Monday 6 January we left Sydney behind and, in a Tesla Uber (first for us), we headed to Mascot to pick up our hire car. The driver dropped us off and, heading into the office, we realised that this was not Ace where we had made the rental car reservation. Luckily it was only across the road so we manhandled our luggage to the correct office. A really useful woman helped us with our reservation and we were delighted to find that our car was ready for us (30+ minutes earlier than booked). We did the paperwork then headed out to load up the car – a white Toyota, a Corolla Cross SUV, which is a hybrid (not a chargeable one). So a different driving experience for sure and was a bit larger than we had been expecting.

The vehicle was in good order and we worked out the controls and took off towards the Blue Mountains with Richard behind the wheel We knew the check in at our hotel was 3pm but decided to drive directly there first….we arrived at around 1.30 pm, parked in the car park and I headed into reception. Luck was on our side for the second time in a day, as our room was ready! So picked up the key and returned to Richard and we got our luggage installed in the room.

As it was a lovely sunny day we headed out to explore and went straight to the Three Sisters viewpoint – but struggled to get parked. Eventually, having gone around a few times, we picked up a metered parking spot and were not impressed to have to pay $8 for two hours….welcome to tourist Australia! We enjoyed checking out the rock formations – absolutely stunning scenery all around – before finally, having had a restorative ice cream to recover from the heat, we headed back in the car to the Katoomba Falls.

We followed the path and came across the Falls which were small but pretty nevertheless. Leaving the scenery behind we headed into town to pick up some supplies at the supermarket followed by an excellent Thai dinner in Katoomba high street having been fleeced for more parking fees. Back to the hotel we enjoyed the spectacular views from the terrace with a glass of wine watching the rain clouds build over the hills…. The bar guy was a trainee, according to his badge, and although incredibly welcoming and friendly he was tortoise-like in his delivery LOL.

So back to our room for an early night and we were watching TV in bed (surprised to be able to get UK news channels) when the lightning started. So we turned every thing off, drew back the curtains, and laid in bed and watched the show. Then the thunder started…this was going to be a doozy! Oh, and of course, we had really heavy rain to accompany it. We snuggled down and, eventually, fell asleep to the sound of the angry weather.

Tuesday morning it was raining, hard, and the clouds had descended upon us. So we had a leisurely breakfast (which wasn’t so good sadly although the fat toast was superb) and then decided to stay put. And although breakfast was included in our room rate, barista coffee wasn’t, so got grabbed by the wait staff as we left for a measly $3! Felt this was a bit swingeing as we had a few more days – if they had explained we would have happily signed the chit on another occasion. The trainee waiter told us everything was included and we could have whatever we wanted! We decided to stay put in the lounge area and I started on the Sydney blog. Later on we decided to go out – feeling a bit stir crazy – so headed to another small historical town Leura. We managed to get parked easily (along with another expensive meter cost) and got soaked walking around the corner to a small cafe. We had a coffee and muffin and decided to return to the hotel. This was not a day to be out and about for sure – it was really quite cold.

In the afternoon we lounged in our room – I finished and published the Sydney blog – before getting ready to go to dinner in the hotel restaurant. We weren’t expecting too much after the average breakfast but the menu was good so we went straight in for main courses. Richard had beef cheeks and I had shoulder of lamb. Well, it was absolutely fantastic – especially the creamy mash sides! We also met a nice couple on the adjoining table who were from London, Ontario, and had stopped off in the Blue Mountains before travelling to Melbourne for the tennis. We never got offered deserts – shambolic inexperienced service just about sums this place up – so left for the night.

Wednesday it was still raining although not quite as heavy and as we were above 1000 metres we were inside the low clouds. Here we are checking out the view LOL.

We decided to head off to Scenic World which is a bit like a theme park – we started by talking to the animated dinosaurs at the entrance which was fun. Some of the kids were quite frightened by them surprisingly.

As the park had only just opened for the day there were few people around so we wanted to go on the Skyway first across the ravine – having purchased waterproof ponchos to keep us a bit drier and warmer. Obviously we couldn’t see a thing…what a shame! We wandered around for a little while on the other side before catching a return trip back to base.

Then we went on the train which is the steepest cable-driven funicular railway in the world, with the steepest incline an astonishing 52 degrees. Passengers embark on a thrilling, unique journey in the 84 seat glass roofed red train carriage. The train travels through sandstone cliffs, through a rock tunnel beside the tree covered Orphan Rock, before emerging to stunning panoramic views of the lush, ancient rainforest

The railway line was originally built to service the coal mine – when an entrepreneur decided to build a carriage for guests that could take people up and down on a weekend with tea, scones and cake at the bottom. This was for the princely sum of sixpence which was a large sum of money back in 1928. This was before decimalisation of course so at that point this was half a shilling of which there was 20 to the pound. And yes I’m old enough to remember this changing to 100 (new) pence to the pound back in 1971.

The train was fantastic – a very strange angle to climb into with the tilted seats – and Richard pushed the button to have a ‘cliff hanger’ ride which tilts the seats even more! Felt very smooth at the start then suddenly we are tumbling down between rocks…cliff hanger was the right word LOL.

At the bottom we decided to walk through the rainforest on a loop which incorporated Dinosaur World. Obviously all animated LOL. The elevated boardwalk path was great and we enjoyed checking out all the trees as we wandered around. It had stopped raining and, because we were in the bottom of the ravine, we were no longer visually impaired by the clouds either. We reached the end of the path and returned to the main area via the cable car – again nothing to be seen. At the top we had a coke and sat down for a while to rest the weary legs after quite a lot of steps, stairs and slopes. Having met a new friend in the main reception area and Richard had a silly half hour LOL.

We decided we wanted to ride the train again as this was the best experience by a long way and this time we did the cliff hanger ride up and straight back….going up backwards looking down the cliff was very unusual to say the least.

Anyway, after this we headed out to Wentworth Falls….and could see nothing! Here is our best picture of the day checking out the scenery LOL.

Richard was determined to see the Falls so he took himself off on a hike down the hill leaving me at the top in the rain. He was gone for more than 40 minutes so I was starting to worry a bit – he had the Australian phone with our data plan and the car keys – so I was pretty useless if anything had happened! He came back, soaked through, and puffing a bit – said the walk was much tougher than the information boards had led him to believe. But he did make it to the bottom and got some shots of the waterfalls which were quite pretty.

We then headed back to the supermarket for more supplies as we had found a really nice NZ Sauvignon Blanc for $10 a bottle which was a bargain….so wanted to get some for our next stop which was an apartment in Terrigal on the Central Coast.

Back at the hotel we were both wet and cold so headed to our room for a restorative hot shower. Got cleaned up and went to the lounge – we didn’t fancy the posh restaurant again – and decided to have a bottle of wine with some bar snacks. We ordered a club sandwich each and played UNO. Eventually after quite a wait the sandwiches turned up. They were supposed to come with string fries but instead it was huge fat chips…that’s fine prefer them anyway…but the sandwich was not the triple decker we anticipated. So it was toasted ciabatta, cremated fried egg, burnt and dry chicken schnitzel, tomatoes, lettuce and some unrecognisable mayonnaise. This was not freshly made (despite the time taken) and it was horrible! We picked at it and ate bits – my chicken wasn’t as bad as Richard’s – but felt very disappointed by this offering. So clearly the chef can do fine dining but nothing else! What a shame for our last night in this beautiful historic hotel. We finished our game of UNO (and yes I won) and headed back to our room.

So that finishes the blog in the Blue Mountains – come back soon for the next instalment. Bye for now, Jan

Sunday 30 December we were picked up by Alison at 3am to head to Heathrow. Thankfully the fog that had blighted airport departures/arrivals in recent days had started to disperse. Arriving in good time for check in (even allowing for the additional hour required for flights travelling to the Middle East). We were straight onto the machines (having already checked in online) but the machine said ‘no’ and we had to wait for a human to check our documents. Finally we were given the all clear to go to the baggage drop machines which was quick and simple and we were finally free to clear through security. Security queues were minimal and we were delighted that new scanners had been installed at Terminal 4 at Heathrow which meant that we didn’t have to decant most of our belongings to go through the scanner (including the electronics and liquids).

We then headed to Costa Coffee before making our way to a seating area where we waited for our gate information to become available. The airport was pretty quiet so it wasn’t too much of a struggle sitting around waiting…..once we were informed of the gate number we made our way there….only to find there was in fact a 30 minute delay to our flight (although relieved to find the plane parked there in readiness). Finally we boarded and we were very happy to have secured upstairs seats on the double decker A380, 2nd row back in their small dedicated economy section (just behind the business class bar). Much better than being in the main body of the plane downstairs in rows of economy seating which means usually that your choice of meal is unavailable by the time they get to you LOL. So we settled in quite happy for the first six and a half hour flight. Unfortunately the woman in front of me was pretty inconsiderate in that she preferred her seat reclined, even during meal service. This pattern continued throughout the flight and I just had to suck it up! Eventually we landed at Doha and disembarked…we found the Red Bar and purchased their cheapest bottle of wine at £53. Wow! But actually considering Qatar is a ‘dry’ country suppose we were lucky to be able to purchase alcohol at all LOL

After a couple of hours we made our way to the next gate to rejoin another A380 aircraft. Again, happy to be 2nd row back in the upstairs economy compartment. This journey was also somewhat marred by the irritating German woman in front who appeared to be unable to manage her seat controls – so it was up, back, back, back, back, up, back throughout the 14 hour flight. At this stage I have to ask why me??!!?? LOL

We arrived into Sydney and got through immigration quickly using the e-Gates and, after retrieving our baggage which took a while (although with the Apple tags we knew they had arrived in Sydney with us) we headed over to the red channel to clear customs. If in doubt you declare everything in Australia – they are pretty hot on everything – so we declared our tea bags, our prescription medication and our packet sauces (as we intend to self cater throughout this trip). Quickly we were cleared and off to exit the airport. We booked an Uber to bring us direct to the Rocks area of Sydney which was to our base for the next 7 days. We arrived, got checked in, dumped our bags in our basic but completely acceptable en-suite room and headed to the roof top bar to check out the view. This did not disappoint although the wine selection was awful! Anyway, after a very long travelling time (28 hours door to door) we didn’t linger for too long before heading to bed.

For those wondering where this gem of a place is…well sit down prepare for a surprise…it is the Sydney Youth Hostel, The Rocks. Not the sort of place we would usually stay but getting a room with a view for New Year’s Eve in this area is very difficult.

After a really good night’s sleep, we woke up reasonably early and headed to the breakfast buffet – basic but adequate – and met some Australians who lived in the country who had come here to watch the fireworks too.

We headed out with a shopping list of things to do – the most important was to check the credit on our Opal cards (which we had from last time) so we could use the transport system here in Sydney. But this became insignificant when we realised that we had no internet coverage so couldn’t use our phones to navigate around the city LOL. Way too expensive to use our UK plan here so the need for a local SIM became the number one target. We walked for miles…it was very hot and humid….and the crowds were building. At every turn we increasingly came across security checks and areas sealed off for the NYE event….and there were security officials and police everywhere. So after scrambling through crowds we called it a day and returned to the sanctity of our room. Amazing that by 12 noon many public locations to watch the fireworks were at capacity and people were being turned away. Can’t imagine waiting 12 hours or longer sitting around on blankets for the event to begin! Complete madness.

At around 6.30 pm we headed to the rooftop bar, received our wrist bands, enjoyed our complimentary first Prosecco of the night and found somewhere to sit. At which point the food started circulating on platters….sushi, oysters, tiger prawns, satay, beef sliders, curry puffs….which continued to be served throughout the night. We knew the NYE party (which was included in our room rate) said that food was included, but this was exceptional in both quality and quantity.

Around 8pm a male singer / guitarist started on his set and he was amazing. The youngish crowd were keen to engage and the dance floor was full….despite the music being more our era. Check out the crowds below us lining the streets…..and the tall riggers all lit up for the party…

Anyway, around 8.50 the guy took a break and the countdown started for the first fireworks of the night at 9pm. These were noisy, amazing, inspirational and emotional all at the same time. This was bucket list stuff….and it wasn’t even midnight yet!

After these we enjoyed listening to the guy again and chatting to our neighbours – who were from Lincoln here to explore the East Coast by renting an RV up north (Cairns) to drive back towards Sydney over a 11 week period. We discussed problems with securing house / travel insurance that we had encountered in trying to put this trip together which, thankfully, we had both overcome but agreed that it had been a more difficult process than it should have been!

At 11.50 pm we were each handed another complimentary glass of Prosecco and made our way to the rail in preparation for the big show. At midnight, the church bell rang and the city exploded before our eyes – the noise was something else – and the smoke created was significant. We could also see people on privately owned penthouse balconies doing their own thing…guess that would cost more than a lottery win LOL. And they had the same view as us!

Anyway, as you can probably tell, we would recommend this place for New Year’s Eve festivities. It is not as cheap as its name suggests but considerably less than the 5-star swanky places around whom don’t even have a rooftop bar for guests to watch the fireworks…..So win win for sure.

New Year’s Day we were back out on a mission to get our list completed – but, of course, it is a public holiday so many stores were closed. First stop was the Hat Shop where we picked up some nice breathable matching ones then jumped on the Big Bus for the Hop on Hop Off City Tour. We managed to get seats on the top deck and enjoyed the breeze but the hard moulded plastic seats were incredibly uncomfortable.

We didn’t particularly want to visit any of the stops as we realised that we had seen much of this the last time we were here. Feeling uninspired and very hot and bothered we got off the bus having done the whole loop and started walking. We found a supermarket (closed), couldn’t find a Telstra store that was open (for the SIM card) and having got our Opal cards sorted we returned to the hostel on the train network. Enjoyed the historic Museum station…

We went to a local old pub for an early dinner and, realising just how tired we were, went back and crashed. Another 10k steps day in the bag…phew! Finding this a bit challenging in the heat and humidity as my legs still hadn’t recovered from the long flight.

Thursday 2 January we finally found a Mall that was open and had a Telstra store. So SIM card purchased and Coles supermarket visited, we headed back to the hostel. We picked up their WiFi and got our Australian SIM up and running. Was very pleased to be connected again LOL.

At lunch time we went back down all the steps to the Fortune of War pub – Sydney’s oldest – where we had agreed to meet Ernest and his son Jack. Thought Jack might be shy around strangers but he wasn’t and completely embraced us (literally at times LOL). As it was a cruise ship day the area was rammed so we picked up Ernest’s van and headed out on a drive around. First stop was a famous pie shop Harry’s Cafe de Wheels which was opened (originally in 1936) and then again in 1945 near the Naval Dockyard in Woolloomooloo when Harry Edwards realised that it was impossible to get good late night food anywhere in Sydney. The wheels came because of a by-law at the time that food trucks needed to move 12 inches each day to remain legal – so it was dutifully moved every night to comply. And it serves amazing pies / hot dogs etc….in fact the day we were there we had to queue up for at least 10 minutes. And yum….probably the best pie we’ve had in Sydney….

Moving on we headed to Rushcutters Bay (which is the location for the start of the Sydney to Hobart race) and where Ernest and his family had been based prior to their circumnavigation when he was a child. Very brave back in the day without all the things we take for granted now like GPS etc and his parents were complete novices. Ernest never lost his love for the ocean and now lives on his boat SV Crossbones. We originally met him in Cuba and multiple times in Queensland during the covid restrictions. Such a great bloke and, as this was the first time we saw him with one of his sons, we realised he was a great father too….

We continued down the coast stopping at various bays and coastlines admiring the scenery – interesting to drive through some very affluent neighbourhoods and some not so…. We travelled beyond Bondi Beach and continued following the coastline trying not be pranked by Jack along the way LOL. Oh yes and admiring how a Ferrari managed to smash into someone’s property in the middle of the afternoon.

After a really nice visit catching up with Ernest he drove us back to the hostel – thank you guys for a great tour – and then went to the rooftop bar for a BBQ. It was nice but chilly so we decided to have an early night. We did try to buy a bottle from the bar to take to our room but was told that this was against the rules so definitely not allowed. Guess they don’t want people partying in the rooms…and there can’t be one rule for a couple of oldies sharing a private room versus a dorm full of backpackers.

Friday 3 January we went out and about and decided to explore by Ferry….so took the 90 minute trip to Parramatta. The river was nice to check out but, because of the height of the tide, we couldn’t get under the final bridge and had to get a bus replacement for the last 10 minutes or so. Arriving into Parramatta we went for a wander into the mall and that was about it. We headed back to the quay to find a huge queue waiting for the first ferry of the day…we managed to get onto the boat when it arrived noticing that it had dropped its navigation lights on the top deck to get under the final bridge. The water level had dropped but not significantly…

On the return trip we got off early at Darling Harbour and had happy hour Indian beers and snacks for a late brunch. Lovely it was too…. We then walked back up the steps (and there are lots of them in the Rocks area) to the hostel, got cleaned up, and headed back down to the quay to meet Richard’s ex-NDY colleagues in the Cruise Bar on the dock. The scenery was marred by a huge ship but, not long as we all met up, it departed so the Opera House came into view again. Sam and her parents (who are currently over from the UK visiting) arrived first shortly followed by Margaret and her husband and young son. Her husband and son left us shortly afterwards having done the introductions and left Margaret with us. `It was a lot of fun as they all caught up on their respective news….

Saturday 4 January we explored again using the train / tram network – this time we headed to Chinatown and eventually ended up in Paddy’s Market which was good as I needed to buy a pink hat (explanation later LOL). Afterwards we had some Chinese street food before returning to Darling Harbour where we had a couple of beers watching the acrobats who were running a training school during the Sydney Festival. Lots of fun! We then walked back to Circular Quay and had a drink in a lovely Turkish restaurant before heading back up to the hostel for the night. All those steps!

Sunday 5 January we were up early and got kitted out all in pink to go to the cricket. This was the final test between Indian and Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. This was held at the Sydney Cricket Ground and all monies raised were for the McGrath foundation which is a cancer charity (hence the pink). And boy was it a sea of pink! We used the light rail network to go from Circular Quay to Moore Park. On arrival we met up with my nephew Jamie and one of his son’s Adam. Was lovely to see them again after such a long time….

It was such a fun atmosphere and Australia needed to bowl India out so they had the target for the day. The match started well for Australia – the crowd were completely engrossed – and we had to learn lots of Aussie slang and hand signals for fours as well as take part in Mexican waves. We had lots of Indians in the audience too and the noise of the drums and musical instruments was pretty loud. Finally Australia were batting for the cup……and the crowd got louder and louder LOL. Eventually at around 2.30 pm the final ball was bowled and Australia hit a six. The crowd erupted. This was the first time that Australia had won the cup for 10 years! A historic moment and we were there to see it. So grateful to Jamie for inviting us along to be part of this day. Plus the Foundation raised over 6mn AU $ too….amazing!

Although sitting in full sun for much of the day in 38 degree centigrade temperatures was pretty brutal – and even though we happily indulged when the men came round with sun tan lotion for all and water refills we still managed to get a little crisp in places….my neck got burnt between my bandana and my blouse. Damn….

After the cricket we headed back on the Light Rail to Circular Quay – was like a commuter day in London LOL. We were enticed back into the Cruise Bar by a really good two piece band – the girl had an amazing voice and her rendition of Amy Whitehouse was as good as any.

But it was dead….nobody around….perhaps all the cricket fans peaked too early LOL?? Anyway we decided to check out the Rocks to see if we could find somewhere to have dinner before returning back up the hill. We ended up in Munich Brauhaus which was strange but fun. We had a reasonable meal and bottle of wine before retiring. Pretty early by our standards because we had to pack for our morning departure.

Monday morning we checked out and stayed in the hostel whilst we chatted to some young British backpacker women who were all travelling solo. One of the best things about being in the hostel was mingling with such a variety of guests of different ages / nationalities and backgrounds. Anyway, so that wraps up our stay in Sydney – come back soon for the next instalment of our Australian adventure.

Bye for now, Jan

Friday 26 April we checked out of Zimbabwe and flew back to Cape Town.

We landed at 4.20 pm and was picked up by Francois to take us to our next, and final, destination, Hout Bay. We arrived at our accommodation, Hout Bay Manor Hotel, around an hour later. Not a particularly impressive building from the street but our Xhosa room was fabulous and we were very happy! In respect of the name of the room, Xhosa are the second largest ethnic group in South Africa after the Zulus and live traditionally in the Eastern Cape province. By now we were pretty tired so chilled for a little while before trying out the bar and then heading into the restaurant for dinner. This was getting quite late in the season so we found ourselves to be pretty much the only guests apart from some hotel executives who had come in from Johannesburg to train the local staff. The dinner was absolutely fantastic! And so to bed.

Saturday we had a leisurely start and then headed down to breakfast – again, was excellent. We then decided to walk to the wharf as we were booked on a seal watching tour at noon. It was so hot and there were not many people around on foot so we did get a few strange looks from locals as we marched on past LOL.

At the wharf we found our tour operator and checked in to find that there was an earlier boat going which had space so we swapped our tickets and went on board. Was an interesting motor out to the seals – quite choppy seas and very windy – but, of course, we enjoyed it. We were happy to find shelter at the stern of the boat while everyone was squished into the bow for the best views LOL. But it meant we were able to chill a little and enjoy the sights of leaving the harbour behind including some seals inside the harbour. This is a stop on many circumnavigator’s route so we were looking around for international boats and one of the reasons why we had chosen this as our final stop because we had been told that it was stunningly beautiful. Anyway, will let the photos do the talking.

We arrived at the offshore seal colony and enjoyed their antics in and out of the water. The water was not very clear because of strong winds but, even so, we thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

Upsettingly this seal colony is currently at risk because a number of dead seals have recently tested positive for rabies and they have been attacking surfers and other tourists along the coast. The only known case of a seal contracting rabies dates back to 1980 and was in Norway, so this is a terrifying incidence as they are believed to have become the first marine mammals in the world to experience an outbreak of rabies. There are an estimated two million Cape fur seals which live along the cost of southern Africa across dozens of countries. Very disturbing news indeed…

Back at the dock we were met by the wandering minstrels and enjoyed watching these old guys playing up to the audience. Then Richard decided to make friends with a local seal who had been found, trapped in fishing gear, by a local who now makes a living by feeding him fish and letting tourists get up close and personal for photos. Then we came across an old lady who had adopted one as a pup – so it was my turn to get up close! Was a lot of fun…. Afterwards we had a little meander around the market stalls set up throughout the harbour.

We then walked along the beach back towards town – rather than the hot and dusty road – to a ‘beach bar’ for a few hours to chill expecting feet in the sand sort of place. But it actually was a rather smart bistro just off the sand spit. Very busy (it was a Saturday after all) and we were allocated a table outside but in the shade (thankfully). We thoroughly enjoyed fish and chips and a few cold beers while we watched the world go by…..

As we were running low on drinking vouchers (or tipping vouchers LOL) we headed to the modern shopping mall and found an ATM (heavily guarded by armed security) and picked up supplies in Woolworths. We then started to walk back to the hotel with our goodies when the heavens opened….and then the thunderstorm started. Locals were going crazy and running around clearly quite threatened by this. We didn’t think much of it, to be honest, and carried on our way. Arriving back at the hotel we were surprised to see the staff hanging out the doors watching the lightning display. We just assumed that this was normal weather well, it turns out, that in this particular area thunderstorms are quite rare hence the reaction. Anyway, back to our room, and that is where we stayed chilling out with a glass of wine and watching movies.

Sunday morning we had another great breakfast and then headed out to explore the local market. We liked a few items but the only thing that really took our eye was a painting that was not going to travel well and was too expensive too….clearly the market holders here are used to tourists and priced accordingly. But it was fun to see all the different artisan creations on offer. Afterwards we headed out in a different direction (having previously checked with Francois which areas were safe as Hout Bay has two huge townships one on either side of town). The first picture is a very small part of one of the townships but the second picture is the more affluent part of town. Interestingly people that are born in the townships often remain there for life – even if they become relatively wealthy and successful – so within these areas you can find some relatively decent housing alongside shops. We were offered a township tour but decided that this was definitely not something that we were interested in.

We went back to the Mall to explore a bit more then ended up in the Coffee Collective enjoying their gardens and marvelling at the pieces of art made up of recycled coffee pods.

Then we headed to the English pub masquerading as a sports bar – and it had started drizzling again – so, as the football was on we thought we’d go and spend a few hours here. But, after having a single drink – we weren’t particularly comfortable. So returned and enjoyed drinks in our hotels gardens as the sun had come out again. Very nice.

Then we headed upstairs to our room to watch the football (COYS and, of course, we lost!). Never mind we then cleaned up and had another fantastic dinner in the restaurant. So a bit about the property – the Hout Bay Manor is a luxury boutique hotel, developed around a gorgeous restored manor house, originally built on Kronendal Estate in 1871. With its Colonial architecture, the exterior facade and courtyard gives you the feeling of stepping into a bygone era– and then as you walk through the front door you are transported into a delightful fusion of African, European and Asian cultures. The sometimes quirky, Afro-European interior decor makes you feel like you are in a contemporary art gallery, and features lots of extra-personal treats like help-yourself liquorice allsorts and marshmallows found in big glass jars in all the hallways. Absolutely stunning…so here are some photos for you to enjoy…..and yes even the public toilets were fancy LOL!

Monday was very sadly our last day in South Africa so we packed and enjoyed a leisurely late breakfast before then sitting in the hotel gardens – we had hoped for some pool time but it was a little ‘public’ as it was overlooked by the restaurant patio and was completely in the shade. Although boiling hot in the sun it was actually quite chilly out of it…. So we just sat in the gardens reading books and enjoyed our last few hours.

We had a late checkout at 2pm so got ourselves ready and went downstairs to pay our bill – and were surprised by little gifts. Such a great place and such lovely people…. We then took ourselves outside and waited for Francois who, as always, arrived punctually at 2.30 pm to take us to the airport for our 6.40 pm flight to London where we said our sad farewells – Francois and his family had looked after us so well throughout our trip. Anyone interested in following in our shoes we highly recommend this company – they operate as Jarat Tours (www.jarattours.co.za).

Check in was very efficient and quick – although immigration and security was pretty slow and unfriendly again sigh…. We then walked towards our gate – doing a bit of shopping on the way LOL – to wait for our flight. We had a toastie whilst waiting and then, suddenly, it was time to depart. It was completely chaotic as they kept moving the mobile airport barrier lines around so everybody sort of hung around in the middle near the gate entrance waiting for their group to be called as they were not sure whether to take the left or right-handed lines. Luckily we were travelling premium economy so ours were obvious but the economy people were being moved all over the place so felt quite sorry for them, especially the ones with small tired toddlers…..

And finally, we were boarded, we took our seats and settled in for the long flight home. This had been a holiday of a lifetime and it completely blew us away at every turn – it was so much better than we had expected – just fantastic. Again kudos to Hayes and Jarvis who had helped put together our personalised private itinerary.

So that brings us to the end of the blogs for now. I’m not advised to fly post-operatively until middle of November so we are planning a return to Australia at the end of the year and are hoping to be in Sydney for New Year’s Eve and to see both family and friends across the country. So another big adventure to come and looking forward to that… I’m in full ideas mode right now LOL.

So bye for now and see you all again later in the year.

Jan

Tuesday 23 April we were up at the crack of dawn for our 6.45 am transfer to Cape Town airport. Francois was punctual and, with a hotel takeaway breakfast in hand, we took off to the airport. Having said farewell to Francois we got through the check in process very quickly. We then sat and ate our breakfast as we knew that food / drinks would not be allowed through security (as this was an international security check this time). We proceeded to immigration to depart South Africa but there was only one desk open (manned by a very surly woman) so it was a long queue and we were very grateful that we had plenty of time. Finally we were through (phew!) and walked through the terminal to find our departure gate.

Boarding the flight we were pleasantly surprised by the size of the seats, the only downside was the huge crowd of Turkish women travelling together who were completely over-excited, very noisy and their single tour guide was clearly struggling to keep them all in check LOL. Sadly for us we were positioned right in the middle of this group. The flight took off on time and we settled in – the food offering was good and they even offered wine so that was a bonus! We landed at Victoria Falls Airport and were met with this huge queue snaking for miles and, to top it off, it was very hot with no air conditioning. We didn’t understand why the people were moving so slowly until we came across an official who was monitoring the queue and who then handed us two documents to fill in for our individual Zimbabwe visas. I had checked online but these documents were not available online so we had to suck it up and try to complete them manually as we snaked through the queue. Not the easiest task when juggling hand luggage too! At the end of the line, our documents were checked and we were sent to a visa desk. I had the US $55 each ready in small change (as instructed by our SA concierge) and we ended up behind the Turkish women who continued to cause chaos. We chatted to a lone elderly American lady in front of us who had missed her internal US flights so was now joining her tour group in Zimbabwe rather than Cape Town. We felt quite sorry for her as she was clearly exhausted and a bit discombobulated. She was next in line and I was surprised that they only charged her $30 for her visa. Then it was our turn, and we were charged the expected $55 each. Checking this out later it seems that Americans, Australians and New Zealanders get charged $30; UK and Irish $55; Canadians $75. Very curious pricing structure ?!?

By now pretty hot and bothered, we were pleased to see our bags waiting for us near the carousel so we headed towards the exit where we were met by our driver. As we left the airport building we were treated to a tribal dancing group welcome. Great introduction!

In our private minibus (thankfully with air conditioning) we headed towards our hotel the Ilala Lodge Hotel which was actually located within the Victoria Falls settlement.

We arrived, were welcomed by a refreshing cold drink, checked in and headed to our room. We felt like we had stepped back in time by the old colonial feel of the place but it had a lot of charm. Our room was huge with a great bathroom and balcony overlooking the gardens / bush and, as a gift, our SA concierge had organised a cold bottle of bubbly to be waiting for us. Very nice! We spotted some monkeys straight away outside so knew to keep our balcony door shut at all times LOL. They can certainly wreck havoc if they get into your room…. This hotel had a bit of a resort feel to it with a couple of pools and a nice pool-side bar so we were looking forward to relaxing a bit too after such a busy schedule up to this point.

But that had to wait as we quickly unpacked for the time we were going to be here – put our valuables away in the safe – and headed out to be met by another driver who was going to take us to see the Victoria Falls, by helicopter! We checked in at the little shack servicing the landing pads and waited our turn. There were two helicopters doing the loop over the Falls so we weren’t sure whether we would get put in with others so were absolutely delighted when it was our turn and it was just us. Richard sat in the co-pilot seat and I sat in the back with fantastic views. OMG what an experience, an absolute thrill. We loved it!

By the time we were returned to our hotel we were pretty tired as it had been a very long day. So we sat at the bar, had a snack and a bottle of wine talking about our day, before retiring to bed…..

Wednesday we had a leisurely start and our first breakfast experience – which was a great buffet supplemented by a full hot a la carte offering. Initially we sat outside on the terrace but were bothered by wasps so moved inside for the rest of the service. It was absolutely fantastic!

At 10.00 am we were picked up again to be taken to Victoria Falls National Park where we were booked on a private walking tour. We were given waterproofs and had hats so were ready for every eventuality. So a bit about Victoria Falls – we were on the Zimbabwe side so our walking path came to an end at the Victoria Bridge (and no we didn’t see anybody bungee jumping) as we had no plans on crossing into Zambia. We were there in ‘high water season’ but the Falls were only operating at around 50% strength according to our guide because the rains had failed earlier in the year. A few facts – the falls are a World Heritage Site and the largest on earth. They were discovered by Livingstone 1855 (hence the statue) and they are 1708m wide (5604 ft) by 108m high (354 ft). When running at full capacity over 17 cubic metres or 481,386 cubic feet fall over the edge per minute. What an amazing natural place! The noise of the falls was spectacular – sounding like thunder at times – and we experienced regular cold showers from the mist soaking us as we got a bit close to the edge hence the dishevelled look. We both thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience…

We asked the driver about wandering the town and he asked what did we need? I said I wanted to go to the chemist (still struggling on and off with an upset stomach and getting low on the medication front) so he took us there as he could see that the heat and humidity had us flagging a bit at this stage. Managed to buy 20 Imodium tablets for $2 over the counter – what a bargain! Back at the hotel we decided it was now time to relax….so went to our room…got ready…and retired to the pool for the rest of the day. While we were there we saw an elephant family visit the waterhole and some more baboons hanging around. Lots and lots of birdlife too. Fantastic! We spent the afternoon there and did a bit of bobbing in the pool too with a glass of wine, of course, LOL.

The sun was very intense so we spent most of our time in the shade apart from time spent in the bubbling pool – afterwards we relaxed on our balcony watching the wildlife below. The baboons were out playing on the grass so Richard was very naughty and threw over chocolate muffins – have to say they seemed to enjoy them LOL. We also spotted some other wildlife and was pleased that we didn’t have a ground floor room at this stage!

We then had a snooze before getting ready to go for dinner. We sat outside on the dining veranda and tucked into three courses which was really good. Then it was time to call it a day so headed back to our room for a final glass before bed.

Thursday morning we had another leisurely start and went out to the local artisan markets for a wander around. We did manage to come back with some beautiful wooden bowls which weren’t on the list of things to get….but always nice to support the locals a bit. We enjoyed haggling with them too…

After shopping we went back to the pool for a few hours before getting ready to go out for a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi river. We were picked up at 5pm by the tour operator and driven off to meet the boat, Malachite. We were greeted by a cold towel on arrival, a cocktail and then taken upstairs to take our seats. We were able to get seats on the rail and nobody else joined us so we had a good time enjoying the sights of the upmarket lodges that line the water combined with the regular canapes being delivered and, of course, more drinks LOL.

Then the sun started dipping, the river got busy, and we were treated to the most fantastic sunset over the water. Now we are obviously used to watery sunsets but this was just spectacular. After the sun had sunk below the horizon we were taken downstairs to our allocated dinner table and were served with our meal (which we had selected earlier). There were two chefs cooking on the boat in the tiniest galley you had ever seen. The food they turned out was absolutely fantastic and way beyond our expectations. Another amazing experience…just wow!

Back at the hotel we had some wine in the bar and, as the only guests, got chatting to the bartenders to realise that they were watching an English premier league football match on the phone (Brighton & Hove Albion -v- Manchester City). So we chatted about soccer with them for a while before heading to our room saying our sad farewells as we were leaving the following morning. Tourists tend to come here for a day or so to do the Falls and then move on – very few people stayed here as long as we did. Shame, actually, as it had such a lot to offer over and above the excursions.

Friday morning we got up reasonably early, had some breakfast, and then packed ready for our 10.30 am pick up to the airport. We had an interesting drive to the airport – the (new) driver telling us that he wanted to come to England as he was an experienced farmer and he thought that we might need someone to look after our cows for us! We explained that you have to get a work permit to come to the UK and didn’t think that farming would count as an approved profession for visa purposes. He really thought that a few months work in the UK would be enough to set himself up at home for life. Very sad and quite deluded. Zimbabwe is very poor but they have their governments to blame for that…and I’ll leave it there rather than comment on the politics that had brought them to this state. Of course Richard felt sorry for the guy so his tip was larger than normal….

So that ends this part of our African adventure, please come back soon for the final chapter.

Bye for now. Jan

Saturday 20 April we had an uneventful flight to Cape Town, was picked up by Francois who drove us to our hotel, the Clouds Estate, in Stellenbosch. Francois had already been booked for a private wine tour the following day so he wanted to know our preferences – we said white wine please – and he went off for the night to do some research.

This very modern hotel was very different to anything we had stayed in so far and we loved the look of it as we drove up the long and winding drive through the vines. We checked in, headed to our room, unpacked a few things for the few days we were going to be there and enjoyed the views over the mountains from our terrace as the sun started setting.

We headed down to the restaurant and, having eaten on the plane (and still feeling very full after so much food during our Kruger stay) we opted for a sharing platter and some wine out on the terrace before heading to bed. Lovely.

We headed upstairs and couldn’t find the remote control for the air conditioner – everything in this room was via an app (apart from this of course) but the instructions said that the physical remote control was by the bed. We searched high and low, found the signs, but failed to come up with it. By this time the reception was unmanned and we didn’t want to bother anyone so called it a day….and it was a very hot night….phew!

Sunday we headed down to breakfast and we thoroughly enjoyed our food – absolutely stunning. Anyway we then headed outside to meet Francois at 10 am and he talked us through his ideas for our day. This was to cross the mountain range before arriving at the historic Doolhoof wine farm for a tasting after exploring the facility. Francois had already told them our preference and they were happy to swap out the reds for white and rose. Lovely wine and we ended up purchasing a very special Chenin Blanc for later.

Moving on we drove the beautiful Bainskloof Pass through the gorges and mountains admiring the scenery as we went.

We then arrived at the Opstal Estate and the restaurant which was rammed – clearly a popular place with locals for Sunday lunch. We started off with a wine tasting out on the terrace – enjoying the spectacular views – and then had lunch and somehow managed to leave with a bottle of their ‘champagne’ for later. Was absolutely lovely.

Moving on we visited the Afrikaans Language Monument which sits atop a hill overlooking the town of Paarl. The towering granite monument, which opened in 1975, commemorates the semi-centenary of Afrikaans being declared an official language of South Africa separate from Dutch. It was erected on the 100th anniversary of the founding of Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (the Society of Real Afrikaners) the organisation that helps strengthen Afrikaners identify and pride in their language. It towers over the surrounding area and, Francois (as a proud Afrikaner) thinks that it resembles a middle finger being stuck up to the world LOL. For those who think it looks familiar it was used as a filming location for the twelfth series of Doctor Who.

We then drove through a long tunnel back to the other side of the mountain range and saw the entrance to Drakenstein Prison from where Nelson Mandela had been pictured doing his famous ‘freedom’ walk.

At this point time was getting on so we asked Francois to drop us off in Stellenbosch rather than take us straight back to our hotel. He was a bit surprised but we thought the town looked interesting and we knew we could get back under our own steam using an uber. So we said our fond farewells – having been given strict instructions on where it was safe to walk and where not – and explored on foot for a little while admiring the old buildings and the huge amount of art and crafts on display. Afterwards we stopped for a cold one in a local hostelry sitting on the pavement watching the world go by. Afterwards we got back to our hotel and enjoyed quaffing a bottle of complimentary wine from the hotel and eating some nibbles on our balcony. Was a lovely end to the day . Oh yes we found the remote control – with some assistance – but seriously, who would physically stick the remote control to the side of the headboard?!?!

Monday morning we were looking forward to breakfast but sadly it didn’t live up to the previous days offerings. Such a shame! At 9.30 am we were picked up by a lovely Mercedes and driver to take us to Franschoek Tram Terminal. We picked up our tram tickets for the ‘blue line’ which departed at 10. On the blue line the tram runs between a few of the wineries in the area with minibus look-alike trams serving the others. We decided we’d get on and off at all those served directly by the tram rather than mucking around with minibus timetables too. This left us with three wineries and we thought that would probably be enough for the day. Especially as we were given complimentary sparkling wine on the journey! And then we were off admiring the view of the mountains as they peeped through the clouds.

The first stop was Rickety Bridge – a very old property – and it had a lot of charm as we were picked up by a tractor to take us up to the main house. Richard enjoyed an Estate tasting while I tried out the Cap Classique. Lovely!

Moving on we returned to the tram and headed to the next stop at Grande Provence. This was a great place with nice gardens, an art gallery and a statue walkway. We meandered around for a while and then decided to try a wine but, having decided to pace ourselves, we just had a couple of glasses of their spectacular Chenin Blanc. Yum!

After a few hours we headed back to the tram to our next stop Franschoek Cellar. Here we decided to have some lunch along with the tasting menu. Not as attractive a property as the other two but the server in the restaurant was really funny and helpful. So a great time was had by all. We then checked out the time of the tram back to the main terminal and left to pick that up, having already phoned our driver to give him a time of arrival.

At the station our driver was waiting for us so we returned to the hotel. Just as we started packing in preparation for our departure very early the following morning, we realised the power had gone off. This was our first experience of load shedding in South Africa where there is a regular schedule of power cuts to save energy. So we decided not to waste any more time and ended up having a few hours relaxing by the pool. Bliss!

Later on we returned to our room to get ready for dinner before heading downstairs. This time we had a look at the statues and other art works around – this is clearly a thing in this part of the world. I mean who has a full sized horse in their lounge / restaurant masquerading as a light? We had a fantastic dinner with great service before getting plunged into darkness again. Thankfully we had candles on our table. Afterwards we paid our bill and headed upstairs to finish our wine, the packing, and to catch up with the news on TV. And so to bed for our last night in this spectacular area.

And that brings part 4 of our African adventure to a close. Please return soon for another chapter.

Bye for now Jan

Tuesday 16 April we were up early, had breakfast, did a last minute walk along the waterfront and then checked out of our hotel. At 8 am Francois picked us up to take us to Cape Town Airport for our Airlink flight to Hoedspruit. We checked in, cleared security, waited at the gate for our plane to land, were boarded quickly and suddenly we were excitedly on our way….

The flight was really comfortable however, as we were coming in to land, the plane suddenly accelerated and the landing was aborted. The Captain explained that there had been animals on the runway so they had asked the ground crew to clear them before we attempted to land again. Only in Africa LOL. Finally safely on the ground we got off the plane to a wall of heat. We walked to the arrivals area, was met by our driver who then escorted us through the chaos of the baggage collection area…. Was completely manic including some very inquisitive monkeys! Reunited with our bags we took off towards our accommodation at the Thornybush Game Lodge which lies in it’s own nature reserve within the Kruger National Park. Very quickly the tarmac disappeared and we were on dirt roads – we didn’t expect to see anything en route – but suddenly we came across some impala and then, to our complete surprise, two leopards walking along the road. Amazing!

Arriving at the lodge we were introduced to all the staff, quickly checked in and shown to our room. Well room is not really the word for our own luxurious oasis of a detached individual lodge sitting above the dried-up riverbed.

We dumped our bags, got cleaned up and headed back along the path to the main lodge to meet our ranger, Sarah (from Manchester), and our tracker Kenny. We were served a cuppa before trying out our customised open-sided vehicle and meeting our fellow travellers Gretchen & Steve and Patty & Tim (from the US). We then headed out for our first evening game drive. OMG what can I say about this – we saw two leopards (a mother and son) with a kill up in the tree to keep it safe from other predators. We also saw elephants, lots of deer, giraffe, rhinos and hippos.

After admiring the scenery and wildlife, we stopped for sundowners in the bush and had a nice cold beer watching the sun go down.

Heading back towards the lodge we were driven along the local airstrip (for lodge guests who just happen to have their own plane) as this is often where animals hang out early and late in the day. Back at base we headed to our room and were escorted by another ranger whose job was to ensure our safety before going out on overnight poacher patrol. Although our lodge was surrounded by security wire it was open to the riverbed so we could and did come across animals on the lodge paths – fine in the daylight – but you don’t want to spook them (or ourselves) in the dark! The Kruger National Park borders Mozambique to the east and Zimbabwe to the north so its borders are pretty porous. Sadly poachers remain a threat to animals and humans alike if they get in the way of their search for elephants and rhino. Quickly we got cleaned up and then returned to the main lodge where we had a fantastic braii (BBQ) dinner. Afterwards we returned to our room (escorted again) with a large glass of wine in hand (this place is an ultra all-inclusive experience) and enjoyed some time in the quiet on our balcony before turning in for the night. What a fabulous first day!

So a bit about the rangers – Sarah was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about all manner of flora, fauna, animals and bird life alongside a wealth of information about bush craft. And that’s without the normal customer services / health and safety / rifle training etc. Anybody reading this who may be interested in this type of role can find out more at https://www.fgasa.co.za. Sarah was ably assisted by Kenny our tracker who would sit very exposed at the front of the vehicle checking out prints on the ground. Sarah had completed vigorous training both on and off the job including more than 100 meetings of each of the big five whilst on foot! She said that, in her opinion, the Cape Buffalo were the most dangerous animal she had encountered when walking through the bush. She multi-tasked at all times – on the radio talking to other rangers, following Kenny’s information on tracks, navigating the unmarked and unnamed roads (apart from a map in her head) and listening out for animal and bird calls. She was also fluent in Afrikaans – being married to a South African – and the way she was able to switch languages was incredibly impressive. We were very lucky to have been allocated Sarah and Kenny as they worked well together and were constantly trying to give us the best experience of our lives. Oh yes, a walking safari option was available as well as game drives but as I couldn’t run or climb a tree (a pre-requisite) we declined to take up this offer LOL. We were also very lucky with our fellow travellers – we all got on well, enjoyed a drink and a laugh, and there were no problems at all. We did offer to rotate seats but they could see I was struggling to climb in and out at the front of the vehicle so they were happy for us all to remain in the same seats throughout our safaris – great gang! Hope to see them again another day on our travels. As an aside, some of the other vehicles were not so lucky with a few personality clashes, and some guest behaviour stories were hysterical…..

Wednesday morning awoken by our daily 5.30 am call we headed to the lodge for a cup of tea (and cake if you wanted it) before heading out on safari. We saw lots of lions and cape buffalo this time – OMG so very exciting to see the animals up close and personal. The lodge has a great system in that the rangers are constantly on the radio to each other and, if there is a significant sighting, they tell each other and we would drive towards that area. However they ensured that no more than two vehicles were there at any one time to ensure that the animals were not crowded out. Fantastic! We also stopped in the bush to watch the sun come up along with a coffee laced with Karula. How decadent?!? Oh yes and Richard of course had to try out the tracker seat!

On the way back to the lodge we were looking forward to breakfast but ended up driving along the river bed to find that they had set up a bush breakfast for us! Absolutely fabulous food and service. OMG thank you guys – we understand that not everyone gets this opportunity but as all six of us in the vehicle were staying for four days they had set this up as a surprise. And what a treat it was!

Back at the lodge we went back to our room to get cleaned up and catch up on our sleep. At 1pm we were called for lunch so wandered back via some of the public areas and came across a few critters enjoying the lodge.

Lunch was great and we enjoyed that whilst watching the naughty monkeys in the trees around us and enjoyed the sight of an elephant walking the river bed beneath us.

After lunch we hung around in the main lodge enjoying a few drinks before the 3pm meet (and afternoon tea) in preparation for our next safari. We saw lots of elephants – including a very close encounter with a young male who decided we looked interesting and had to be scared away by Sarah. He was so close that the guy in the back of the vehicle was able to get a selfie on his phone with an elephant. Not an every day occurrence to be sure! We also saw more hippos who are pretty funny when interacting with each other in the water. Did you know that they don’t actually swim but run very fast underwater? Another interesting fact is that they spray poop in each others faces to assert their dominance and territory. Yuck!

We met some more rhino – many of whom had been dehorned. Sadly this reflects the fact that poachers remain active in this area – and the lodge try hard to ensure their safety. The rangers don’t like dehorning the animals but it is a necessity. In terms of other ranger interactions with the animals there is no veterinary service, this is a wild environment, and the animals are left to their own devices where the strongest survive and the weakest succumb or get eaten by predators!

Again we stopped for sundowners as the sun went down over the bush and saw our first zebra in the dark but we weren’t able to get photos at this stage. We returned to the lodge and had dinner before then having a few beers and early to bed having been escorted back to our room. Had been a long tiring day. Oh yes you will have noticed that we were wearing fleeces or jackets on our game drive photos and that was needed before the sun came up or the sun went down as it was quite chilly whilst the days were blistering.

Thursday again followed the same routine with an early game drive where we were delighted that the moon was still up – this was a pretty exciting morning drive. We saw lots of giraffes, wild dogs (which are quite rare to see), hyenas, wildebeest, zebra and three lions stalking a huge herd of buffalo. Adult cape buffalo are dangerous and difficult for lions to kill but they seem to have perfected the technique here in the Kruger. This was followed by lunch, a relax on our balcony and then the afternoon safari.

During this game drive we were tracking the lions we had seen earlier and the whole gang decided to forego sundowners as there were sounds that indicated that the lions might have made a kill. So we followed the noises and suddenly we were amongst the buffalo with a large pride of lions stalking around. The buffalo were clearly scared and unsettled by the presence of the lions and there was a young one who had been injured – so might explain the screaming noises heard earlier. We stayed out as long as we could but, sadly, the night was drawing in and it was too dangerous to stay out in the bush as this is when the armed poachers move into the area.

We drove off to be met by the fantastic sight of the whole of the lodge staff who had set up this magical evening for a bush dinner. OMG fantastic food, endless supply of drinks, and great company. What a fantastic night in the bush. The whole experience had been beyond our expectation and we weren’t finished yet! This place, the staff and this lodge in particular, was just absolutely fabulous.

Friday morning we headed off to see if we could track the lions again – we found them sitting very near to the buffalo herd who were clearly exhausted having being tracked for 40kms overnight by the increasingly aggressive lions. We sat and watched for a while before heading off to see what else we could see when the news came in that the lions had made the kill. So we quickly returned to find the lions feasting on a full-sized buffalo. We were so close to them as they tore into the carcass – not for the faint hearted – but we were glad not to have witnessed the actual kill.

We left this pride of lions to their bush breakfast and continued driving around before returning for breakfast, lunch and then the evening game drive. By this time we were pretty blaze about seeing more leopards, rhinos, hippos, crocodiles and lots of beautifully-coloured birds along with some not so pretty ones LOL.

Saturday morning was, sadly, our last morning in the Kruger. We headed out for our early morning drive and finally came across lots of deer, wildebeest, zebras, warthogs and mongoose. That completed our safari and certainly we felt that we had been lucky enough to have seen everything that we could have possibly have hoped for.

Sadly the final safari was over way too soon, we returned for breakfast at the lodge, finished packing ready to be picked up at 11.45 am for our flight. We said our sad farewells – had been the most fabulous experience – and took off for the airport. It was a long and hot wait after checking in – where the woman manning the counter decided not to return our passports which we only realised when we went to go through security. Returned very quickly to the desk to find that they had been secreted away…..hmmmm…. guess that was a deliberate attempt to keep them then. Not great! Eventually it was our turn to board our flight back to Cape Town and this brings part 3 of our African adventure to a close. Please return soon for another chapter.

Bye for now Jan

PS – thank you to everybody for your kind wishes regarding my recent hip surgery – this went off well (although had a blip in recovery requiring a blood transfusion) but delighted to report that mobility is ahead of schedule and I’m feeling pretty good now. So onwards and upwards!

Friday morning and we were delighted to finally see the mountain without any cloud or wind – so quickly checked – and the cable car was open. Hurrah!

So we quickly booked some fast track cable car tickets on line and then booked an Uber to take us up there. There was a cruise ship in town so there were lots and lots of people around….luckily we had the fast track tickets as the queue was over three hours long at this point! Was fantastic and the scenery was just beautiful. Will let the pictures do the talking……

Coming down in the cable car we realised that the traffic was at a standstill and that we may have a long wait for an Uber – so decided instead to get on the hop-on hop-off tourist double decker bus and see where it took us. We purchased 48 hour tickets and set off. There are a number of routes and we knew that the blue scenic route was going to be closed on the Saturday because of a marathon so decided to do that first. By now we were running low on cash and the weather was heating up so returned to the hotel via the ATM.

We got back, changed into shorts, and then headed back out on the bus to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. We enjoyed walking around and doing the canopy walk and spent some time just enjoying the scenery and views. We were there for a few hours – particularly enjoying the abundant bird life – so decided to call it a day and returned to the Waterfront where we enjoyed happy hour in Time Out.

We then returned to our hotel room, having navigated more African groups of dancers and singers entertaining the tourists, sorted out some laundry and then went out for dinner. We find the Grand Cafe and it was absolutely superb. Fantastic food and ambience. Great fun. Finally it was time for bed.

Saturday we headed back out after breakfast – this time we were going to try out the red route. We got off in the middle of Cape Town and joined up with a walking tour guide. This was 90 minutes long and we certainly wouldn’t have done this on our own without a guide. These guides work purely for tips so a great service. Was fascinating to learn more about the history of Cape Town and enjoy some very familiar architecture along with some even more familiar faces.

Back on the bus we decided to take some time out and got off at Camps Bay beach. Here we were met by dancing groups of kids and lots and lots of vendors who wanted to sell us something. Richard wanted a wooden monkey so we got that with our last few Rand we had left in our pockets that day. It wasn’t peaceful on the beach as we were constantly being pestered – in a good way not aggressively – but enough was enough so we headed across the road and found a nice restaurant for lunch which was lovely, just enjoying the sights and sounds of this beautiful area.

We then returned towards the waterfront and walked towards Grand Africa which is billed as a beach bar – well it was kind of, but the seating was grubby, the drinks were expensive and the service was definitely lacking – and that was after walking through a sketchy area to get there. This place was listed as one of the top places for sundowners – it was mega busy – but we didn’t feel it so decided not to wait for the sunset and left. We obviously walked a different route back! We decided to return to Time Out which is really a food hall with lots of different offerings and a few bars – very popular place. We had a snack and a bottle of wine and chatted to a couple from NYC who were in Cape Town for a few months filming a TV series along with their cute kid Rusty. We then went back to the hotel and had another glass in the lounge but this was absolutely empty and quiet so decided to take the glasses back to our room and finish off the night there. By the time we got back the laundry had been delivered – what a great service! So the final glass was in front of the TV and so to bed.

Sunday we had a leisurely start and checked out what we wanted to see for the day. Decided that we needed to recharge our batteries and the sun had come out so went to the pool (which was located in a sister hotel across the road) for the day. We relaxed, enjoyed a fab lunch and great wine, before returning to our room to get cleaned up for a night out – and yes we were the only people there so had a very personal service from the fantastic waiter. We headed back to the Grand Cafe as it had been so good but sadly it didn’t live up to our expectations this time. Oh well, never mind. We returned to the hotel for pontoonies and called it a day.

Monday morning we packed our bags in preparation for our departure the following day and headed back to the pool. And relax……smashing. Another great lunch too…. Later on we returned to our room to get ready for our last evening in Cape Town which was on a champagne sunset sailing cruise – sadly the monohull schooner we were booked on was not operating so we were moved onto a catamaran. Bit of a shame that. But the guys were great and promised they would get the sails out – and they did – and they served us lots of sparkling wine with nibbles and they even allowed me to helm, although I wouldn’t recommend this with a glass in one hand LOL. We enjoyed a fantastic sunset on the water and was sad to get back to dry land again. We decided we weren’t hungry so had a few drinks on the waterfront before returning to our hotel for a pontoonie and to bed.

So that wraps up the Cape Town part of our African adventure. I will be blogging the rest of the trip later as I’m having a total hip replacement tomorrow so will be out of action for a little while. So in the meantime bye for now.

Jan

Monday 8 April finally arrived and we excitedly left home mid afternoon to make our way around the M25 towards Heathrow Terminal 5. As it was a train and tube strike day we expected very heavy traffic but actually it wasn’t too bad. We were pretty early so the check in and security were easy and fast – best ever experience with British Airways. We then found somewhere to have a snack and a couple of drinks before heading to the gate at 9pm – which was a very long walk – and that’s when the experience completely deteriorated – it was absolute chaos! Eventually we got boarded and of course we were next to some screaming kids…. Just what you need for an eleven and half hour flight, not! We were seated in the exit row to get more leg room but that wasn’t quite such a good idea because, of course, this is against a bulkhead which is where the bassinets reside… Never mind, lesson learnt!

The flight itself wasn’t too bad after the kids finally quietened down. We both dozed on and off and had the most terrible dinner ever but at least the wine was good. Soon it was time for a reasonable breakfast before we arrived into Cape Town on Tuesday morning. We got off the plane and joined the queue for immigration. This was worse than Miami – a complete horror – with a couple of bored and uninterested officials chatting away to themselves. Don’t think we even got a welcome to South Africa. Finally, an hour later, we were cleared in and went to the baggage carousel – which was on a go slow allowing about six bags through at a time. Another hour later and we were reunited with our bags….phew! We were very grateful that we had tracker tags in our bags at this point so we knew that they had arrived with us, not sure how calm we would have been otherwise LOL.

We then picked up a local SIM, met Francois our driver, and were driven to the Victoria and Alfred hotel on the waterfront. There had been a horrendous storm over the previous weekend and the front was still moving through so we arrived in drizzly rain. Check in was very fast and we quickly unpacked and rested up before heading out to the waterfront – checked out the dancers and bands entertaining the tourists – before deciding to have dinner in the pub. Absolutely fantastic fillet steak and beautiful wine, amazingly cheap price too, so we returned to the hotel where we had a final drink before heading to bed.

Wednesday we were supposed to be going out with Francois for the day but the weather was still rough and the Chapmans Peak Road was closed because of some landslips – so deferred this to the following day. All sorted we headed down to breakfast – the cold buffet was good and the hot offerings were average so we needed to consider our choices going forward.

After breakfast we walked (in the chilly drizzle) to the Aquarium which was huge and had some interesting scientific displays. So enjoyed that although it wouldn’t have been high on the list of things to do. At this point we still had not seen Table Mountain as it was cloaked in a tablecloth of clouds. But excited to be here all the same….

Afterwards we headed to the Victoria Mall and into Woolworths (think M&S) for some supplies for our room. Back to the hotel we stashed our goodies and got changed as the weather had got warmer and drier – yay. We then booked an Uber to Bo Kaap – checked out the museum and wandered around admiring the brightly coloured houses. We then continued with the aid of Google Maps to find Charles Cafe which had been recommended by our Hayes and Jarvis concierge Meghan (who was amazing throughout the whole trip). We had to walk past an encampment of homeless people so I felt a bit vulnerable but only carrying a bit of cash and no jewellery Richard was absolutely confident that we would be fine and we were, thankfully, but I didn’t enjoy the experience! We found the Cafe and settled down to have a Cape Malay curry lunch – OMG absolutely fantastic. Not hot in spice terms but absolutely laden with superb flavour. Was great.

We then headed back to the hotel in another Uber for a relax before returning to the waterfront for a few drinks. We started off in the Irish pub – because it had live music – but it was skanky, absolutely horrible and filthy dirty, so we moved on. We then went back to the pub from the night before – again because they had live music – but the service was rubbish and the band not good so we called it a day (without even having a drink after a 30 minute wait) so we returned to the hotel and enjoyed a drink and then to bed. Had been an interesting first full day in Cape Town.

Thursday we headed out to meet Francois after an improved breakfast experience and we drove down towards the Cape of Good Hope and admired all the millionaire residences along the way before finally reaching the Chapmans Peak Drive. This is listed as one of the most scenic drives in the world and we thoroughly enjoyed it with Francois knowing exactly where to stop so we could take photos and make the most of the experience.

We arrived at the Cape of Good Hope and as we entered the nature reserve we saw ostriches, some deer, wild tortoise and baboons along the way – wasn’t expecting that LOL.

We headed to the lighthouse and got the tram almost to the top – at this point I sat down and left Richard to do the walk alone. The steps were very steep and deep and my legs just didn’t want to play. So I rested up while he embraced the moment although he found it tough going too…. On his return to my level, we wandered around through all the lookouts and enjoyed the spectacular views. And yes there are two lighthouses here…the first one could not be seen from far enough away at sea and resulted in many shipwrecks on this treacherous coast, so another one was built.

Leaving the Cape behind we headed to Boulders Beach to see the penguins. We paid our access fee and walked to the beach but the tide was in and there were no penguins close by although some were swimming around. So walked the boardwalk around the headland and then we found them nestling in the sand – fantastic!

After that we carried on back towards Cape Town stopping off first at Hout Bay and checking out the hotel we had booked for the last part of our trip. Then it was to a fish village and caught up with a seal having a laze as the fishermen had finished for the day. Back to the hotel and relax….had been a long day. Oh yes and we came across this little fellow taking in the sun.

Later on after cleaning ourselves up we got another Uber to Gold for an immersive African dining experience. 14 course taster menu and we loved most of it – Richard’s favourite was the ostrich and mine was the pie. Sadly the seats weren’t the best as we were up on a balcony and although the dancers and singers came up to entertain us think the experience would have been better on the lower level. But never mind was great fun! Didn’t think we’d have to paint our faces though LOL.

So that brings to an end the first part of our stay in Cape Town. More to follow shortly.

Bye for now, Jan

Thursday 23 November was our last day at sea on the way to Singapore where we would disembark the ship and enjoy a few days in the city before returning home. We had a leisurely breakfast in our suite supplied by the butler then completed the laundry / packing and lounged around by the pool. We had a late lunch at the Grill then enjoyed the sights as we pulled into Singapore right next to Sentosa Island and under the cable car. There was a lot of ships and again, another very tight manoeuvre into the slip, but it was all done perfectly. Great job!

In the afternoon we had a snooze before getting ready to go ashore for our final excursion. We had to clear immigration first so went quite early to meet our group. We were then taken into the City and did a short river cruise – was lovely to see it all lit up.

After the river cruise we headed back on the coach to the Gardens by the Bay where we were wowed by the music and light show amidst their Supertrees – was absolutely fantastic! Leaving the magical trees behind we headed to the Fullerton Hotel for a Singapore Sling and then taken back to the ship. All the while we were in the coach we were treated to a cultural chat so that was very interesting too to find out how this island nation works.

Back on the ship we found that Christmas had arrived – the staff had obviously been very busy in our absence. We enjoyed a Thanksgiving Buffet dinner in the main restaurant before retiring to the bar to catch up with friends as we would be saying sad farewells to them in the morning.

Back in the cabin with finalised our packing and put our cases out to be collected with the supplied labels – all in different colours – had a final drink on our balcony and retired for the night.

Friday morning we were up very early and headed to the main restaurant for breakfast. All the time we were waiting to be called to disembark – our tags were light blue – and then around 9.00 am it was our turn. We headed off the ship saying goodbye to the staff who had looked after us so well during our time onboard, collected our bags, cleared customs and immigration and got picked up in a very nice Mercedes. We arrived at the hotel and were completely blown away by it – the Parkroyal Collection, Marina Bay. OMG it was just stunning. For those of you that don’t know Singapore is known as the Garden City and, when this hotel had been renovated, they had decided to bring the outside in. It had to be seen to be believed!

We checked in – got an upgrade, an early check in and a late check-out, and went to our room to explore. Very nice it was too with spectacular views over the water.

We then decided to go and explore – not wanting to waste a moment of our time – so walked to the National Museum enjoying being in the sun, although the humidity made the stroll more of a trek LOL. We were lucky that there was going to be an English-speaking tour of the Museum within 10 minutes of our arrival so we waited for that and enjoyed being shown around. This took almost an hour and was very informative.

After the tour we walked to the tube station and picked up our travel cards which you can easily top up in machines at every station. Got a map and worked out how to return to the hotel which happened to be linked to the Marina Mall. In the mall we were tempted by the street food on offer so had a late lunch, and delicious it was too.

Quite tired now we headed back to our room and had a snooze before luxuriating in the fabulous shower and then got ready to go out again. This time we headed over to the Bay Sands area and wandered the crazy mall first – lots of Christmas trees and high-end shops – clearly where the Crazy Rich Asians go to shop LOL. Anyway we wandered down to see Spectra, the light and water show, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Amazing! After the light show we headed off on the tube again to China town and had some dinner before returning to the hotel for a last glass of wine before retiring for the night.

Saturday morning we walked to the Singapore Flyer and purchased tickets. We were then shown into our own pod – totally unexpected – and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the area. And of course we had to get a silly souvenir photo.

Afterwards we walked along the waterfront to Raffles and queued to get into the Long Bar. This had been renovated and wasn’t quite as authentic as before especially with the music being played – who goes to a 1900s colonial bar to listen to Guns and Roses?!? Anyway we enjoyed our Singapore slings and the peanuts were great. There is something very decadent about just dropping all the casings on the table / floor LOL.

After Raffles we walked to Clarke’s Quay and, of course, it started raining, hard! So we popped into an Indian restaurant and sat on the waterfront enjoying a very early supper of curry and Tiger Beers. Very nice it was too. After our time in the Quay, and in a break from the rain, we headed to the nearest tube station and headed back to the mall. We picked up a couple of bottles of wine and returned to our hotel and room where we watched the light show again over the Bay before settling down to a quiet night in with movies and wine.

Sunday morning after a nice hotel breakfast, we got a tube to Chinatown to explore more thoroughly, before then heading onwards to Little India. We enjoyed the sights and sounds very much but again got a bit defeated by the humidity. We then returned to the hotel by tube and spent a few hours by the pool and enjoyed just relaxing inbetween rain showers.

In the evening we headed out again and went to the Marina Bay Sands area – last time we were in Singapore we found a fabulous champagne bar on the top with great views. But, of course, the weather didn’t want to play ball so we just ended up in a top level bar and Richard braved the elements for the required photo!

Afterwards we headed to Satay Street for dinner – but, this time, satay didn’t appeal in the rain so we ate in the attached food hall and had an Indian Thali dinner. Looked great but sadly wasn’t that good…..oh well, never mind.

After dinner we returned to the hotel, had a drink in the lovely bar, and then returned to relax in our room once again before bed.

Monday morning was our last day so we spent the time by the pool relaxing and then returned to the room to finish packing up. We checked out at 3pm then relaxed in the hotel before being picked up to go to the airport for our late evening flight home to London. We had thought we’d return to the Mall for more street food but were completely blown away by the robot deliveries of food so decided to stay put and had our lunch delivered. Such fun!

Later on we headed down to collect our bags from the concierge and waited for our car – the time came and went and no-one was seen. Hmmmm….not what you need….so I decided to go outside and check on a couple of vehicles that were parked up. And, yes, you’ve guessed it, one of them was our transport. Don’t know whey he didn’t let us know he was there but never mind we arrived at the airport in good time. Checking in was a breeze as we had done it on line in advance, bags were deposited, and we took ourselves off to sit and relax in Changi Airport before boarding the plane.

The Singapore Airlines plane turned up promptly, we got a notification that our bags were loaded on (how good is that!), and we boarded. We had lovely seats and great service. What a way to end the most fantastic adventure. Hope you have enoyed travelling along with us.

Our next adventure is to South Africa and Zimbabwe so will blog again after that. So all there is left to say is Happy New Year to you all. Hope it is full of good health, happiness and love. Take care.

Bye for now, Jan

Thursday 16 November was another day at sea. Sadly the predicted storm had materialised and it just rained and rained and rained….. In between biblical showers we did find some time to have bubbles in the jacuzzi but that was about it for the day in between chatting to cruisers that we had become friendly with. We had lunch in the buffet restaurant and later on headed for dinner in the Grill. We managed to get a table undercover but it wasn’t great – the food was good – but there was a chilly wind blowing. So we headed down to the fifth floor bar and enjoyed catching up with Robert and Nanette (Canada) and Craig and Leanne (Australia) along with others from time to time. The pianist / singer in the bar was great and we enjoyed listening to her quite extensive repertoire.

We then decided to call it a day – the weather had certainly put paid to lots of fun this evening – so headed back to our cabin where we did a storm watch. We had 50 knots of breeze and the waves were crashing over our balcony and up to the sixth floor above so we got soaked but thoroughly enjoyed it! It was a pretty bumpy night overall to be fair. And yes everyone thought we were mad when we said we had a great time LOL.

Friday we pulled into Da Nang and yes it was still raining….sigh…. We had an excursion to Marble Beach but cancelled as there was no point sitting under an umbrella on the beach getting cold LOL. We had a leisurely breakfast and morning and, finally, the rain stopped around 11 am. So we hopped on a shuttle bus into town and went for a wander – we enjoyed seeing the statues / the Dragon bridge and the local markets. But we were pretty worn out in the very high temperatures and humidity so stopped at a local pavement cafe for lunch. We were the only ‘almond eyes’ in there and luckily they had a menu with pictures so we could pick something out. We had two dishes to share and you could see the gazes of the locals on us. Clearly this was not a place that saw tourists very often but they were very friendly and we were given lots of nods and smiles as we ate. Was really good food. The bill was a ridiculously cheap £5 so we tipped the guy and OMG you would have thought they had won the lottery. He showed all the staff and they all smiled and bowed to us as we left. Was a humbling experience and we were certainly glad to get off the beaten track.

Back on the bus we headed back to the boat for a rest. We went to the 5th floor bar before dinner and headed to the Show Lounge to watch the Vietnamese show put on by local artists. This was fun and then, with Robert, Nanette, Craig and Leanne, we all headed to dinner in the main restaurant. We had a lovely meal and enjoyed socialising with them all. We then headed back to the bar for more after-dinner drinks before heading to bed. So what had started out as a bit of a damp squib turned into a good day.

Saturday was another day at sea. The day started cloudy so we headed to breakfast having first put some clothes in the washing machines. We then put it in the driers and headed back to our room to hang it all up. By now the sun had eventually come out so we spent the rest of the day by the pool. Sadly I had stomach problems at this point so guess that meal the day before hadn’t been so good after all…..

This was not advertised as a formal night on the ship but, as we were booked into La Dame (the up-market French restaurant on board that had an upcharge) we decided to go for it. On arrival in the bar we met up with Robert and Nanette – don’t we all scrub up lovely! We then rendezvoused with Larry and Elaine (from Kent) who we had met previously in Singapore and Bangkok whom we had arranged to have dinner with.

Anyway to La Dame – we had very high expectations of this restaurant, particularly as the service on the ship was so good, and this was supposed to be the best of the best. Well we were sat down by the French Maitre’D and immediately given the menus and served champagne and water whilst we perused them. The first thing we all noticed was the upgraded linen, glassware and cutlery to the rest of the ship so all good so far. When we disclosed we were happy with the ship’s normal wine list and did not wish to upgrade by hundreds of dollars a bottle the service suddenly changed. Hmm……wonder if he gets commission on how many bottles he sells? Anyway we chose our meal from the fancy menu and settled down to enjoy it. It was lots of theatre with cloche-covered food being delivered and then all the cloches being removed at once by four waiters. So great in that respect.

But the Maitre’D spent all his time schmoozing the others guest who had clearly purchased very expensive wine while we waited to be served with more….. Oh well, never mind. Overall we had a good time – the food itself was excellent – and we had great company but this lack of attentive service was a real disappointment. Oh yes, the dress code was strictly adhered to everywhere on the ship – the main restaurant even had a supply of jackets for men that turned up without wearing one – but not here. It seems that the more money you have and the higher status of your suite entitles you to do just what you like….. Rant over!

Sunday we knew that we would be pulling into Halong Bay and this was going to be one of the highlights of our trip. So we got up very early and watched as the ship made its way through the fantastic scenery as the sun came up…. Words cannot describe how beautiful this was.

Having tied up alongside a behemoth cruise ship we got ourselves ready to depart the ship. We walked the dock and got onto our allocated Junk Boat – along with Craig and Leanne who were also booked on this excursion. We motored around this stunning area until we arrived at Sung Sot Cave along with hundreds of other tourists.

The entry to the cave is one way only and up a very steep row of steps – so Craig sat this one out on the boat – whilst we got up and started the trek. It was very tough but actually the tourists slowed down the procession so I didn’t feel too rushed to keep up as I picked my way carefully. Felt a bit like climbing Everest – check out the queue LOL.

The cave did not disappoint – absolutely beautiful – and the views from the exit point were amazing. We then got back on the boat and headed back to the ship through the stunning scenery. So I’ll let the photos do the talking….

Back on board we spent the afternoon by the pool and then decided to sit on our balcony for the sailaway. At this point others that had been on different excursions returned and took some photos of us so we have this moment captured for prosperity LOL.

Most people were back on board by now although there were a few that cut it very fine in terms of timing with some anxious crew pacing the dock. Finally the ship’s gangway was pulled up and we were ready. At this point a gaggle of influencers turned up and started their poses, videos etc. Clearly trying to make out they were getting on the ship and departing. Was hysterical to watch – check out the weird outfits too.

Finally we set sail so got cleaned up and headed to the main restaurant for dinner and, sadly to say, this was the worst meal of the trip. Or rather I chose badly. We absolutely loved the soup so had that for starters then I chose a Vietnamese dish off the ‘local’ menu. OMG it was so strongly flavoured with ginger it nearly made me cry….got Richard to taste it too just in case it was me and he said he couldn’t eat it either. When I put my spoon and fork down the waiter rushed over to check and I said, sorry, not to my taste. At this point he wanted to feed me so bad but I resisted everything on offer (it took a couple of glasses of water to even get rid of the taste) but eventually gave in to some hand-made chocolates at the end of the meal LOL

Monday was another day at sea where we backtracked down the coast of Vietnam towards Nha Trang. We had a leisurely breakfast in the main restaurant and then spent the day by the pool – but it was very windy and chilly although, thankfully, it had stopped raining. But we perserved and, when we got too cold, we just went and sat in the jacuzzi for a while to warm up LOL. We had a Chinese buffet lunch and then gave up on our sunbeds – by which time we had bumped into Robert and Nanette again (not difficult on a ship with capacity for only 392 guests) – so spent a very jolly time in / out of the jacuzzi and in the pool bar keeping hydrated. After resting up in our cabin we had a few drinks in the bar before taking ourselves off to the main restaurant for dinner again. This time I played safe and had a beautiful steak whilst Richard enjoyed the lobster. Again the food was fantastic.

Tuesday morning we awoke to the sounds of the anchor chain being deployed as we had arrived into Nha Trang. As we had to go ashore by tender – the first and only time on this cruise – and needed to be ashore by 8am we decided to have breakfast in our room. So ordered it for 6am and, on the dot, our butler was there with our order. Such a great service, certainly takes the pressure off when you need to be somewhere.

The excursions were very organised – as we were going off via tender – we had to meet up in the show lounge so we could all be taken together and filled up a whole tender with the same tour group. Worked really well. Ashore we met our tour guide, got on the coach and were taken to a local place to pick up our Pedi-Cabs. These are individual (motorised) cycles ridden by locals who took us through the sights and sounds of Nha Trang. OMG it was so funny watching the locals react to us as well as trying to keep an eye on Richard who was ahead of me – most of the time – as his driver was speedier than mine. Although, at the end, he was puffed out and my driver had to push him along instead LOL. Was a real fun excursion.

After getting off our respective pedi-cabs we visited a local market and had a soft drink whilst waiting for everyone else who was clearly spending the last of their Vietnamese currency on anything they could get their hands on LOL. Back to the boat we got the tender that was organised and waiting for us. Back on board we had lunch and sat outside on the deck at La Terrazza for the sailaway (and yes it was raining again). As we pulled away we said our sad farewells to Vietnam. Had been an amazing experience and we definitely would like to return to explore another day.

After lunch we were going to sunbathe and enjoy the pool area but, guess what, it rained hard again. So we decamped to the pool bar and chatted to others while we tried to stay dry. The weather certainly hadn’t been our friend on this trip…..

That evening we went to our final dinner at The Grill and, this time, we used the Hot Rocks to cook our food. Richard’s steak wasn’t too good – think he chose the wrong cut – but mine was fabulous especially twinned with a jacket potato and some salad. Sometimes you just want simple fare!

We decided to have an early night and headed back to our balcony for another night watch before turning in as the ship moved towards our final destination, Singapore.

Wednesday was a sea day – another lumpy one with big seas. We had a leisurely morning doing a bit of packing and planned an afternoon by the pool but, unfortunately, it rained again. Oh well, never mind, time for more laundry LOL. This was our final night at sea and was another formal night – so we headed to the bar and then to dinner with Mo and Jo at La Terrazza. This was lovely and we then headed back to the Observation Lounge for an evening of frivolity. Mo and Jo were determined that we were going to keep the bar open late so we joined in with the karoake and continued partying and dancing to the DJ’s tunes. Was a lot of fun!

And that’s the end of Part 3 of our Far East Adventure. Come back soon for the next instalment.

Jan