We are currently sailing for 7 days to reach Senegal. We spent the previous days missing Richard’s Bay in South Africa due to high winds. That means we missed our scheduled safari. We then spent two days getting to Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha), South Africa coming into port 3 hours late due to weather and the tow pilots coming on board 1 1/2 hours late. Thus resulting in having a bus safari and not our scheduled 4x4 safari. We were not happy about that. We are hoping that the 3rd safari scheduled for Senegal will be a go. The bus safari turned out to be better than we thought but it is hard getting pictures through the glass and if you are on the wrong side of the bus for some animals. Our guide Ernie and our bus driver worked hard to get us to watering holes and getting information from other guides as to where they spotted animals. Addo Elephant Reserve is very large with many different types of animals so they did get us more opportunities than some of the other buses from Viking.
Sunset on the South Pacific Ocean off coast of South Africa
On April 10th we landed in Cape Town, ZA. This is a very beautiful city and from the port we had excellent views of Table Mountain and Signal Hill. We selected the all day excursion to go to Cape Peninsula and to Cape Point with the added bonus of the African Penguins and the Botanical Gardens. It was awesome! Lunch was delicious and we had beautiful views of False Bay. The bus took as along the coastal highway so we could see the various bays and beaches along the coast. We were able to walk out to the most southern point of the African continent, Cape of Good Hope. The Cape was originally name Cape of Storms but the Dutch felt that the name was too negative and they changed it to Good Hope. Yes, the seas were stormy and heavy winds caused us to have rough sailing and the having to spend the second day in port but not allowed to leave the ship. We all had to go through departure immigration the evening before as we were to leave port at 10pm. Due to the winds and waves, we were stuck and their immigration would not allow us to get off. Their loss as we all would have spent money and time in the city.
When we were finally able to leave, we lost another port stop- Luderitz, Namibia. We did get to Walvis Bay, Namibia late so no chance for tours. Viking made up for it by planning a trip to the Namib Desert for cocktails, sunsets, and music. The buses made several stops to see the thousands of flamingos, the large dunes along the coastal areas, and then to the Valley of the Moon before we went to the party in the desert. They hired caterers to bring in tables, the food, and the musicians for this much needed fun event. We are now, as I stated, traveling the South Atlantic Ocean heading for Dakar, Senegal.
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