Postcard from World's Most Remote Inhabited Island

Today (Monday, May 7, 2018) we received a wonderful surprise in our mailbox here at home in Safety Harbor, Florida.

On January 31, 2018, we mailed a postcard to ourselves from Tristan da Cunha, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that we visited on our cruise.  The card arrived today and put a smile on our faces as we thought back about this amazing place we were so fortunate to visit.

We are feeling pretty blessed today!!!!

Dropped in mailbox on January 31, 2018
on the island of Tristan da Cunha

 

 

 

Arrived in our mailbox in
Safety Harbor 96 days later on May 7, 2018

 

Cape Town, South Africa

After leaving Luderitz, Namibia, we sailed south along Africa's west coast for a day heading to one of our "Bucket List" cities.  We were up bright and early to watch the sail into Cape Town from the front deck of the ship.  Sure enough, when Cape Town's iconic backdrop, Table Mountain, came into view we were all excited.  As we sailed into Table Bay, which is located on the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula, we were anxious to get our day started.

Map of South Africa

Sailing into Table Bay

Famous Table Mountain, the backdrop of Cape Town

Entering the harbor at Cape Town

World Cup Soccer Stadium

Cape Town has a population of about 4,000,000 people and is spread out over a large area.  South Africa’s official languages are English and Afrikaan.  The area of Cape Town has such an interesting history.  During the era of exploration in the 1500s, its location at the tip of Africa made it a strategic location for European explorers to stop to re-supply their ships enroute to India and the Far East in search of spices to bring back to Europe.  The Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz first landed in the area in 1488 and named it The Cape of Storms due to the rough weather and currents in the area.  Back home in Portugal, the King learned about the strategic find, but cleverly re-named it The Cape of Good Hope in order to encourage other explorers to go there...good marketing strategy there!  “Good Hope “ sounds way more inviting than “Storms”.

We joined a tour that would take us to Table Mountain and show us some of the highlights of the City. Our first stop took us to the cable car that goes up to the top of Table Mountain.  The mountain is 3,000 feet high and offers a panoramic view of the area looking down over the waterfront and port area on one side and beautiful beaches on the other side.  The national park at the top is very well done much like our great national parks in the U.S..  We had a great visit there, but wished we could have stayed longer.  Next we drove through the City as our tour guide pointed out the various neighborhoods and gave us an overview of the history and culture of the City which gave us a good orientation for exploring on our own later.  In the afternoon, we went to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront area which is a focal point of Cape Town.  We were blown away by this bustling entertainment area with its museums, hotels, restaurants, bars, boutiques and a huge 3 story shopping mall all set in a rambling marina area.  There was public art to enjoy and plenty of rhythmic, live African music performances all along the walkways.  It's a terrific area for locals and tourists to enjoy.  In our opinions, this waterfront rivals other famous waterfront districts we have visited such as San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.  Fortunately, our hotel was located a short walk from this waterfront.  We were sad to disembark our ship, but excited that we had 3 more days to explore Cape Town.

View from the top of Table Mountain

City View

Looking down on beaches around Cape Town

Enjoying the national park atop Table Mountain

Table Mtn. with our friends from Scotland

Beautiful clean walkways in the national park

offering spectacular views from high above

The V&A Waterfront Entertainment District

Terrific live entertainment and

public art to enjoy at the Waterfront

Massive modern mall (and air conditioning!)

Nobel Square with its monuments

of South African Nobel Peace Prize Winners

including Mandela and Tutu

After leaving the ship and checking into our hotel, we spent the day and evening at the Waterfront area.  The next day, we did an all day tour that took us out of town along the Cape Peninsula to Cape Point (the Cape of Good Hope).  The national park there is a vast area of scenic mountains, soaring cliffs, rocky bays and lagoons.  During our drive through the park, we had to stop several times to wait for troops of baboons to cross the road.  Several of them jumped up on the tops of the passing cars.  Apparently, the baboons are like bears in our national parks and they are savvy and persistent in searching cars for food.  It was pretty cool to be at the Cape of Good Hope close to the area where the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean converge knowing how the brave explorers sailed through these treacherous waters to establish routes to India.  Standing at Cape Point, it took some effort not to fall down from the wind gusts so sailing in those conditions had to be terrifying.

Our tour also stopped at Boulder's Beach on the east side of the Cape Peninsula to see a colony of African penguins.  We enjoyed the boardwalk meandering through the penguin colony for an upclose and personal (and smelly) wildlife encounter.

Grasping the monument sign to stay upright in the wind gusts

Cape Point

Excited tourist

Wind effected hair

Rough seas and rugged coast line

for the explorers to navigate

Cape of Good Hope

Baboons taking over the road

in the national park

Junior gets a ride

African penguins on Boulder's Beach

Nesting on the egg

Later in the day, we visited the famous Wine Country of South Africa.  Our driver took us to the charming town of Stellenbosch where we visited a winery and, of course, drank wine. 

After enjoying a tour of the of these beautiful, scenic areas, on our way back to our hotel we had an opportunity to see another side of Cape Town that was sobering to witness.  The impoverished areas called "Townships"  are where the very, very poor population lives.  We passed by a massive Township on the outskirts of the City called Khayelitsha consisting of lean to corrugated metal shanties that made up a ghetto housing almost 400,000 people.  During the Apartheid era, black and racially mixed families were displaced and removed to the townships.  Years later many problems still linger and the unemployment rate among this population is currently at a whopping 42%.  South Africa has some very serious problems to work out, including corrupt government officials, but it is a spectacularly beautiful and resource rich country.

Wine country

Grapes ready for harvest

A Stellenbosch winery and popular wedding venue

Our winery tour guide (and BFF after the tastings)

He says the Pinotage is great for breakfast!

Cheers!

Impoverished Township

On our final vacation day, we bought tickets for the Hop On-Hop Off bus and explored the area further on own.  We visited an area known as Long Street in the City Center, then hopped off again at a beautiful beach town called Camps Bay.  After a long, hot day of touring, we headed back to our hotel for quick showers, then left for the airport to catch our flight home at 12:30 am (yawn!) for a total of 23 hours of flying to get back home.  We had a whole lot of flying time to think about all the wonderful sights we've seen on this 42 day vacation.  HAPPY TO BE GOING HOME TO THE USA!

Coming up, one final post on "Luvin' Our Days at Sea".

Namibia, Africa

Walvis Bay, Namibia

After a 4 day sail from Tristan da Cunha, we reached the west coast of Africa.  Our first stop was in the port town of Walvis Bay in the country of Namibia.  Namibia is about one and one-half times the size of Texas, but has a total population of only 2,500,000 people.  It is very sparsely populated.  It's bordered by South Africa to the south, Angola to the north and Zambia, Botswana  and Zimbabwe to the east.

Cool National Flag

Map of Namibia

It was originally discovered by the Portuguese in the late 1400s , but the Germans colonized it in the 1800s. In 1908 diamonds were discovered, so the diamond and mining industry started to flourish here.  It has only been an independent country since 1990, but there is still a heavy German influence here.  English is the official language, but German is also spoken here a lot.  In Walvis Bay ("Whale Bay"), many Germans have second homes along the waterfront.  They vacation here to escape from the cold winters of Germany.

Along the coast of Namibia are amazing sand dunes rising as high as 1,256 feet.  Beyond the sand dunes lies the Namib Desert and in the east are mountains. Namibia is a diverse and amazingly beautiful country.

For our visit to Walvis Bay we chose to take a 4x4 Jeep tour to an area called Sandwich Harbour so we could see the sand dunes, lagoons and some wildlife along the way.  Our tour guide/driver was Andreas, a German.  He told us he had lived in Namibia for 7 years.  We had a great day out sharing our jeep with 3 other people.

View from the Port

Ships in Dry Dock for repairs and maintenance

The first thing we noticed as we left the port area were all the nice upscale homes along the "Sunset Strip" of the palm tree lined waterfront road.  We were told that the beautiful, modern homes were mostly second homes owned by Germans.  The area was immaculately clean and the roads were wide and modern.  We did not expect to see this in Africa.  Along the lagoon we spotted thousands of flamingoes feeding in the various ponds, lagoons and bays.

Our "Dune Buggy" Jeep and Driver

Flamingoes in the lagoon

After driving past the vast salt ponds in the area where tons of salt is produced for export, we headed along the beaches driving off-road on the sand enroute to the dunes.  Along the way, we spotted seals and sea birds, but no people as we entered a huge national park area called Namib-Naukluft.

Entering the national park and driving on the sand beaches

Picturesque desert landscape

Old German beach house buried in the sand

Salt ponds and salt processing plant

Our driver took us for a thrilling ride up and down the sand dunes so we fastened our seat belts and grasped the handles to steady ourselves while bouncing around in the back of the Jeep.  The tops of the dunes offered spectacular views of the beaches and the vast sand hills leading to the desert.  It was a perfect blue sky day with a cooling breeze off the Atlantic Ocean.  During our tour of the dunes we spotted springboks (antelopes), jackals, oryx (horse size antelopes) and ostriches.

At the Lagoon we met up with other Jeep tours for a chance to play in the sand.  We enjoyed a tailgate party with beer, wine, champagne and snacks.

Pink salt ponds

Warming up on the small dunes

Springboks

Sand hills leading to the Namib Desert

More sand dunes

The Lagoon



Gathering at the Lagoon

Playing in the sand

Tailgate Party

Washing away the sand

Desert wildlife

Nothing But Sand

Our first day in Africa could not have been any better.  We learned so much about this clean, safe, serene country.  The best part of all is that it was nothing like what we perceived Africa to be like...THAT'S WHY WE TRAVEL!


Luderitz, Namibia

From Walvis Bay we sailed south overnight and stopped in the coastal town of Luderitz which is known for its German colonial buildings.  The town is named after Adolf Luderitz, a German merchant who pulled off a somewhat shady deal in 1883 to buy the land from an indigenous chief who thought he was selling off only a small piece of the land.  Turns out, a "German geographical mile" is 5 times longer than an English mile, so Luderitz made out real well on the deal.  However, ol' Luderitz soon disappeared in a watery grave in the nearby coastal waters. 

Entering the harbor at Luderitz

A town sign in the hills just like Hollywood

The diamond mining industry continued to thrive here for awhile so there was a boom to the area in the early 1900s.  It was somewhat like the gold rush period in the US with Europeans traveling by wagon to prospect and file claims.  Today, most of the diamond mining activity in this area is done off-shore using the tremendously large industrial ships that actually carry mining equipment out to sea and dig up the ocean floor to tap into the underwater volcanic "tunnels" that produce diamonds.

Massive diamond mining ship - no visitors allowed

We spent our day here walking freely around the small town exploring the area.  We visited a rustic museum that turned out to be full of great artifacts and vintage pictures depicting the lifestyles of the original indigenous people of the area and the boom era of the mining industry.

Impressive German architecture situated in the sandstone

In the afternoon, we walked around the waterfront tourist area and stopped for beers at a restaurant overlooking the harbor.  We sat there wondering what kind of tourists come to this off the path area and stay here.  We struck up a conversation with a friendly couple that were having lunch at the table next to us.  They were on a road trip around Namibia and were spending a couple of nights in Luderitz.  They raved about how great the area is with its spectacular natural beauty, good roads with no crowds and inexpensive, delicious food and no crime to worry about.  We marveled at how adventurous these 2 baby boomers were to drive around the country on their own.  They assured us that Namibia is a safe, beautiful country for touring.   Back onboard ship we heard from other passengers and crew members about their experiences here.  Everyone talked about how great (and cheap) the food and drinks were.  This "off the beaten path" town turned out to be something totally unexpected...THAT'S WHY WE TRAVEL!

Refreshments at the Waterfront Plaza

Namibian Beer

Enjoying the Waterfront plaza

Flag of the African Union and Namibian Flag

Our Home Away from Home



Sunset in Africa

NEXT STOP... CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA