En Route to Fremantle, Australia

During our seven days at sea traveling to Australia, a 3150-mile journey, we will be sailing through the Central Indian Basin with water over 13,000 feet deep. We will also be crossing the Broken Ridge, an oceanic plateau stretching for approximately 750 nautical miles, and the 90^th meridian, which divides the Indian Ocean into the East and West Indian Ocean.

Trying not to focus on the depth of water under the ship, for the next few days I’ll be writing about life on board the ship (the subjects in no particular order).

Passengers

The Queen Elizabeth holds approximately 2000 passengers. Sailing from Southampton, the passengers were from all over the world, with the majority being from the U.K. and Australia, followed by 149 Germans, and just over 100 passengers from the U. S. Approximately 200 of the passengers will be on the ship for the full voyage, returning to Southampton. 

When we arrived in Cape Town, many of the passengers got off in Cape Town with the intention of traveling to Victoria Falls before heading on to other places or home. At the same time, a number of Australians joined the ship.

We’ve met some very nice people from many countries, including the two couples we share a table with at dinner. To my disappointment, we haven’t met many Americans. This voyage may not have attracted the interest of a lot of Americans because of the added expense of flying to England to meet the ship.

On one occasion an older lady asked me if I was Canadian. When I said that I was an American, she looked surprised as though I had just announced that I had come from Mars. She didn’t know what to make of that, not expecting to find Americans on the ship. We did briefly talk to one American couple and discovered that we live within about five miles of each other. That was two weeks ago, and we haven’t crossed paths since then.

If I had to guess, I would say the average age of the passengers is 75, if not older. We are continually amazed at the determination of many of the passengers who have severe mobility limitations, some even traveling alone. This might be an older crowd, but they have lots of energy and an interest in seeing the world. They also are quite knowledgeable and provide keen competition at the trivia quizzes held all over the ship.

Most of the people are polite and thoughtful. One couple really impressed us. After doing laundry, John discovered one of my new SmartWool socks was missing. He felt bad about losing it since they had been a Christmas gift from my daughter and very good quality. Later, in the Lido buffet, he saw the older couple who had used the dryer after him and asked them if they had found it. The woman said that she hadn’t folded her laundry yet but would look and let him know.

While we were eating dinner the man approached us with three socks and asked if one of them was ours. None of them were, but we were so impressed that he had gone back to his cabin four decks below to check. A few minutes later, he approached us again, this time holding the sock. He had gone back to the laundry room to check again and found it in the dryer. We couldn’t believe how kind this elderly man was. He said he knew the value of a missing item. He was of an age and probably lived during a time when the loss of something as simple as a sock could have been a great loss. How fortunate we were to meet someone like that.

Crew

Members of the crew come from over 50 countries—a majority of them from the Philippines (nearly 600), including Kenneth, our cabin attendant, and Ronald, our waiter at dinner. We find them to be very sweet and friendly people. They sign on each year for a nine month or so contract and work everyday during that time, with an occasional break to go ashore. It is a hard life, with many of them leaving their families for long periods of time. In recent years, more women have begun working on cruise ships and are getting to see the world.

Misc. 

With long days at sea, we have lots of scheduled activities to keep us occupied, which I’ll write more about later. Today we heard another excellent lecture by Gloria Barnett, who calls herself the Wild Fish Lady, a title given to her by one of her young students. Again she showed some fantastic photos she took while deep sea diving all over the world. She said her favorite place to dive is the Philippines because of the variety of marine life. She only shows photos she herself has taken, but she highly recommended searching YouTube for “Spiny Lobster Migration.” She said it shows how the spiny lobsters join together to travel to deeper water along the Florida coast during rough weather and is quite amusing.

She also showed videos she took of the variety of fish we saw at the Two Oceans Aquarium—the one with the huge lips. The fish feeds by pushing its lips out of its mouth attached to a long white tube several inches long to suck in smaller fish with the misfortune of swimming by. It was like lips on the end of a vacuum cleaner hose. Really strange.

She talked about things we can all do to help protect the oceans and also about the 14-year-old boy who invented a device that has the potential of ridding the oceans of plastic. So there is hope for our oceans.

The Republic of Mauritius

Mauritius lies about 600 miles off the coast of Africa. It covers an area of 720 square miles and is just north of the Topic of Capricorn. Arab sailors knew of the island as early as the 10^th century. The Portuguese were latecomers, arriving in 1507, followed by the Dutch, the French, and then the British. The Dutch named the island in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau, the Stadtholder of the Netherlands. No matter where you go on the island, you see remnants of each of these societies and now the Hindu influence. Mauritius became independent from the U.K in 1968.

Ethnically, the majority of the 1.2 million inhabitants is Indian, with African, European and Chinese minorities. The Mauritians have a saying, “One Island, Many People.” They have 15 public holidays on which everyone celebrates the religious holidays of all the people on the island, as well as Chinese New Years, and the day slavery was abolished.

Because of the mix of ethnic groups and languages, children are taught three languages by the age of three. At age five other languages are added. English is the official language for the administration of the island, even though only about one percent of the islanders speak English.

Tourism is the main industry, with approximately one million tourists visiting Mauritius each year. Other major industries are textiles, sugar/rum production, and fishing. Chinese fishing vessels were docked in the harbor. The Chinese fish in the Indian Ocean and process the fish in Mauritius under the brand name Princes, which we see in the U.S.

Mauritius was the only home of the now extinct Dodo bird. The birds couldn’t fly and became easy targets for hunters. Within eighty years of the arrival of the first settlers, the Dodo became extinct. The Mauritians have become forward thinking now and are constructing solar-powered buildings and have banned plastic bags.

When we got off the ship, we were greeted by some local dancers and rainfall.

Mauritian Greeting

Hearing that Mauritius is well known for its scenic beauty, we took the Southern Delights tour, which focused on the southwestern end of the island. Our first stop was at a dormant (not dead) volcano, now filled with water. The locals appear not to be concerned that it could erupt at any time since many of them are building million dollar homes close to the top of the crater. Perhaps they get a false sense of security because the whole area is covered in vegetation and it doesn’t look like a volcano crater. Mauritius has 24 dead volcanoes, and these people are building on the only one that can erupt again. Hmm.

Near the viewing platform for the volcano, we came across several dogs sleeping right in the middle of the path. The poor dogs looked rather thin. I overheard someone say that stray dogs roaming the island are a real problem. The dogs weren’t letting anything disturb them, and they didn’t bother anyone.

Our next stop was at Grand Bassin, a lake formed inside a volcanic crater. To the Hindu people it is holy, and a Hindu temple sits next to the lake. During the first week in March, approximately 400,000 Hindus on the island gather there for a four-day festival. Volunteers give the pilgrims food and drink as they make their way by foot to the lake. The pilgrims bring food and flowers as an offering, which they place on small cement tables around the lake. After blessing the items with the holy water, they take half home and leave half as an offering—much to the delight of the monkeys who live nearby and gather the fruit. (We were warned to be aware of the monkeys, which can be quite aggressive.) The pilgrims also collect water from the lake to take home. They pour the holy water over the statue of the god Shiva to cleanse it since Hindus believe that Shiva absorbs the poisons of the world.

Grand Bassin

Near the lake and temple stand the mammoth statues (100 feet tall) of Shiva and Durga, two of the Hindu gods. The statues stand on either side of the road leading to the temple. The statue of Durga is still under construction and covered with scaffolding.

Shiva

Durga

Along our tour route we passed fields of pineapples, Arabica coffee bean plants, and sugarcane. Pineapples grow at the top of the pineapple plant, so it looked like a field of pineapples lined up. Tea and vanilla plantations are all over the island, but we didn’t get to see any. We were surprised to see simple Morning Glories sitting among the more exotic flowers.

Our excellent tour guide, Sandeep, pointed out groves of lychee trees and palm trees grown for hearts of palms eaten in salads. He called them millionaire palms since they take eight years to grow just to harvest the small “heart.” Next time I have a salad served with hearts of palms, I’ll have a greater appreciation of it. Another variety of palm on the island is the Talipot Palm, which is said to flower once every 100 years and then dies. It’s rough being a palm on Mauritius. We passed a few gigantic palm trees and discovered that they were communications towers disguised to look like palm trees.

Later, we were served lunch high in the mountains overlooking the Black River Gorges National Park—one of the deepest gorges in Mauritius. A sign nearby the restaurant read Touché de Bois (which was either the name of the restaurant or the shop next to it). The restaurant was an open wooden structure, more like a large porch or tree house, which gave us wonderful views of the surrounding mountains and gorges. While we were sitting there, cool breezes flowed through the open sides, along with a few birds. Heavy rain was falling in the distance.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch along with the local beer, Phoenix—both made even better by the scenery. Since Sandeep said that the locals drink either bottled water or boil their water, I opted for the beer. Better to be safe than sorry. At least that was my excuse.

The local beers are Three Horses and Phoenix. Our resident beer/wine taster wasn’t impressed with the Phoenix, saying it was rather weak for his taste. I thought it was good. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a chance to try Three Horses.

View of Black River Gorges National Park from the Restaurant

Near the village of Chamarel, we visited a field that contained mounds of blue, green, purple, violet, brown, red, and yellow earth. The mineral content of the dirt causes the different colors. Sandeep said that the mounds never erode, even after heavy rain, and that if you mix the dirt, it will eventually separate into layers of individual colors. Nearby we also saw several giant tortoises.

Our last stop was at the Chamarel waterfall. The flow of water wasn’t very wide, but it was quite dramatic falling into a deep gorge. The hike up the hill to get a better view of it just about did me in, but it was worth it.

Chamarel Waterfall

Later, some of the passengers reported that they enjoyed their tour, which took them to a luxury beach resort. Other tours available included a nature safari, tours of the island by quad bikes, and visits to tea plantations. Passengers would have gotten to see spectacular scenery regardless of which tour they took. Some people also walked into the town and visited many of the local cathedrals and other historic buildings.

We can understand why one million people visit Mauritius each year. It was worth the visit. According to Mark Twain, “Mauritius was created before paradise came into being, and served as an example for the latter.”

Next, seven straight days at sea.

Reunion, France

After three days at sea sailing though heavy wind, fog, and rain, we looked forward to our arrival at Reunion. Fortunately, we’ve gotten our sea legs, so the rougher seas haven’t affected us. It is, however, a bit of a challenge taking a shower when the ship is being tossed from side to side. The winds have been so heavy at times the open decks have been closed to passengers.

The weather has disappointed those passengers wanting to sunbathe on the decks. Some are determined to have time on the decks regardless of the conditions. One day we looked out to see a woman on the back deck sitting in the hot tub in the pouring rain. 

Each day at noon, the captain addresses the passengers over a PA system. She gives the location of the ship, makes important announcements for passengers, and covers anything she thinks would be of interest. Recently, she said that we were sailing through the south equatorial current and talked about the large island of garbage that is floating in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It was discovered in 2010 and apparently is so large it would take six years for an item on the floating island to do a complete rotation of the mass. Fortunately, we didn’t come in contact with it on our route to Reunion.

Reunion is located 115 miles southwest of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The islands of Reunion, Mauritius, and nearby Rodrigues were named the Mascarene Islands after explorer Pedro de Mascarenhas. If you guessed he was Portuguese, you’d be right. Seeing a pattern here?

The people of Reunion, the Reunionese, are French citizens, and their official language is French. However, Creole is the everyday language used. The island is known for its scenic beauty with its lush vegetation and soaring mountains, which were formed by the volcanic activity that created the island. It still has an active volcano, Piton de la Fournaise. A major eruption in 1986 increased the size of the island. It last erupted in August 2015, and we hoped it wouldn’t hiccup while we were there.

Worth noting, Reunion is where a large piece of aircraft was recently recovered. It is thought to be from the Malaysian Airlines plane that went missing in the Indian Ocean last year.

When we arrived at Reunion about 9:00 a.m. and stepped out onto the deck, a wave of hot air and intense sunshine hit us. Suddenly those cool days of wind and fog sounded appealing.

We slathered ourselves with sunblock, grabbed wide-brimmed hats, and set out to see the island. After a long wait for the shuttle (I think half the ship decided to go at the same time), we found ourselves traveling the 30 minutes it would take us to get to St. Gilles les Bains, a seaside resort area. We had planned to travel to St. Denis, the largest city on Reunion, but the shuttle only went to St. Gilles, and the taxi fare to St. Denis was about $60 one way. A day at the beach suddenly sounded heavenly.

Cunard offered a number of very interesting sounding tours, but with John recovering from his cough, we hadn’t booked any not knowing how he would be feeling. By the time he felt better, all the tours of Reunion had been sold out. So any readers traveling to Reunion by ship in the future should book tours early. They sell out quickly.

Since Reunion is a French island, security was high (because of the recent attacks in Paris), and we were searched both coming into and leaving the dock area. Tourism on Reunion is growing, but currently most of the tourists are from France.

Us Trying to Look Like French Tourists (and failing)

Along the wide motorway we traveled, we passed soaring mountains with wide fissures (gorges, canyons, valleys, or whatever they call the breaks in the mountains here). Houses appeared well up into the mountains, some awfully close to the edges of those gorges.

We also passed beautiful flowering shrubs, interesting architecture, large billboards (some recruiting for the French Navy), new and used car showrooms and, unfortunately, lots of graffiti—a sad blight on a beautiful island. The local fast food restaurant chain is appropriately called “Quick,” and a building supply store (like Home Depot), is called “Mr. Bricolag.” Cities and towns across the world are becoming so much alike.

Like most seaside towns, the roads leading into the beach area were backed up with bumper-to-bumper traffic—everyone trying to get to the sand and surf. After all, it was summer here.

The beach was a short distance from where the shuttle dropped us off. We came upon the local post office unexpectedly and stopped for some stamps. We found postcards nearby, wrote them out and mailed them then and there. It couldn’t have been easier than that. Most times we find ourselves trying to find cards, and then asking locals where we can find a post office for stamps. We forgot to bring along our address book, so we won’t be sending out many cards. So, to all our family and friends, “Hello from Reunion.”

Close by, we found a lovely outdoor café right at the water’s edge and stopped for a beer for John and a cappuccino for me. It was a pleasure to sit under an umbrella and enjoy cool ocean breezes on such a hot day and take time to appreciate the beautiful scenery. It was an area enjoyed by locals, and we watched children playing in the surf.

St. Gilles appears to be a beautiful beach for swimming, with a safe area in the water roped off. Although there wasn’t a beach house to change, a public restroom (toilet) is next to the post office and, in a pinch, could be used to change clothes.

Seafront of St. Gilles les Bains

 

When we got up to leave, I stumbled on a cement block holding up the umbrella at our table and reached out to steady myself. The thing I grabbed to keep from falling ended up being the bare back of the man sitting behind me. Not the best way to get to know the locals, especially that well.

We walked on a long covered wooden bridge that connected one area of the beach to another and down several of the side streets. The vehicles parked along the roadside were an interesting mix of French cars and a lone Chevrolet.

Covered Bridge

It was getting hotter with each hour. We walked back to the main road in town intending to visit the nearby church, which had an unusual bell tower. As we approached it, we saw the air-conditioned shuttle waiting nearby. We looked at the church, then at the shuttle. The shuttle won out.

Church and Bell Tower

Later at dinner, two of our tablemates, Beverly and John, retired teachers from California, told us about the tour they had opted for—traveling to the crater of an ancient volcano (not the active one). After a long trek along winding roads to a mountain top 7,000 feet above sea level, they arrived at the crater to find it covered in thick fog—they saw nothing. They were quite disappointed, especially after that long ride. We’ve discovered that fog is a condition that you frequently run into along coastlines with mountains, especially on islands. We’re glad we ended up at the beach.

Tomorrow, the Republic of Mauritius

En Route to Reunion

Sunday Mornings at Sea

On British ships it is tradition that the captain conducts a Christian service. Since there wasn’t a Catholic priest onboard to conduct mass, I attended the Traditional Maritime Church Service, conducted by Captain Thorhauge. People of any Christian denomination would have found things in the service familiar to their own worship service. We sang some very traditional British hymns, but the one that always tugs at my heart was “Eternal Father,” or in the U.S., “The Navy Hymn.”

The captain announced that contributions to the collection box outside the Royal Court Theater would benefit maritime charities and that any country’s currency would be welcomed. It’s a good way for passengers to put to good work the odd bits of money they have left over from their last port, which would only clutter up drawers at home.

Later that afternoon, an Anglican priest, one of the passengers, conducted a communion service. A Jewish Sabbath Eve worship service is scheduled for Friday evenings. However, the schedule asked for a guest to lead the service. So other than the captain’s service, any other religious group is dependent on a clergymen being among the passengers.

On my way to the service, I came across a tiny, elderly woman holding a schedule in her hand, looking as though she needed some help finding her way. When I asked her if she was looking for the church service, she replied, “Oh, no, I’m looking for the pub.”

Golden Lion Pub

Leaving the theater at 11:00 a.m., I passed the large clock that sits at the top of a grand staircase and heard it sound Westminster chimes (the familiar chimes sounded by Big Ben). Nearby the Golden Lion pub and a British phone box. No matter where you go on this ship, you never feel you are far from Britain.

Clock Staircase

One of the best features of being onboard a Cunard vessel is the Insights Lecture programs, where experts in a variety of fields give lectures on sea days. Today, Gloria Barnett, an experienced sea diver and teacher, gave the first of several lectures about the ocean world.

www.worldbeneaththewaves.com

Being on the ocean, and having just spent hours at the Cape Town Two Oceans Aquarium, I was thrilled to see this program announced. Ms. Barnett’s presentation, which more than likely was based on her teaching course material, was excellent. This series may be as good as taking Oceanography 101 (without any of the exams). Ms. Barnett had a great sense of humor, was understandable, and provided excellent slides.  

She talked about the origins of water on earth (ice comets hitting the earth 3.8 billion years ago), how much of the earth’s surface is covered by water (70 percent), how the oceans control our weather systems, and how plankton supplies 50-80 percent of the Earth’s oxygen—all things that point to how important the oceans are to life on this planet. She pointed out the marine life that lives at the various depths in the ocean, and that only three explores have ever reached the lowest levels. She also noted that the Indian Ocean has some of the deepest levels, which I didn’t find comforting as we are now crossing that ocean. I’m looking forward to the next lecture in her series.

The other speaker for this segment will be a former Concorde pilot. We have had speakers who talked about military history; famous popular composers and performers like Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and Ella Fitzgerald; famous criminal cases in Britain presented by a retired policeman; and a popular British woman sports commentator.

Speaking of oceans, when we left Cape Town about midnight, we rounded the Cape of Good Hope and later Cape Agulhas, the most southerly tip of Africa and the dividing line between the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. The currents created by the meeting of the two oceans gave us quite a bumpy ride during the night. If we had sailed during dinner as we usually do, the dishes would have been flying off the tables.

We are currently traveling northeast along the coast of Africa, no longer traveling south. We’ve also begun to lose an hour of time about every second night as we travel east. According to the captain, the current flowing between nearby Mozambique and Madagascar creates rough waters.  

We’re in for another rocky ride tonight.

Note: There is a lag of time between when we actually visit a place and when I get the blog entry written and posted. So if you are following our route by the date on our itinerary, don’t get confused.