a hotel for refreshments and to watch a cultural show with drums and dancers. Back at the dock there were some stands set up to sell handicrafts but we did not find anything we really needed. The ship in front of ours has wheat from Russia being unloaded into huge trucks and taken to a local flour mill. Oil has been discovery offshore Ghana and production will begin later this year. The next 3 days will be at sea again so I will have time to upload the pictures I took in Togo and Ghana. Tonight we will be dining with Bill & Rose from Alexandria, VA. Tonight’s show is featuring Soren Wohlers, another of the young, talented ship’s singers. Carly’s show last night will be hard to top.

SUNDAY, APR 25TH--LOME, TOGO

We were awakened just before 7am to the sound of someone playing a trumpet out on the pier. It didn’t last very long as the ship’s security people probably ask him to stop playing. A while later a local drum band and several dancers began performing at the gangway as passengers were leaving the ship for their tours. Our tour was not until 1:50 in the afternoon so we decided to take a shuttle bus from ship into the town of Lome to see the markets. We only lasted about 40 minutes as we were followed and hounded constantly by several of the locals hawking their wares. For some reason the shuttle bus guide accompanied us through the market and helped us. It was a huge market with thousands of “stalls” where the man or woman displayed their souvenirs. Most of their stuff was made of wood and quite nice. There was also lots of hand made necklaces, bracelets, earrings, leather bags, clothes, etc. Rebecca found some more necklaces she bought. I would have liked to looked around longer but these people would not stop bugging me and I became uncomfortable with them so close. It was also very hot and humid so we headed back to the bus. After lunch we headed out for our “Voodoo Ceremony in Sanguera” tour. Sanguera was a small village about a 45 minute drive north of Lome. The country of Togo was pretty much as I had pictured it. It has 5 ½ million inhabitants and on Tuesday it will be celebrating its 50th year of being independent. It’s a very Third World country and not modern at all. As we drove along the big and nice looking beach there were women washing clothes in big tubs and then spreading the clothes over the beach to dry. The people looked clean and seemed to be happy. The country is the largest exporter of phosphates in the world and further inland has lots of agriculture. Instead of rice as a stable of their diet they use corn meal to make a paste like food. Soups are also big in their diet. We finally arrived at a primitive village where we witnessed a traditional voodoo ceremony that lasted about an hour and was quite interesting to say the least. I have pictures of it and a video but will not upload them until after tomorrow’s stop in Ghana. We arrived back late to the ship at 5:30 and sailed shortly after 6pm. We are just going about 200 miles west up the coast and will arrive at Takoradi in Ghana tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, getting back to ship late meant we missed our church service. I talked with my mother this morning and Rebecca called her brother also. The phone connection was better than usual today. Show tonight is featuring the singing of Carly Casey, one of the ship’s talented, young singers.

SATURDAY, APR 24TH--OFFSHORE COTONOU, BENIN

Total mess here today. Was suppose to dock by 8am but apparently there was a cargo ship at our berth so waited. Then they said the cargo ship experienced engine failure so more delays. Then a storm blow over with 50 knot winds so we continued to sit bobbing around off shore. Finally at noon the Captain said another storm was coming and he did not want to get trapped in the port so we would not be docking. Curiously, they wanted to tender some entertainers to shore and bring other new ones onboard. Now at 1pm it is looking pretty good weather wise. When looking at Cotonou through my binoculars it looked to be a crappy port anyway. Think Regent only stopped at these next 3 ports because the repeating world cruisers have never been here and was new for them. I’m not real sure how safe they are. So we are going to a movie at 2pm called “The Blind Side”. Now looking like sun is going to come out. Captain better get us out of here before it does or there will be some hell raised. I’m sure they will be getting lots of complaints because we missed this port. 4pm now and just back from the movie. We are half way to Lome our next port already and looks like the Captain wants to be there before dark. Togo is a very small country that is only 40 miles wide at the coast and extends 365 miles inland. It exports phosphates, coffee, cocoa, cotton, and palm oil mostly to its neighboring countries. Apparently political instability has seriously affected its tourism industry. I am expecting a very impoverished country that is marginally safe. As I expected the Captain just made a PA saying we would be docking in Lome, Togo, at around 7:15pm so will overnight there. We have reservations for tonight in the ship’s Prime 7 Steakhouse restaurant. It’s only 76F outside so will go sit out on our balcony and watch ocean roll by. Captain has ship doing 20 kts now which is fastest I have seen it going for whole cruise.

FRIDAY, APR 23RD--AT SEA

It was another perfect day for cruising with smooth seas, sunny skies, and high temperature in mid-80’s. After 4 days at sea we are ready to see some land tomorrow. I must have been sleeping back in my high school world history class when they discussed West Africa! Get out your world atlas. I have never heard of the countries of Benin and Togo and that is where we will be the next two days. Third day is Ghana and I have heard of it so bet there was some negative news associated with it. Benin is next to Nigeria and is only 60 miles wide at the coast and 400 miles deep with a population of less than a 750,000. I seriously doubt that tourism is a big money maker here. The port city is Cotonou and is also home to the airport and a railway. Our excursion desk has prepared us to expect a Third World country with poverty and not many English speaking people. We will be taking a tour in the afternoon but in the morning we hope to take a shuttle into the city of Cotonou to do some shopping in the markets & shops. Dorothy Bishop’s show last night was really good. Tonight’s show features a return of the Australian singer, John Bowles. We loved his first show. As I mentioned a few days ago, tonight we are dining with the Chief Purser and Executive Concierge. I hope they don’t mind that I ordered veal parmesan for Rebecca and I tonight. We still have the Israeli security team with us on the ship. They will be with us until we leave Africa. Jim Barton, one of our neighbors, emailed us photos of our house today. Thanks Jim!

THURSDAY, APR 22ND--AT SEA

Another lazy sea day here off west coast of Africa abeam Congo and Gabon borders. Ocean is being nice again today and providing a smooth ride. It’s 83F and mostly sunny at 3:30pm. I just spotted a huge off shore oil drilling platform in the distance and it’s probably 200 miles from land. We will be crossing the Equator for the last time on this cruise tonight. Well, our oyster & shrimp dinner last night was not so good. At least the chef tried. Only lasted about 10 minutes of the guy playing a flute in showroom. Tonight’s show should be better as is starring Dorothy Bishop, a singer, who has performed on Broadway, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and in Europe. I have been on internet most of today as we are planning a trip to Italy for May 2011. We will be going with our friends, Toni & Tom, from Pensacola. We have a 12 day RCCL cruise already booked out of Rome but want to spend 10 days or so in Italy before the cruise. Ok, time to go up on deck and do some walking.

WEDNESDAY, APR 21ST--AT SEA

Did absolutely nothing today other than go to gym and workout. We both had Slim Fast bars for lunch. It is warming up outside again now that we are heading back north towards the Equator. It has been pretty smooth sailing out here in Atlantic Ocean. Two more days at sea before arriving in Cotonou. Last night’s show featured an Australian headline entertainer, John Bowles. He sang Broadway tunes and was very good. Tonight’s show is an Irish musician, Jonathan Johnston, who plays the flute. I’m still not big on solo musicians entertaining on cruise ships. We will be dining tonight with John & Cynthia who live in Dallas but will soon be moving to Maui. I have requested Chef Fabian prepare some fried oysters and shrimp as our entrees tonight. Ask for hush puppies also and he came to our table last night and ask what they were. I told him to forget the hush puppies. We need a cajun sous chef. I’m anxious to see and taste the fried oysters. The food has been consistently excellent on the ship, except for some overcooked fish.

TUESDAY, APR 20TH--AT SEA

Today is the first of 4 days at sea in the Atlantic Ocean. I played in the shuffle board tournament this morning and it was very pleasant up on deck. Showing 65F now at 3pm. George and I were off today so were third place of three teams. I got my hair cut this morning too. Then I edited and uploaded the photos I took in Walvis Bay onto the blog. Rebecca did some laundry and is now in gym. Cynthia came over at noon and they coordinated the rest of our tours. It’s hard to believe but only 3 weeks left on WC after today. We are not ready for it to end! I will be going to gym soon. At 6pm there will be another “block party” out in our hallway. Every one comes out in hall with their wine glasses and the stewardesses service us wine and cheese while we talk with our neighbors. Always lots of fun. I got a call from one of the head waiters this afternoon. The chef wants to talk with me tonight at dinner about my request for fried oysters and shrimp for tomorrow night’s dinner. I wrote down the recipe in case that is what he wants. Hope they have yellow cornmeal back in kitchen. We got an invitation to dine this Friday night with the Executive Concierge and Chief purser. We have a reservation at Prime 7 Steakhouse for that night. Seems every time we are ask to dine with an officer we have a Prime 7 reservation. I will try to move the reservation. Putting two day’s blog posts on today so make sure you have read the other days PLUS Walvis Bay photos.

MONDAY, APR 19TH--WALVIS BAY, NAMIBIA

Walvis Bay is the major sea port for Namibia. Namibia’s major industries are: #1-mining & fishing, #2-agriculture (cattle & sheep), and #3-tourism. Uranium mines export 12% of the world’s supply. Namibia was a German protectorate until gaining its independence in 1990. Namibia’s coastline is a barren stretch of sand dunes and desert extending up to 100 miles inland. But when desert ends it is rich in agriculture, especially huge cattle feeding lots. Our second day began at 8:30am when we boarded a bus with our friends, Cynthia & John, for a 5 hour tour entitled, “Swakopmund Highlights”. On the way we stopped to see some flamingos on the ocean’s edge. Swakopmund is an old German costal town located 19 miles north of Walvis Bay. It was a very colorful and clean city. Our first stop was at a crystal museum where once again Rebecca found something to spend her money on. Next we visited a handicraft factory and showroom. They were making leather shoes and some beautiful rugs here. Then our bus driver/guide took us on an orientation drive through the town before dropping us off in the town center so we could shop or get a coffee. We headed to an area with a lot of local people selling all kinds of homemade wood, painting, and jewelry handicrafts. We bought several things and you had to bargain with them to get a good price. For example I bought a 3 foot wooden giraffe that he wanted $100 for but I paid $25. Now how am I going to get it home?? It was interesting to see all their handicraft items. On our drive back to Walvis Bay we took the coastal highway which was very scenic. The ship sailed at 6pm for our next port which is Cotonou, Benin. We will be at sea for 4 days as it is 1900 miles away. I have never heard of this very small country in West Africa so will be interesting. Last night we had a nice dinner and visit with our next door neighbors, Caroline & Don. I had ask the chef for some French fried soft shell crabs as our appetizer and they were great. Following dinner we went to the showroom for a production show starring the Regent orchestra and the singers & dancers. We have seen the same show about 4 times now but it is always very enjoyable. Note: I uploaded my Walvis Bay photos.

SUNDAY, APR 18TH--WALVIS BAY CONTINUED

Sunday afternoon and evening was action packed! My 5 hour tour, “Treasures of the Nimib Desert by Off-Road Vehicle”, began shortly after noon and departed pier in vans with only 4 people in each one. We left the industrial, port city of Walvis Bay (also a smelly port city) on the coastal road towards the old German city of Swakopmund. There are huge sand dunes all along the coast line of Namibia here. The dunes are up to 500 feet high and extends up to 10 miles inland from the ocean. We’re talking A LOT of sand. When the dunes ends then starts a rolling flat desert with a compact sand and small rock surface. This desert extends up to 100 miles inland. From Swakopmund we turned easterly into the Namib-Naukluft National Park following gravel roads in the desert. The Namib desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world and home to the world’s highest-shifting sand dunes. We were traveling in a 7 van convoy of vehicles through the desert. The tour guide was in the lead vehicle so the convoy would stop at various sights and he would explain things to the group. Our first stop was to look at the tiny plant life, called lichen, that was growing on many small rocks throughout the desert. If it rained these small plants would change colors and this was demonstrated by the guide pouring bottled water on them. So the desert would change colors following a rare rain. Next we drove through the Swakop River valley and on to an area called the Moon Landscape. It was created over millions of years by the winds that reduced mountains to spectacular rock formations and sand and now it resembles the moon’s surface. There were also black rock formations adding a color contrast to the rugged terrain. There were dolorite rocks which are basically iron rock. Our guide banged a small dolorite stone on a big boulder and it sounded like a hammer hitting an anvil. Hopefully, my photos will show you what I am trying to describe in words. Hope to get them uploaded tomorrow as we have 4 days at sea after leaving Walvis Bay. Our next stop was to see a small area where some pre-historic plants, called Welvitschia Mirabilis, were growing. They are only found growing in Namibia and thousands of these plants grow in some areas of the Namib desert. Some of these plants live 2500 years. They are of no value as you cannot eat them and there is no medicinal value with them. They are fascinating plants however. There are male plants and female plants and tiny red bugs pollinate the female flowers. They appear to have many long leaves that lie on the ground out from the low trunk but actually they only have 2 leaves. These two leaves split to form the others. They get moisture to live from the desert fog that the leaves absorb. There are some animals that live in the desert. On our drive back we saw small “Spring Buck” (small deer-like animals), ostriches, and some jackals. There were no watering holes. The spring buck at leaves from the “dollar shrub”. These round silver dollar shaped leaves were full of water. Next we made a stop at a kind of oasis for a glass or two of champagne, raw oysters, cheese, and crackers. A pickup pulling a port-a-potty showed up right after we stopped. How convenient!! Our last stop was at Dune 7. It use to be the highest sand dune in the world but no longer holds the title. Here we had the opportunity to climb to the top of it. Not me! I got back to the ship with just enough time to take a quick shower and change for our Regent event, “Dinner under the Desert Stars”. We all were bused out into the sand dunes to a place with beautiful huge white tents, open pit fires, local kids singing, locals dancing , and other entertainment. We had a wonderful buffet dinner with wines, beer, or soft drinks. There were 4 camels that we were suppose to be able to ride but their handlers said not after dark, and of course we arrived after dark. It was a very nice evening under a new moon and lots of stars. It is Monday evening now as I write this, as we had another wonderful day and tour here in Namibia. Will discuss that tomorrow as well as try to get some photos uploaded for you. Tonight we are dining with our next door neighbors, Caroline and Don.

SUNDAY, APR 18TH--WALVIS BAY, NAMIBIA

Just back from our 9am Sunday church service with Pastor Ned. We will be arriving soon in Walvis Bay. Walvis Bay is a deep water port on the west side of Africa in the country of Namibia. Inland from here is a desert and I will be doing an offroad tour in it just after we arrive. Tonight there will be a dinner under the stars in the desert complete with local entertainment and an opportunity to ride camels. I just hope it is not too cold. This morning it is 56F and foggy as we approach the port. I am going to be busy the rest of today once we dock so will let you know tomorrow more about our visit to Walvis Bay. Hope everyone has a nice Sunday. By the way, we are now 6 hours ahead of the Central Time Zone.

SATURDAY, APR 17TH--ATLANTIC OCEAN

It was a sunny but cool day cruising here off the west coast of Africa. We are now in the Atlantic Ocean about 30 miles off the coast of Namibia and will be arriving at Walvis Bay, Namibia, at noon tomorrow. The high temperature was 60F but we are having a pretty smooth ride today. I never made it out of the suite until 4pm today when I went to the gym for an hour. This morning I wrote yesterday’s blog post and then uploaded my Cape Town photos. After some turkey stir fry from room service for lunch I continued working on internet checking my banking, investments, and credit card accounts. All appears well. We are getting ready for the evening now. It is formal optional night so that means tux for me. We will dine with Tom & Marilyn Billings in the Compass Rose restaurant after pre-dinner cocktails up in their suite. Their suite is larger and nicer than ours. You may remember me talking about them before. Tom was a B-17 pilot in Europe during WWII and Marilyn was a flight attendant during the pre-jet airline days. We love listening to their stories. Show tonight is a magician so will be passing on that. May go up to the Observation Lounge to hear Jerry Vasi sing and play his guitar. He is super!

FRIDAY, APR 16TH--CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

We had a great day in Cape Town. It was sunny and mid 70’s with hardly any wind. We boarded our tour bus at 8:15am for our “Cape Town and Table Mountain” 4 hour tour. We were advised that the winds were too high for the cable cars to operate up to Table Mountain so we would be going to Signal Hill instead. We had a very informative guide as we drove through Cape Town and past the new 68,000 seat stadium built for the World Cup soccer games taking place in South Africa from June 11th to July 11th. The games will be played in several other cities in South Africa in addition to just Cape Town. There has been lots of improvements and construction in preparation for these games. We continued up the coast to the east of the city. Stopping for some great views along the coast line and then continuing up Signal Hill for more views looking down on the city and our ship docked in the harbor. From here we headed back down and into the city where Allan, our guide, pointed out the important landmarks of this clean and beautiful place. Rebecca and I were very impressed with Cape Town and its people. There is over 46 million people living in South Africa’s 11 provinces (like our states). 80% is black and only 6 % is white and most of the whites live in Cape Town. SA has two other groups of people: “colored” (and they use this term), who are from black and white parents, and Indians. The Indians came from India to work as laborers. Ok, back to our tour! After seeing the downtown area we headed west on the coastal road to go to a hotel on the beach for tea, coffee, and a nice view looking back down the coast to the city. As we pulled up Allan said he had just been called and informed that the Table Mountain cable cars were operating now. Table Mountain is the most prominent landmark of Cape Town and a must do for tourists, so we did not stop at the hotel but headed for the mountain. You will see why when you see the photos I took from up there!! Table Mountain is 3100 feet high and the cable car ride is only 4 minutes long to get to the summit. WOW! What a view from up there. By the time we got off the mountain and bussed back to the ship it was 1pm, an hour later than scheduled. Unfortunately, Samantha, our safari travel agent from Cape Town, had given up waiting on us and had just left. I had invited her on the ship for lunch and a tour. I know she was disappointed and so were we. Rebecca had a Slim Fast Bar for her lunch and I ordered a BLT sandwich from room service. Dined out on balcony because it was so nice. We spent the afternoon walking in the very nice shopping mall about 100 yards from our ship. Rebecca found another necklace to buy. We sailed at 6pm and I went up on the upper deck for the sail out and to see the sunset. We have a new Captain now as Capt Dag left for his vacation. Our new Capt is Italian and we will meet him tonight as it is a formal dress night and the Captain’s Welcome Aboard cocktail party for everyone, but especially the passengers that just boarded. The night before we enjoyed dining in the Compass Rose with Toni & Brad from Florida. Last night we dined alone. We both ordered Cajun spiced grilled salmon. We have had a problem with the fish entrees here on the Voyager as they always overcook them. We ask for it grilled medium but once again it came out well done and dry. Sent it back and second order was also overcooked but somewhat better. After 3 months of dry fish I ask to speak with Paulo, the dining manger who is over all the restaurants. He is absolutely the best in the cruise business. He assured us the chef would be preparing fish the way we ordered it from now on. Don’t get me wrong, the food in all the restaurants here onboard is superb. The fish tastes wonderful but just overcooked. After dinner we were late arriving to the showroom where the ship’s singers and orchestra were doing the “Jazz Legends” show again. Love it!

THURSDAY, APR 15TH--CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

We were dead tired last night so barely made it through our dinner at Prime 7 before collapsing in bed. Of course I woke up at 5:15am like I have for the past few days. I managed to go back to sleep for a couple more hours. I have been working all day trying to get the safari photos uploaded for you. Took all morning to edit and write captions for the actual 470 photos that I am putting on the blog. When I was ready to upload them we came to the very nice mall just across from where our ship is docked as thought it would be much fasted. We were suppose to go to a Regent Event at 2:30. All the world cruiser passengers were taken 1 hour from Cape Town to a well know winery for tasting, canapés, crafts, and entertainment. I was not back in time and in fact my computer battery was low so returned to ship for power cord then back to the internet coffee shop in mall. Then I discovered the plug was international so back to ship to get my adapters. Mind you, it is a 10 minute walk each way! So now I am back in mall and still not half way done with uploading photos and it is nearly 4pm. Hopefully I will get this done. It is a cool and windy day here but sunny. Table Mountain is capped with clouds today however. Hopefully it not be covered tomorrow as we have a tour up to it. It is great place for photos they say. We have a morning tour and afternoon tour. We will be back on the ship from noon to 2pm though and Samantha, the travel agent from Cape Town we used for our safari, is coming on the ship for lunch with us and a tour of the ship. I haven’t even had time to see what the entertainment on the ship is for tonight. Guess we will dine in the Compass Rose dining room tonight. The 4th segment passengers got off today and the new 5th and last segment passengers are coming aboard. More new faces! Ok, FINALLY! You have the safari photos to view. Once again, I know there are a lot of similar ones but they were too good to just delete.

WEDNESDAY, APR 14TH--LEOPARD HILLS

We are back at home on the ship now. Let me start from the beginning of today. Up at 5:30am again for our morning (and last) game drive. Marius, our guide, joined the 6 of us for dinner the evening before and we said his mission for our last drive was to find some cape buffalo. It was the last of the “Big Five” game animals in South Africa that we had not gotten good photos of. He must have called all the other camps’ guides as there were 4 other camps looking this morning for some cape buffalo. We drove for an hour and he was talking on the radio with the other land rovers. Finally Abram, our tracker, spotted some fresh cape buffalo dung and tracks as we were driving on a dirt road next to a river. Sure enough there they were on other side of the river and too far for photos but we continued a little longer, and low and behold, there was one cape buffalo by the road grazing away. It did not mind us driving up close and getting lots of photos. So our mission was complete! I forgot to mention that before we found the cape buffalo we came upon 2 kudu (like elk) and a group of about 10 baboons walking down a dry, sandy stream bed. Anyway, we continued driving on numerous roads until Abram spotted fresh elephant paths in the grass. Don’t ask me how he does it. So we head off the road following the paths. The land rovers can only leave the roads to track any one of the Big Five or zebra. Sure enough there was a herd (probably 15) elephants in an area of small trees and high grass. We concentrated on photographing a bull, mother, and baby. Once again they seemed not to mind us being about 25 feet from them. After lots of photos we left them and stopped by a pond to have coffee, tea, and muffins. Safaris are such hard work!! We were pretty far from the lodge so headed back for breakfast as we had to leave the lodge at 11am. Before we left we said bye and thank you to the staff for making our stay so enjoyable. The night before I presented the chef with a nice pen and pencil set for all his good grub. Marius and Abram drove us to an airstrip about 10 minutes from the lodge. It was super nice and built by Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic airline fame. He had a resort close by. Seven lodges used the small airport to fly guests into. Our Federal Air charter flight was right on time we departed for our 15 minute flight to the Kruger Park Airport. There we boarded a South African Air Link flight direct to Cape Town. The Federal Air airplane was a 11 passenger “Caravan”. The Air Link plane was a 98 passenger jet. The flight to Cape Town was 2 ½ hours and arrived right on time at 4pm. I was amazed that for about all of the flight there was NOTHING below. It was arid, barren, and much like southern Utah. After getting our luggage we were met by Graham, our driver to the port. Just as we pulled up to the pier our ship was arriving so was standing on pier as it docked. There were probably 70 other passengers that had left the ship and gone on different safaris like us waiting for the Voyager. We were waving to the passengers on the ship and they were waving and yelling back to us. Very neat! We are now unpacked and getting ready for dinner. I ordered wine and a cocktail from room service to calm us down while we dressed. I have already downloaded the 550 photos that I took on safari into one of my laptops. I will try to get them on the blog as soon as I can. I HAVE SOME INCREDIBLE PHOTOS! I am going to put most of them on the blog and I know many are similar but they are worth seeing. This has been an incredible experience for Rebecca and I. We loved EVERY minute of it and we will return for another safari. You are all welcome to join us. I guarantee you will love it also. I have to send a special thanks to Marius, Abram, and all the staff at Leopard Hills. They are the BEST and our accommodations was fantastic.

TUESDAY NIGHT UPDATE

It's 7pm and just back from our evening game drive. We told our guide Marius that we wanted to see elephants, zebra, and cape buffalo. Tonight we had the Australian couple that just arrived this afternoon joining us. So off we went at 3:30 and headed south where some zebra had been reported. On the way we stopped by the same pond that we had seen the hippos in this morning and again they only showed up their eyes and ears. The rest was below water. Next we saw a huge herd of impala and real close by was a large herd of wildebeest. So we continued and finally came to an open area where we found the dazzle (what you call a herd of zebra instead of herd) of about 15 zebra grazing. We watched them for quite a while and finally they got to chasing each other and playfully biting and kicking each other. Marius wanted to head for a bog to try and catch some elephants rolling in the mud. Sure enough we came upon 4 elephants that were grazing also. We got up close and personal with a big bull so have some good photos and movies. Nearby were 3 rhinoceros bulls also grazing so went there for some photos. On the way back we once again stopped to watch the zebras and as the sun was about to set we had "sundowner" cocktails and watched it and the zebra. Time to head back to the lodge but on the way we came upon 3 "side-stripped jackets" walking down the road. Then after dark and as our tracker was using a high powered search light we briefly saw a civet (small black & white animal). Marius said that was a rare sighting as he had not seen one in 3 years. So now the 6 0f us will be dining at 8pm and Marius, our guide, will be joining us for dinner. Tomorrow morning's final game drive we will be looking for some cape buffalo. At 11am we will be off for the airstrip.

TUESDAY, APR 13TH, LEOPARD HILLS PRIVATE GAME RESERVE

Another beautiful day here in Kruger Park. Began our morning game drive again at 6am and watched a beautiful sunrise while searching for animal tracks. Shortly after sunrise another camp's safari vehicle found a pride of 7 lions lying in a dry, sandy stream bed. So we headed that way and found 2 male lions, 3 female lions, 2 very small cubs, and 1 larger cub. Our guide drove to a good photo taking position about 25 feet from them. It is amazing that the animals are not frightened of the vehicles and trust us to be so close to them. Our guide insists that we remain seated at all times though. We spent about 15 minutes observing them before letting another vehicle come up. There were at least 4 land rovers there to take photos but only two at a time was up close. Next we found 4 hippopotamus mostly submerged in a pond that was to far for good photos. Plus we could only see their heads occasionally. Then the call came over the radio that a young leopard was spotted lying on top of a huge ant hill (ant hills here are 3 to 10 feet high) and was stalking a herd of impalas and heard of blue wildebeest. Once again Marius positioned the vehicle about 10 feet from the very beautiful leopard. I got a lot of great photos and even took some video with my camera for the first time. We were there quite a while. The leopard rarely took his eyes off of the herd of impala about 300 yards away. It knew we were there, obviously, but did not care about us. Our tracker was sitting on front on the land rover and was really close to it. I noticed he had the spotlight in his hand and that was his weapon if the leopard pounced on him. We were so close that it could have happened in a split second as the leopards are really fast. But it did not mind us or the other camp's land rover at all. It finally moved slowly so the impala would not see it to a fallen tree and just laid out on it. More camp's showed up so we had to move on to let everyone see this. The wildebeests would not let us too close but got some photos of them. Again today we saw many herds of impala. After stopping by a pond for some coffee or tea and some chocolate muffins, we headed back towards the lodge. This is a big place so took a while to get back. On the way we saw two big African Fish Eagles. They are similar to our bald eagles. Then not far from the lodge we came up behind two bull rhinoceros walking down the road (not really a road just path that the safari land rovers use). Once again we got pretty close to them but they were too busy eating the grass that they cared less about us. Yesterday's rhino was a huge one (approx 5000 lbs) and this was HIS territory. These two were only about 3000 lbs and Marius said if the big one found these guys in his territory there would be a big fight. We arrived back at the lodge at 9:30 for our awaiting breakfast. One other couple will be arriving at 1pm today so then there will be 6 of us on the evening game drive. We told Marius we wanted to find some elephants and water buffalo this evening. I have lots of great photos of lions and leopards already but they are neat to see. The kudu meat I had for dinner last night was good. It is a very lean, red meat. We sat out on a big wooden patio that overlooked the watering hole and Kruger Park countryside. It was an absolutely clear night and the stars filled the sky above us. Ok, tomorrow we will do the morning game drive, have some breakfast, then they will take us to the small runway about 10 minutes from here. A small chartered plane will fly us to the Kruger Park Airport where we will catch a larger jet flight direct to the Cape Town airport. It is a 2 1/2 hour flight to CPT and will land at 4pm. A driver will be waiting to transfer us from there to the pier. Our ship is suppose to arrive at 5pm so it should be perfect timing. Will not have time to write tomorrow so letting you know our plans now.

MONDAY NIGHT UPDATE

Just back from our evening game drive and have showered and ready for dinner. We were on the drive from 3:45 until 6:30pm. This evening we saw a huge male white rhinoceros. At first he was unsure of us and at one time Marius put it in reverse and floor boarded our vehicle. Even our tracker was getting nervous as he was on front of the truck. But the rhino settled down and became use to us and we got lots of nice photos. That was most exciting though! Later we saw lots of herds of impala, some kudu, this time alive, a bushbuck with a nice rack of horns, and a family of 5 zebras. We could not get very close to the zebras and actually left our vehicle and walked in on them to get closer. There was another camp's safari vehicle there and that guide did not let her people out of the vehicle. Of course, Marius had his rifle with him as we walked. Right before dark we stopped and had cocktails under the cloudless African sky. We returned to camp in the dark and our tracker shined his high powered spot light to see if any eyes would be glowing in the dark. Today was so neat. I still cannot describe how good of a time we are having here. More tomorrow morning as it all starts over at 5:30am.

MONDAY, APR 12TH--LEOPARD HILLS PRIVATE GAME RESERVE

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!! Let me start with yesterday's journey to get here. We were off the ship at 9am and was only a 15 minute drive to the airport. The South African Airways Air Link agents did not show up until 10:30 so was a boring wait as the airport was very small. Our flight departed on time for Johannesburg in a 50 seat turbo prop. We arrived at Jo Burg , as they call it, at 1:15pm so we had lots of time to get to our 3:30pm flight. The airport must be the largest one in Africa as it was huge. Our flight on to Kruger Park airport left right on time in a 50 seat regional jet for our short ride. The Kruger Park airport was small but very nice. After getting our checked luggage, our driver, Evenick, was waiting to drive Paula, Charles, Rebecca, and I to the Leopard Hills Private Game Reserve. This was a very interesting 2 hour drive. The countryside was beautiful rolling hills with miles and miles of plantations. There were orange, banana, avocado, mango, and other kinds of fruit plantations. It was not what we had expected to see in Africa. For the first hour the road was a nice smooth highway and there were lots of local people walking along it on a Sunday evening. Guess they cannot afford cars or motorbikes so they walk. Then we turned onto a dirt and gravel road. For the next hour we bounced all over the place on this rough road. I though the van would come apart. We left the airport at 4:30 and arrived at Leopard Hills after dark at 6:30pm. Just as we were unloading our luggage the two safari vehicles were driving up from the evening game drive. After signing in we were escorted to our rooms by security. We were told never to walk to or from our rooms after dark because there were no fences around the lodge. The wild animals are roaming around at night so we call for security to walk with us. Our room was fabulous just as the pictures in the brochure depicted. I had requested the room overlooking the watering hole and it was ours. Dinner was 30 minutes later and last night was boma night. We ate under the stars with a big fire in the middle of this fenced in area. Our guide sat at our table with two other couples who had been here for several days but left after this morning's game drive. Candles were on the tables and the cooks were preparing a wonderful buffet dinner. I was a perfect evening temperature and weather wise. They had a full bar set up out there and I really enjoyed the red South African wine. Our room also has a stocked bar and frig with drinks which is all complimentary. We finished dinner and were escorted back to our room and told they would wake us at 5:30am for a quick coffee before we began our morning game drive. I was awake at 5am just as it was beginning to be light outside. I walked out on our huge patio and looked down at the watering hole below and about a quarter of a mile away. No animals though. We boarded the 4 wheel drive safari vehicle for our first game drive. There were 3 other Canadians with us doing their last drive. Tonight the 4 of us have the lodge to ourselves. There are 8 rooms here at Leopard Hills. The next 3 1/2 hours were incredible, and as I said, UNBELIEVABLE. When I am able to upload the photos you will see for yourselves. Marius, our guide, was the driver and told us all about what we were seeing. Sitting on a seat mounted out on front left side of the vehicle was our tracker, Abram. Mounted on the dash in reach of Marius was a rifle, just in case an animal objected to our photo taking. Marius said that shooting an animal in Kruger Park required a mountain of paperwork. He also explained that unlike Kenya we would not be seeing lots of animals but the ones we would see in Kruger would be "up close". Man, was he right!!! There were several safari vehicles in the park and the guides were all talking to each other on the radio about where to go to see stuff. Marius said that seeing white back vultures up in trees was an indication that a lion or leopard had killed something and would be in the area. There are small dirt roads in Kruger but Marius would plow right through stuff to get to the area he wanted. We ran over trees, stumps, or whatever got in our way. We came upon a lion in the tall grass near a tree. About 20 feet away was a dead kudu (like an elk) that the lion had eaten most of its stomach. The lion had a full stomach now and was lying to rest. We got within 20 feet of the lion. Marius said the lion would be eating there for a couple more days so we will check it again tomorrow. The kudu and a beautiful rack of horns. Would love to have them but the lion was protecting his meals. We continued our driving and came upon a dead impala (like a deer) that a leopard had killed and drug up in the tree. The male leopard was lying under the tree. Suddenly here comes a female leopard with two cubs. Could not get very good pics of the cubs though. When one ranger found something all the vehicles came to look also. Back on the road we saw a herd of impala. Then word came that there was a pride of lions several miles away so we sped there. On the way we passed an elephant eating on the leaves of a tree. We paused a minute for photos then sped on the see the lions. Sure enough there they were: one male, and 3 females, and 3 cubs. One cub was larger and and two were small ones from different mothers. They were lying there and we were sitting in the safari vehicle only 10 feet from them for at least a half hour. I have some absolutely incredible close up photos of them as not only were we close but I was using my telephoto lens. I have heard people say that leopards are the hardest animal to find but this morning we saw 4. We saw 10 lions. We saw dead and alive kudus and impalas. We saw an elephant. Marius said we will see lots more elephants on other drives. Then we saw a giraffe in an fairly open field with one tree there and it was eating the leaves. Marius said, "Lets go have some coffee with the giraffe". And we did. Abram had cups and thermos of coffee or tea with some muffins. The giraffe moved on but we got some good photos first. Buy this time we had to end the drive and get the Canadians back so they could leave to catch a flight out. We arrived back at the lodge at 9:30 and a huge breakfast was waiting us. Lunch will be at 1pm and tea time is 3pm right before we start our second drive at 3:30pm. After breakfast a herd of probably 50 impala came to the watering hole below us so I put my telephoto lens back on and got some pics. This safari is THE neatest thing we have ever done. Even "princess" Rebecca is loving it. I still cannot believe how close we get to these animals. I will have lots of photos and I know you will love them. Tonight Charles & Paula and us are the only ones in camp so we will have a private dinner out on the deck that overlooks the watering hole. I certainly chose the right lodge as Leopard Hills is an amazing place. They have a computer in the library with high speed Internet so I am writing from there. By the way in one of the other safari vehicles was Toni Blair, former Prime Minister of Great Britain. Got a photo to prove it!

This is the link to my safari photos.  There are 468 photos for you to view.  You will have to cut and paste this link to your browser to view them.

https://goo.gl/photos/iNXndTtSRciBjRLx7

SUNDAY, APR 11TH--RICHARDS BAY, SOUTH AFRICA

Well, we are just sailing into the Richards Bay harbor at 6:45am. What a wild ride we had last night. They cancelled the show in main showroom but we did see the “Dinner and a Show” show. It was very funny and good. Thought I was going to be thrown our of bed last night as the ship was really rocking and rolling. The walls and ceiling of our suite was creaking all night long. Gloomy, overcast morning here in RB and 67F. Just rechecked the weather forecast for Kruger Park and still looks good. Hope we have all we need packed for our safari. Still planning to leave the ship around 9am. The Leopard Hills lodge says they have WiFi but not sure if they have a computer I could use. So may be able to write a blog, just don’t know.
Can’s wait to get to Leopard Hills. This should be a wonderful experience. Hope I can get lots of pictures for you. Have a nice Sunday!

SATURDAY, APR 10TH--AT SEA

The Indian Ocean seems to be on the war path this afternoon. It looks very nasty outside and we are rocking big time. Well, last night’s dinner at Captain Dag’s table was real nice. The 3 other couples were really nice and no one tried to dominate the conversation. I ask Captain Dag if he was going to get me to Richards Bay by 7am tomorrow and he said don’t worry. We finished dinner in time for us to get front row seats in the showroom for Brandi Chapman’s fantastic show. About mid show she said she wanted to dedicate an anniversary song to a couple she had met onboard. That would be us. She called our names and glad we were there on the front row. Right after the show she came out and talked with us. This morning my shuffle board partner and I won the tournament. Had to go 2 sudden death over times to do it though. At 11am we went to the President of Regent Cruises town hall meeting. I amazes me what some people want to bitch about. We are very “happy campers” on this world cruise and feel fortunate that we can do it on Regent. After our room service lunch we are finishing packing so we can leave the ship tomorrow. Our flight departs the airport at 11:50am for Johannesburg. There we transfer to another flight at 3:30pm to Kruger Park airport. From there we will have a van take us to Leopard Hills safari lodge where we should arrive about 6pm. Paula and Charles Loguda will also be going with us to Leopard Hills. We will be arriving too late to do the evening game drive but will enjoy a nice dinner. On Monday & Tuesday we will be doing a morning game drive at 6:30am and another at 3:30pm. The drives are approximately 4 hours each. Mid days we are free to enjoy the lodge or our individual suite pools. We can do a drive on Wednesday morning before flying direct to Cape Town where we will rejoin the ship when it arrives at 5pm. Weather forecast is still calling for sun and mid 70’s for a high and low in mid 50’s. We are so excited about the safari and hoping for a lot of good pictures of the “big 5”: elephant, lion, tiger, rhinoceros, and cape buffalo. This evening we have church service at 5pm (today instead of Sunday as will be in port). Then at 6:30 we will be going to “Dinner and a Show” with Dave & Nancy Bixler. It will start with a set menu dinner at Signatures (French restaurant) then after dinner there will a show by the Tony Award winning performers of Forbidden Broadway. It will be over before the normal 9:30 showroom show which tonight is a variety show. Right now we are rocking and rolling so much that I doubt if either show will go on. Performers would have difficult time standing let alone dancing. So we will see. Leopard Hills brochure says they have internet but I am not taking my laptop and will not write again until we get back on the ship. I want to enjoy ever second of this safari. So be back with you on 15th. Taking a shower this evening is going to be very challenging with all this movement.

FRIDAY, APR 10TH--AT SEA

Mostly sunny and 78F here in Indian Ocean at 3pm. I have been on internet most of day so far but will go to gym after writing this. Rebecca is doing her nails now as we will dine with Captain Dag tonight. I noticed this ship slowed down around 2pm. The Captain has the bridge open this afternoon for visits so I went up to see what was going on. The second officer said they had the port (left) azipod shutdown for routine maintenance so only running on one pod. I just hope it is “routine” maintenance as I saw the ETA (estimated time of arrival) at Richard’s Bay is 5:45pm Sunday instead of the scheduled 7am. Will find out for sure at table tonight. The new show that the ship’s singers and dancers did last night was the best yet of the production shows. They choreographed the whole show and was amazing!! These young folks are so very talented. Tonight Brandi Chapman (Branson entertainer) will do here second show and we will definitely be there. Hope the Captain eats fast. Tomorrow I will give you our safari itinerary. There will be no new pictures until the 15th or 16th probably.

THURSDAY, APR 8TH--AT SEA

Really lazy day today. About the only thing I did productively was pack my suitcase for our safari. Will be leaving the ship Sunday morning when we dock in Richards Bay. At midnight tonight we will be passing just off the southern tip of the island of Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island. We are still cruising in the Indian Ocean. It was sunny and 81F today with little wind but some swells so ship is moving about just a little. Tonight we are having dinner with Nancy & Dave from Durango, CO. Nancy plays the piano for our church services. The ship’s singers and dancers are previewing a new show they put together for the world cruise so will definitely go see it. We gained an hour last night and another tonight. So tomorrow we will be 7 hours ahead of central time.

WEDNESDAY, APR 7TH--REUNION ISLAND

Our 5 hour shuttle to beach and shopping village this morning was basically a waste of 5 hours. No shopping and we don't do beaches. They only took euros and not dollars. This place is mostly French people. I did get pictures uploaded on blog this afternoon and a trip to gym. Special cocktail party for Mark Conroy, President of Regent Cruises, shortly so gotta run. We will have 3 sea days now before arriving in Richards Bay, South Africa. Can write more then.

TUESDAY, APR 6TH--MAURITIUS

We had a great day on Mauritius. We believe this is the best island we have visited. Certainly our tour today was the best yet. The day was sunny, temperature 82F, and much lower humidity than we’ve had during the last month or longer. Our tour departed at 8:45 this morning, right on time, and was called “Colorful South”. You guessed it, we toured the south part of the island. Initially we drove through Port Louis during rush hour so traffic was slow. Then we hit the countryside. During our 7 hour tour we drove past many sugar cane plantations, some pineapple plantations, banana plantations, guava plantations, drying beds that sea salt comes from, some coffee trees, chou-chou farms, and bread fruit trees. They also raise vanilla beans and tea here but we did not see that part of the island. By far sugar cane is biggest crop here. They use the sugar cane to produce rum and sugar, both of which they export. Chou-chou is a vegetable kind of like a potato but looks like a green avacado. It is boiled and cooked with onion and garlic. We had some at lunch and it was very good. Ok, our tour bus wound it’s way up in the mountains to our first stop which was at an extinct volcano crater whose floor is now heavily wooded and has a small lake also. Then we continued our drive past a huge lake that is the island’s water supply. Our guide said during dry season it gets very low and water to cities is cut off during the day. Next stops were made at the Grand Bassin which is a sacred lake for the Hindus. There was a giant statue called the Mangal Mahadev (108 feet high) and once a year a Hindu pilgrimage is made here. Next to the lake is a colorful Hindu temple where I took photos. Next we drove to the Black River Gorges National Park, a huge valley with tropical trees and vegetation. There was even a water falls. Here we found some stands with all kinds of souvenirs and some fresh pineapple. Now it was time for lunch which was at a lovely restaurant up on the mountain with breath taking views. We had the chou chou cooked with a cheese sauce to start with followed by chicken curry, rice, and a vegetable. Delicious! After lunch we traveled through guava groves to a privately owned sugar cane plantation that had two beautiful attractions. Of course the owner charged an entrance fee so probably made more money from tourists than his 2000 acre plantation. The first site was the magnificent Chamarel waterfalls and the second was an area where the soil (if you can call it that) has 7 colors in it. Nothing will grow on it and it is believed to be of volcanic origin. Then we wound our way back down the mountain to a coastal road that took us back to the ship. Along the way we passed some small fishing villages and saw some drying pans where sea salt was produced after the water evaporated. Mauritius also has some beautiful beaches but our tour did not go past them. We were back at the ship by 4pm and we will sail at 6pm for Reunion Island which is 120 miles from here. Although I took a lot of pictures today I will wait until after tomorrow’s port and those pictures before I put them on the blog. We are having cocktails this evening with Brandi Chapman, the wonderful entertainer. Once again we really enjoyed Mauritius today.

MONDAY, APR 5TH--AT SEA

Another lazy day at sea with lots of sun and 82F. The seas are not quite as smooth today but not too bad. Last night we were able to get last minute reservations in Prime 7 Steakhouse for our Easter dinner. Brandi Chapman’s show last night was best that we have seen on this ship. As I said yesterday, we had been to her shows on other ships and she still does a high energy show featuring her wonderful voice. This morning we had coffee in the “coffee connection” which is next to the showroom. Then at 10am we went to a lecture about the Israeli’s intelligence services and how they retaliate for terrorist attacks on her people. At 11am we went to a cooking demonstration in the Horizon Lounge with our executive chef, Fabien Alujas, and our restaurant manager, Paulo Milordo. Fabien is a French chef and Paulo is Italian so was humorous as well as informative. After a room service lunch I have been on the internet checking some things. We will be arriving at Port Louis, Mauritius tomorrow about 7am. We will be leaving on a 7 ½ tour at 8:45. Mauritius is 560 miles east of Madagascar. It was uninhabited until the 1800’s and has been ruled by the Dutch, French, and British but in 1968 it became independent. I am not sure what to expect here, but some friends on the ship have been there and say it is a very nice island. Hopefully I can get some good photos for you. Rebecca is just back from the gym so guess I better go too. Tonight we are having dinner with Suzanne & Richard from Pennsylvania.

EASTER SUNDAY, APR 4TH--AT SEA

Happy Easter! We attended a Easter church service at 9am this morning to start our day. Following that I went up on deck for the shuffleboard tournament, which JR & I won. We had a nice lunch in the Compass Rose dining room with Paula & Charles. They are going on safari with us so wanted to talk about what clothes to pack for the 4 days. Long range weather forecast for the Leopard Hills Game Reserve (www.leopardhills.com) is looking good now with highs in mid 70’s and lows mid 50’s. Rest of the day we have been rebooking excursions for our new next two ports. Yes, new! As we sailed from Seychelles yesterday evening Captain Dag came on the PA, and said that for our safety, the decision had been made to change our itinerary. So we will not be going through the part of the ocean where there has been a big increase in pirate activity recently. We are not heading west towards Mombasa in Kenya and will also not be going to Zanzibar on Tanzania. Instead we are heading down to Mauritius and then Reunion Island both located east of the island of Madagascar. We will be calling those ports on Tues and Wed. We will rejoin our original itinerary at Richards Bay, South Africa on the 11th. Richards Bay is where we will be leaving the ship for our 4 day safari so glad that is not affected. So far! I have waited almost 24 hours to mention this on blog so we would be pretty much out of the pirate’s range and getting more distance from them as every minute passes. I think it is also safe to now tell you we have a 5 man Israeli security team with us on the ship to help protect us as we sailed toward Mombassa. We’re not going anywhere near there now. So the ship’s tour department has quickly (over night) came up with tours we can take in the two new ports. We hear from passengers that have visited Mauritius previously that it is a lovely place. Some passengers had safari’s scheduled out of Mombasa that are now cancelled so I am getting calls asking about the one we are doing out of Richard’s Bay. It’s a shame to come all this way to Africa and not be able to do a safari so I feel for them. Regent delivered a nice chocolate Easter bunny and some other candies to our suites last night while we were at dinner. Nice touch!! Even the crew received some candy. Even nicer touch!!! We had a wonderful time dining with the Hotel Director (Michael) and Stephanie last night. I have to correct a statement I made in yesterday’s posting. Michael is not Captain Dag’s boss. Thanks Larry for straightening me out. Well, it is about gym time. The after dinner show is by headline entertainer Brandi Chapman who had a show in Branson, MO, for years and now does cruise ships. We have seen her shows on other cruise ships so are happy she is here to entertain us. Hope you enjoyed the 166 pictures I added yesterday. There was a technical problem at first so if you tried and nothing--try again now.

SATURDAY, APR 3RD--PRASLIN, SEYCHELLES

Early this morning we moved 25 miles to the island of Praslin. This time there was no dock so had to take tenders ashore. Rebecca had enough of the heat yesterday so I went on the tour with Barry, who we dined with last night. John & Cynthia, our neighbors, and Barbara was also part of our group. When we got ashore we transferred to a very nice air conditioned ferry for a 15 minute ride to the small but picturesque island of La Digue for our tour. Once there our taxis awaited us! Well, ok, our ox carts awaited us. They each held about 10 people and took us for a 30 minute ride to an old place where coconuts were baked then ground to yield coconut oil. No mechanization here as you will see in the pictures. Then another short ox cart ride past a vanilla bean plantation to one of the finest beaches in the world. It was a photographer’s dream. The granite rocks seemed to be lifted out of the beach area and made for some interesting photos. I even found one that thousands of years ago had been on the ocean floor, as very old coral was on it. Barry and I walked quite a ways taking lots of photos and enjoying the white sand beaches, about 200 yards of coral reef, and then the deep blue waters of the Indian Ocean surrounding the island. It was soooooo hot again today and very little breeze to get cool. Some of our group went swimming but I don’t like to go where fish are. We were all glad to get back to the ferry for the return ride to the pier and then take the tender back to the ship. It was so hot and humid that I did not feel some of the older passengers should have been on this tour. Oh, well! I was very glad to get back to the suite and hit the shower. The internet was back working so I wanted to get busy uploading the pictures that I took the past few days here in the Seychelles onto the blog. As I am writing this, 166 photos are uploading onto “The Seychelles” album on this blog. I hope you enjoy them. This evening at 7pm we will pull the anchor and sail almost due west to Mombasa, Kenya in Africa. So we will be at sea for two days through ocean waters that are also plied by Somali pirates. You may have read a couple days ago that the Navy caught 5 pirates here in the Seychelles as they were attacking a large fishing boat from these islands. I have a feeling our ship may have a naval escort but just my feeling. Today some locals were saying that drones are being used by the military to patrol the waters as well as satellites. When we get to Mombasa I will tell you what other security measure we have with us. So please do not worry about our safety. Also the internet is up and down a lot in this area, so if you don’t hear from me, that is the reason. Ok, tonight we have been invited to join the hotel director, Michael, and his wife, Stephanie, at their table in the Compass Rose. On Regent, the Hotel Director is big boss on the ship. The Captain even reports to him. Interesting?? Michael and Stephanie are really nice so we are excited about tonight. Regent singers and orchestra are doing “Beatles Night” show tonight. Photos are loading slowly. Last one is pic of back end of our ship so if you don't see it try again later.

FRIDAY, APR 2ND--MAHE, SEYCHELLES

Last nights “Jimbo’s Truck Stop Diner” was so much fun.. The cruise staff had decorated half of the La Veranda restaurant and made like a truck stop. Jamie, our cruise director, was Jimbo (owner of the truck stop). Some passengers had great costumes also. I just wore jeans and a plain white T-shirt with sleeves rolled up even more. Buffet featured items like meat loaf, ribs, hamburgers, turkey, pizza, etc. I took several photos. This morning we went on a 4 hour tour. It was so hot!!! Actually only 85F but humidity was 88%. First stop was at the botanical gardens where we viewed several different types of palm trees, flowering trees, bread fruit trees, and coco-de-mer trees. The Seychelles is the only place in the world where the famous coco de mer is found. It’s the world’s heaviest nut. Also at the gardens were about 20 giant Aldabran land tortoises. They were 3 to 5 feet in diameter. Next stop was at a beach hotel for sodas and time to swim in the ocean if you wanted. Then we continued our drive around the northern coast to see some other beach areas and granite rock formations on some beaches. We arrived back in the town of Victoria where we took a short walking tour of the city. We saw Seychelles’ most famous landmark, an old clock tower. Well, certainly the islands and waters are very beautiful, but unless you just like to lie on the beach, dive, or snorkel, it could get boring here very fast. Not much else happening here and it is expensive. We were tired and drained by the heat by the time we got back to the ship for lunch. I was suppose to do a “Spice and Coral” tour this afternoon that involved a catamaran ride but decided not to go as I had had enough heat this morning. Will go to the gym instead. The internet has been down all day but just came up so hopefully I can get this post made. I write them on Word and cut & paste them onto blog later. Tonight there is a barbeque buffet under the stars up on the pool deck but we do not do eating in the heat. Tonight we will dine in Compass Rose (dining room) with Barry from St Louis. He served during Vietnam as an officer in the Army and has some interesting stories. No show tonight. Movie instead. At 4am tomorrow the ship will move 25 miles to the island of Praslin where we will spend the day. I will be uploading photos of these two islands after we leave Praslin. Satellite coverage in this area is limited so if you do not hear from me, that is the reason.

THURSDAY, APR 1ST--MAHE, SEYCHELLES

Greetings from Port Victoria. I was up on the top deck for our sail into the port taking some photos and enjoying the views. So we were tied up on the pier by 4pm. The internet was down again most of the morning. I sat out again on our balcony this morning and read the Dallas Morning News paper and just enjoyed the ocean. It was again like a mirror with the few scattered clouds being reflected on the water. The water was a deep blue color and simply beautiful. We ordered breakfast from room service. After the internet came back up I spent the rest of the morning and until about 3pm on the computer. I ordered a salad and sandwich from room service and dined out on the balcony. So we are on the island of Mahe which is the largest of the 115 islands that make up the Seychelles. Mahe is 17 miles by 5 miles so not that large. 90% of the Seychelles 81,000 population lives here on Mahe. The Seychelles are known for its swaying palms, blue waters, and beautiful beaches. Tomorrow morning we are doing an island highlights tour. In the afternoon I am doing a catamaran ride and some snorkeling. We were informed today that Port Victoria is celebrating the Easter holidays tomorrow so the shops will be closed-shucks! Tonight we are going up to the La Veranda for the “truck stop diner”. That should be very interesting. I definitely want to see the 9:30 show down in the showroom. Jamie Michael Stewart is performing again. His last show was awesome! Unfortunately we had to start taking our malaria prevention medications last night. We take one pill the week before arriving in Africa, one every week we are there, and one a week for four weeks after we leave. So that is 8 weeks all together. I have felt bad all day (tired and just yuky) because of the pill’s side effects. So has Rebecca. I hope it passes soon. Do not want to feel this way the rest of the cruise. No new pictures probably until we leave the Seychelles Saturday night here.