WALVIS BAY, NAMIBIA

WALVIS BAY, Namibia

Walvis Bay is the only deep water port in Namibia and handles all the commercial shipping for the country. The town is larger than Luderitz and the residents are mostly employed on the docks or in the fishing industry. They also have uranium, salt, zinc and still some diamond mines, some of which are off shore under the sea.

We spent our day here investigating and enjoying the amazing sand dunes! One of them is called Dune 7 where they rent dune buggies. They didn’t have enough for everyone in our group, so Stela and I stayed behind -- Dick raced away in a cloud of dust and had a fabulous time! We watched people in the distance at the oasis at the base of the dune, climbing up it and then running and sliding down, like snow boarders. The sand was very fine and is constantly shifting in the wind. It looked just like the movies of the Sahara Desert, in living color, and goes on as far as the eye can see!!

We then visited the small German town of Swakopmund. The indigenous people in Namibia are the Herero tribe who were Bantu-speaking cattle herders. We saw two of these ladies who had come to town in their native dress -- their bodies and braided hair covered in mud which had been dyed with red ochre, and wrapped in a blanket. Note the cell phone the girl on the right is holding!


After lunch we went through a few shops and bargained with street vendors for their handicrafts before returning to the ship.


And so ends our visit to the sub Saharan African countries … we are now “Out of Africa” and sailing off to the mid-Atlantic island of St. Helena!

LUDERITZ, NAMIBIA

LUDERITZ, Namibia

A pleasant change from the bustling cities we’ve been visiting -- Luderitz is a small fishing village whose claim to fame was its now defunct diamond mine. It was owned by Germany (1883) and struggled for years to become independent. The captain joined us on our tender and we watched as he took lots of pictures. It truly is a tiny village and some of its roads are still unpaved. It had sprinkled a bit as we left the ship (their average rainfall is 20 mm -- that’s millimeters!) a year and the land is very arid. The desert comes down almost to the sea and the coast line is very rugged and rocky. We walked up through wet sand to see the stained glass windows in their little church on top of a hill and had a nice view of the harbor. We also watched cormorants sitting on a small rowboat.

Soon after it was settled, the locals realized that the island just off shore was covered with bird droppings and they proceeded to shovel it off onto their barges and sell the guano for fertilizer! Although this brought in cash for the town, it unfortunately caused many of the seabirds to leave permanently. However, they are known for their wildlife including seals, penguins, flamingos and ostriches, and conservationists recognize this as an important coastal seabird breeding area.

We enjoyed visiting this quaint village which gave the sensation of stepping back in time.

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

CAPE TOWN, South Africa
We got up at dawn to watch as we sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa, and later enjoyed the narrated “sail in” as we approached the harbor. We watched as the trademark landmarks came into view, one by one: Signal Hill, Lion’s Head, Devil’s Point and Table Mountain, with the posh Twelve Apostles area between them in the background. Legend says that when the Devil is hungry, he sets a tablecloth on Table Mountain -- this is the curtain of low clouds and fog that often hides the top from view! It was a beautiful, clear but windy day when we arrived on time at 1:00 p.m., but the winds were gale force and the authorities closed the port to large ships… how frustrating to sit at anchor until it was safe to dock at about 9:00 p.m.!! In the distance we could see the beaches and city skyline, along with Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years.

Our first day ashore was spent touring an ostrich farm and the Durbanville Hills winery. Ostrich eggs are extremely hard -- we stood on them without breaking them! -- and one of them is equivalent to 24 hen’s eggs. How would you like to boil it for 20 minutes, or take 7 minutes to scramble one? Ostriches are much taller than I thought and friendly enough to eat out of our hands. We even had a chance to sit on one! The winery was very modern, and we sampled 6 of their wines, all very good, followed by wonderful hors d’ouvres. We then made our way to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, a charming wharf filled with restaurants, shops and sailing ships.

The indigenous people here were the Khoikhoi and San tribes, who were collectively known as the Khoisan people. They refused to deal with the Dutch, who resorted to importing slaves from India, Madagascar, Ceylon, Malaya and Indonesia to handle the labor shortage. The mixture of all these nationalities makes up the “colored” population. When the British defeated the Dutch in 1806 the slave trade was abolished and the slaves were freed by 1833. There are three distinct ethnic classes -- blacks, whites and colored, who are those of mixed blood. This not a derogatory term in South Africa. Unfortunately the unemployment rate is 34% and the crime rate is very high. In general, the colored people are muslim and do not drink, and have jobs so they are more reliable and careful about their homes than the blacks are. The blacks feel that the government should give them everything for free, are lazy, belligerent and do alcohol and drugs. (This was the opinion of a local citizen).

What an exciting and busy day we had on Wednesday! It was a holiday because it was election day, so there wasn’t much traffic to slow us down. We heard that the turnout was so great that they ran out of ballots! Our city guide was an Indian lady who had been born in Cape Town and she gave us a personalized introduction to the city, telling us stories of what she saw when she was growing up. We walked past the Parliament Buildings, past the Slave House, and through the Company Gardens on our way to the South African Natural History Museum. We took the gondola to the top of Table Mountain - it rotates 360 degrees on the trip -- and took in spectacular views of the city. The walk through the Malay section of town was inspiring -- all the houses were painted in bright colors to express the joy of the freedom of apartheid!

On our way to Cape Point, the most south eastern point of Africa, we passed the prison where Mandela was incarcerated briefly before being moved to Robben Island, saw several “townships” where the blacks lived in squalid conditions, and passed several groups of ostriches and baboons roaming freely through the state park where they are protected. We even saw a family of baboons who had invaded a picnic, chased the people away, and were helping themselves to the food! Our last stop on this journey along the rugged and desolate coast was at the penguin colony. They really do waddle along in single file, and are usually in pairs when separated from the group. How delightful they were!

One more country to visit in Africa -- Namibia.

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA

DURBAN, South Africa
Continuing our journey southwards, we arrived in the city of Durban, the busiest port in South Africa. It is also the busiest container port in the southern hemisphere, getting much cargo from landlocked Johannesburg as well as other cities. The port district is well organized with warehouses, trucking and rail facilities easily accessible to the ships. We found the unique enclosed container ship for automobiles very interesting. A large number of Toyotas and BMWs are assembled and shipped from here, although sugar is probably the largest export.

As we drove through the city we were struck by how clean the streets were and how nicely the buildings were kept up. It is a modern city, but still has much art deco architecture. We were able to stroll through the botanical gardens which have the original cycad plant growing there. It was discovered in 1895 and is considered extinct in the wild. Only male plants exist and all plants in other locations have all been cloned from this single plant. It was very peaceful, with a lovely orchid garden, storks and flamingos in the pond. It is a favorite site for weddings, and we happened to see a wedding party passing by on their way to take photographs.

The King Edward VIII Hospital has one of the largest trauma units in the world, and doctors from all over come here to complete their internships. Apparently the experience they get in six weeks would take a year in any other city! They need a large trauma center because they have many automobile accidents (the drivers are crazy!), lots of stabbings, gunshot wounds, fights etc. as a result of alcohol and drugs flowing freely, especially on weekends. They have a very large university, and good schools -- students must wear long sleeved shirts, ties, blazers and long pants, even in 100 degree weather! It seems old traditions take time to die! We passed the stadium that’s being built for the 2010 Soccer Cup, which will be large enough to hold the Olympics that they plan to bid for.

On our way to the Indian Market (Queen Victoria Market) we saw the golden sands of Battery Beach, with the colorful Zulu rickshaws and souvenir stands. A large swimming pool, free to the public, was at this end of the beach area. We could tell that we were approaching the Indian Market by the wonderful aromas of the spices. Signs clearly identified the brightly colored powders, and I was particularly intrigued with the “Mother-in-law Hell Fire” spice….

I was amused to see the street signs -- when the name is changed, they simply leave the old sign up and paint a line through it! I guess it helps locals find their way until they learn the new street names! We also had an opportunity to visit a very interesting shopping center. Since it was Saturday afternoon, they had a band and, again, dancers -- this time they did the limbo under a pole with burning torches on it! The center was built in circular pods, designed to look like Zulu huts, connected with walkways, and the merchandise in the shops was good quality and reasonably priced. On one side of this particular center was the beach, and on the other was a canal that offered gondola rides. What a charming place to spend an afternoon!

RICHARDS BAY, SOUTH AFRICA

RICHARDS BAY, South Africa

Yet another country to visit -- South Africa! Our ship was greeted by the beating of drums and a group of Zulu dancers, singing and dancing very energetically and athletically. The indigenous people in this country are the Zulu, who were traditionally hunters and warriors. As with the Maasai, the women do all the work, tilling, planting, harvesting, cooking etc. and we saw many of them carrying loads on their heads -- what wonderful posture they have! It is a patriarchal society, and many still live in native villages in round thatched roof houses. We observed that the standard of living here was higher than in Mozambique and Kenya because their houses were much sturdier, neater, western, and they had more land around them.

As we drove through the countryside to the Hluhluwe (shloo-shloo-wee -- you go figure the spelling!) state animal reserve for our late afternoon game run, we passed a large aluminum smelter, a fertilizer factory, several large eucalyptus tree plantations -- they use the wood for chips and paper making -- sugar cane fields, corn and pineapple plantations. Richards Bay has the largest port, though not the busiest port, in South Africa, serving the landlocked neighboring countries like Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

We thoroughly enjoyed our game drive and saw the animals at a much closer range than in Taita Hills. They are accustomed to the noise and movement of the safari vehicles and many of them lumbered across the roads without a second glance at us -- what a great chance for close up pictures! The cats, however, again eluded us, but we saw white rhinos, elephants, zebra, giraffe, impala and even a hyena snoozing in the grass at the side of the road! The hard working dung beetle rolling his ball of dung was interesting -- the female lays an egg inside the ball of dung, and the male then buries it to allow it to hatch. The wonders of nature!

After our game run, we were treated to a cultural show in a “kraal” (homestead), a circular enclosure made out of small branches about 7 feet high. There was singing and dancing around a bonfire, the only source of light, after which we made our way down a winding path through the dark to the dining room. The native food and its preparation were explained to us and served with excellent South African wine. It was very tasty.

The next day was disappointing because we went to a shopping center only to discover that there had been an attempt to steal copper wire from the power plant during the night which caused an explosion and the entire town was without power. Consequently all the shops and restaurants were closed so we missed out on our planned British fish and chip lunch! This, however, gave us more time to bargain with the merchants selling their handicrafts on the pier. We thoroughly enjoyed our stop in Richards Bay.

MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE

MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE
This was a first time stop for Holland America Line, and we had been told to expect very little because Mozambique is a poor country that has been plagued with problems -- a 17-year civil war, floods and famines, and they just began to recover in 1994. Even our buses had to be brought in from South Africa! We were cautioned to be extremely careful and vigilant if we chose to travel independently. However, we were very pleasantly surprised. Our tour of this city gave us a great cross section of everyday life and the vast contrasts in living conditions. Our guide spoke excellent English and was very proud of his city. Our first “eye opener” was the railroad station. It had been designed by Eiffel and built in 1908. The dome was built in South Africa and then installed in place, and was quite beautiful. It happened to be Wednesday, and the station was packed with people. Apparently there is only one train a week that goes to Cape Town, South Africa. The rail cars looked quite rusted and not too safe to us…

The next surprise was their natural history museum. The building had once been a church and now houses a wonderful collection of their native animals in their natural habitats (the “Big Five” plus others), insects and butterflies beautifully displayed and labeled, fish and sea creatures, some skeletons and cultural exhibits including pottery, spears and musical instruments. It even boasts the world’s only display of the development of an elephant fetus!

Much of the architecture is Portuguese inspired and many of these older buildings are in need of repair. There are also a few modern high-rises mixed in. One of the most unusual buildings is the Iron House, built of stainless steel, which also was designed by Eiffel as the residence for the governor, but proved to be much too hot to live in! We drove through a lovely “Beverly Hills” type area where many large homes and condominiums were being constructed overlooking the beach, that rival the more affluent beach communities in California and Florida. Almost all of them, however, had walls with electric fences, and security guards. Only those who have lived in Maputo for 10 years can own land. The tide was out and we saw several groups out digging for clams and shrimp, and others enjoying swimming in the Indian Ocean.

As we passed through the poorer neighborhoods, we saw all kinds of merchandise displayed at the sides of the road for sale -- fruits and vegetables, clothing, shoes, handicrafts, baskets, furniture, tires, mufflers and even goats! Most of it looked like it was what thrift stores and garage sales couldn’t sell!

We couldn't figure out how this driver managed to park his car beside the tree stump -- but I guess all the dents tell the story ... ! It looked like their body shops didn't do too much business judging by all the dented cars on the road.


We visited a lovely 5-star hotel and enjoyed the view of the city from their garden. We found the people that we came in contact with to be very friendly and seemed happy to have us touring their city. In spite of the high crime rate and high unemployment, our overall impression of Maputo was favorable.

MOMBASA, KENYA

MOMBASA, KENYA

We’ve arrived in the huge ‘dark continent’ of Africa! Our first two days were spent on a wonderful photo safari in a game reserve called the Taita Hills. We were picked up at the ship in our 6 passenger safari van and proceeded through the Mombasa countryside for 4 hours to our lodge. For about 2/3 of the trip, the road was a good paved, asphalt surface, but after that it was a packed dirt, dusty, washboard road. We passed through many villages, which consisted of small huts with thatched roofs or shacks with corrugated tin roofs, similar to, but a step or two above those we saw in the slums of Mumbai. We later learned that the average income of Africans is 65 cents a day or up to $800 a year!

We loved our safari in spite of the bumps and bruises and the 2 hour rain! Unfortunately we didn't see any cats -- only one of our 8 vehicles saw a single lion -- but there were lots of other animals. We saw an unusually large herd of elephants - about 100 of them! and they were all brown .... the soil is very red in the park we were in and they rolled in it and had dust baths so changed color! It was a little weird at first, but we soon got used to it. We saw lots of hardebeestes, impalas, cape buffalo, zebras, some ostrich, giraffes, a gazelle, a couple of warthogs, baboons, waterbucks and dik-diks, and lots of pretty birds. We stayed overnight and got up for a 6:30 a.m. game run and then had a bush breakfast on top of a hill with a gorgeous view of the whole park! The only thing missing was champagne! We're looking forward to a 2 hour evening game drive in Richards Bay next week. What a great trip this has been -- lots of exciting "firsts" ...

The natives in this part of Kenya were the Maasai, who are nomad cattle herders. They build their villages in a circle, putting their herds in the middle to protect them overnight and they basically have little money and trade for what they need. They, along with other natives, were on the pier, each with their small stall about 6 feet wide, on the ground. They offered dozens of carvings, jewelry, bowls and other handicrafts -- most were identical to their neighbor’s -- and were very friendly, but persistent and shrewd bargainers! It was fascinating to deal with them -- they all wanted pens or t-shirts, and would peer into our tote bags to see what they could barter for. The crew members traded their old, worn out sneakers and shoes, and even some fried chicken, for carvings! The ship gave them water and leftover stew from the crew’s dinner. I gave them the gold foil wrapped chocolates we get every night, and they loved them! They each had a scrap of paper that they’d use for their bargaining -- they’d write down their first asking price, then our response and so on until we’d reached an agreement. What a fun experience! We certainly have many memories, in addition to the tangible souvenirs of our stay.