DAY 36 WEDNESDAY APRIL 29 - FUNCHAL, MADEIRA

Another delightful day for shore leave in Madeira which is a province of Portugal. 

We booked a short ecotour (12:30 to 1:30) in a local "tukxi",  which was a tuktuk used as a taxi. 

Our driver was a delightful young man who introduced himself as Victor (Vitor in Portugese).

When we took off quietly we realised that this was an electric vehicle made by Piaggio, so we had plenty to talk about on that subject.  He showed us the main sights and told us the history of the country.  He walked us up to the top of a very old fort.

He drove us through very narrow streets and scooted up steep hills to show us the original mansions.  He let us off in the middle of Funchal and gave us his email and we gave him our blog link.

We wandered past the waterfront craft stalls and found a statue of Madeira's favourite son:

On our way back to the ship we saw a fort on the pier; it was called St Jose.

We paid 10 euros to climb to the top and found that it was recognised by the Guiness Book of Records as the smallest country in the world.  It is the Principality of Pontinha.  It had two windmills and two solar panels, so could claim to be a fully carbon neutral country!

Victor told us that this ship was built to the same specifications as the early Portugese explorers' ones.

DAY 35 TUESDAY APRIL 28 - LAS PALMAS, GRAN CANARIA

A beautiful day today after all the headwinds of the last week.  The view of Las Palmas from the ship was very enticing.  The architecture was all Spanish and contained many buildings older than any we had seen on our trip so far.  

We were booked on the Island Discovery Tour and there were four coaches with about 40 people on each, so some stops were a little crowded, but it was an excellent trip.  Our driver was Julio, who spent most of the day swinging the steering wheel around on the twisting mountain roads or edging past a coach or truck on the other side of the narrow roads.  We often looked out of the window straight down a cliff of hundreds of meters.  Gran Canaria is a volcanic island and thus has flat areas only along the beaches.  There are dozens of volcano peaks inland, up to 2500 metres high.  Our guide was Beatrix, who had many years experience and extensive knowledge.  We enjoyed her Spanish accent and the same intonation as that old song "Mañana".  She shepherded us around with no fuss and explained everything clearly.  

First stop was the Old Town from the fifteenth and sixteenth century on. QI had forewarned us that the Canary Islands are not named after the birds but vice versa.  The Islands are named after the dogs there, Latin 'canis'.  Hence these statues:

These were in the main square opposite the Cathedral.

The Town Hall was at the other end of the square.

Next was the Museum, called Casa de Colon or House of Columbus.  That explained to us for the first time why the city we visited at the Panama Canal in 2012 was called Colon.  This museum was on the spot where Christopher stayed on his first voyage west in 1492.  La Pinta had suffered damage early in the trip and he called in here to make repairs.  The colony was only about 14 years old at that stage.  There was a model of his ship:

And a rebuilt section

This is the entrance to the museum;

There was an original work on display by Rubens in a darkened room with careful lighting to preserve it.

Then the coach climbed up to 580 meters and we viewed the whole of the north of the island at  Bangara.

Our lunch stop was at Tejeda which was further inland, almost in the centre of the island and about 1500 meters altitude.  We were above the clouds and a sea of fluffy white stretched out before us.  There was a small market where a man tried to sell us an embroidered tablecloth for US100.  It was very beautiful but we only brought 40 euros ashore.  Eventually he offered it for 35 but we do not have room for such items.  Nearby a man was offering donkey rides.

The nearby hills were covered in wildflowers for spring.

We had a three course Spanish meal for lunch and the staff worked

 furiously to serve 150 people at tables.

After lunch we stopped at Teror Cathedral of the Virgin of the Pine Tree.  The locals are very proud of their indigenous pine trees and palm trees, but not so keen on the huge gum trees brought from Australia. Someone sighted an image of the Virgin  in the branches of a pine tree and when they found it on the ground it was celebrated in a huge cathedral.  This is a memorial in the plaza:

and this is the cathedral

and some nearby pines and ancient drago trees.

It was siesta time and the old streets were deserted and beautiful.

We drove past a neogothic basilica which was very unexpected to see on a small island.

Finally we stopped at a banana plantation

where there was a huge, very old drago tree

and a pond with turtles.

The coach was scheduled to be back at 4:30, and the captain rang Beatrix to see where we were.  We boarded at 4:50, which probable annoyed the officers, who had to be at Madeira by 9am tomorrow and were anxious to cast off.  After dinner we watched Simon Pegg in a very funny movie, "Hector and the Search for Happiness".

DAY 34 MONDAY APRIL 27 GALEFORCE WINDS

Today was very windy with plenty of whitecaps on the ocean, so we spent most of our time inside.  Some decks were closed off. Malcolm decided today was the day to explore by walking every permitted corridor on the ship, starting on Deck 1 and climbing to Deck 12 via Stairway D at the rear of the ship.  It took nearly two hours, so must have been 7 or 8 kilometers of walking.  Lyn spent a lot of time in the Wintergarden which is a fairly quiet spot.  Judith was there and they had long talks; Judith said she is our friend now.  She is moving from Hervey Bay to Launceston and has invited us to come and stay with her in Tasmania.

We did not go to the talk by former English Conservative leader, R.H.Lord Michael Howard, but he filled the theatre, just as his namesake would do in Australia.  But we did go to the talk on Bechuanaland, now Botswana, which was a great love story.  Sir Senetse Khama was to be the King of the country when he grew up, but he did extremely well in school and went to Oxford for his degree.  He met and married a white Englishwoman there and when he returned to his country they tried to exile him in what was dubbed a case of reverse colour bar.  He was supported by Churchill and eventually became Prime Minister, then President and his son is now President.  Both have done very well for their country through discovery of diamonds in the Kalahari Desert and their economy is possibly the strongest in Africa.  The Bushmen are struggling, however, and the speaker compared them to the aborigines in Australia (whom our governments are pushing out of their ancestral lands).

In the afternoon we went to the next astronomy lecture by Dan Wilkins, which was mainly about Black Holes. He does not fill  the theatre but has a keen group of listeners who grab him afterwards to ask questions.

Tomorrow morning we reach land after a week of sea.

DAY33 SUNDAY APRIL 26 - SIX FOR DINNER

The wind is now coming from the northwest, so the ship has a headwind and it can be quite breezy on deck.  We missed the astronomy talk by Dan Wilkins because we had the wrong time, but Lyn watched it on TV at 6pm.

The Captain led the Church Service at 11am and it was the same as last week except for two of the hymns.  After the service the captain reminded us of the collection at the exit doors which was to fund charities supported by the ship's company. One of the charities, he said, was set up to finance girlfriends of sailors in various ports when they retire.  He said his wife was sitting in the front row so he could say no more.  

After lunch we heard the story of Cecil Rhodes, followed by DSI Brown's talk on a Kenneth Noye who was found not guilty of murdering a police detective working for Brown.

The evening entertainment featured Robyn North and Hilary O'Neil singing and doing impressions.

Last night Randy, our waiter, took this photo of our six person table on my iPhone.  Not often we all turn up on the one night.

These two are our personal waiters, Randy and Julius.

DAY 32 SATURDAY APRIL 25 - ANZAC DAY CENTENARY

The ship is now in the North Atlantic Ocean and we woke to our first heavy downpour of the trip.  Most of the day has been fine after that and the temperature warm but not hot.  The sea is the flattest yet.

We read the Anzac Day messages on Facebook from our grandchildren and a ceremony was held on board by the Catholic priest.

There were a few interesting sessions today.  Ian Brown, the retired policeman, told us about his time in the Virgin Islands arresting drug dealers from Columbia and Porto Rico.  Then we saw the movie "Mr Turner", a 150 minute depiction of the artist as an old grump.  It was slow moving but very informative and covered many big names of the era.  Much more entertaining than "Birdman".

After dining with our four friends we sat down in the Royal Court for a musical concert by Michael Grant, who played six different instruments.  His finale was "Islands in the Stream" as a duet with a Saxophone for Kenny and a clarinet for Dolly, even playing both at once. 

DAY 31 FRIDAY APRIL 24 - POLLYWOGS AND SHELLBACKS

We crossed the equator at 12:30pm and the crew put on a big ceremony next to the pool for those initiates wanting to go from pollywog to shellback.  It clashed with our lecture times.

The astronomer Dan Wilkins of Halifax showed us the Hubble Space Telescope and how difficult it was to get it launched by the Shuttle and correct faults in its operation.  In 25 years it has produced millions of pictures and any scientist can apply to use it at $3 per second.  It has shown the birth of stars and solar systems, collisions between solar systems, supernovas and light that has travelled to us over billions of years. The more we learn the more there is to be learned.

The final talk from the plastic surgeon from Cape Town was called rhynoplasty fro rhinoceroses.  He told us that black people are unable to find work and some are tempted to poach rhino horn for the Asian men's benefit.  So futile, he said, when Viagra works ten times as well, and biting your finger nails gives the same effect as rhino horn.  We saw two rhinos who died after the poachers used a chainsaw to remove the horn.  The wound bleeds so much they die quickly.  The black rhino went extinct not long ago so a lot of effort is now going into preserving the white rhino. The female gestates for 18 months to produce one baby.  He volunteered to try to apply a skin graft over the wound for the survivor to prevent infection.  We all know how itchy healing wounds can feel and the rhinos scratch so much the dressing and graft detach, so they use plaster of paris screwed into the bone to protect the graft.  His enthusiasm was much greater than when talking about cosmetic surgery for rich women.  Impressive man.

After dinner Lyn did the washing and we went to a concert by Stuart Gillies (a Scotsman), who gave a tribute to Neil Diamond.  He sang "You don't bring me flowers", but having failed to persuade Barbra Streisand to come on board he sang along with a recording of his wife's voice and if you shut your eyes you would believe you were listening to the original.  The audience loved him, and we saved $200 on tickets for a Neil Diamond Concert.

Today's rumour:  Yesterday morning a public address announcement relayed "a code alpha in room 4xxx".

So the body count was revised up to 18.

DAY 30 THURSDAY APRIL 23 - THIRD DAY AT SEA

The weather does not change much, as we have a constant slight southerly wind following us so it becomes slightly warmer each day.  It has remained mostly cloudy and we had a short light shower today.  By evening our position looked to be half way between Namibia and Brazil.  We passed the zero longitude line at lunchtime so we are now in the Western Hemisphere.  Tomorrow at lunchtime we pass the zero latitude line into the Northern Hemisphere.

There were three lectures we selected today.  The plastic surgeon gave his second lecture which covered cosmetic operations.  He allowed for 15 minutes of audience questions and all but one were asked by women. Three of the questions were about botox, face lifts and lip enlargement.  Draw your own conclusion.  Malcolm is having a recurrence of the dreaded lurgi (or URTI) so went to bed for the afternoon, while Lyn went to another performance by young pianist Adam and the second crime lecture by Ian Brown, this one about the Brind's Mail 26 million pound gold bullion robbery.  Many people on board are coughing and the doctors are running out of supplies.  The ship is a big virus factory.

We had all six at our dinner table tonight so there was plenty of laughter.  At 8pm we went to see "Birdman", which we did not enjoy.  We wanted to get the birdman character out of noisy, unfriendly New York and take him on a one week bush walk on the Bibbulmun Track to get away from his self-centred problems.  The sound track backing was almost entirely a lone drummer, perhaps indicating lack of meaning on every character's life in the cast.  If we had been sitting on the end of a row we would have left after 15 minutes.

Lyn liked the sign near the gangway:  Tender Embarkation.  A place for fond welcomes and farewells.

DAY 29 WEDNESDAY APRIL 22 - OPERA AT SEA

Today our appointments card was quite full.  After an early breakfast and several rounds of deck 7 we attended the second in the series on astronomy, followed by a chatty talk from a retired policeman who worked on the Kray family cases in London.

After lunch we were treated to a complete two and a half hour 3D performance of Carmen performed by the Royal Opera Company at Covent Garden.

The evening show was a magician who won the World Championship in Beijing, Marc Oberon.  The ocean is still comfortable to travel across and the flying fish are back in big schools.

Rumour of the day is that some meat has been scrapped from the kitchen.  This is to make room for some of the seventeen people reputed to have died on board this trip.

DAY 28 TUESDAY APRIL 21 - FIRST OF SEVEN SEA DAYS

After an early breakfast we joined the other regular walkers circling the ship on Deck 7.  We feel like mice in an exercise wheel, but it is better than joining the ones in the gym who walk on a machine.  The weather is cool considering we entered the tropics overnight, and the sea is slight.  The ship is averaging 22 knots with a tail wind and is keeping very steady underfoot.

There are a new lot of speakers who boarded in Cape Town.  The first one we heard today was a retired plastic surgeon who still does pro bono work.  He showed us before and after photos of babies with deformities, burn victims, breast cancer survivors, etc..  Very moving stories of people taking years to recover function and appearance.  A vet gave a talk about the behaviour of dogs and cats, which we caught repeated on TV in the afternoon.  He is very disturbed at the number of pets euthanased for bad behaviour.  He blames the owners.

At 2pm we went to the next Zeitgeist piano and violin music with more lovely pieces to swoon over.  After dinner we went to the cinema to watch Nicole Kidman matching Grace Kelly in acting ability in "Grace of Monaco".  Interesting story, good music, annoying cinematography.

Lyn has decided on "artificial" to describe our life here.  We sit around on a deck chair reading a book whenever we like, go to high class concerts, watch recent movies in a cinema better than any that remain in Sydney, eat posh food every night while being waited on by two very efficient and attentive waiters, skip the after dinner ball and night club events and ignore the personal invitations to fraternise with the captain at special events.  In addition there are four pianists, two bands, a harpist, and a string quartet playing in the smaller venues all day and night, mostly ignored by people sipping expensive drinks.  Yes, we are enjoying it, and No, we do not let our trip be spoiled by guilt feelings. 

DAY 27 MONDAY APRIL 20 - NAMIBIA WALVIS BAY

The ship docked before dawn in Walvis Bay and at 6am when we went on deck there was a heavy fog, so we could not see a lot.  This is a town of about 90,000 and is the main entry and exit point for goods, so it hosts 3000 ships per year.  There were many ships in the harbour, but all were dwarfed by QM2.  It could be seen from 20km away when the fog lifted.

The tours were all expensive here so we had to miss out in order to keep to our budget for the trip, and they required everyone to be passport stamped off and on the ship and fill out arrival and departure forms.  We just leaned on the rail and watched the buses and 4by4s leave and arrive.  There were freight trains arriving and leaving with containers all day, and the cargo cranes were right alongside our ship.  They were using dredges to extend the wharf areas.

The Purser sent us a letter telling us that we were now on our second cruise with Cunard after leaving Cape Town and because we had travelled for more than 20 days, we were classified as Gold Members of the Cunard Club and received a badge.  This entitled us to attend a cocktail party with the Captain and all other club members (presumably several hundred), which we will not bother with.  More importantly this entitled us to two hours each of free Wifi, so Malcolm spent the morning loading photos onto the blog while most people were away from the ship and the uploads were going faster.

The fog lifted at 11am and we got a good view of the desert which surrounded the town on three sides.  

At 2pm we went to the movie theatre to watch a great film - The Imitation Game.  It showed how Alan Turing and his team cracked the German enigma code and shortened the war by two years and saved a million lives. After the war he was sentenced to two years prison for engaging in homosexual practices but was allowed to accept chemical castration instead.  He committed suicide at about 40 and has only been recognised as a war hero in this century.  At dinner time Geoff and Joan told us about their tour across the desert to a town built by the Germans and how lovely and popular it was as a resort.  The singers and dancers gave us Viva Italia in the theatre.  Lyn has been trying to find a suitable word to describe life on board.  Malcolm suggests "indulgent".

DAY 26 SUNDAY APRIL 19 - THE ATLANTIC OCEAN TO NAMIBIA

At 11am we attended an interdenominational service led by the Deputy Captain.  The Captain will lead next Sunday.  Another officer played the organ on electronic keyboard and a junior officer read the Bible.  There was no sermon and the words spoken were presumably all from the book of common prayer.  We felt we were back in the 17th century.

In the Buffet we met an English couple who live in Durban and embarked in Cape Town.  They said they only decided to take the trip to Southampton on Tuesday when they received a special offer by email saying there were only three cabins left on the ship.  They gave us another slant on the changes taking place in South Africa. They told us about President Zuma's $20 million retirement house, funded by the taxpayer.

At 2pm we went to the classical concert which was performed by a new duo.  A pianist Marina from Munich and a violinist Angelica from London, who called themselves Zeitgeist (spirit of the times).  A very lovely selection of pieces, including Meditation from Thais and Vivaldi's summer.  They will be giving three more concerts.

At 3:30 there was a lecture by Dan Wilkins who did a PhD in astronomy at Cambridge and is now working at Halifax, Nova Scotia.  He was very keen to explain to us how they use the different "colours" or wavelengths of the spectrum to further our knowledge of the universe.  Always mindboggling.

DAY 25 SATURDAY APRIL 18 - CAPE TOWN DAY 2

We had no tour booked today so we caught the shuttle bus to the Waterfront area.  There were 1000 people leaving the ship today, so suitcases, buses and taxis slowed our exit.  We saw three dragon boats training in the dock area with a few seals "playing" with them. 

 We spent the last of our Rands on small crafty items, of which there were millions for sale in this precinct, all made locally.  We looked at some large animal models, including an elephant which was clad entirely with tiny beads.  They make anything out of beads here.  These were of metal.

There were a few local singers, dancers and musicians performing in the streets.

We now have 1000 new passengers, mostly South Africans, so the show tonight was put on entirely by the "permanent" singers, dancers and orchestra and introduced the entertainment staff.  The clocks went back another hour, so we should now be on English Summer Time.

DAY 24 FRIDAY APRIL 17 - PARKWOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL

We woke to find the ship waiting in the outer harbour of Cape Town, with no permission to enter the inner harbour because of a 35 knot easterly wind that could blow the ship off course as it came through the narrow entrance to the inner harbour.  The locals were celebrating 155 years since the first stones were laid to build the harbour.  We were entertained by the sea birds and a pod of small whales not far from us.  We finally tied up at 10:30am, so everyone was late for their tours.  Everyone descended on the Royal Court Theatre at once to meet with their group supervisor, so it was mayhem.

Our group of 12 was going to Parkwood Primary School, which had all black children, many of whom had poor home backgrounds, and our task was to help prepare, serve and clean up their meal which was provided by volunteers.  By the time our minibus got us there at 11:40 the meal was all over and because it was Friday the children all went home at 12:30.  Many businesses seem to knock off early on Fridays here.

The senior teacher took us into her classroo  and introduced us to the children, who were keen to learn about Australia, where most of us come from.

We did a tour of the school and the Principal talked to us in the meal room.  Perhaps because this is a suburb where drug addiction is high, the government classes it as a middle income area and the school does not get sufficient subsidy.  Yet many of the children are underfed at home and the school meal program may be the only food some receive.  The children looked happy and seemed to be enjoying school and the principal said the number one goal was to get the children to want to come to school. We said hello to the infants as we passed them.

This trip is cut very short but still very worthwhile, giving us an inside view of the education system.  The kids are mad on soccer.  We got back to the ship at 1pm and Lyn was able to do three loads of washing while people were not back from town.  

We have two days here and when we saw the food trucks lining up with tonnes of fruit, vegetables, etc., we could see that it was more than an 8am to 5pm job to restock.  At the same time they were removing several truckloads of garbage.

After dinner we watched the nightlights of the town and went to a Xhosa concert by local groups.  Singing, dancing and playing marimbas.

DAY 23 THURSDAY APRIL 16 - F.W. DE KLERK

Yesterday was our busiest day since leaving home.  Today we took it very quietly, sleeping in till 7am.  The ship is heading west around the bottom of Africa towards Cape Town and the headwinds are strong and the seas are rough.  Most of the outside decks are closed and we had intermittent rain.  The ship is travelling slower at about 14 knots, as we have time to spare and we get a smoother ride.  It is still quite cold but they say tomorrow will be good weather. Very quiet on Deck 7. Find the rainbow.

The former South African Prime Minister F. W. de Clerk came on board yesterday and at 11am today  gave a talk entitled "Walking with Nelson Mandela on the Long Road to a New South Africa".  He spoke frankly and in detail about the processes they went through and how they succeeded in bringing the opposing ethnic groups together.  He felt the success they had was partly due to the timing coinciding with the fall of communism around the world.  Russia had been having success throughout Southern Afrika in preventing establishment of democracies. He answered a series of questions on current issues, and emphasised the importance of providing a better education system for all to alleviate the massive unemployment and poverty problems.

The main theatre was full and the second theatre half full for a televised relay.  He was given a standing ovation at the conclusion.    

The good news is that the broken washing machine on our level has been fixed, so the access may improve as 1000 people leave us in the next two days and another 1000 join the tour.

We went to a second concert tonight by "Your Three Tenors".  Tomorrow we go to a Primary School in Cape Town.

DAY 22 WEDNESDAY APRIL 15 - PORT ELIZABETH AND KWANTU

The ship was docked by 6am and we had another lovely outlook on the harbour of Port Elizabeth. 

Our booking for today was our most expensive shore excursion (US220 each) for AMAKHALA GAME RESERVE, which was a centre for rehabilitation of former farmlands.  A few days ago we were informed that this Reserve had scheduled an auction of excess wildlife for today, which seemed to indicate that the native animals were thriving there. As a result they had to reduce the number of visitors and we were transferred to KWANTU GAME RESERVE,  which had never been offered previously.  It turned out to be an excellent day, well worth the original money we paid.

We had a quick breakfast at the buffet and disembarked easily at 8am, as we did not need to have our passports checked.  Our coach guide was a local man called Mark Hick, whose speech suggested a British background.  He told us the history of Port Elizabeth (population now 1.3 million).  True to form the British Government in the early 19th century invited farmers to come there with a free land grant.  The migrants did not realise that they would find strong opposition from the native peoples and that the land is not well suited to agriculture; we saw mainly cattle outside the city.  Our driver Laurence was from Capetown and took the opportunity when Mark was not on the bus at the reserve to deplore the crime levels in his country, saying that the top politicians were corrupt and therefore it was not improving.  He supported the ANC but they never receive a majority. We had seen a huge number of new cars on the wharf next to our ship and Mark told us there were nine car building factories here, including GM, Ford, VW and a Chinese truck maker. Here are the ones wrapped ready for export.  Are they VW Caddies?

We were greeted by singers/dancers on the wharf.

Most of the black people live in towns outside the city as they were not allowed to live in the centre under apartheid.  We passed one settlement which contained 450,000 blacks.  Our highway actually took us past the Amakhala reserve and from the bus we saw antelopes, zebras and Giraffes over the fence.

The Kwantu reserve was 10 km inland from the road, so quite isolated and situated in a  natural environment.  It was owned by a third generation muslim Indian family who had a policy of no alcohol on the premises.  When we arrived we were greeted with big smiles and welcomes from the native rangers.  They gave us morning tea of cakes and biscuits and sparkling apple or grape drinks which seemed identical to the Appletiser and Grapetiser drinks that Australia imports from South Africa. At 10am we climbed up into the open top Landcruisers for a three hour safari.  We two were assigned to different cars, so saw some different animals.

Malcolm's guide was named Innocent, but he proved to be very adventurous.

 When he could not find an elephant for us he stopped and hopped out and walked 100 meters to look across the valley.  He found one in the distance so told us all to alight and walk over to see a mother and baby in the distance.  This after giving us a lecture about all the dangers from buffalo, elephants and lions in the park!

Lyn saw jackals, ostriches and a small group of elephants.  Malcolm saw a yellow mongoose and many native birds.  We both saw up close buffalo, giraffes, wildebeest, zebras (Innocent pointed out some with five legs), and many different antelopes. The safari finished with a tour of their breeding enclosures, where we see white lions, yellow lions, Bengal tigers and cheetahs.

At 1pm we were treated to a dance session by the Xhosa group and a feast for lunch.

 We were happy to climb back on the coach at 3pm, because we were 500 meters above sea level and a strong southerly wind was blowing all day.  We had not come prepared for the freezing conditions and Malcolm was shivering.

Back in the cabin at 5pm we posted yesterday's blog and went down to dinner with Geoff and Joan, where we talked about cars.  They had a Mercedes each plus a Porsche Cayenne, but when we told them about our electric iMiev Geoff was fascinated and went away to write it in his diary.  We watched the ship push off from the car loading wharf and turn itself around in a small harbour without any help from tugs.  An amazing feat to watch.

The concert tonight was a singing and dancing spectacular with four singers and 12 dancers going nonstop for 50 minutes and making at least six costume changes.  It must have been chaos in the backstage rooms.