ericgomberg – Page 2 – The Travels of Eric and Eva

Iona

Iona is a small island that is part of the Inner Hebrides on the western coast of Scotland. The island is home to just over 100 residents and attracts tourists primarily to visit the centuries old Iona Abbey. Though quite small in comparison to others around Europe, the abbey is known for being one of the most elaborate and best-preserved ecclesiastical buildings surviving from the Middle Ages. The scenery of the island walking to and from the abbey is quite nice.

You can take your sailboat to these remote islands and get lost in the serenity of the region.

This bench captured the spirit of the island and the old church perfectly.

The requisite bird photo. This guy was singing constantly

The historic home of the founder of the recent community and restoration of the abbey on the island.

A small area in the middle of the abbey surrounded by hallways with arches on all 4 sides.

I believe this to be the ruins of an old home next to the abbey.

South Atlantic Islands

March 5 – March 26

We sadly had to leave Antarctica for the remaining 120 days of the cruise and return to Puerto Williams in Chile, the southernmost city in the world.

The evening in Puerto Williams brought clear skies and a beautiful full moon.

Our first stop in the segment was the Falkland Islands which featured history of the 1982 war between Argentina and the United Kingdom. We found the islands to be quite barren with little wildlife apart from penguins, seals and birds. We hiked to the top of Mount Tumbledown. We did not in fact tumble down.

The top of Mount Tumbledown in memoriam.

Falkland is one of many islands considered part of the British Territories but Argentina has long felt it belongs to them due to their proximity, along with the neighboring island of South Georgia. In 1982 Argentina took control of the islands but the UK sent warships 8000 miles to take them back. Nearly 1,000 people died needlessly and it remains inhabited by Brits to this day.

Not sure what type of bird this is, but the coloring was a contrast to the barren and brown/grey landscapes of the island.

This tussock grass is common on the island.

These birds are petrels. Along with albatross, they are the most common birds. We have many birders on the cruise who keep a checklist of every kind that they see.

A few interesting facts for you: the islands get 40% of their electricity from a handful of wind turbines; there are no native mammals on the island; they are facing a severe water shortage due to lack of rain and snow due to climate change; surprisingly, 70% of young adults return to the island to live after going off to college.

The jaws bones of two blue whales in the capital city, Port Stanley.

The next island was South Georgia. I had never heard of this island until we booked the cruise but it proved to be quite remarkable.

A group of penguins swimming. They do look like ducks when in the water.

Amazingly, it turns out that South Georgia is home to over 400,000 pairs of penguins and their young chicks! The experience of walking around and mingling with all of them was just incredible. The noise of their trumpeting sound is overwhelming. You hear them all the way from the ship before you can get close enough to see them.

Penguins, as far as the eye can see. All of the penguins have to travel to the water to feed.

A penguin gingerly passing sleeping elephant seals. Generally, these seals prefer other food.

The male and female penguins take turns keeping the eggs warm.

After South Georgia, we moved on the several islands that are truly in the middle of nowhere, well over a thousand miles from any land. One of the islands is called Tristan da Cunha, which is the only one inhabited by permanent residents, 235 people, all of whom share only 9 surnames.

This island is incredibly difficult to land on due to weather and high swells. One person I talked to on the voyage had tried 12 times and never made it. We made it on the second day we tried. A day after we left a storm system moved in that will apparently make it inaccessible again for weeks.

It is known as the most remote human settlement in the world. There is no airport and the nearest continent is South Africa, 1700 miles away. Getting off the island typically requires booking a freighter that visits the island every 2 months with supplies. The island, as with the others nearby, is volcanic and they had an eruption in 1961 that nearly wiped out the homes there but stopped just a few hundred meters short.

One of the original thatched roof homes. Other homes have more traditional construction.

Eva walked back here a second time for gifts.

This is called a Rockhopper Penguin. It is adding a winter fur layer and is miserable.

There are several nearby islands, including one with a perfect name – Inaccessible Island. Here are a few more of my favorite pics from the islands.

On our way to Capetown. 4-5 days at sea.

There are two main historical themes in these islands as well as Antarctica.

One is the incredible exploration voyages of Ernest Shackleton in the South Atlantic and Antarctica in the early 1900s. The book Endurance makes for an excellent read about him.

The second is that you can’t escape the impact that whaling had on these islands. By any conservative estimate, the number of whales killed during the height of whaling was in the hundreds of thousands and likely over a million. In the 1800s before the advent of electricity, whale oil extracted from their blubber was in heavy demand as a major fuel source and globally was one of the major industries at that time. Think about having to kill thousands of whales in order to supply fuel to the host countries. Most other parts of the whale found uses as well for cosmetics, clothing and other non-essential needs. While most countries have long abandoned whaling, it unfortunately continues to this day in Iceland, Norway and Japan.

I end this segment with this public service message.

Antarctica

Our destinations are shown here and covered 1640 nautical miles from the tip of South America (Puerto Williams, Chile).

What does one say when the place they have wanted to visit their entire life turns out to be so much more spectacular than they dreamed! This is Antarctica! We were extremely blessed with incredible weather, close encounters with wildlife and smooth seas. The guides all said that this was genuinely one of the best visits they had ever been a part of as most have one or more destinations cancelled due to ice or weather or other issues.

What struck me immediately was how monochromatic it is everywhere, particularly when there is cloud cover. The mountains are a deep black and form a stark contrast to the pure white snow.

*This picture is the actual scenery, not converted to black and white.*

With no vegetation, the scenery lacks any variety of colors except for the grayness of the water and the occasional blue patches in the sky when the weather clears. When it snows, the depth perception becomes impossible as everything turns into one completely whitewashed canvas. Thinking back on the early explorers, many of whom had to survive winters here, it is incredible to imagine just how difficult it must have been to navigate the land and keep on course.

I was surprised by just how mountainous the continent is on the Peninsula where we visited.

Everywhere you go there are enormous pure white snow-covered glaciers, hundreds of feet high at the water’s edge where they are transformed into layers of ice hundreds of feet high, filled with crevasses and ridges exposing the clear blue ice beneath the snow. The occasional crackling sound of a glacier calfing or simply moving down the mountain is impossible to miss as it interrupts the fierce silence of the surroundings here.

*Many icebergs were hundreds of feet high*

One of the special characteristics of this area is the number of whales that roam the waters here unafraid of our boats. We have video of whales coming right up to our Zodiac and even swimming directly under. The humpbacks are a very curious species. The other type we saw frequently were Minke whales that are typically less social but still came up to and went under another group’s Zodiac.

The only wildlife present on the land here are seals and penguins. When on land, they seem to coexist peacefully most of the time, but a penguin under water is at great risk from a hungry seal.

*A Gentoo Penguin, one of three types that we saw here. The others are the Adelie and the Chinstrap.*

*Leopard Seal: We watched him for 15 minutes from maybe 20 feet away. They are the major threat to penguins here with their powerful jaws.*

*Crabeater seal. The pink on the hill in the background is snow algae.* *This is a species of green algae* *that contains a secondary red pigment in addition to chlorophyll.*

*The last penguin picture, but if you want we have many more, including a few videos! They are so fun to watch!*

This is a krill, a shrimp-like animal that forms the food source for most whales, many seals
as well as some sea birds. Without krill, the entire ecosystem would not exist. Man harvests
krill for use in omega supplements, aquarium food and other uses that are completely
non-essential and threaten the ocean regions that depend on it.

One of the many whalers buried in Whalers Bay, a natural harbor on Deception Island, in the South Shetland Islands. It was named Deception Island because unless you approached it from
the proper distance to find the entrance, it was completely hidden. This bay is in a huge volcanic crater and was used heavily to transport the whales here and process them. There is thought to be tens or even hundreds of thousands of whale bones at the bottom of the sea crater.

In the background are large containers from the early 1900s used to boil the blubber to extract the whale oil. The large containers in the foreground held all the whale oil. This gives an indication of
the magnitude of the whaling that occurred here starting in the early 1800s, primarily by Norway.

Greece/Albania

May 13 – May 17

We visited multiple sites in Greece and one in Albania. For those of you who, like me, had no idea where Albania is located, it borders Greece on the north.

Crete and the Peloponnese region: Imbros Gorge and Diros Caves

We started the journey in Crete which is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands. It sits about 100 miles south of the Greek mainland. What surprised me is that the island is primarily mountainous with a high mountain range running from west to east. Climate warming has affected weather here as well with there being practically no snow remaining at the top of the mountains, which apparently hardly used to ever be the case in mid-May.

There were several excursions offered and we chose to get some exercise and take a hike through a well-known gorge there. Travel to the gorge was on very narrow mountain roads but these bus drivers have proved to be amazing. Some photos are below.

The Peloponnese is the large area hanging off the southern part of Greece. The Diros Caves are among the largest in the world and contain spectacular rock formations as well as ancient artifacts just recently discovered. Only two of the three caves have opened to the public. This area of Greece also contains Mystras, a popular 13^th century Byzantine town, but we didn’t go.

Athens

To visit Athens by sea, one must dock in the port of Piraeus.

The primary reason for us to visit Athens was to visit the Acropolis. The word acropolis means highest point and there are many of them around the country. Of course, the one we were interested in is the one that contains the Parthenon. We took a bus to the site and discovered that there were apparently several large cruise ships in the area that dumped literally thousands of people there at the same time we were there. The crowds were horrendous and simply getting up to the top from the parking area took 45 minutes. Once up there, it was difficult to get some good photos and the site was blocked off as well as parts of it being restored, so our visit really was not quite what we had hoped. Kind of similar to our Pyramids experience in a way.

The Parthenon was built in the 5^th century BC as a temple to the goddess Athena. It was heavily damaged in the 17^th century by a Venetian bomb that exploded munitions stored there by the Ottomans. In the early 19^th century, some dude known as the Earl of Elgin took down many of the remaining sculptures and brought them to Britain. These are known today as the Elgin Marbles and reside in the British Museum. Greece insists they were brought to Britain illegally and have been trying to get them returned for many years.

Saw this parrot from the parking lot. Couldn’t get him to turn around.

Monemvasia

Monemvasia, founded in the 6^th century BC, is a walled fortress on a large rock connected to the Greek mainland by only one road. The town sits inside stone walls and would have been nearly impenetrable in ancient times. It contains narrow cobbled streets, stone buildings and terracotta roofs. This place is special and would be worth a return visit for a long weekend of relaxation of further exploration.

This is the only accessible entrance to the village. They use these two horses and the hand carts on the left to bring in all the supplies.

After Monemvasia we went to an estate where they grow olives and produce high quality olive oil. This is an old olive press that they keep in their small museum. We got the impression on our visits to various places in Greece that nothing is prepared without generous portions of olive oil.

Olympia

Have you ever watched the Olympics? This is where it all started with the first games held in the 8^th century BC (nearly 3000 years ago) and continued until the 4^th century AD. We had an outstanding tour guide who really set the mood of the athletes coming from far away regions to compete. The original site eventually held over 70 temples and was a major religious sanctuary for centuries as well as containing all the buildings required to host the games, such as housing, roman baths, gymnasium and many others. Over time, earthquakes and floods eventually left the site unusable and the games were abandoned only to be resurrected in 1896.

This remains an area of heavy archaeological research. It covers a wide area with many trees which allows for casual strolls around the site. There are history buffs on our cruise who could write volumes about the rich history here, but I will leave you simply with a handful of photographs of the remains of what was once a flourishing city and religious site.

The athletes had to enter the stadium under this arch and through a narrow entrance way with the judges purposely placed high above them for intimidation. Once they entered the open portion, there were 44,000 people sitting on the hillside to welcome them, or not.

The old Olympic stadium where the athletes performed. The ancient Games included running, long jump, shot put, discus, javelin, boxing, pankration (a form of martial arts) and equestrian events. Later the pentathalon and other events such as wrestling were added.

This is a fabulous statue of Nike, the goddess of victory that is displayed in the Olympia museum on the site. It was done in the 5th century BC. This restored depiction was created from the many precious fragments excavated at Olympia in 1875. The restoration is lacking significant pieces, including Nike’s wings. The figure had initially stood near the Temple of Zeus in the center of Ancient Olympia on a three-sided triangular pillar 6-meter high.

Butrint, Albania

Albania was under Communist rule until the 1990s and remains largely isolated from the outside world. It is one of the poorest countries in all of Europe and is still hampered by widespread corruption, dilapidated infrastructure, powerful organized crime networks, and combative political opponents. The authorities have yet to warmly accept cruise ships and there were significant difficulties on the morning of the tours. The rumor has it that the harbor master decided that we couldn’t visit one of the scheduled sites unless he was given a bribe. A flurry of phone calls by Silversea all over Europe and the US for a couple of hours were made without resolution. However, we were able to go ahead with one specific tour here and it was magnificent. I seriously doubt Silversea will be returning here any time soon which is unfortunate for the locals who are starting to make a living based on tourism in a country suffering from broad unemployment.

Butrint is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as are many of the other places we have visited. It was an important settlement due to its position on the route from Italy to mainland Greece down the Ionian Sea. It boasts archeological remains from every period of the city’s development, from the Late Bronze Age to the turn of the 19^th century. Its uniqueness is derived from the variety of cultures reflected here from the time when it was inhabited in turn by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and the Ottomans. Additionally, it sits in a well forested area that adds a lot of natural beauty to the site and hosts many endemic birds and plants.

Butrint sits in a lush hilly area of the country. The northern part of Algeria is actually quite green.

Note the different kind of construction materials (stones, bricks) that reflect the different cultures that added to this site over the centuries.

A few nature photographs.

On to Algeria and Portugal.

Egypt

May 8 – May 11

Even though it says we were in Egypt for four days, we were in fact here for only two. One in Sharm-el-Sheik and one in Alexandria. The other 2 were days at sea including one day to get through the Suez Canal.

Sharm-el-Sheik

The city sits at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula and was a logical stop on our trip from Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. There are only 73,000 permanent residents here but they play host to 6 million tourists each year. Security is incredibly tight here with a well-armed police presence at nearly every major corner. Packed with hotels, restaurants and nightclubs for the tourists, it sits in a beautiful spot with good weather, nice beaches and amazing coral reefs that are protected as a national park.

My apologies for a stock image off the web, but we don’t have any good pics of the city.

I was able to go out snorkeling here and it was by far the best I had done on the cruise! The reefs were not as bleached (dying) as the others we had visited, and the fish were abundant. I was able to record some nice videos using my GoPro, and since I am unable to post videos to this site, I am including just a couple of sample frames. Samples of my videos were used in one of the presentations by the marine biologist since people wanted to see the reef and I was the only one who filmed it.

Next, we passed through the Suez Canal which was a highlight of the cruise. The passage fees charged by Egypt comprise the country’s largest source of income, with tourism being second. The 2022 blockage of the canal by the Evergreen cargo vessel cost the country a great deal of money. The passage fees for ships are quite steep. Our ship for example had to pay somewhere between $250,000 – $350,000 USD just for the one passage, which took around 10 hours! For non-passenger vessels they apparently charge by the tonnage so the largest cargo ships must pay a fortune.

Each ship must be accompanied by a pilot ship, a small vessel that knows the local waters and is routinely used to guide large ships into ports. This is a new procedure implemented after the 2022 debacle. The ships must wait near the entrance area and are given a priority number for the following day. We were given first position in our convoy of 46 ships, potentially since we were the only passenger vessel.

Pilot ships are between each ship for safety. Must be a boring job to pilot one.

This was the ship behind us in the convoy. I estimated it carried 1000+ large shipping containers.

Apparently, Ever Given ran aground here and blocked the canal for 6 days, costing Egypt $15 million daily.

This is one of many moveable bridges in the canal that allow vehicle traffic to cross the canal. Trucks are typically lined up for miles waiting for the day’s convoy of 45-50 ships to pass.

The Friendship Bridge links the continents of Africa and Asia. In a visit by the Egyptian president to Japan in 1995, they agreed to pay for 60% of the construction cost of the bridge. The road is hardly used today, but the bridge is beautiful.

Alexandria – The Pyramids and the Grand Museum

Alexandria was our next port of call and used as a base for our long drive to Cairo for the Old Grand Museum and then Giza for the Pyramids. Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It was founded in 336 BC by Alexander the Great, hence the name.

Since our visit here was only a day, we did not get to see the city. We got on a bus early in the morning and drove to Cairo, whose metropolitan area attempts to support 22 million people, most of whom are quite poor. A drive through Cairo is met with too much traffic and constant views of very old and dilapidated concrete buildings. It feels like a city that has no hope of ever being modernized. With the stated reason of reliving congestion in Cairo, Egypt has an ongoing project to create the New Administrative Capital (NAC) to the east which will replace Cairo as the country’s capital. It has yet to be given a name. The future of Cairo seems very uncertain.

This is one of many government funded housing projects we passed that are geared towards relieving the housing crisis in Cairo and supporting the growing population. These projects are huge and seem to contain 50 or more of these buildings in multiple identical rows. One article says that in 2020/2021 alone, nearly 750,000 units were built.

Taken by somebody else from the bus on our way to Cairo.

The Old Grand Museum

We visited the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities (currently also known as the Old Grand Museum) that houses the world’s largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts (more than 120,000 items on display) featuring the famous Tutankhamun collection with its beautiful gold death mask and sarcophagus and the royal Mummy room. The building is well over 100 years old and is simply packed with tourists. One walks around here seeing a ton of items described in great detail by the tour guide and then you forget most of it Here are just a few sample photos of items thousands of years old.

The New Grand Museum

The current museum is being replaced by a spectacular new Grand Museum that sits on land next to the pyramids in Giza, a much better location away from the congestion of Cairo. The building has been finished for some time but the opening keeps being delayed for reasons that even the tour guides don’t understand. We got permission to go inside and view the atrium and it is spectacular. This place will be quite the attraction once it opens.

The Statue of Ramesses II is a 3,200-year-old figure of Ramesses II. It is made from red granite and weighs 83 tons. The statue was found in 1820 broken in six pieces and earlier attempts at restoration failed. It provides an amazing introduction as you first enter the museum.

The Pyramids

If you are going to visit the pyramids, you might as well do it in the middle of a sandstorm with sand blowing into your eyes and nearly every other opening of your body. Add in overly aggressive vendors pushing goods, camel rides and carriage rides and the visit was not the serene setting we had hoped for. Additionally, they have built hotels and shops way too close to the structures which I feel tends to contribute to the loss of the true sense of the site. But, it is the pyramids and seeing them in person is still cool. Here are some photos.

Gives a good sense of the effects of the sandstorm.

On to Greece and Albania.

Saudi Arabia

May 2 – May 7

Djibouti

Before going to Saudi Arabia, we visited one of the poorest and driest countries in Africa, Djibouti. The country is situated very strategically at the southern entrance to the Red Sea and because of its position, it hosts a number of military bases from various countries. The population is only slightly over 1 million people and those that live outside of a city tend to live a traditional nomadic lifestyle with small herds of sheep or goats. Camels are heavily used here for transporting goods.

We took a 3-hour bus drive each way to and from Lac Assal (see the posts of the lake further below) with a police escort for security. The outside temperature was approaching 100 and the air conditioning didn’t work, and the windows did not open. So, we drove with the warm air circulating and doors open when we could, and everybody made the best of it. On the way to the lake, we stopped at the “Grand Canyon of Djibouti” which is formed by the separation of three tectonic plates that lie beneath the country. It’s no comparison to the real Grand Canyon but still worth a stop nonetheless.

The barrenness of the land also reflects the level of poverty that dominates people’s lives here. These are a few scenes taken along our drive to the lake.

Lac Assal is the main tourist attraction of the country. It sits 500 feet below sea level and has one of the highest concentrations of salt of any body of water on the planet. Tourists come here to walk across the salt flats and swim or simply float in the water. The mining of the salt occurs both by modern technology as well as the traditional method where it is captured by hand using rocks and shovels and then transported by camel for weeks to its destination.

Lac Assal is the lowest point in Africa and the third lowest point in the world after the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea

This practice of mining salt by hand has gone on since the 6th century.

Each camel can carry up to 150kg of “white gold”. The journey to Ethiopia to sell the salt takes weeks and returns only $2-$3 per camel for top grade product. China has built a large industrial plant to mine most of the salt for export, but this practice of mining by hand still continues as the only source of income for many nomadic families.

Saudi Arabia

I was honestly a bit nervous about visiting Saudi Arabia as I really didn’t know what to expect. The first hint that things would be different was when the ship had to lock up all the alcohol since it is not allowed in the country. The second difference was the complex immigration process that included fingerprinting everybody in customs when they check your passports as you first enter the country and then rechecking them when you leave.

Saudi Arabia allowed tourist visas for the first time in September 2019, allowing casual visitors without a business or religious purpose into the country. A little before that, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had announced a social and economic blueprint to transform the Kingdom. The plan, Vision 2030, set out to create a vibrant society, overhaul the nation’s economy, and reduce its dependence on oil.

The evidence of this can be found everywhere with new modern developments, investments of hundreds of billions of dollars in creating and upgrading tourist destinations all over the country and a more gradual willingness to be more welcoming to tourists by reducing some of the restrictions. It is easy to see that the country could become a very popular destination for tourists from all over the world due to its central location and ability to invest in and execute strategic projects.

We visited three destinations here – Jeddah, the inland city of AlUla by charter flight from Jeddah, and a city on the western coast called Yanbu as we traveled north along the Red Sea towards the Suez Canal. There are no photos of Yanbu as we used that primarily as a snorkeling site. A number of people also took a high-speed train from Jeddah to the holy city of Medinah but we chose other options. The train can reach speeds of 300 km/hour.

Jeddah

When we arrived at the port, the first thing we noticed was the number of people from the recent unrest in Sudan milling about with whatever belongings they were able to bring with them. In addition to those that made it out on their own, Saudi Arabia ran humanitarian missions with large ships to carry 5,000 people at a time from Sudan to safe harbor in their country. We tend to hear only negative press about the country, much of which is likely deserved, but they showed great hospitality in accommodating these refugees.

One of the main attractions in Jeddah is the historic district known as Al-Bayad, or “Old Jeddah”. The area features many buildings over 500 years old and a number of “coral” houses made from coral stones harvested from the Red Sea and built in the 19th century. One of the distinctive features of this area are the wooden doors and elaborate wooden window designs. The area is a mix of buildings still in their original condition and buildings that have been beautifully restored.

Part of a large old home that has been restored and turned into a museum.

This photo was taken by a friend of ours. What is interesting about this photo is that you are not supposed to show any outward sign of affection in Saudi and she caught these folks holding hands.

One of the main tourist attractions in the newer part of the city is the Jeddah Fountain. It is by far the tallest fountain in the world and reaches a height of over 1000 feet.

We are treated to traditional dances at many places we go on our cruise. This was in Yanbu, a small city on the way to the Suez Canal. Eva went on a tour and I snorkeled.

This photo of the fountain was taken from the bus as we came back from a trip.

Photo taken from the ship of a section of the port in Jeddah at sunset.

AlUla

This place was an amazing combination of ancient history and striking landscapes. The history here goes back over 4000 years and will try to provide a very abbreviated summary.

The walled city of Al-‘Ula was founded in the 6th century BC, an oasis in the desert valley, with fertile soil and plenty of water. It was located along Incense Road, the network of routes that facilitated the trading of spices, silk and other luxury items through the kingdom of ancient Ethiopia, Arabia, Egypt, and India.

AlUla stands on the site of the biblical city of Dedan and was ruled by the Nabateans, an ancient Arab tribe who originally made Petra in Jordan their capital but later had to move it to Hegra in this region after the Romans took over. You may know that Petra is well known today as a treasure of ancient inscriptions and other history. The inscriptions and tombs from these ancient civilizations can be found here inscribed in the vertical sandstone cliffs that dominate the region. Click on the link below if you want more information about this area and the archaeological history here. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/hegra-ancient-city-saudi-arabia-untouched-for-millennia-makes-its-public-debut-180976361/

The area is also an oasis supporting over 4 million palm trees where they grow dates for export. The contrast between the large fields of dark green palm trees and the brown rocky cliffs is striking. Hope you enjoy the pics.

The odd sandstone formations are prevalent here for tens of miles.

The main attraction in this area. It is called Elephant Rock for obvious reasons.

This area gets some fascinating cloud formations.

The tomb of Liyhan in the neighboring city of Hegra, measuring 72 feet high.

The square holes in the rocks were also used as tombs.

Note the writings on the rocks, many of which are over 2500 years old.

I seem to have a bird photo for every segment. This guy was on the pathway to some of the rock inscriptions.

Note the fortress at the top of the rock.

Completed in 2018, Maraya is the world’s largest mirrored building and is a must see in person with how it can be almost invisible from a distance and reflect the beauty of the landscape that surrounds it. It is used to host events.

See how it is hard to tell where the building ends and the real landscape begins?

Note how the building blends in with the surroundings.

These guys begged me to take their photo. Note the reflection of the rock formations in the store window. This was in the restored Old Town of AlUla which was quite nicely done.

The sun sets on another segment of the voyage. On to Egypt and the Mediterranean.

Oman

April 20 – 26

Welcome to Oman!

Oman, the only country in the world that starts with an ‘O’ sits on the southeast corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Its official name is the Sultanate of Oman and is a monarchy run by the Sultan. The Sultan’s word is final and undisputed and has an enormous amount of wealth and resources at his disposal. The country is nearly 90% Islam and was our first exposure to dressing restrictions and the traditional dress such as the men’s dishdasha and the women’s abaya.

Oman is not as well set up for tourism as other countries and was new to our cruise company so many of the expeditions were not as well run, but still provided a number of great memories. We visited a handful of places – the capital city of Muscat, the northern city of Khasab, a small city called Dibba Al-Baya, the cities of Salalah and Sur, and the island of Masirah.

We often walk the deck at sunrise and are greeted with images such as this one.

When we approached the first port, which was Muscat, we were immediately struck by the barren, rocky landscape that pervades the entire country.

The sky was hazy throughout our entire time here, likely due to the humidity and the sand.

On the left is one of the Sultan’s six palaces. On the right, one of many forts built by the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Grand Mosque in Muscat, the capital city

Our first experience in the country was the Grand Mosque in the capital city of Muscat and it was amazing. Completed in 2001, it can accommodate 20,000 worshipers and is incredibly lavish. The mosque is surrounded by five minarets that symbolize the five pillars of Islam: profession of faith, prayers, giving of alms, fasting, and pilgrimage.

Reflecting the disparity between the rights and privileges of men versus women in the, the praying room for women is quite plain while it is the men’s area that is reserved for country all the extravagance. Throughout the mosque, there are beautiful white and grey marble walls almost entirely covered in intricate hand-crafted mosaic patterns. The carpet in the main sanctuary is all one piece and is hand-knit, requiring 12 million hours of labor by 600 women over four years. Both the carpet and the chandelier were originally the world’s largest when the mosque was built but apparently both have now been outdone elsewhere.

Located in the center of the men’s prayer hall, there is an Italian-manufactured chandelier that measures over 45 feet tall and weighs over 9 tons. Its 24-carat gold-plated frame is trimmed with 600,000 Swarovski crystals and holds 1,122 bulbs.

All women visiting the mosque must cover their heads.

Khasa, Oman

I took a cruise on a Dhow through the fjords, interestingly referred to as the “Norway of Arabia” but in fact does not look at all like the fjords in Norway. The scenery is all limestone and sandstone rock formations, some rising up over 1000 meters.

We enjoyed watching this pod for a time even though the private boat operators would often speed right up to them and scare them back under water.

Dolphins swim together, socialize with each other and hunt together and are quite intelligent.

A number of them once swam right next to and under our boat.

Does the front of this rock look like a frog to you or have I been on the water for too long?

Eva took a 4×4 trip to a place called the Mountain of Women. It offers incredible views from above as well as fossils dating back 250 million years.

Sur, Oman

Here we visited a fish market right where the fishing boats come in; a dhow shipbuilding facility, and an old fort from the 1700s.

Fish Market

Sadly, these are two hammerhead sharks. Shark populations are being nearly wiped out in many places around the world due to over-fishing.

Apparently, you can’t have a fish market without a cat guarding the exterior.

Traditional Ship Building

Somebody in Qatar is apparently paying $2 million USD for this dhow.

The inside view of the bottom structure of the boat

One of the artisans at the Dhow facility.

Historical Forts

Again, from the fort looking out. Thanks to Alex the photographer for noticing the parrot.

Markets (Souqs)

We went to several Souqs and they are predominantly fabric stores similar to this one.

Masirah Island

This is the largest island in Oman and is quite sparsely developed. It is quite popular with kitesurfers and is home to herons, flamingos and nesting turtles.

Oddly, the most popular place for the flamingos, was the water at the sewage treatment plant.

Salalah

The highlight here was an area called Wadi Darbat. A wadi is an area that fills with water during the monsoon season but dries out the rest of the year. Once it starts raining, it quickly turns from a dusty brown to a rich green in color with all the revived plant life. You can think of it of an oasis of sorts. Given that we visited late in the dry season, we were fortunate it still had some water.

Snapshots from time at sea

We are enjoying the quiet days at sea but sometimes I get called on to stand in for various people on the ship. The captain often calls me to stand in for him when he needs a break. They have this amazing software on a big screen that shows detailed maps with water depths, details on other ships in the area and tons of other supporting information. They rely on it completely for their navigation.

There are constantly one or two officers with binoculars scanning the waters.

A number of times we are on the ship eating or relaxing and the expedition leader will suddenly announce that there are dolphins in the area and everybody grabs their camera and rushes out to look. It can be spectacular. One time there were apparently hundreds of dolphins near the ship, but I missed that one.

These photos were taken by somebody else on the cruise.

It is amazing how high in the air they can jump and how much they enjoy performing.

Man Overboard?

One day our relaxing lunch was interrupted with frantic shouts of “man overboard, man overboard!!!” from the back of the ship. Soon after, the alarm sounded and was immediately followed by a sobering announcement from the captain “this is NOT a drill, I repeat, this is NOT a drill”. Crew members rushed to their emergency stations and the guests did not quite know what to do. Some froze in silence while others rushed out to the balcony, some to watch and some with binoculars to assist.

A small dhow was positioned on the horizon so it was unclear if the person came from our ship or from there. There was just a dolphin sighting a few minutes before so the initial thought was that somebody fell overboard trying to take a photograph. The day before somebody jumped overboard to their death on a cruise ship from Australia to Hawaii so that thought entered some people’s minds. The captain stopped the ship amazingly quickly and turned around to head back. For a time both the crew and guests kept an eye on one area of the water hoping to get another sighting of the activity in the water. At first there was nothing but then the activity resumed much to relief of the crew.

The head marine biologist on deck was busy focusing in with his binoculars and made a positive identification. It’s a group of turtles, he cried out! I was able to get a photograph of the activity, but only from very far away. Apparently, these loggerhead turtles get quite large and when mating can be quite active at the surface. Have a look and imagine seeing this with the naked eye from far away. Many of the expedition team said in all there years of being on cruises, they had never experienced an actual man overboard alert. It was very sobering.

Sunset

Our time in Oman is finished. On to Djibouti and Saudi Arabia.

African Islands (Madagascar, Seychelles)

April 6 – 15

Welcome to the tropics!

After being in cold climates for the first two segments of the trip, temperatures gradually warmed up in South Africa and have now become downright hot. In fact, it is uncomfortably hot and humid. But who are we to complain when we can view sunsets like these!

This was during a beach BBQ event in the Cormoros.

This is in the Indian Ocean with super calm seas.

We arrived first at the island of Mozambique, followed by the Comoros islands, then Madagascar and finally several days in the Seychelles.

Mozambique

The first thing that struck us about the island of Mozambique is the poverty here. The ship was met by men in ragged canoes who had paddled out for 30 minutes or more to where we dropped anchor to beg for people to throw them food from their balconies or to sell their wares. Once on shore, people were surrounded by children begging for money as well.

The island was our first introduction to a type of boat that is common here called a dhow.

Canoes are used heavily here for fishing or just transportation.

Cormoros Islands

After Mozambique we went to Grand Comoros island where we were the first cruise ship to visit them in ten years. Not sure of the exact reason why that is, but they have recently become focused on encouraging tourism and upgrading the island to support it. We were all welcomed at the beach with a contingent of native women, male dancers and multiple hosts. The infrastructure of the island still has years of work to be sustainable for tourists and there are no modern hotels yet. There were a few hiccups during the day, but the enthusiasm of the people on the island is contagious.

Madagascar

We visited two islands in Madagascar, Nosy Komba and Nosy Be. The islands grow several crops such as vanilla, rice and the ylang-ylang plant that contains the oils used to make Chanel No 5 perfume. It is also home to a place called Vallee de Mai which contains a dense population of trees that are home to the coco de mer, the largest nut (like a coconut on steroids). These weigh between 30 and 70 pounds! The inside fruit does not have any general use but the shells are used by artisans for making bowls and such.

Fairly certain this is the male tree that produces the coco de mer in the previous photograph.

Madagascar’s main attraction is the native lemurs. The lemurs are very sociable and will make themselves comfortable on your shoulder, your arm or your head.

There is also another creature that is found on the island. I figured I might as well pose with one. Eva, however, was less enthusiastic about the idea.

The Seychelles

The Seychelles are home to thousands of native giant tortoises, many of whom are believed to be over 300 years old as well as giant bird populations, including the frigate bird with a bright red pouch hanging from its beak and the red-footed booby. The highlight here for me was the snorkeling which I had not done for quite some time. The islands had a major bleaching event several years ago that killed 90% of the coral but there are still a few spots that support a high population of tropical fish, rays, turtles and some sharks.

I hope the photos below give you a taste of this segment. We are now at sea for 4-5 days where only the 42 of us going from pole to pole are on the ship until it reaches Oman, the start of the next formal segment. We are really enjoying the quiet time.

Seychelles has the largest population of these giants in the world.

Snorkeled off a catamaran here and saw the turtle below.

Followed this guy around for over 5 minutes and filmed him with my GoPro.

These rays love the quiet and calm shallow waters.

This is the extremely rare Black Parrot, less than 200 in existence. Very lucky apparently to see.

Loved the baby peeking out at the bottom right.

That wraps it up here, on to Oman and Saudi Arabia …..

Sicily & Algeria

May 21 – May 22

After leaving Albania, things got a bit wacky. We were due to go next to Tunisia, but the country was being hit by massive flooding and severe winds forcing us to cancel. This meant missing out on one of the best preserved Roman amphitheaters in the world at a site called Thyrsus. Instead of Tunisia, we did a quickly prepared visit to Sicily. We were then forced to cancel a visit to The Alhambra, a palace and fortress complex located in Granada Spain on the Mediterranean so we could get to Lisbon before the start of a port strike. The Alhambra Palace is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world. Maybe we will be back some day.

Given the changes, this blog segment is focused only our visits to Erice in Sicily and Djémila in Algeria. The next segment will start with Lisbon and cover our specific visits there and the western coast of Spain and France.

Sicily

Sicily sits in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian mainland and is the largest island in the Mediterranean. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, and one of the most active in the world.

The view from the ship as we approach the port of Trapani.

Our designated tour here was a visit to the old city of Erice. I was a bit under the weather, so Eva went alone and took some lovely photos. Erice is a fortified medieval village that towers over Sicily at 2500 feet above sea level that overlooks the port city of Trapani where we were docked, at the northern tip of the western coast of Sicily. Erice has passed from the Elymian people through to the Phoenicians, the Spartans, the Romans, and the Normans and many of the buildings from over 3000 years ago are still standing. The remains of two castles still dominate the landscape of the city.

A view back towards the port of Trapani from Erice

Note the common placement of the fortress high on a rock overlooking the water. It is no wonder that many of these have withstood a number of invasions by various armies over centuries.

We have had the privilege of visiting many of these ancient walled cities and they are all so quaint and picturesque. Living there hundreds of years ago was likely not as nice.

Look at the stone design for the street and the wooden shutters against the stone walls.

Eva’s nice composition of one of the castles through the trees.

This tower seems more modern. Not sure of the specifics here.

Algeria

We left the ship later than expected due to a delay with Algerian customs, which was not totally surprising. Apparently, the day before in the first Algerian port we visited, they came on board late and arrived with no less than 27 customs officials, most likely just curious about what was on board. Many of these officials were apparently seeing a cruise ship for the first time.

The man in the middle is Captain Kosta navigating the ship into the port from the bridge. Many of these ports require a pilot ship to help us stay in the deeper waters and get into tight spaces.

Djémila

Under the name of Cuicul, the city was built 3,000 ft above sea level during the 1st century AD as a Roman military garrison situated on a narrow triangular plateau at the confluence of two rivers. The city was initially populated by a colony of Roman soldiers from Italy, and eventually grew to become a large trading market.

The city was slowly abandoned after the fall of the Roman Empire around the 5th century and 6th century. Muslims later dominated the region, but did not reoccupy the site of Cuicul, which they renamed Djémila (“beautiful” in Arabic). In 1982, Djémila became a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique adaptation of Roman architecture to a mountain environment.

Significant buildings include a theatre, forum, temples, basilicas, arches, streets, and houses. The exceptionally well preserved ruins surround a large, paved square with an entry marked by a majestic arch.