Travel Chapter 15
Namibia 2
You can see the pictures of this post at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Namibia20091?authkey=H3tNtDj9FwM#
We are now underway from Walfis Bay and Cape Town about 350 miles from Cape Town where we will arrive in the morning.
Yesterday we had a wonderful last day in Namibia when we met up with our friend Beatrix Hill. Beatrix, whom we met 2 years ago by chance, is a Namibian whose husband runs one of the many fish processing plants in Walfis. She was born in Luderitz in the south of Namibia and speaks English, Afrikaans and German. When our itinerary was changed shortly before our departure from a Suez Canal transit to an around Africa trip, I contacted Beatrix to set up a follow up meeting in Walfis.
We agreed to meet yesterday morning at 11.30. All this was done by email as I could not reach her on the phone. In fact, Beatrix ran into problems at the main gate and she was delayed. But being the resourceful lady she is, she parlayed her way through the security gate and appeared in her car just at the foot of our boat. It was a fun reunion as we had not seen each other in 2 years. Emmett was pleased to meet her as he had heard the story of how we had met on our last trip.
Beatrix took us to see the Spanish owned factory where her husband works. It is a fish processing plant which has five good sized fishing boats supplying it. The fish, mainly hake, is filleted and packed in ice. It is then trucked up to Windhoek the capital of Namibia and flown to Spain, packed for the supermarkets to be on the markets of Spain
Within 24 to 36 hours of landing. This is a huge industry in Namibia which has very rich fishing grounds due to the cold waters of the Benguela current which bring cold water up along the coast from the Antarctic latitudes. These waters are not only cold but rich in nutrients.
We then drove out to see the flamingoes and huge pelicans which thrive in the shallow waters of the huge bay which lies in front of Walfis Bay. In fact, the bird life of this area would make any birder very happy for many days. Theses same fish rich waters sustain a huge bird population all year round.
In fact, the little town of Walfis has thrived since we were last there as a result of successful efforts of the government in attracting foreign investments which have created new jobs and industry in the area. It is still a small place but its huge sandy seacoast makes it an attractive location. The result is that the harbor is humming with ships stacked up offshore awaiting their turn to enter the port. There are two floating dry-docks, there is a company doing repairs to oil derricks as well as cruise ship traffic and normal goods traffic. The stability of the government of Namibia is paying off although there is a limit to what can be done in a country of 2 million people where only a small percentage of the land is arable. A smart decision of the government has been to make English the national language rather then having a hodge podge of local languages trying to vying for position as is the case in countries like India and South Africa.
We then went off to a nice restaurant called the raft which stands in the bay about 100 feed from the shore on pylons. I once again gorged myself on Namibian/Chilean oysters and a good piece of kingklip fish. Life is good when living near the ocean… The only thing missing was a good bottle of cool, white, dry South African wine but that is no longer on my menu.
In the afternoon, we went into town as Emmett needed some sandals, shorts and shirts. Beatrix drove us to a local store where the prices were so low I could hardly believe what I saw. Of course, as a result, I bought lots of things I probably would not need but at those prices it would be cheaper to buy the things than have them sent to the ship laundry!
We walked out with a huge bag of stuff for Emmett, for our granddaughter in Texas and for me. Lots of fun.
We then drove to a huge beach development half way between Swakopmund and Walfis bay called Longbeach. Beatrix told us that they had just sold their nice house in Walfis and that they had decided to move to Longbeach. This is the place the actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had come when she was pregnant. Their child was actually delivered in the hospital in Swakopmund. It is mainly a vacation complex but mainly people live there year round and commute to either of the cities.
And so our days in Namibia ended when Beatrix drove us back to our ship. It was fun to see her and it also gave us a little more insight into the country than one can get just being a tourist. We will return again one day. Thanks Beatrix.
We boarded the ship and at 8pm we slipped our lines and were underway. It was nice to be back at sea and everybody slept well, tired from their experiences and lulled to sleep by the gentle roll of the ocean. If one does not get seasick from the roll, it is similar to being rocked in a gently hammock. Babies love it and so do adults who love the sea.
Today, it is a beautiful day at sea with the sun shining and water calm except for long slow ground swells to which we are now accustomed. The amazing thing so far is how little marine pelagic life we have seen. Except for some flying fish and a rare dolphin, so far we have seen nothing. With ocean so large, it is a lucky thing to see whales and other creatures that probably scamper as far and as fast as possible away from our oncoming ship making huge amounts of noise in the water. But one continues to spend hours watching the sea in the hope of seeing something.
That’s all for today,
Cheers
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Travel Chapter 14- Namibia1
Travel Chapter 14
February 15, 2009
We arrived early Friday morning, February 14th into the harbor of Walfis Bay, Namibia. This is a fairly large harbor now and the main one of the country. It used to be a whaling station where it got its name,
We are in this harbor for 3 days so we had scheduled some activity on land. B and I had been here two years ago when we met our Namibian friend Beatrix. It was a chance meeting in the supermarket of Walfis. We had gone in there to buy some water as we had decided to take a taxi to Swakopmund, a town about 20 miles north on the coast. I saw a nice lady shopping ahead of us so I went up to her and asked her how much it would cost to take a taxi. She that she did not know as she never takes taxis but if we wanted she would take us there herself. We thought that would be fun so we accepted and spent a nice day with our new found Namibian friend called Beatrix.
This time Beatrix was tied up in traveling to Windhoek, the capital so we were on our own. I therefore booked us into a hotel in Swakopmund called the Schwiezer Haus. I had got a very good rate on the internet and had asked the hotel to send a driver to pick us up. Swakopmund is the resort town of Namibia and has retained a great amount of German influence in buildings and even language. Until the end of the First World War, it was known as German South West Africa, a colony of Germany. A great number of German families had settled there and had been involved mainly in farming. I even have two families of relatives who had lived here and one of the children had been born here. The colony has a gruesome colonial history.
South Africa occupied the German colony of South-West Africa during World War I and administered it as a mandate until after World War II, when it annexed the territory. In 1966 the Marxist South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) guerrilla group launched a war of independence for the area that became Namibia, but it was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end its administration in accordance with a UN peace plan for the entire region. Namibia has been governed by SWAPO since the country won independence in 1990. Hifikepunye POHAMBA was elected president in November 2004 in a landslide victory replacing Sam NUJOMA who led the country during its first 14 years of self rule.
Luckily Emmett noticed that we had reservations to visit the desert the next morning starting at 7.30am so I cancelled our hotel reservation in Swakopmund but retained the taxi service. So at 10.30 we got off the ship for the first time in 8 days and there stood a lady taxi driver with a board with our name on it. Always a nice touch when arriving in a country to have someone waiting. We boarded our minibus and drove the 30kms north along the coast. It is an impressive drive as one has the desert on the right and the ocean on the right. The Namib desert is immense as it never really rains. On the right one sees huge dunes of orange colored dunes. The water of Namibia is cold and rich in plankton which makes it great for fishing. Endless beaches are a feature of this coast although swimming is a bit of a challenge as it rarely gets above 20 degrees.
Swakopmund is the name given by the local tribes to the river that comes out at this town. It means brown water as drinking it results in sure stomach problems. The Germans set this town up as a resort place where people from inland could come and vacation by the sea. One can only imagine the pleasure it gave people living in the dry and desertic inland would derive by being near water and to be able to frolic in a medium which is a rare commodity in their lives.
The city itself is as clean as it a whistle and the houses are all very well maintained, streets are named Bismarck Strasse, Bahnhofstrasse and others. The beach is nice and there is a cool breeze coming off the ocean.
We went straight to the Crystal Museum which we had visited on our last trip. Emmett is an avid stone collector and of course he was in seventh heaven. There are huge Chrystal stones as Namibia is a great source of all sorts of stones, including a huge industry of gem and other stones, including off shore diamonds which bring in $500 million a year. A fun aspect of the museum is that one can by an empty plastic bag which one then can fill up from piles of various polished stones laid out in a small garden of the museum. Emm spent 20 minutes going from one pile to another collecting all manner of stones.
After that we ambled down to the beach and went into the Two Ocean restaurant which is on the beach. We found a table at the window and I ordered my favorite South African fist, the king clip. It is a medium sized fish with white meat with a consistency almost of lobster.
After lunch, we visited the German museum which is really quite good for a little place like this. It is full of bric a brac of German memorabilia. But it also has a section showing the way of live of the various indigenous tribes of Namibia. We then headed up to the Schweitzer Haus hotel and Café Anton. On the way, we walked through a rather large handicraft market with a large variety of handicraft. Brigitte saw a headrest she wanted for Gaby and I was delegated to negotiate the piece from the vendor. One of my favorite pastime is negotiating. We then separated and I headed to the local supermarket to get a newspaper. On my return, I found B and Emm sitting in a local conditorei or pastry having ice-cream. I joined them and we returned to the Café Anton where I phoned our driver to pick us up as we had had enough of the town and wished to return to the ship. She then drove us back to Walfis. Luckily she could enter the port area as our ship was parked more than a mile from the main gate and it is a long walk in the hot sun. I do not find it very friendly of the local authorities to have given a ship with 700 passengers such a faraway berth.
This morning at 0730 we boarded a group of 5 minibuses and headed into the Namib for a geological and botanical tour of an area called the Moonscape.
You can see pictures of this visit at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Namibia2009?authkey=tYp06X_MBAo
It is a very appropriate name as that part of the desert is made up of great rocks and hills of stone rising up from the floor of the desert. It was an interesting drive of over 4 hours. At one hill, we climbed up to find huge rocks which were very high in iron content. The rocks could be pounded with a stone and gave off various notes almost sounding like the tones one would get by hitting a large piece of iron. We had the music prof with us and he set up his sound equipment to record a rock banging session of 10 of us doing our rendition of the Concert in the Namib Desert…
Luckily the minivans were air-conditioned as it got to over 40 degrees Celsius. A nice touch was that after viewing a plant which only grows in Namib and lives up to 1500 years, the group ended the tour with a snack set up for us by the tour group. It was great to get something to eat and drink in the heat of the desert. But the real treat was some 4 dozen Namibian oysters lying in ice with lemons and a bottle of Tabasco sauce. Most of the others did not eat oysters but Emm dove in and had a few. I dove in and had at least a dozen if not 18 of the best oysters I have ever had, and I have had a few in my time. In fact, I was told that these oysters were imported very small from Chile. In Namibia, with its rich and cold water, these oysters thrive and grow quickly to edible size. It takes them only 9 months in the Namibian waters to grow to a size which takes oysters in Europe well over 18 months.
After oysters in the desert, we continued on heading towards the now famous Dune 7. This dune is named as it is 7 miles from Walfis Bay. It is an immense dune well over 100 meters high rising fairly steeply to its top. From our group of 20 students and adults, only 2 girls and Emmett started up the climb to the summit. It looked like a hard climb as the sand is soft and each step is tough. But all three made it and they sat there enjoying the view of the ocean. The Emmett started down the hill taking giant strides and sliding. Suddenly his hat flew off his head and headed across the dune with Emm in hot pursuit. He had to run but the hat kept being blow ahead of him. Bear in mind that the sun was pouring down on his now shaved head so the hat was vital. Finally the wind stopped pushing the hat and it stopped so he could collect it and return to the bottom, exhausted but proud of having accomplished the climb of Dune 7.
We then headed back to the ship in time to take a shower to get rid of the sand and to make lunch before it closed down. The afternoon was spent quietly resting from the events of the morning.
If you want an other slant on this trip, the website of this program carries a blog which is being written by a professional writer. It also carries pictures and can be seen under: www.semesteratsea.org under current voyage. It also carries pictures and the current one shows all our baldies from Neptune day. Emmett can be seen in the first rows on the right of the picture.
It has been a sad month in our family as we lost 4 male Keyserlingks in that period. First the grandson of my sister Cecile, the son of Katrin and Sebastian Spano of Ottawa lost his battle against cancer at the age of 12. Then a 5 year old Jon Keyserlingk was killed in Australia by a crocodile. An other cousin, Curt von Keyserlingk who had only recently retired as a journalist with the national business journal was killed while bicycling Curt was an avid cyclist and had moved south to be in a quiet town north of Cape Town. Brigitte and I had agreed with Curt to stay in Tulbagh and have dinner with him next week while we are in Cape Town. We both liked Curt and will still go to Tulbagh and overnight there to pay our respects. Curt is survived by his only son Curt von Keyserlingk who is in his early 20’s and is a highly gifted mathematician studying at Cambridge in the UK. Curt also has a daughter living in Cape Town whom we will try and meet while there later this week.
Finally we learnt that my cousin Alexander Keyserlingk brother of Ulli Barrett of Johannesburg and who ranched in Veron BC in Canada also passed away. It is appropriate that we are currently in Namibia, as Alexander was born here and then moved to Canada in the 60’s to start up ranching.
Well, on a less somber note, we are off to have lunch with our Namibian friend Beatrix. More on that in a next chapter.
Cheers
February 15, 2009
We arrived early Friday morning, February 14th into the harbor of Walfis Bay, Namibia. This is a fairly large harbor now and the main one of the country. It used to be a whaling station where it got its name,
We are in this harbor for 3 days so we had scheduled some activity on land. B and I had been here two years ago when we met our Namibian friend Beatrix. It was a chance meeting in the supermarket of Walfis. We had gone in there to buy some water as we had decided to take a taxi to Swakopmund, a town about 20 miles north on the coast. I saw a nice lady shopping ahead of us so I went up to her and asked her how much it would cost to take a taxi. She that she did not know as she never takes taxis but if we wanted she would take us there herself. We thought that would be fun so we accepted and spent a nice day with our new found Namibian friend called Beatrix.
This time Beatrix was tied up in traveling to Windhoek, the capital so we were on our own. I therefore booked us into a hotel in Swakopmund called the Schwiezer Haus. I had got a very good rate on the internet and had asked the hotel to send a driver to pick us up. Swakopmund is the resort town of Namibia and has retained a great amount of German influence in buildings and even language. Until the end of the First World War, it was known as German South West Africa, a colony of Germany. A great number of German families had settled there and had been involved mainly in farming. I even have two families of relatives who had lived here and one of the children had been born here. The colony has a gruesome colonial history.
South Africa occupied the German colony of South-West Africa during World War I and administered it as a mandate until after World War II, when it annexed the territory. In 1966 the Marxist South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) guerrilla group launched a war of independence for the area that became Namibia, but it was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end its administration in accordance with a UN peace plan for the entire region. Namibia has been governed by SWAPO since the country won independence in 1990. Hifikepunye POHAMBA was elected president in November 2004 in a landslide victory replacing Sam NUJOMA who led the country during its first 14 years of self rule.
Luckily Emmett noticed that we had reservations to visit the desert the next morning starting at 7.30am so I cancelled our hotel reservation in Swakopmund but retained the taxi service. So at 10.30 we got off the ship for the first time in 8 days and there stood a lady taxi driver with a board with our name on it. Always a nice touch when arriving in a country to have someone waiting. We boarded our minibus and drove the 30kms north along the coast. It is an impressive drive as one has the desert on the right and the ocean on the right. The Namib desert is immense as it never really rains. On the right one sees huge dunes of orange colored dunes. The water of Namibia is cold and rich in plankton which makes it great for fishing. Endless beaches are a feature of this coast although swimming is a bit of a challenge as it rarely gets above 20 degrees.
Swakopmund is the name given by the local tribes to the river that comes out at this town. It means brown water as drinking it results in sure stomach problems. The Germans set this town up as a resort place where people from inland could come and vacation by the sea. One can only imagine the pleasure it gave people living in the dry and desertic inland would derive by being near water and to be able to frolic in a medium which is a rare commodity in their lives.
The city itself is as clean as it a whistle and the houses are all very well maintained, streets are named Bismarck Strasse, Bahnhofstrasse and others. The beach is nice and there is a cool breeze coming off the ocean.
We went straight to the Crystal Museum which we had visited on our last trip. Emmett is an avid stone collector and of course he was in seventh heaven. There are huge Chrystal stones as Namibia is a great source of all sorts of stones, including a huge industry of gem and other stones, including off shore diamonds which bring in $500 million a year. A fun aspect of the museum is that one can by an empty plastic bag which one then can fill up from piles of various polished stones laid out in a small garden of the museum. Emm spent 20 minutes going from one pile to another collecting all manner of stones.
After that we ambled down to the beach and went into the Two Ocean restaurant which is on the beach. We found a table at the window and I ordered my favorite South African fist, the king clip. It is a medium sized fish with white meat with a consistency almost of lobster.
After lunch, we visited the German museum which is really quite good for a little place like this. It is full of bric a brac of German memorabilia. But it also has a section showing the way of live of the various indigenous tribes of Namibia. We then headed up to the Schweitzer Haus hotel and Café Anton. On the way, we walked through a rather large handicraft market with a large variety of handicraft. Brigitte saw a headrest she wanted for Gaby and I was delegated to negotiate the piece from the vendor. One of my favorite pastime is negotiating. We then separated and I headed to the local supermarket to get a newspaper. On my return, I found B and Emm sitting in a local conditorei or pastry having ice-cream. I joined them and we returned to the Café Anton where I phoned our driver to pick us up as we had had enough of the town and wished to return to the ship. She then drove us back to Walfis. Luckily she could enter the port area as our ship was parked more than a mile from the main gate and it is a long walk in the hot sun. I do not find it very friendly of the local authorities to have given a ship with 700 passengers such a faraway berth.
This morning at 0730 we boarded a group of 5 minibuses and headed into the Namib for a geological and botanical tour of an area called the Moonscape.
You can see pictures of this visit at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Namibia2009?authkey=tYp06X_MBAo
It is a very appropriate name as that part of the desert is made up of great rocks and hills of stone rising up from the floor of the desert. It was an interesting drive of over 4 hours. At one hill, we climbed up to find huge rocks which were very high in iron content. The rocks could be pounded with a stone and gave off various notes almost sounding like the tones one would get by hitting a large piece of iron. We had the music prof with us and he set up his sound equipment to record a rock banging session of 10 of us doing our rendition of the Concert in the Namib Desert…
Luckily the minivans were air-conditioned as it got to over 40 degrees Celsius. A nice touch was that after viewing a plant which only grows in Namib and lives up to 1500 years, the group ended the tour with a snack set up for us by the tour group. It was great to get something to eat and drink in the heat of the desert. But the real treat was some 4 dozen Namibian oysters lying in ice with lemons and a bottle of Tabasco sauce. Most of the others did not eat oysters but Emm dove in and had a few. I dove in and had at least a dozen if not 18 of the best oysters I have ever had, and I have had a few in my time. In fact, I was told that these oysters were imported very small from Chile. In Namibia, with its rich and cold water, these oysters thrive and grow quickly to edible size. It takes them only 9 months in the Namibian waters to grow to a size which takes oysters in Europe well over 18 months.
After oysters in the desert, we continued on heading towards the now famous Dune 7. This dune is named as it is 7 miles from Walfis Bay. It is an immense dune well over 100 meters high rising fairly steeply to its top. From our group of 20 students and adults, only 2 girls and Emmett started up the climb to the summit. It looked like a hard climb as the sand is soft and each step is tough. But all three made it and they sat there enjoying the view of the ocean. The Emmett started down the hill taking giant strides and sliding. Suddenly his hat flew off his head and headed across the dune with Emm in hot pursuit. He had to run but the hat kept being blow ahead of him. Bear in mind that the sun was pouring down on his now shaved head so the hat was vital. Finally the wind stopped pushing the hat and it stopped so he could collect it and return to the bottom, exhausted but proud of having accomplished the climb of Dune 7.
We then headed back to the ship in time to take a shower to get rid of the sand and to make lunch before it closed down. The afternoon was spent quietly resting from the events of the morning.
If you want an other slant on this trip, the website of this program carries a blog which is being written by a professional writer. It also carries pictures and can be seen under: www.semesteratsea.org under current voyage. It also carries pictures and the current one shows all our baldies from Neptune day. Emmett can be seen in the first rows on the right of the picture.
It has been a sad month in our family as we lost 4 male Keyserlingks in that period. First the grandson of my sister Cecile, the son of Katrin and Sebastian Spano of Ottawa lost his battle against cancer at the age of 12. Then a 5 year old Jon Keyserlingk was killed in Australia by a crocodile. An other cousin, Curt von Keyserlingk who had only recently retired as a journalist with the national business journal was killed while bicycling Curt was an avid cyclist and had moved south to be in a quiet town north of Cape Town. Brigitte and I had agreed with Curt to stay in Tulbagh and have dinner with him next week while we are in Cape Town. We both liked Curt and will still go to Tulbagh and overnight there to pay our respects. Curt is survived by his only son Curt von Keyserlingk who is in his early 20’s and is a highly gifted mathematician studying at Cambridge in the UK. Curt also has a daughter living in Cape Town whom we will try and meet while there later this week.
Finally we learnt that my cousin Alexander Keyserlingk brother of Ulli Barrett of Johannesburg and who ranched in Veron BC in Canada also passed away. It is appropriate that we are currently in Namibia, as Alexander was born here and then moved to Canada in the 60’s to start up ranching.
Well, on a less somber note, we are off to have lunch with our Namibian friend Beatrix. More on that in a next chapter.
Cheers
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Travel Chapter 13-- Pictures
Being on a ship, one has to be superstitious as there is not much else happening. For this reason, this post will be short to avoid jinxing the whole community. Just to inform you that I have now posted pictures of the Neptune event as well as of our extended family and our travel pictures of Spain and Morocco. You can see these links in the texts of Chapters 6, 9, 11 and 12.
Cheers
Cheers
Travel Chapter 12 Extended Family
Travel Chapter 12
At sea just over the equator
February 10, 2009
Our extended family
There is a tradition on the SAS voyages whereby adults are asked to adopt a group of students to become their extended families. For many students, this trip can be traumatic and apparently many suffer profound homesickness. It is understandable as not only are they far from their family and friends but they are in strange countries and traveling on board a ship. These are all new and difficult situations by themselves but, but put together and it may be too much for many.
To alleviate this problem, each adult couple is asked to adopt a number of kids. In the first days of the trip, the kids are asked whether they wish to be part of such an extended family. Of the 700 students, 388 signed up for the program. There are only so many adults and some do not want to participate. We signed up to take 7 kids as our experience on the last trip showed us that this is an ideal number.
The kids are assigned on a random basis and a list comes out with their names. I then walked around the ship and invited each one to meet us for dinner in the dining room on the fifth deck. I organized with the dining room steward for him to set aside a table for 9 for us on the appointed day. It was interesting as we did not know any of them, nor did they know us. At the appointed time of 6.30 pm B and I were at the table and no body was there. No one showed up for what seemed to be quite some time but was probably no more than 5 minutes and suddenly they all appeared. Two boys and 5 girls. More or less the same proportion of boys and girls on the ship. As with any such first meeting, it started off a little tense but we went around the table and saying each others names. I then told them who we were and asked each to say a bit about themselves. I took pictures of each one in order to remember names and faces. They were from different parts of the US and studying geology to philosophy. After a pleasant dinner we broke up and agreed to meet again once we had left South Africa. Since then, I have run into most of them in classes and corridors.
You can see the members our extended family at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/ExtendedFamilySAS09?authkey=VuOGiMSvZ2U&feat=directlink
So now we have 7 kids on board, in addition to Emmett. We will get to know them as the voyage on continues. On our last trip we had 5 such students and we are still in touch with 2 of them.
Cheers
At sea just over the equator
February 10, 2009
Our extended family
There is a tradition on the SAS voyages whereby adults are asked to adopt a group of students to become their extended families. For many students, this trip can be traumatic and apparently many suffer profound homesickness. It is understandable as not only are they far from their family and friends but they are in strange countries and traveling on board a ship. These are all new and difficult situations by themselves but, but put together and it may be too much for many.
To alleviate this problem, each adult couple is asked to adopt a number of kids. In the first days of the trip, the kids are asked whether they wish to be part of such an extended family. Of the 700 students, 388 signed up for the program. There are only so many adults and some do not want to participate. We signed up to take 7 kids as our experience on the last trip showed us that this is an ideal number.
The kids are assigned on a random basis and a list comes out with their names. I then walked around the ship and invited each one to meet us for dinner in the dining room on the fifth deck. I organized with the dining room steward for him to set aside a table for 9 for us on the appointed day. It was interesting as we did not know any of them, nor did they know us. At the appointed time of 6.30 pm B and I were at the table and no body was there. No one showed up for what seemed to be quite some time but was probably no more than 5 minutes and suddenly they all appeared. Two boys and 5 girls. More or less the same proportion of boys and girls on the ship. As with any such first meeting, it started off a little tense but we went around the table and saying each others names. I then told them who we were and asked each to say a bit about themselves. I took pictures of each one in order to remember names and faces. They were from different parts of the US and studying geology to philosophy. After a pleasant dinner we broke up and agreed to meet again once we had left South Africa. Since then, I have run into most of them in classes and corridors.
You can see the members our extended family at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/ExtendedFamilySAS09?authkey=VuOGiMSvZ2U&feat=directlink
So now we have 7 kids on board, in addition to Emmett. We will get to know them as the voyage on continues. On our last trip we had 5 such students and we are still in touch with 2 of them.
Cheers
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Travel Chapter 11 Neptune
Travel Chapter 11
February 10, 2009
Neptune celebration.
Yesterday as we approached the equator, an age old maritime rite was celebrated on board this ship. The crossing of the equator has always been a big even when sailors go through a rite of passage. This celebration goes on all ships crossing with passengers or crew who have not made the crossing. At 0730 some 25 crew members walked the cabin decks awakening the pollywogs informing them that they must report to the aft deck to meet King Neptune. Most of the adults had volunteered for roles in the court. I was the royal barber/butcher. We then paraded from the lounge forward of the ship to the aft deck 7 where there is a swimming pool. We were royally welcomed by the assembled students. They then had to be covered with oatmeal, go into the pool for cleansing, come out and kiss a great ugly dead fish and then kneel in front of the King. The king was covered in green color and had a long flowing wig. Under all that was the British captain of the ship who put up with all this for hours.
You can see pictures of this event at http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/NeptuneOnTheExplorer2009?authkey=jXoqRnayQZA&feat=directlink
Part of the cleansing on such an occasion is to shave the hair from the head. This is voluntary but 4 of us spent the whole morning shaving heads. I am not sure what the final count was but certainly more than 50 including adults students now have bald heads. This includes our own grandson Emmett who sat down in my chair and I shaved his head. How many grandfathers get to shave the head of their grandson who submits to this voluntarily?
Emmett is now part of an elite group around the ship who run around with bald heads. There will be a group photo taken tomorrow and no doubt that will be a cherished souvenir of the voyage for Emmett.
Cheers
Alexander NIcolas Graf Keyserlingk,
Aboard the good ship Explorer
Somewhere going around the world in 104 days.
See my blog at:sandersstoryline.blogspot.com
Time of my email Greenwich Mean Time
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Travel chapter 10 Rock and Roll again
Travel chapter 10
At sea between Casablanca and Dakar, February 7.
We reboarded the ship in Casablanca on time and again just before a huge rain downfall. All students and adults made it back on the ship in time. On this ship, everybody has to be on board the ship 2 hours before sailing time. Everyone, including adults, is subject to penalties if they do not make the deadline unless they are on a ship organized trip which returns late. The penalty is called:”dock time”. This implies that if one is late at a port, one is not allowed to go ashore for a determined number of hours depending on how late one was. It is a system which forces everybody to make every effort to be back by the time the ship leaves. As ships have fixed schedules to keep, if a passenger does not make it back to the ship their passport is left with the local agent and the passenger then has to make his or her own way to the next port. And this would also result in severe dock time penalties in addition to the embarrassment and the costs involved.
Before we pulled out of Casablanca harbor, the captain announced twice that due to heavy seas and the fact that the stabilizers would not be extended until well clear of the harbor, he expected serious rolling of the ship again. By this time, people took his announcement seriously after the mess our arrival made. We headed up to the 7th deck lounge for the departure and ship gently eased away from the pier. In the harbor, the water was calm as we made our way to the mouth of the harbor and the high seas. As we cleared the last wave breaker, the ship started again to roll very sharply to left and right reaching 28 or 29 degrees of list in both directions. In our lounge, chairs started to slide and people had to hang on tightly to the small tables which were secured to the deck. Many of the students sat on the floor in the main lobby using each other as support. The whole ordeal lasted only 10 minutes but caused huge damage around the ship and several people were injured by sliding or loose furniture. The toll was a cut head, a broken wrist and several leg and shoulder injuries. The roll was such that on the 7th deck one had the impression that the ship would roll all the way to its side. Of course, this did not happen but it was impressive.
Obviously, the port of Casablanca has a design fault if such waves occur so close to the harbor entrance. But also, it is clear that the ship crew did not do a very good job in securing the ship for this event. One has to wonder why they were not better prepared. The damage in several cabins was also quite extensive with TV’s and computers flying off desks. I had luckily secured my laptop under our bed as everything on our desk and night table was on the floor when we got back to the cabin. Even the mini-fridge which is lodged in the wall above our chest of drawers came out of its hole and did not break only because the drawer below the fridge also opened and caught the fridge before it fell to the ground. Clearly these waves were much higher than is normal, but one wonders why these objects have not been properly secured. The ship has been around for 10 years and one wonders how much damage could have been avoided.
Then after a period which seemed quite a bit longer than it really was, the fins came out and the roll was reduced to more manageable proportions. One could now move around but one had to hold on to the rails to avoid being pitched against a wall or against an other person. So was the adventure of Casablanca.
We have steamed south now for 2 days and the seas have become gradually calmer. The winds have died down and the sun is again warm enough to lie out which the students are doing en masse. Yesterday afternoon, we passed close to the Canary Islands. It was a clear afternoon and one saw both of the big islands which are part of Spain. Now we are heading for Dakar where we will stop tomorrow to take on fuel for the last leg of the trip to Namibia where we will arrive in 7 days. At Dakar, we will not get off the ship as we would not get to Namibia in time to meet the schedule. We are steaming at 25 knots or 28 miles per hour which is fast for a cruise ship of this size. The ship can actually do 30 knots but its fuel consumption almost doubles. But this fast speed allows this ship to make destinations others would not reach in time to be able to stop for several days.
Classes have resumed after a period of 10 days and the school routine sets in again. Most people are operating at full tilt as the sea is quite smooth with gently rolling from ground swell. By now, most people have their sea legs and are starting to enjoy the pleasant days at sea that such a trip affords. Classes take place everyday while at sea so in this leg; there will be 9 days of class straight. This can be strenuous for both Profs and students as each class requires reading. However, on this trip, the students are allowed to drink almost every evening with a limitation of 2 bear per person. This controlled by issuing ration cards which are stamped each time a bear is ordered. It seems to work but when 500 students are standing around on the pool deck, it would be hard to control whether some students are not providing their beers to others.
One of the sad results of having more drinking evenings than on previous voyages (when there would be 1 beer night a week), is that the evening events are no longer well attended. Last evening after dinner, there was a session in the main union auditorium for students to tell of their experiences in Spain and Morocco. B and Emmett went and report that there were only 40 students. On previous voyages, these debriefing sessions were packed and the students exchanged some amazing travel stories. It is too bad as these stories enriched the experience of the places visited. Emmett got up and gave his views on Spain and Morocco noting how friendly the people of Moroccan had been, in his experience.
On my way back to the cabin, I went through the pool deck and I estimate that there were at least 450 to 500 students there having a beer or two. I guess the kids have their priorities but the travel story tradition which will get lost because of this change of policy.
That’s it for today. Must go off and attend a class.
Cheers
Alexander NIcolas Graf Keyserlingk,
Aboard the good ship Explorer
Somewhere going around the world in 104 days.
Time of my email Greenwich Mean Time
Friday, February 6, 2009
Travel Chapter 9 Morocco
Travel Chapter 9
Our visit to Morocco
At sea off the coast of Morocco.
Due to some very rough weather, our departure from Gibraltar was delayed causing us to arrive in Casablanca 18 hours behind schedule. The winds and waves on the way from Gibraltar to Casablanca reached 9 meters at times and the ship really rocked and rolled, pitched and yawed and whatever else a ship can do. We approached the entrance of the Casa harbor about 7 pm. The captain came on the loudspeaker to announce that he would have to retract the stabilizer fins when approaching the harbor and that the ship would start to rock seriously. The stabilizer fins are actually fins which can be extended from the sides of the ship and act to reduce the amount of roll of the ship by counterbalancing the movement of the ship. This allows the ship to move ahead without reaching any great angles of roll. About 10 minutes after this announcement, at a time when many were still having dinner, the ship commenced to heel over to almost 30 degrees. Brigitte, Emmett and I had immediately gone up to the 7th deck lounge to watch the entry. We had to hang on with all our strength to the tables in the lounge which are fixed to the floor. The ship heeled over to a point that it was a little unnerving, particularly from this high point of the 7th deck. In fact, the result of this was that the ship lost many glasses and crockery as the kitchen crew did not have time to secure everything. Why the captain did not give more notice of the upcoming rolling is not known. He certainly new he would be retracting the fins and one wonders why he gave notice only 10 minutes before the event.
Once into the harbor, the water was calm. We learnt that the storm had caused enormous damage in Morocco, with flooding, heavy winds and snow in the Atlas Mountains. In fact, we learnt later that the local travel people had already scrubbed all our tours as they did not think we would make the harbor because of the storm. But we did, we tied up and everybody got an early night. The trip I had booked had been a 3 night bus trip to Marrakesh, Essaouri, Safi and back to Casa. In fact, the first night was dropped from the tour and we were scheduled out the next morning early. I had looked into organizing our own trip to the same destinations but car rentals in Morocco were so expensive, I could not do it cheaper than the trip offered by the ship.
You can see pictures of our Moroccan trip at: http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Morocco?authkey=xEJ_4JP0x2c&feat=directlink. The next morning at 8am we loaded on the bus with 40 other students and adults and headed for Marrakesh, a 3 hour drive from Casa. We had an excellent Moroccan guide with us who gave us a very good introduction to the country. We arrived in Marrakesh and had an hour walking through the main square and into the souk. The main square of Marrakesh is a huge flat area about the size of 3 football fields. It is an amazing area where all sorts of activities can be found from snake charmers to monkey trainers to groups singing and merchants selling their wares. The square is surrounded by a covered souk, or market place where there are hundreds of little stores side by side. The labyrinth of alleyways can be very disorienting and one can easily get lost as there are no reference points.
After a good Moroccan lunch of couscous with lamb at a very traditional restaurant, we were back for another tour of the main place. As the trip time had been shortened we had little time on our own. By 6 pm we were at our hotel where we checked in for the night. Dinner was not scheduled until later that evening so Emmett and I set off to reconnoiter the area which was a shopping and residential area, away from the centre. We had been charged by B to find some small colored glass vases to add to her collection. We came across a fine store selling all sorts of typical handicraft of the country. We looked for the glass vases but found none. Emmett had expressed an interest in buying a Jebella, which are long robes with a hood which is the typical garment worn by men in Morocco. We casually asked whether they had any and of course, they did and they had many. I had given Emmett instructions in bargaining and he took to the art of bargaining like a fish to water. He tried on various garments until he found one he like, he then enquired the price and indicated that that was far too expensive. As there was no other clients in the store, we now had 3 people dealing with the Jebella purchase and Emmett was having a wonderful time as he could finally use his French with these people. After quite some time and even more price reductions he arrived at a price which was agreeable to all. He then put on his Jebella and seemed quite proud of his new garb. I bought a few long dresses, called booboos for Brigitte and Emmett added a pair of Moroccan slippers to his collection. We then went back to the hotel, Emmett looking like a local in his hooded garb. He was quite the hit at dinner when he appeared wearing it as well as his new slippers.
The next morning we boarded the bus and headed to the coast to visit Essaouri, a beach and resort area already built up and where the Moroccan government intends to invest some US$ 1.8 billion more in developing the tourist infrastructure. We visited the medina which is the old walled city and reboarded the bus to Safi where we spent the night in a strange hotel from city center which had no facilities. So we all went to bed early as there was nothing else to do. They did not even have internet connection.
The next morning we headed north towards Casa but stopped in the city of El Jadida where there is a very well preserved city built by the Portuguese. There is even a huge water cistern built by the Portuguese in the 16th century which was only rediscoved in the later part of the 20th century. The whole old walled city is a UNESCO world heritage site and is well worth the visit. We reboarded the bus and headed for the harbor where we loaded back on the ship.
The trip was a good view of Morocco and certainly gave everybody a good sense of the country. It is a huge country which is endowed with a temperate climate and huge gently rolling valleys which go from the Atlas Mountains to the Atlantic. It is a fairly intensely cultivated country which exports it vegetables and fruits to Europe in the winter season. The politics seem reasonable with a king who seems to be doing the right things and who is liked, perhaps not loved, by his people. It is one of the most westernized Muslim countries which has a history and tradition of openness and hospitality. It has the problem many developing countries are facing of having a population of which over 50% is under 25 with high unemployment. Given it heavy reliance on tourism, Morocco will suffer until Europe gets over the current crisis.
Cheers
Alexander NIcolas Graf Keyserlingk,
Aboard the good ship Explorer
Somewhere going around the world in 104 days.
Time of my email Greenwich Mean Time
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