2025 Long Cruise

Today I went on a game drive at Hluhluwe Game Reserve. The reserve was about an hour drive from the port. Once we arrived at the park we switched from buses to the safari vehicles to go on our three hour game drive.

There were 3 buses holding a total of 57 people which were split into 6 safari vehicles. I got to sit in the front seat of my vehicle. This meant I had some nice views but most of my photos are facing forward so less of the vehicle is in the photo. And it was difficult for me to see the animals on the driver’s side of the vehicle. All in all, because I like to take pictures, I prefer the less desirable (harder to get into and it has a rough and bumpy ride) back seat.

We had beautiful weather but I was still surprised at all the animals we saw, many of which were on the roads. We saw 4 of the big 5. The big 5 (African buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion, and rhinoceros) are so named because they are the most dangerous to hunt via foot.

To prevent poaching of the rhinoceros horn, the horns are cut off the animal. The horn grows back in 3-4 years and has to be removed again.

Today’s excursion was a Birding walk in iSimangaliso Wetland Park which is a UNESCO world heritage site. We drove about an hour and a half from the pier to the park. It was quite an interesting drive thru the countryside and the tour guide gave a number of interesting bits of information.

The walk was about 4 kilometers and it was 70% humidity and 82 degrees. We walked in the heat of the day without much shade so it wasn’t very pleasant plus the birds were all hiding! We saw more zebras than bird species. I was dripping sweat by they time we got back to the bus. A couple from Florida said the temperature and humidity was normal for them. I”m not moving to Florida and was happy to be in the air conditioned bus and heading back to the ship. One advantage of traveling without a partner is that I could use both of the air conditioning vents in my row in the bus.

Today one couple was 15 minutes late to the bus- very frustrating since that means that there is less time at the destination. Tours are strongly bound by the time they need to return to the ship.

Here are some interesting facts from the tour guide:

• Richard’s Bay has the largest coal storage facility in the world- it holds 90 million tons! And the export of coal is main use of Richard’s bay
• The top 3 industries are Agriculture, Tourism (internal and external) and Manufacturing (Toyota assembly, clothing)
• Richard’s bay is the fastest growing area for heavy industry (Aluminum processing, fertilizer and paper processing) consequently many children have asthma from the associated pollution
• Their paper processing uses the Eucalyptus tree and they use all of it. The leaves are for medicinal purposes, bark is used for synthetic fiber and the wood is used for pulp.
• Interestingly, the digital age hasn’t reduced the amount of paper being used because the packaging used by all the delivery services requires quite a bit of paper.
• In Richards Bay 1 in 3 adults have the HIV virus. Currently the government offers free medicine for it; much of the cost is/was subsidized by USA foreign aid.
• Land
  • Zulu typically do not own land. The king owns the land but Zulu can give the king a fee for a plot of land and then that plot belongs to them and their descendants.
  • Since the plot of land isn’t owned by the family, they can’t get a mortgage. Since they can’t get a mortgage they can only improve/build their home if they have cash to pay for any improvements. That’s why there are many partly finished homes in villages.
  • Each home includes a separate round house for the spirits of their ancestors. They go to the round house to pray and get advice from their ancestor’s spirits and to conduct traditional ceremonies. Some homes have more than one round house but only one is designated as the ancestor’s spirit house.
  • Zulu prefer to bury their dead at home as they believe that the dead spirits provide protection
  • Many homes have/use outhouses

Today we left the lodge about 5am so I could get to the ship before noon. That way I wouldn’t stress on missing the boat that was leaving about 5pm. I figured we’d have some traffic or something would happen. Nothing happened, there was no traffic and I got to the ship at 9am- just as the first passengers were getting off for their excursions! Tibor and I could have slept in!

I spent the rest of the day catching up- laundry, unpacking, etc. Tibor rented a car and drove back to the Drakensberg area for a couple more weeks of hiking before he heads back home.

Durban has a Toyota factory so the port was full of brand new cars that were being loaded onto a car-carrying ship. Durban also ships out lots of copper.

Today Tibor went on a longer hike to the top of a local mountain and I walked around the lodge. We both had great times. Tibor hiked in the rain and I walked around between rainy periods.

Later in the day, we went out to look for birds in the nearby ponds. We completely forgot about our afternoon 4-wheel drive. Luckily the guide came and found us. The drive ended up going up towards the same mountain Tibor hiked to earlier in the day. It was a very steep road and Tibor figured he could walk faster than the 4-wheel was going. We had our sundowner (drink and snack) at the nearby ridge.

We saw two secretary birds in a tree on the afternoon drive! Very interesting as they are usually in the grass hunting for snakes to eat.

We spent the evening packing since we are heading back to Durban tomorrow.

Today we did a 5K. Nope- we went on a 5 kilometer hike up into the hills/mountains in Royal Natal Park. It was wonderful. A bit misty so we never saw the very tops of the mountains but that meant we didn’t overheat. I’d heard it was hot and humid this time of the year and was worried I’d overheat- that didn’t happen.

We did get a few drops of misty rain at various times during the hike but it didn’t start raining until we finished the hike just before our driver picked us up. We had amazing views and the waterfalls/cascades were beautiful after all the rain. They have been having lots or rain recently. It’s rained for 5 days straight. They usually get an afternoon thundershower but it’s raining much of the day.

After a short night, we took an early flight to Durban via Johannesburg. Our guide met us at the Durban airport and drove us six(6) hours to get to our lodge(Montusi Mountain Lodge) in the Drakensberg area. It took a bit longer than usual because of traffic and road construction.

It rained pretty much all the way. It was shocking to see how green everything was and to be in cool weather with rain.

Today I left the ship to meet Tibor. I’ll be off ship for a couple of days. It was surprisingly easy to arrange to be off ship. Before leaving USA I requested permission which was granted. Then a few days before leaving the ship I gave them my off-ship contact information and then I just badged out as normal.

Speaking of badging out…..We have a ‘world card’ which is our key card to get into our room. This key card is also used when we enter or exit the ship. This is how they determine who is on-board and who isn’t so we are unlikely to leave anyone behind. This ‘world card’ is usually all we need off ship. We had to carry our passports in Namibia and South Africa, otherwise our passports remain on-ship with the cruise officers.

I got off the ship shortly after it docked and found Tibor as soon as I exited the immigration booth. We immediately drove to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. We got there a few minutes before it opened and as soon as we got in, we headed up to the Protea plants to see if there were any sugarbirds or sunbirds. We did see a few.

After enjoying tea/breakfast at Kirstenbosch, we headed off to Simonsig winery in the Stellenboch area. We opted for the ‘make our own tasting’ and had a flight of sparkling & sweet wine, a flight of lighter reds and a flight of heavier reds. We had a lovely tasting and then spent some time talking with other visitors before heading to our hotel.

On the way back to the hotel, we took a detour and drove to an overlook. I was freaked out to see baboons on the 4 lane highway but Tibor was used to seeing them on the roads.

We stayed at Hotel Verde. It was a very nice hotel but difficult to walk to the airport even tho it’s just ‘across the street’. They had a great shuttle bus service.

Another day at sea and today the seas were a bit rough and I watched pool water slosh out of the pool.

Jennifer and I were in the Sing Out Loud performance today. It was lots of fun to perform and the group got nice applause.

We are still enjoying the food on board. It’s fun as they have themes some nights. We’ve had Caribbean, South Africa, Taco night and more. Tonight was Swedish. There are always non-theme entries available.

Today I went to see the wild horses of Namibia. The current theory is that they are the escaped/released horses from the European invasions. They have adapted to the desert environment and can go for 30+ hours without water.

There is a bit of a conflict between the ‘save the horses’ groups and the ‘nature conservancy’ groups because one group thinks the horses are natural and one thinks they are an exotic species. There are only 76 wild horses now.

One really interesting thing about this excursion is that we rode in a bus for an hour and a half to get to the horse area. During that drive, we could see how the landscape changed from rocks to sand dunes to the area where there was enough grass for the horses and oryx to survive.

When we returned from our excursion we had to go thru immigration since we are leaving Namibia tonight. Immigration officers came on board the ship so it was super easy to complete the process. Once you’ve gone thru the process you’re not allowed to leave the ship.

This evening’s show was CH2 which is two guitar players that were trained in the classic style but have a record for fastest strumming. They had a very diverse play list that included Hallelujah, Hotel California, Billie Jean and Canon in D major. It was an amazing performance.

It’s Valentine’s day and I”m off to see more sand dunes in Walvis Bay, Namibia.

Actually I’m heading to the Namib-Naukluft National Park to see more sand dunes, more sandscapes and the very odd Welwitschia plant.

The Welwitschia plant looks half dead, can survive in the desert with hardly any water, can live to be over 1000 years old and has only 2 leaves that split repeatedly. There are female Welwitschia plants and male Welwitschia plants.

Oddity per Wikipedia regarding illegal collecting of the Welwitschia: “Plants in Angola are better protected than those in Namibia, because the relatively high concentration of land mines in Angola keep collectors away.”

There is a lichen here that is black until it rains and then it turns green. There had been rain recently so much of the desert had a green tint.

People are generally very happy when the cruise ships arrive. There is 54% unemployment so any sales or tours that can be made to the cruise ship passengers make a big impact.