Mauritius and West Africa

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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
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A hatch of Boobies*
June 20, 2025, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
Another travelling day, on the way to Cape Verde, and for the first time this trip we had a flock of birds following the boat for a few hours. We identified them as Brown Boobies as they soared along next to us, then flipped over and dived into the ocean to catch a fish, occasionally emerging triumphant. The fish were almost presenting themselves by jumping out of the water, so this entertainment kept us amused for quite a while this afternoon.

This morning's presentation was by the ship's bridge officers about what happens on the bridge, and other useful bits of information such as how our waters are pumped into various tanks and used as ballast (fresh water, grey water and blackwater), and how recycling is done on board (all waste is sorted, and the ship has a glass crusher, a baler for cardboard and aluminium, and food waste is pulverised for later disposal)

*the collective noun for a group of boobies is a hatch, a congress or a trapRead more
Traveler 😂👌
6/20/25Reply
Traveler 😀
6/20/25Reply
Traveler What a lifestyle😎
6/20/25Reply
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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
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Cape Verde... almost
June 21, 2025 in Cape Verde ⋅ 🌬 24 °C
We were on time for our 7am arrival at the island of Sāo Vincente, the second most westerly of the Cape Verde islands.

Cape Verde is named after the westernmost cape of Africa, located in Senegal, the nearest point on the continent. It consists of nine inhabited islands and one uninhabited island.

Unfortunately, this morning we experienced 40 knot winds as we were attempting to dock, so after one aborted attempt the captain gave up and cancelled our visit, and we headed towards our next port, the Canary Islands.

So after a leisurely breakfast on the deck, we had a day of bracelet making, lunch, playing cards and the usual trivia.

We were hoping the extra day could be spent at dock in the Canary Islands, but it's not possible for "operational reasons", so we now have 3 days at sea, at a reduced pace, and will be reaching the Canary Islands in line with our original schedule.Read more
Traveler Looks like a well stocked library
6/21/25Reply
Darren and JanetThat was only the guest swap area, many more shelves in the borrowing section
6/22/25Reply
TravelerAre you taking orders for bracelets😂
6/21/25Reply
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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
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All the fun of the fair
June 22, 2025, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
The Country Fair was on today, where all the ships departments host a game booth of a classic fairground game, with the chance to win some ship's merch.

The seas were the roughest so far this trip, so the pool was emptied to improve stability and the risk of spillage on the decks. Games and activities, however, continued as planned, including a lecture about the colonisation of Africa, daily trivia, and afternoon tea with a strudel theme.

Evening entertainment was an acoustic duo in the cocktail bar, before changing the clocks for a time zone change... the 6th change of the cruise!Read more
Traveler 😀
6/22/25Reply
TravelerA change from bracelet making!!
6/23/25Reply
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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
Water, water everywhere
June 23, 2025, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
Another day surrounded by water, so today's fun facts are about water.

The ship has its own desalination plant which produces 600,000 litres of fresh water a day, used for drinking, cooking, flushing and washing (people and clothes - there are 5 laundries on board)

Today's activities were bracelet making, a cooking demonstration and the usual trivia, with a comedian as evening entertainment.

After 4 consecutive sea days, we're certainly ready for a shore day tomorrow in the Canary Islands.Read more
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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
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Lovely La Palma
June 24, 2025 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 18 °C
We arrived in Santa Cruz, capital of the island of La Palma, Canary Islands, to clear skies and bright sunshine.

La Palma is one of the smaller of the 7 Canary Islands and receives considerably less tourists than it's more famous neighbours - 120,000 per year, compared to Tenerife (6 million), Grand Canaria (4 million), and Lanzarote (3 million). Most come here for the natural beauty and tranquillity.

Our day tour began at the Royal Island Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Snows, a church in the hills above Santa Cruz. The church houses a 14th-century sculpture of Our Lady of the Snows, believed to have been brought by merchants before the arrival of the Spaniards. Every five years she is carried down to Santa Cruz in a grand procession, which begins next week, so the city is deep in preparation for the month long festival to celebrate it.

We drove to the west of the island via a cigar factory, and a local farm for refreshments, to the Caldera de Taburiente National Park, a popular walking and hiking area. We took a short walk, but the planned 1 hour walk was not possible as they are currently upgrading the track. The park is also home to the largest telescope in the world.

We continued west to view the site of the most recent volcanic eruption in the Canaries, where the Cumbre Veija Volcanic Ridge erupted for 85 days in 2021, leaving a 6.2 km long and 3km wide lava trail which reached the sea and displaced 7,000 residents. The main road has been repaired, but the damage is still very visible, as is the newest mountain on the island which was created in the process.

Returning to the port at 2pm, we had 1.5 hours to explore the city on foot, so we visited the main shopping area. It was a religious holiday today, so many of the shops were closed and the streets almost deserted, but we managed to sample the local coffee specialty, the barraquito - a multi-layered drink containing condensed milk, Liqueur 43, coffee with milk, milk foam, cinnamon, and lemon.Read more
Traveler 👌
6/24/25Reply
TravelerGreat photos guys 👍
6/24/25Reply
TravelerHow did the the caching go now you ate back on land😎
6/24/25Reply
Darren and JanetThere's a few on La Palma.. just need a car to get them all 😁
6/25/25Reply
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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
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Final sea day
June 25, 2025, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 21 °C
Our last sea day of the cruise, spent in the usual way - in the morning a preso from the engineering team about the engine room, then bracelet making, trivia and more eating!

We had an early crew show on stage tonight, followed by dinner with my trivia team, and finished the night with a performance by a soprano/swing performer.Read more
Daniel Williams Did you win prizes?
6/26/25Reply
Darren and JanetYou get points for 1st, 2nd and 3rd (3, 2, 1), and you can redeem the points at the end of the cruise for ship merch. We ended up with 52 points, enough to get a polo shirt.
6/26/25Reply
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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
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Lisbon by foot and rail
June 26, 2025 in Portugal ⋅ 🌙 19 °C
We had an afternoon arrival into Lisbon, sailing into the mouth of the Tagus River and past Belem Tower, docking at 3pm.

No bus for us today, our tour of the city was by foot and rail. We only had a group of 12, and began with a walk to Praça Comercio, the main square on the waterfront. From there we caught the 25 tram to Estela Church, had a refreshment break in Estela Gardens then walked on to the Principe area.

We had free time to explore the local shops, and festivities in the park before walking to Miradouro Observation Point and catching the funicular down the hill toward the main square and crowded restaurant strip, with hundreds of locals enjoying dinner al fresco.

Finally, we caught the metro back to the cruise dock, arriving at 8pm, having walked 11.3km for the day! We had just enough energy to grab a couple of caches outside the cruise terminal before boarding for late dinner and an Abba themed farewell party in the lounge bar.

We are in dock overnight before disembarking at 9am tomorrow.Read more
TravelerLisbon looks very warm and lively with tourists. I recall recently Portugal and Spain wanted to turn away the tourists - economy would collapse I suspect
6/27/25Reply
John Kalaitzis Fabulous looking tram
6/29/25Reply
John Kalaitzis Of course. How delicious
6/29/25Reply
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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
Welcome to Dubai
June 28, 2025 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C
We had to disembark the ship by 9am, for a 2.15pm flight to Dubai, so today was a lot of waiting around.

The flight to Dubai was late taking off, but we still arrived on time at 12.50am... and the temperature was still 37 degrees!

Given the hour, the roads were remarkably busy, and we arrived at our hotel just after 2am.Read more
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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
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Dubai - world's largest everything
June 28, 2025 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C
Very late start today - we made it to breakfast 20 minutes before it closed at 11 am.

The weather isn't conducive to walking anywhere, with 41 degrees, feels like 47, so we caught a taxi to Dubai Mall (largest mall in the world).

First stop outside was photos of the Burj Khalifa (tallest building plus various other records), then inside to wander in air conditioned comfort for a few hours.

We visited the aquarium (largest aquarium in a mall... now they're grasping at straws 🤣), which also has the largest high definition video wall above it.

The taxi ride back to our hotel took us past The Dubai Frame (largest building in the shape of a picture frame)... which epitomises Dubai in many ways - if you build something weird enough it will get a claim to fame and people will pay to see it!

As the sun was setting it was the perfect time for a swim in the hotel's rooftop pool... complete with a great view of the Dubai Eye (largest observation wheel). Seems an apt way to finish the day.Read more
John Kalaitzis The largest fountain depicting divers, in a mall?
6/29/25Reply
Darren and Janet🤣🤣
6/30/25Reply
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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
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Tour of Palm Jumeirah
June 29, 2025 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
As we're staying at a hotel on the trunk of the palm, today we toured around the palm.

Palm Jumeirah is the largest man made island in the world, constructed from 2001-2007 from 7 million tons of rock and sand mined from the Hajar Mountains, 400km away. It has a trunk and 17 fronds, creating 73km of beachfront, and it's own monorail.

We caught a taxi to the far end of the outer breakwater (predominantly to get a cache 😁), then stopped in at Atlantis The Palm resort and waterpark on the way back (of course it's the world's largest waterpark, with 105 slides and rides). We didn't partake this time.

We caught the monorail half way back, to Nakheel Mall for lunch, then late afternoon continued our monorail journey back to our hotel on the trunk.

At dusk we went for a walk along the promenade under the monorail tracks, then I had a refreshing evening dip in the pool.Read more
John Kalaitzis Interesting design?
6/29/25Reply
Darren and JanetYes, doesn't quite maximise the air space in any respect
6/30/25Reply
John KalaitzisDesigning the lifts would be a nightmare? Are there any horizontal ones?
6/30/25Reply
Darren and JanetNot sure how you get around... horizontal sounds like the go 🤣
6/30/25Reply
Daniel Williams Is that a permanent balloon ride which goes up and down on cables?
6/30/25Reply
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Mauritius and West Africa Darren and Janet
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Expo 2020... missed it by that much!
June 30, 2025 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
Our final day in Dubai and we headed to the site of the 2020 World Expo. It gets mixed reviews, with the most positive claiming it's a futuristic extravaganza. We saw the polar opposite, more like the back lot of a movie studio, with most exhibits closed and only staff in attendance.

In fact, we didn't find anything open apart from a hotel and eateries... but there were many staff keen to give us a guided tour of the site by golf buggy, for a hefty fee.

We caught the metro back to near the palm, then the monorail to our hotel for a late lunch.

In preparation for our flight tonight we had an afternoon nap, a walk along the beachfront promenade for dinner, and a 10.30pm pickup booked for our 2am flight home.Read more
John Kalaitzis 😂😂
6/30/25Reply
John Kalaitzis Looks like solar cells on the underside? What is it actually?
6/30/25Reply
Darren and JanetThink it was just mirrors
6/30/25Reply
John KalaitzisThat makes sense!
7/1/25Reply
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Trip end
July 1, 2025