Bwana & Bwanette (aka, the Gringos) Go On Photo Safari

November 18, 2016:

Here we are on our last day in South Africa, and I have to say, there’s a lot more here that I would like to see. Tomorrow we fly home (South Africa to Dubai; Dubai to L.A.).  But in the meantime, we have some animals to see …

Today’s excursion takes us a couple of hours from Cape Town to a wild animal preserve known as Aquila Reserve.  We drove some more beautiful countryside.  As their web materials say, “Aquila Game Reserve is the closest private game reserve to Cape Town, being a short drive from the city. Aquila is located in the historic Touws River town, in a valley between the Langeberg and the Outeniqua Mountains in the Karoo.The Karoo is on the national garden route. Setting the scene are spellbinding landscapes, carpets of wild flowers and wildlife. It is a place of wide spaces, immense horizons, craggy mountain ranges, jutting hills, an ancient seabed, and a massive clear sky at night.”

Upon arrival at the Reserve, we were met with a lovely sparkling beverage, and then loaded  up the open-sided safari vehicles for our tour.  Our first stop was at the large cat compound. Aquila Private Game Reserve has gone to massive efforts and expense to source and re-introduce wildlife into the Cape region. A great emphasis is placed on a wildlife conservation educational experience. Aquila offers visitors a complimentary educational introduction to our cheetahs. Cheetahs are captive bred and strictly controlled in the interest of cheetah survival worldwide.  All that being said, although we were able to see the cheetahs and a rally gorgeous leopard, it wasn’t the same as seeing them in the wild.

Our Safari Vehicle

However, once we entered into the rest of the Reserve, things got much better.  Our first sighting the day was a mother and baby rhino trotting through the bush.  Then we saw even more rhinos, and a pair of ostriches.

Baby Rhino

There is a large shallow lake on the Reserve, and as to be expected, the hippo colony was busily cavorting in the water and shallow mud.  Because these pictures were taken at a distance greater than my eyes could see, it wasn’t until I actually viewed the photos that I saw I had captured this darling little baby hippo!

As we drove along, we saw some giraffes grazing, including this darling youngster!  We also saw a beautiful wildebeest, who obligingly posed for us.

Leaving these peaceful creatures, we entered the lion enclosure, which occupies about 4,000 acres.  Obviously, these lions are very well-fed. So much so, it was hard to tell the pregnant lioness from the merely fat ones.  We were all mystified to see 2 male lions, but the guide explained that both were from the same family, and the oldest one was no longer competition for the lionesses.  It was touching to see one of the lionesses hop down and go give the older male lion a nuzzle!

As you can probably tell from these photos, we were incredibly close to the lions. Therefore, it was with great relief that we learned that a couple of springbok were released into the lion enclosure each week to remove any temptation for the lions to hunt human targets. After we left the lion enclosure, we encountered a couple of elderly elephants, one of which looked blind in one eye. However, they were very friendly with each other, and appeared to  travel as a pair.

The elephants, giraffes, many springbok and a herd of zebras all mainly hang out in an ancient riverbed valley, giving great views across the valley at the various wild animals.  We pulled up to a high point, and toasted our photo safari with some more great South African sparkling wine!

With that, we returned to the lodge for lunch, and then drove back to Cape Town.  We had one more fabulous dinner at Karibu. Here’s a picture of Jim’s starter; ostrich, springbok and crocodile carpaccios! Tomorrow, it’s home for us, but we should have time to enjoy one more beautiful morning in Cape Town.

Sipping Our Way Through Stellenbosch

November 17, 2016:

Here we are on Day 3 in South Africa.  Our journey du jour will take us about an hour outside of Cape Town to the Paarl Valley and Stellenbosch wine growing region.  As we drove, the scenery got much greener and more pastoral, yet you still have the craggy outcroppings like the rest of the Cape peninsula.

Our first stop was at the Nederberg vineyards, one of the most famous and recognized vineyards in South Africa. The vineyards themselves are lush and beautiful, and we’re really looking forward to sampling some  of Nederberg’s award-winning wines!

Although South Africa produces virtually all wine varietals, their two classic wines are Chenin Blanc and Pinotage (a grape varietal created in South Africa by grafting Cinsault onto Pinot Noir grapes).  The Chenin Blanc produced here is not the awful box wine you remember from your youth; it is crisp and well-balanced in the French style. All in all, not surprising, because this area was heavily populated by French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution in the 18th century. The winemaker for Nederberg for decades was a German immigrant, so the vineyard also produces some amazing German-style wines. We actually bought 3 bottles of wine here which we plan to carry home.

After our wine tasting, we drove to Franschoek, which translates to “French Corner”.  The town is an adorable collection of Cape Dutch colonial architecture, housing tons of great shops, wine bars, and restaurants.  You could easily see vacationing here as a base to go wine tasting in this region, if it only weren’t as darned far away!  We visited a beautiful memorial garden erected by the French to thank the South African people for sheltering their people from persecution.  The memorial was lovely, and the gardens were full of booming King Protea Flowers, the national flower of South Africa.

Huguenot Memorial Park

The Memorial

King Proteas

 

After visiting the memorial, we had some free time to wander around town (and do a little shopping).  Then it as time to head to another vineyard right outside the town (the Grand Provence), where they had scheduled a lovely gourmet picnic for us.  We had planned to eat in the sculpture gardens, but since it was spitting rain, so they moved us into the cellar for our picnic.  We even had a musical quartet playing classical music!

Then we drove on through the scenic Stellenbosch valley to the town of Stellebosch.  This is a university town, and it is totally charming. In addition to viewing more Cape Dutch architecture, Jim and I wandered into a shop with some great wood carvings, including almost life-sized giraffes.  To my amazement, Jim suggested we buy one and have it shipped home for our guest suite, which is decorated in an African theme. Now we can’t wait for it to arrive!

Finally, we topped our day off by walking around and the Victoria and Alfred bayside development, at with dinner at a star South African restaurant, Karibu.  The reviews didn’t lie, and we were able to taste many regional South African specialities. The meal was so good, in fact, that on our way out, we reserved a table again for tomorrow.

Table Bay Hotel

Protea Floral Arrangement in Table Bay lobby

V & A Ferris Wheel

Cape Town Day 2

Nov. 16, 2016:

Today, we had to bid farewell to our home of the last three weeks aboard the Navigator. Both Jim and I felt a bit nostalgic to be leaving the old girl!  Since we are going to be here in Cape Town for the next three days, we made arrangements to have a driver pick us up at the ship, and take us down the Cape Peninsula to Cape Point Reserve and the Cape of Good Hope.  Our cousins, Chris and Debbie Clark, had raved about this area and the drive to the Cape, so we eagerly jumped in the car with our driver, Matt ( from African Blue Tours) and off we went!

We really enjoyed the drive through the suburbs of Cape Town, past the University of Cape Town, and up over the mountains ring the city, and over to the Indian Ocean side of the Peninsula. Sadly, South Africa has the distinction of being the country with the highest income inequality in the world. For obvious reasons, this results in a very high crime rate, and most of the lovely homes were sheltered behind high walls, many of them electrified, and barred windows were common.

Our first stop was in the colonial seafaring town, called Simon’s Town, which lies on False Bay.  The views along the coast from here are awesome, and the colonial era architecture is very quaint. Then, it was off to achieve my prime objective for the day; photographing the African penguins! Me amo pinguinos.

Boulders Beach is home to a large colony of African Penguins (about 3,000), which nest in in the coastal scrub dotting the sand dunes lining the rocky beach here. Interestingly, until the 1980s, the penguins only nested offshore on the small rocky islands. However, in the 1980s, a breeding pair established themselves onshore, and a cottage viewing industry was born.  Nowadays, the beach is thick with penguins, and the area belongs to the Cape Reserve Park Service. They have built a very convenient wooden footpath which winds along the nesting areas down to the beach. I think you actually get closer to the penguins here than you do in Antarctica!

However, as you can see, the winds were so extreme, the Penguins were mostly all hunkered down against the wind. In short, most of them looked miserable!

From Boulders Beach, we again crossed the spine of the Cape Peninsula, and entered the Cape Point Reserve area.  This area is on of the the most densely floral areas in the world, and is referred to as the Cape floral kingdom. The whole area is thickly carpeted with a kind of heather-like ground cover called fynbos (“fine boss”). South Africa’s national flower is the King Protea, but there are many varieties of these bulbous spiky flowers, as well as many other types of wildflower so. This drive is glorious from September through November, and we are seeing the last of the spring splendor.

 

 

 

Shortly after we enter the park, we see a ranger armed with something like a paintball gun. His job is to make sure the roving bands of baboons don’t stray from the park. Very soon thereafter, we saw some of the escapist baboons ourselves by the side of the road. Shortly thereafter, we saw an ostrich by thee side of the road, and then whole nesting colony of Cape cormorants.

Our first stop was at the Cape of Good Hope, which our guide was quick to point out is NOT the southernmost point on the African continent (that honor goes to Cape Agulhas, about 100 km. To the east). Instead, the Cape of Good Hope is the south-westernmost point in Africa. We jostled with zillions of tourists to snap these quick pictures at the commemorative sign.

The next stop was higher up on the Point, where we hiked the equivalent of 60 flights of stairs to see the views from the old light to the “Two Oceans” (Atlantic and Indian), and the new lighthouse, which is substantially lower on the Point, and can be seen at sea for over 40 km.

We rewarded ourselves with a killer meal at the Two Oceans restaurant, which had killer views along the Indian Ocean side of the Cape.

Then we proceeded to drive back towards Cape Town along the Atlantic side. We passed bay after bay of unbelievable views. The tour was originally scheduled to have us take a ferry from Hout Bay out to Seal Island to see the huge colony of fur seals there. However, the winds were blowing so hard, we opted to skip the boat ride. Particularly when our guide, Matt, suggested that we could stop at a winery instead!  So he took us to the Cape Point Vineyard, which was situated overlooking a glorious stretch of coast.

We then drove back over Chapman’s Peak which gave us a lovely views of the mountain range called the Twelve Apostles.  We also made photo stops in Llandudno and Camp’s Bay.  All in all, this was an incredible day, and we’re looking forward to driving into the interior to the Stellenbosch region for some wine tasting and a picnic.

Cruising Into Cape Town

November 15, 2016:

 

So we’ve spent the last day and half steaming towards Cape Town.  Sadly, the seas have been very rocky, which resulted in major parts of the outside deck being closed for safety.  However, this morning, we arose to glorious clear skies (albeit windy), and packed up and then went up on deck to see the sail into Cape Town.

We are also in the very nutrient-rich waters of the Benguelas Current, so these waters are abundant with seal mammals, especially dolphins and migratory right whales and humpback whales.  Sure enough, on the sail in, I spotted many fur seals bobbing in the waves, along with some dolphins and two whales.  We have totally lucked out today, because as we drew close, the views of Table Mountain were amazing!

The plan is to spend tonight on the ship at dock, and then we will leave the Navigator tomorrow to have a post-cruise stay in Cape Town at the famous Table Bay Hotel. Because the weather was so extreme from Namibia, we were about two hours late cruising into port.  Nonetheless, we had a tour awaiting us which combined a trip to the Durbanville Hills wine growing region for a wine-tasting, and a trip to an ostrich farm to play with ostriches.

We traveled out through the suburbs of Cape Town. Everywhere we went, we saw modern upscale housing and office buildings and malls.  It is only as you get to the far limits of downtown that you see the “unofficial settlements” (as the townships are called here), and it is a far different story.

The area of Durbanville is fairly close to the City, and the topography looks very similar to that of Santa Barbara.  We arrive at the de Grendel winery for a tasting and tour of the wine cellar.  Although the Stellenbosch wine region is perhaps the best known and most awarded wine region, Durbanville is also popular, and the de Grendel estate is beautiful!  Probably the best known wines in South Africa are their Chenin Blanc and a red clone called Pinotage, creating by grafting Pinot Noir and Hermitage (Cinsault) together.

I can’t say much for the wines we tasted, but it was a wonderful afternoon for a walk in the gardens, which featured a great view back towards Table Mountain.  The wine estate even featured some wild animals like Oryx, ibises and Cape guinea fowl.  Next stop … ostriches!

View of Table Mountain from Durbanville Hills

Ibis in the field

Cape Cormorant

After a detour through the gift shop, featuring some beautiful (but very expensive) ostrich handbags and carved ostrich eggs, we got a lecture on the physiology, care and feeding of ostriches, then we went outside to visit them. We all got corn kernels to feed them, and after the initial shock of them pecking at my hand, it was fun to feed them.  However, the guide showed some of us how to get the ostriches to eat corn off our heads, which I might have tried, until I saw an ostrich swallow an earring off one woman. Not to worry, though! The guide just grabbed the bird by the throat so he couldn’t swallow, and reached his hand down into the throat to retrieve the earring.  Our final fun consisted of getting to sit on an ostrich.

Driving back to town, we timed it almost perfectly to see the sun setting beyond Table Mountain, and we made a brief detour through the wetlands surrounding Milnerton to catch the sunset views from the beach.  We’re both looking forward to seeing more of Cape Town tomorrow!

Sand, Seals & Swakopmund

November 13, 2016:

All day yesterday, we sailed down the fabled (and scary) Skeleton Coast of Namibia, so-named because of the high number ships which wrecked upon its treacherous shores.  From the roughness of the seas, we can understand why. However, we were so far offshore we were not able to see the spectacular red sad dunes which characterize this area.

This morning found us pulling into port in Walvis Bay, Namibia. We could see the towering dunes which run along the coast, but here, the dunes are colored with iron instead of garnet, so they are more typically sandy looking. We are now firmly in the grip of the Benguelas Current, which comes up from Antartica around the Cape of Good Hope, bringing very cold, nutrient rich waters, which explains the diversity of sea life one can regularly see (and also, the sudden proliferation of fishing vessels).

Coastal Namibia is an interesting place because it seems to be a study in contradictions. All around are these somewhat bleak looking sand dunes with almost no vegetation, and yet the region is actually teeming with wildlife (most waterfowl( because there are about four main rivers which mostly run shallowly underground, yet create vast areas of wetlands which serve as breeding grounds to huge flocks of migratory birds, including vast colonies of nesting flamingoes. Then there are the people …here we are in the heart of Africa; yet most of the people we see are Caucasians, owing largely to the fact that this part of Namibia was both a British and Dutch colony, and those colonists’ stamp is everywhere.

Our first stop was at the estuary area right outside town, to see the flamingoes.  Even though we only stopped for about 5 minutes, I think I took close to 100 pictures, but I’ve tried not to bore you with the following.

Next, it was on the Dune 7, which is a large park located right next to a huge sand dune.

Having taken the requisite photos, we moved on toward the coastal resort town of Swakopmund, via a stop at a weaving collective (Karakul Weavery), where the artisans weave extraordinary rugs out of Karekul Wool.

Finally, we stopped in Swakopmund, and gawked at the lovely Cape Dutch architecture. After a brief visit to the local museum, which had a completely diverse (read: random) set of exhibits, including everything from stuffed animal dioramas to a display about native inhabitants, we wandered out into the town to explore, shop and take more photos. Then it was back to Wallis Bay.

One of the noteworthy things to do here is to take a whale and dolphin tour, but as it was Sunday, most businesses were closed. However, our naturalist on the ship had told us about a huge fur seal colony.  A young taxi driver came up to us and quoted us $20 to take us out to the colony. However, the art of B.S. Is obviously learned at an early age here, and before we left the town limits, he was already re-negotiating the price.  We set off and it soon bega e obvious he had no idea where he was going. Luckily, Jim had his GPS, so off  week we went!  Unfortunately, the semi-paved road soon ran out, and we still had no idea how close the seal colony was. note to self: pre-order a tour before we land in the future. Finally, we could drive no further, but we could see a couple of 4 wheel drive vehicles nearby, and I hailed the drivers. One couple told us they had seen a few I seals off in the distance. From where I was standing, all I could see was a few indisguinshable lumps on the beach, but I decided to go for it.  The good news was I found two live seals; the bad news was that I found four dead seals and no babies.

Anyway, I decided we had achieved our mission, so we asked the taxi driver to head back.  This, OF COURSE, led to another discussion about the inadequacy of his fare (after we had already jacked up once).  After agreeing on a FINAL rate that neither party found agreeable, he deposited us back at the ship.  In short, we were happy to sail away.

 

Sailing into São Tomé and Principe

Nov. 9, 2016:

After spending most of the night awake last night waiting for election returns, and then getting sick when they came in, I was much in need of something to get my mind off the election. Jim just went back to bed and pulled the covers over his head.

São Tomé and Principe is basically a two-island country located just a few miles north of the equator. This was the first stop of our cruise where we didn’t dock, and instead had to tender into the port. We tendered into the port of São Tomé which is on the island of São Tomé. The population of the whole country is 56,935, and about 43,000 of them live on the island of São Tomé.

The islands were discovered by the Portuguese around 1470 and stayed under Portuguese control (with a few minor Dutch incursions) until 1975 when they were granted their independence by Portugal. STP (as it is commonly abbreviated) is the smallest Portuguese-speaking country in Africa.

Again, we came to rest about 8 a.m. off the shore of São Tomé, and prepared to board the tenders to go ashore. Our excursion du jour was to journey along the east coast of São Tomé, visiting cacao and coffee plantations and a blow hole off the coast along the way.

Catedral de São Tomé

One thing you notice immediately about São Tomé is that it is incredibly lush with vegetation growing all over the volcanic base of the island. You also notice that different from most of the rest of west Africa, the houses are constructed of wood instead of concrete block.  On our drive out of town, we passed the transmission towers for the Voice of America broadcasters, relocated to São Tomé when their base in other African countries became too dangerous.

Santomean architecture

VOA Towers

On our way, we passed many rivers running through the island, in which, village women regularly wash their clothes.

Our first stop was at the cacao collective where they buy and process cacao beans.  The factory is a hold over from colonial times, but provides the villagers a very real financial lifeline. With some support from the government, any farmer of cacao can bring his/her harvest of beans here to be purchased and processed for final sale around the world. The cacao quality is very high, so many of the beans go directly to Belgium and other European markets to be made into chocolate. Yum!

We drove from the plantation along the coast to stop at a blow hole formed from the lava at the sea shore.  We are greeted by local men offering us freshly opened coconuts so we could get refreshed by the coconut water.  The scenes were breath-taking!

 

We continued our journey along the winding coast of São Tomé, and drove inland and upwards to our next stop, a beautiful coffee plantation called Roça de São João. The plantation is now owned by a famous chef who has competed on the Portuguese version of “Top Chef”.  We arrived and were ushered into a huge open air room looking all the way down to the coast. There was a huge buffet of Santomean specialties re-interpreted through modern eyes. The cuisine is largely fish based, but there were also many dishes based on bananas and other local produce, including yucca, cassava, plantains and chocolate. After lunch, a super great band of Bulawe drum musicians.  Their music was so infectious, even the kitchen staff came out to dance! Finally, the dancing moved outdoors as we prepared to drive away, while all the plantation chickens and ducks got fed.

 After we left the coffee plantation, we drove back down the coast for our drive back to the ship. Still, São Tomé had one last wonder in store for us: Seven Wave Beach.  We stopped for some great photos of this classically tropical beach and then headed back to catch our tender to the Navigator.

Tonight, shortly after we set sail, we’ll cross the equator, and will be as close as one possibly can be to 0 degrees latitude and 0 degrees longitude.

Meeting the Royalty of Togo

Nov. 7, 2016:

Wow! Today was kind of a unique day in that we got to meet a king! Follow along as we explain.

We came into port this morning as usual right about sunrise. As we came off the ship, brightly colored native dancers greeted us.  Today, we moored in the capital city of Lomé, and mounted our busses for the day’s excursion, which involved going to the fetish market (which provides all things needed for the practice of voodoo), a school, and then to meet one of the kings of Togo and his royal court.

While the majority of Togo’s citizens identify as Christian, there are still many practitioners of voodoo, which is at the heart of the indigenous practice of animism (belief in the spiritual powers of nature such as thunder/lightning or the powers of certain animals). There are spells which are cast by the voodoo priests/priestesses using these components, and one wishing some kind of voodoo intervention gets a shopping list from the priest and goes to the fetish market. Lomé is home to one of the most popular fetish markets on the west coast of Africa.  Pulling up in front of it,  Jim and I questioned whether we even wanted to get off the bus, and the smell did not make the anticipation any easier. However, we signed up for the “real deal” experience, so we went to into the market. Like many other African markets, all the merchants were trying to sell us something, and even if we had wanted to buy something (NOT), it is doubtful we could have gotten it back on the ship; much less home!

Next, we drove into the country to a small town in a rural farming area to see an elementary school. Along the way, we dodged motorbikes, which are used as a sort of low cost form of Uber, and provide much needed opportunities for the youth to earn some money. Naturally, no one wore helmets, and the drivers seemed to double as delivery men, carrying huge bags of  produce and wood in front of them as they drove.

Togo has an incredibly bad school system, with only about 66% of its population being literate (78% if you only count men).  Education is not publicly funded, so many children (such as some we saw at the fetish market) don’t attend school because their parents cannot pay the school fees. Our guides told us that because of a total shortage of schools and teachers (and a population increasing by about 7% per year) most classes hold about 100 students. For our teacher friends out there, let me tell you that the horror of that statistic cannot be fully appreciated until you walk into one of these very primitive classrooms.

This shows you the utter pandemonium of 100 students in a class.

Nonetheless, the students had prepared some songs for us, and after we toured some classroom, we got back on the bus to go meet some Togolese royalty.

The king and his royal court met us at the entrance to their compound, and he and some of the village elders helped him perform a welcoming ceremony.  As many of you know, in many countries in Africa, there are tribal chiefs and kings who still govern areas, particularly in the rural areas. In this case, the village we visited was Akepe, and the kingdom covers about 3,000 subjects.  Some of those subjects were the school kids from the school we visited.  The king’s royal court and his “notables” (nobles) ushered us in to a central gathering area, which, fortunately for us was shaded and had benches. Did I mention it’s really hot here almost on the Equator?!!!

There was a large group of villagers drumming and singing as we entered, and then there was a formal procession to usher the king and his court into the gathering area. The court was seated on actual thrones, and the king and queen wore crowns.  There was no way to describe the royal couple but as completely “regal”!

After some dancing demonstrations, the king addressed us, answered some questions (through an interpreter) and even let us take photos with him.

We wrapped up our visit to the village compound, which, as you can see, is still very traditional for the most part.  Jim got to see a goat being born, but the highlight for me was watching one of the women roast some cassava meal while holding both her 7 month old twins in her arms.

Then was back to the boat for a much needed sea day of rest!  Hopefully, I’ll get caught up on the blog over the next day!  Next port of call; São Tomé, of the tiny republic of São Tomé and Principe.

Up a Tree (or Several Trees) in Ghana

November 6, 2016:

We landed in the port of Takoradi, Ghana this morning. As the busses left the very modern port, we could see an immediate difference in the flora of Ghana.  While Côte d’Ivoire had lots of sand and palm trees, Ghana appeared to be much more green and lush.  There were thick coverings of tropical trees such as mango, banana, papaya, coconut, red palm, plus cashews and cacao trees.  Fittingly, our mission for the day was to drive deep into the Ghanaian countryside to visit a rain forest and walk along a walkway constructed at the canopy level.

As we were leaving town, we saw a couple of political rallies along the road we were traveling.  As a contrast to our own dismal election season, the participants here all seemed really upbeat. They were literally dancing in the streets!  We’re in the middle of election season for the Ghanaian President, just like at home (except that the election here doesn’t take place until the first week in December). Unlike at home, our guide tells us that there is really no rancor in the race, although it is very close. Ghana is proud of its stable  political situation. Ghana gained its independence from Britain in 1957, but underwent a period of several dictators, finally resulting in the suspension of its constitution in 1981. However, a new multi-party constitution was adopted in 1992, and most rule since has been achieved through democratically conducted elections, usually favoring one or the other of its main 2 political parties.

Political Rally

Since we had a long drive to get to the rain forest, our guide told us a lot about his country, and I’ll try to relay some of the high points for you here. Ghana is the first West African nation we have been in that has a majority Christian population, followed by Muslims, then those who follow indigenous beliefs.  As we drove, you could see that the country was making substantial investments in infrastructure,; in particular, building roads, power plants and schools to serve its 25 million inhabitants. We passed numerous Christian churches (predominantly evangelical) with members all wearing their Sunday best.

Church services

We also learned about the high percentage of inhabitants who rely on traditional medicines created from herbs, plants and trees. Our guide told us, for example, that the leaves of the Nim tree can be boiled to provide an effective medicine for malaria, which is common here. (Yes, we are taking our anti-malarial medications!)

Finally, we got to the Kakum National Forest, and got ready to hike up to the canopy. When they said “rain forest”, they weren’t joking. OK; it didn’t really rain, but after 5 minutes, it sure felt like it!  Maybe its just my own post-menopausal problems with climate-control?! To make matters worse, I had opted to carry all my camera gear on my back in case we had some bird or animal sightings. Walking along the wet forest path up a very rocky and slippery path, I seriously doubted my sanity!

Oakum National Walk

However, when we finally got to the tree house entrance to the canopy walk,  we could begin to look down on the rain forest and it was awe-inspiring.  Stepping out on the  swaying rope canopy bridge was more in the nature of terrifying.

Tree House entrance to the canopy walk

Cables holding the canopy

The canopy bridges

However, when we got the hang of it, I found I could briefly let go of 1 hand clutching the ropes to take these pictures, and we went on to do all 7 bridges.  No wonder the gift shop here does a brisk business in the “I Survived the Kakum Canopy Walk” t-shirts!

Forest inhabitant

 

With the walk under our belt, we loaded up the bus again and set off for the seaside town of Elmina, where we would have refreshments at a hotel overlooking the sea. Elmira used to be the colonial center of Ghana, and there is still a castle on the point there guarding its bay.

Rocky seashore

Elmina Castle

After a short respite, it was time to hit the road again for our long drive back to the ship.  JIm and I were both exhausted by the heat, humidity and our long hike in the forest, but even so, we looked forward to exploring Togo tomorrow.

Unwired in Côte d’ Ivoire

November 5, 2016:

This morning we pulled into Côte d’ Ivoire along this long manmade  ship canal which was quite an engineering marvel. That was probably a good introduction to this country because much about it seems much more modern, and frankly, more prosperous, than many of the other countries we’ve visited in West Africa.

Entering the ship canal

We docked in the city of Abidjan, and from the ship, we could see skyscrapers in the downtown area.  The port was huge and bustling, and all the dock workers were incredibly friendly; shouting greetings and waving as we got on our tour busses.

Abidjan Skyline in the Background 

The new surprise was that we had an extensive police escort, consisting of about four vehicles representing different police forces  such as the “Diplomatic Police”.   All in all, there were about 16-18 cops, all fully armed, with some toting machine guns.  There’s not a lot of tourist activity in Côte d’Ivoire, but we really felt welcome as our police escort blocked traffic and ran with sirens blaring!

Our itinerary for the day was to drive to the nearby seaside town of Grand Bassam, which used to be the French colonial capital.  We drove along the coast road, and there seemed to be a lot of new infrastructure and modern road improvements. Although many of the apartment buildings looked run-down, most of them along the coast road appeared to have wall A/C units and/or satellite dishes. There were even miles of rolling housing tracts being constructed.

Modern Infrastructure

 

Check out the A/C units and satellite dishes!

Côte d’ Ivoire Housing development

Seaside views

 

Our first stop was at the Cultural Museum which is housed in the former Governor’s palace.  The main draw of the museum is its display of some of the various tribal costumes of the more than 60 tribes which comprise Côte d’ Ivoire.

Former Government Palace and Costume Museum

Inside view of the dilapidated colonial palace

This country is somewhat more religiously diverse than the last two countries we have visited, but the demographics break out as mostly Muslim,  then Christian,  and then indigenous  religions. This is a country which has struggled to support democracy in its recent past, with a civil war taking place between 2002-2010, when the current President was elected, and required intervention from the UN to get the election recognized. He was peacefully re-elected in 2015.  The literacy rate is fairly low here, with the older population only being about 15% literate, while the youth is about 55% literate.

Grand Bassam is considered a resort community, and after seeing the museum, we toured around the town, which is comprised of many decaying colonial era buildings. However, there were also some very modern buildings, and even a library!

Former colonial building

MEnter a caption

The funny thing that happened is that our convoy of four busses had to leave the paved road to avoid some road construction. However, as we drove along the dirt roads through the village, electric lines were bootlegged to the electric poles hanging very low. Our guide kept having to jump out of the bus and find poles long enough to raise those lines so the busses could pass. Inevitably, we ended up knocking one down, and I thought the whole village was going to end up in the street. But in the end, everyone was OK.  And on our meandering drive through the town, we happened upon a wedding celebration, which was very colorful.

Where we took out the power …

Wedding celebration 

Our next stop was at a lovely craft market where the artisans specialized in really beautiful batiks and woven items. I argued with myself about whether to buy a tablecloth, but ending up deciding we already had more tablecloths than we could reasonably use.

Weavers practicing their craft

Batiks

From the craft market, we went to a local hotel on the beach, L’ Etoile du Sud, for lunch and a chance to swim in their lovely pool.  Since almost everyone on the ship had opted for this excursion, it looked like about 400 of us descended on this hotel for lunch.  Let’s put it this way; it was an opportunity to practice our patience skills. Fortunately, they met us in the gardens with freshly opened coconuts and some of the local beer. While we were waiting for lunch, the hotel provided a local band/dance troupe and it was fun to get to eat lunch to such a vibrant African beat.

Etoile du Sud Resort

I

Wish we’d brought swimsuits!

After lunch, I wandered around the resort and snapped photos. The local craft merchants all lined up at the along a rope edge of the property where it enters the beach, and boisterously hawked their goods.  There were some young men selling horseback rides along the beach.  One of the best sights I saw was a young woman wearing a traditional skirt, with a T-shirt that read “Obama Girl”!

“Obama Girl” on the right

We then headed back to the ship and stopped at one more giant craft market.  I got out with only a refrigerator magnet that can be converted to a Christmas ornament for our travel tree, but the merchants were very persuasive.

As the ship sailed away, Jim and I went up on deck for a cocktail and to watch the sunset.  When a rain storm moved in, I did a little more research on the county.  There had been a brief mention of some terrorist activity in the country earlier this year in the port briefing, but we didn’t really connect the dots. While we were waiting for the rain to pass, I took my curiosity online and learned that in March, the very same hotel where we had enjoyed lunch had been attacked by armed terrorist who shot and killed 19 people.  While we were both really glad we hadn’t known this before we set out, we felt very safe the whole day with our police escort, and we learned that the country has had a huge increase in security forces and practices. With this knowledge, another cocktail was in order, as we look forward to arriving in the much more stable country of Ghana tomorrow.

Getting Schooled in The Gambia

Nov. 2, 2016:

Today, the Navigator docked in the incredibly hot and steamy port of Banjul, The Gambia. That’s right, they call it THE Gambia. It’s a very small country located entirely within the boundaries of Senegal along both sides of the Gambia River, which is huge. Right away, you could see that the country is much poorer than Senegal, and the quality of housing in the city center is pretty shocking.  However, as we went into some nicer areas, there was some better housing, mostly made of concrete block with metal roofs.

Our excursion for the day was called “Off the Beaten Path”, and was it ever!  We traveled in a caravan of huge 4 wheel drive trucks. They had open sides and a thatched roof ,and seats kind of like bus benches inside. I snagged a window seat so I could snap photos. Our journey would take us out of Banjul, which is technically an island formed by tributaries to the Gambia River, and out into the country.  As we left Banjul, we saw some government buildings and the monument known as Arch 22 built to celebrate the dictator/president’s 22nd year of rule (in 2014).  We then travelled to the west and southwest through a crazy commercial stretch of the largest town in The Gambia known as Serekunda. One thing that was immediately noticeable was that the people were very friendly, with most waving at us as we passed by, and children shouting greetings and running alongside the trucks. Only the main street we were on was paved.

Arch 22

National Parliament

Inside our trucks

Our monster trucks

Shops lined the main street and gave a quick idea of what crops are grown here. Watermelons were everywhere, and our guide told us they originated in this part of the world. However, there were also peanuts, smoked fish, oranges, limes, mangoes and tomatoes, plus everything else under the sun. Once again, driving through their area presented a great visual tableau!

Leaving Serekunda we headed south into the rural countryside.     We also passed what appeared to be the one stoplight in Serekunda, which had cows sleeping on its side median.

We left the paved road and drove along narrow tree-lined dirt roads. headed first to visit the home compound of a farmer, and he proudly showed his newly harvested corn drying in the sun and his fairly large home, which had almost no furniture in it.

Peanut farmer harvesting his crop

Corn crop drying

Oranges

Kitchen

Outhouse

Farmer’s house

Entertainment system

We then travelled to visit a primary school called the Banyaka Lower Basic School, which was probably the highlight of the day. This school serves about 400 students from ages 7-13. The country only guarantees an education to that age. However, because the facilities are so limited, students attend 1 of 2 half day class sessions. The headmaster was very proud to tell us that the school was entirely built by the villagers with no financial assistance from the government. Further, they are one of the top performing schools in the country with nearly 75% of their students passing the entrance exam to go to their equivalent of junior high school. The children were overwhelmingly friendly, and all had clearly been taught to shake hands and say “Hello”. Actually, many spoke fairly decent English. We gathered in a classroom which had very basic amenities (i.e., no desks or blackboards), and the drama club for the school presented some songs and even got some of our fellow passengers up to dance!

Volunteer painting the school

Headmaster thanking us for bringing school supplies

From the countryside, we travelled west towards the coast to have lunch at a cool beach club called Jungle Beach Resort.  We got some time to spend on the beach after lunch, and I captured some photos of the yellow weaver birds which had completely overwhelmed the tree in the entrance yard.

 

Finally, we cut to the north along the coast road, and travelled through the beachside town of Tanji. Just north of that is the area where many of the upscale hotels, embassies are located and western style housing communities. Weirdly, there were numerous billboards advertising properties for sale in these communities. This area is all low lying mangroves and wetlands, and the birding possibilities looked great. The Gambia is home to over 500 different bird species. As we drove back towards the ship, we visited a museum dedicated to showcasing native customs and natural history in Tujereng on the way back to the ship. Most interesting was the weaver, and he created some lovely tightly woven scarves, one of which I purchased.

Finally, very hot and dusty, we returned to the ship.