Port Elizabeth

It was a seas were very rough last night.

I doubted that we would actually be able to make it into port but we did.

We had breakfast. I forgot to put a Zofran in my pack so I ran back to the Stateroom. Then I forgot to get our Quiet Vox so I had to make a second return trip to the stateroom.

We were to meet in the Star Theatre for Face to Face immigration interviews with the South African officials. I managed to get downstairs before Bob and got in line. The line stretched from the Star Theatre in the bow to the Restaurant in the stern. Bob was no where to be seen so I called him. He was stuck waiting for the elevators as the whole ship full of guests descended to deck 2.

It seems that both the South African pilot and immigration officials were late arriving onboard which resulted in all the guests lining up for immigration at the same time. I am glad that we are down to about 540 guests.

After picking up our passports and waiting in the Star Theatre for South African officials to arrive, our tour was called first as it was the longest tour for today. We originally were scheduled to go to Sibuya Private Game reserve. A while ago, Bob reviewed our excursions for South Africa as we initially had to make decisions regarding excursions quickly. We came to the conclusion that we wanted to change to the Addo Elephant Park which is the included excursion. We had gone to Addo on our last World Cruise but it is one of the highest rated game reserves in Port Elizabeth so we made the change. About a week ago, we received notice that our tour to Addo had changed due to lack on interest. So they switched us to a different included tour to Addo. We just thought that they changed us to the same excursion just at a different time. Unfortunately, this was not true. When we watched the port talk, we found out that we were on a panoramic tour. This meant that we would just be on a bus not on a safari vehicle. We immediately, went down to Guest Services and asked to be put on any tour besides the one we were on. A couple of days ago, we received tickets to the Kariega Private Game Reserve. This ended up being a pretty spendy excursion. I initially was not so happy but then I thought that this would give us a great opportunity to have a comparison to evaluate Hippo Lakes where we will be going with the Pritchetts and Genesers in September.

We were final able to make it through our face to face immigration process and to our bus while getting a bit wet as it is a rainy morning. We did not complain as we were finally experiencing cooler temperatures and fresher air.

We drove for almost 2 hours.

Upon arriving at the game reserve, I immediately went to the restroom, met Bob and we were among the first to board a safari vehicle.

The Kariega Game Reserve has lions so our guide made his way over to the portion of the reserve where the lions were located. We were privileged to see 2 male lions who had clearly just gorged themselves. Their bellies were huge. They were happy to just lie around even with a couple of vehicles around them.

I would like to note at this point that there is a huge difference between how South African game drive occur versus those in India. In South Africa, they are much more respectful of the animals. They approach the animals slowly and keep respectful distances. In India, the drivers drive like wild men racing right up to the animals with dust flying everywhere.

We next were on search for hippos. We saw a large amount of hippos.

After having spotted two of the most elusive of the African Big 5, we then saw numerous other animals.

The game drive came to an end way too soon.

We were then treated with a lovely lunch. At lunch, I received a text from Krystal where she said that Henry just had dysentery. He was diagnosed within 5 minutes. This makes me really question the quality of medical care onboard. They will be returning to the ship shortly.

We then began our long drive back to the port.

Our first stop on the African continent revealed that perspective is very powerful and important. Where in the past, I thought that there was a lot of trash in Africa, after India, Africa is refreshingly clean.

I should have given a summary of India before now but with our visit to South Africa today and the contrast between the two countries, I will do so now.

The people of India are lovely. They are cheerful, willing to please, and are very polite.

I used to love India food. The food in India was good and novel for the first few days, but then it got very repetitious. The chefs onboard try to feature local food. I am pretty done with Indian food. By the way, Americanized Indian food is much better than the food we experienced in India.

The dirt and trash is astounding. I thought that Indonesia and Viet Nam were bad. They are downright clean compared to India.

The poverty in India is unbelievable.

India has now taken over China as being the country with the largest population. There are people, animals, and vehicles everywhere.

The history of India is fascinating and heart-breaking. As a bit of a history buff, it is distressing to see the lack of preservation of historical sites.

The most distressing part of India is the spiritual darkness.

Bob and I would not trade our trip to India for anything. It was so very interesting and educational. But we doubt that we will ever make plans to return to India.Read more