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In early March 2010, I flew to London to enjoy a couple days of wandering that city on my own -- much familiar from previous visits, but always something new, definitely a favorite cityscape for wandering. It was also a chance to eat some of best Indian curries one can imagine and to venture to the theater to see a campy, over-the-top, rollicking musical Priscilla, Queen of The Desert. Then I moved from an economical little hotel near Gloucester Square tube into a multi-star hotel to begin the tour proper, organized under the umbrella organization Elderhostel. I met up with a small group with whom for the next week I'd go to some London sights and travel a bit in the English countryside to Windsor Castle and its environs and fly onward to Johannesburg, Victoria Falls, and Cape Town. In Cape Town, we'd latch onto a somewhat larger group of 20 or so aboard the British-flagged MV Discovery to sail up the east coast of Africa to the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and into the Red Sea to end finally in Cairo. There -- after delay due to the volcanic activity in Iceland -- I caught flights back home in mid-April. During the tour there were various land excursions, some for the day, some longer -- with travel afoot and by 4-wheel vans, coaches, helicopter, ox cart, horse carriage, tenders, catamarans, and skiffs -- to see the sights.
The following pages of pictures and notes cover people, places, wildlife:
It's a mix. Enjoy!
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NOT in the original tour itinerary!!About 7:30 am on April 3rd, somewhat northwest of the Seychelles, most passengers were on the upper glass-walled deck having breakfast. The ship's public address system broadcast CODE PURPLE alerting crew to an imminent pirate approach. Within moments a speedboat with armed men came alongside toward the aft. By international treaty, law abiding ships in the area -- and their crews -- are not armed. MV Discovery's crew had readied some days before several precautions to prevent boarders. The lower decks at ship's aft had been fortified with coils of barbed wire. Logs hung from railings on ropes ready for quick release onto unwelcome visitors. The lowest deck's crew access stairwells were blocked off. Heavy duty fire hose lay ready for crew members to pump out a barrage of high-pressure water. In moments after the CODE PURPLE, crew members moved us all away from windows and directed us to start to safe areas on interior of ship.[There are pics of some of defenses on the LIFE ABOARD page of this website.] About 10 minutes later, the captain announced that all was well; Veery flares had been fired; the pirates had assessed the ship's preparedness; and the speed boat had departed. As it turned out, the pirates' "mother ship" (probably a captured tuna fishing boat) was barely visible about three miles distant. Coalition forces patrolling further north in the gulf had been alerted. Their presence became manifest as a helicopter arrived to overfly our area of ocean. We later learned our ship's captain had been in constant contact with the allied forces' patrols for some days. The crew acted very professionally and with only one or two exceptions, none of passengers were distraught, though
there was a sense of some extra adrenalin being pumped for a bit. Good humor was out in force. Most of the 550 or so ship's passengers were 60 years or more, and as one British woman noted: "What would they get from us?
Our bus passes and our pension cards?" One of ship's lecturers (Brigadier Hugh Willing) even managed a quick photo of
the speedboat ... the only picture known to exist. He'd not had time to focus, but the photo was rapidly disseminated all around
the ship. |
