Blogs from Africa

We left Brazil on the 20th and then headed north. We had 5 days at sea. During this time we continued with the quizzes, having moderate success and I kept going to choir rehearsals. In between there was food, drinks and music. However, 2 significant events took place. On the 23rd the whole ship celebrated St George's Day. Our trivia that day was around famous Georges while it was formal night with very British food.The concert was celebrating famous British artists such as the Beatles and David Bowie. The dancers and singers were very good. On the 25th, they held a special service for Anzac Day, not at dawn, but they did it very well. Most of the senior members of the crew attended and the resident vicar conducted a respectful ceremony. They even gave out ... read more

After leaving Lalibela, we had to fly back to Addis Ababa to connect to Mekele. Thankfully, we just hung out in the domestic terminal, even though we did have to go back through security again - strange set up. Other than that, fairly smooth flight to Mekele, a proper city of around 300,000 people. We were picked up from the airport by the owner of the travel company who drove us to Homeland Hotel, our place for the evening. We were checked in fairly quickly and then we all met for a dinner at the hotel to discuss the next phase of our trip. The owner told us that we would be picked up early the next morning and, due to security concerns in this area still recovering from the Tigray war, just to do what ... read more

We had two days at sea after Durban before we reached Cape Town. The highlight of this time was our choir concert. When we embarked at Fremantle I joined the passenger choir. Since then we had been learning some songs to get ready for a concert. There are quite a number in the choir but we thoroughly enjoy our daily practices with Thiagos, a Brazilian, who has a fabulous voice and is choir master. The day before we reached Cape Town we assembled for a rehearsal at 12 and then a sound check in the Palladium Theatre. We were joining with the large group who have been learning to play the ukulele. Then at 2-30 the concert began. First the ukulele players went through their repertoire, then we joined with them to sing and play Can ... read more

After a huge amount of effort on our parts (particularly Kathryn’s), we have since gotten most of our money back from the Visa credit card system. We weren’t certain who was at fault here, whether it was the tour company we’d booked the Africa trip with originally or the airline (KLM). We were angry at both until we discovered that another Canadian couple who were on the same safari that we didn’t make, had flown with British Airways having produced the exact same documentation that KLM had denied us. At this point, all of our anger was redirected to KLM. One KLM (also Air France) airport attendant at Pearson Airport in Toronto, was 100% to blame for our African Safari troubles. We will not fly again with KLM. Our new June 2024 African Safari which is ... read more

As I made my way back up the Westside of Tunisia I couldn't believe the quantity and quality of the ancient ruins. It also had very lush and green landscape compared to the desert south and the eastern coastline. I started at the Ruins of Sbeitla dating back to 138 to 161. This was the entry point of the Muslim conquest of North Africa. It is believed this settlement reached great prosperity through the olive industry allowing them to build such impressive buildings. Sbeitla is known for having the best preserved Forum in the world. Instead of constructing only one temple dedicated to the three most important Roman gods: Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno the inhabitants of the city built separate temples for each one. One of the most famous collection of ruins is Dougga which UNESCO ... read more