Category: April

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.

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

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.

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

Traditional Ship Building

Historical Forts

Markets (Souqs)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

April 10 – April 15

April 7 – April 8

March 27 – April 3

We left the remote South Atlantic islands and cruised over open and often rough seas for several days to South Africa.  We had to leave the islands a bit early as one of the guests fell and required medical care not available on the ship.  The landing in Cape Town, South Africa was quite significant for us as it meant we had now visited all seven continents, a feat which many of the guests had already achieved. 

We have met many guests with financial means far exceeding our own who have been to all corners of the earth, and many places multiple times.  But, nearly without exception, everybody is incredibly friendly and eager to share their travel stories and make recommendations of where to go.  There is never a shortage of people to join up with for meals or any of the many activities on or off the ship when you choose to do so.  In fact, since this is a smaller ship, I often find it a bit challenging to just get the time for a quiet meal or the solitude to read a book out of the cabin.  The number of guests so far has ranged between 170-190.

CAPE TOWN

Our first landing spot was Cape Town, which is teeming with a new species of mammal we had not yet encountered – humans!  So, after a month of seeing practically nobody at any of our destinations, we landed at a regular city, and a beautiful one at that.  It sits on the southern coast of the continent with beautiful views, sparkling beaches and a well-planned waterfront area of modern stores and activities.  The main landmark here is Table Mountain that towers over the city and provides a haven for many local plant and flower species.  The other striking part of the city is the prominence of memorials and mentions of Nelson Mandela, who served many of his 27 years in prison in nearby Robben Island.  The history of apartheid here is impossible to miss and is the main theme of any local historical exploration.

We spent one day here doing a private van tour with two other couples and visited the Cape of Good Hope and other scenic areas.  Combined with Cape Horn in South America, we have now been cape to cape.  Part of the tour was a visit to Boulders which is home to a local colony of African Penguins.

GAME RESERVES

The last four days here were focused on visiting local game reserves, one of the highlights of the trip.  We made it to four destinations and am sharing a long series of pictures from those locations.  These reserves, and national parks, have been specifically created either privately or publicly to save these animals from extinction and at the same time encourage revenue from ecotourism as a way of providing jobs and placing pressure on limiting poaching which continues to this day.  I hope you enjoy these images half as much as I enjoyed taking them. 

April 6th