Short visit to Tallinn, Estonia

On June 13. a group of 13 guys including me made a visit to Tallinn,on opposite side of Gulf of Finland. Our main target was the new Maritime Museum. The Museum was very impressive, concentrating mainly to their Sovjet history. I later left the group to meet two Estonian very good friends, Sigrid and Kadri, both 39. They picked me up from the Museum,and we then had a nice lunch together, before visiting the TV -tower and having a drink at it's sky bar. I later visited their new beautiful homes to meet their husbands and children, before joining the other guys, with some comments, onboard the fast ferry of Linda-Line.

Comments of my last World Cruise

I have been too lazy or busy to write my opinions earlier. The length of the cruise was principally ok. However my first and last that long one. The best things were absolutely great sunny weather almost all 82 days and the marvellous Philippine waitresses onboard. We enjoyed many great harbours but we had to be mostly back onboard at 4-5 pm. Only in Hong Kong, Sydney and Cape Town we could enjoy the night life. The English Kitchen was not very much of my taste. I did not gain any kilos or pounds during this trip. Too late I found out that using Room Service Menu you got good food specially made for you. Most of the passengers were my age or even from the 30's. Among the Australians were the much younger ones but they participated on short legs only. Anyhow I met some very nice English people too, and was invited to private parties. A big disappointment was that we couln't go to Seychelles because of possible threat of terrorists and pirates. However I mostly was happy and in good mood during that cruise over the Sea of China, Pacific, Indian Ocean and Atlantic .

St.Helena, Tenerife, Madeira and Vigo

On Monday, April 16. we were at St.Helena waters a few hundred meters away from fast land. One tender with Deputy Captain was sent to study the possibilities to go ashore, but unfortunately, as widely expected, the conditions at the small tender dock were too rough and for great disappointment we could not but just circumnavigate the volcanic island of about 4000 inhabitants. That took two hours,and we did continue to sail towards Tenerife of Canary Islands. After eigth days at the sea, on Sunday, April 22., we got fast land under our feet in Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife. When walking a while on a boulevard near the harbour, I found a nice cafe with a big TV-screen to watch the Formula I - race. To my great pleasure the Finnish pilot, Kimi Räikkönen finished second. Soon afterwards we had to be onboard again heading towards Funchal, Madeira, to where we arrived next morning. I only had one wish when in Funchal, to find an excellent fish restaurant. With Bill, an English-Australian friend we just strolled trough the city, and found at the seaside an old yacht, once owned by The Beatles. It was cemented on shore, and would never sail again, instead it had an marvellous kitchen and we got both a very tasty unknown fish, recommended to us with a bottle of wine, white for Bill, red for me. A couple of hours later we started to sail to our last port of the cruise, Vigo in north-west Spain.On Wednesday morning, April 25. Vigo was first a bit rainy , but when I left the ship, the sun, naturally, came out. I was walking around this medieval city until I got thirsty and found a nice place on a plaza to get a couple cold Spanish beers. Suddenly Bill and his Australian lady friend popped out behind the corner and joined me. I already knew where the restaurants for," Mariscos y Pescados ", good sea fruits were and did succesfully orientate directly trough unknown narrow streets of the old town just to the spot. After oysters Bill and I had difficulties to decide if Portuguese or Spanish fish was more delicate. Next day we had our last day at the sea crossing the Bay of Biscay ang English Channel before berthing on April 28. at the Mayflower Cruise Terminal in Southampton. I still shall later give my overall comments and impressions concern this World Cruise.

Cruising Zambezi and leaving Africa

That same afternoon after lunch and a couple of relaxing hours we left with two speed boats for Zambezi river cruise. Very soon our guide spotted a group of big African elephants. We drove slowly near the the river bank to look and to make photos of those great animals. Suddenly we could hear a strong noise from the bushes, and a huge old masculin leader of the herd came trough to our sight, cutting the trees maybe just 20 meters away. He did not care of us, and ate peacefully the leaves of the trees. We then continued with full speed up and down the river with a series of 2 grade rapids, seeing some more elephants and funny looking old steam boats like "African Queen". Those ships were on their daily sunset cuises. We as well enjoyed the fantastic sunset before returning to our lodge to have some cocktails and delicious dinner. Later we still sat in the beach bar at two log fires until midnight Next morning we left for two and half hours safari before heading to the airport. We wanted to see some rhinos, but then we were informed that they were some miles away in the bush and the jeeps couldn't get there. We were too lazy or too exhausted and decided not to try to walk there. Then our visit at Sussi and Chuma Lodge was finished but with beautiful memories. I can recommend to anybody this gorgeous place, its very friendly people and the total character of this part of Africa. During that afternoon we had a nice flight to Johannesburg, where we spent the evening with great dinner, and the night in luxurious five star " THe Westcliff Hotel" overlooking the city. Next afternoon after a flight from Johannesburg and our great adventure, we arrived Walvis Bay in Namibia, where we boarded m/v Arcadia again to continue the cruise.

Victoria Falls in Zambia

On April 11. we decided to go in very best time of the day to the mighty Victoria Falls, not far away, in the morning, after a very nice breakfast at Sussi and Chuma. By the way, Sussi and Chuma were the two young faithful servants of Dr.David Livingstone, who carried his body from the jungles, after his death, back to England. We were lucky with the beautiful weather and with the owerflowing Zambezi river. We walked about 2,5 km along the river banks looking the water masses "the Smoke that Thunders" falling down about 100 meters to lower Zambezi. Without waterproof ponchos we had been soaking wet. Because of the sunshine we also got fantastic photos of rainbows over the falls.The trip took around three hours, and was a fantastic experience. On the way back to our lodges, we followed some safari routes seeing a lot of impalas, baboons, giraffes and other animals and one crocodile.

Sussi and Chuma Safari Game Lodge at Zambesi river in Zambia

Very early on Tuesday, April 10. a small group of us (9) flew from Cape Town via Johannesburg to Livingstone in Zambia. We arrived early afternoon at Tambo International Airport from where we were transported to our very fantastic Sussi and Chuma Safari Game Lodge. A nice lunch with perfect personal service was waiting there for us. I had a beautiful round tree cottage including everything you could wish for ,standing on poles about three meters high with a large balcony facing the Zambesi river. All meals and drinks even laundry was included. We had then time about three hours to relax before leaving for a evening safari. I spent those hours alone at the beach bar just a couple of meters away from the river banks, looking the strong current of the partly one mile wide Upper Zambesi and sipping some good South African red wine. Later on the safari of three hours we went with two cars different routes, and our guide found more different animals than the other one.Lots of impalas, a group of buffalos, huge giraffe just a couple a meters away, a hippo, some zebras, lots of baboons and other apes and many other animals, whose names I cannot remember and a array of strange birds. When back at Sussi and Chuma we had a delicious dinner with drinks ,of course. Afterwards I joined two German couples at the beach bar with open fire under African stars until midnight.

Durban , Port Elisabeth and Cape Town , South Africa

On Friday April 6. we were in Durban, which is a very important harbour city. We were warned by ships guide to be very careful there when moving independently around. I had met earlier a very nice Swedish couple Gunnar + wife, who had joined the ship in Sydney until Cape Town, and we had agreed to go together to explore the city. We took ship*s shuttle to a huge shopping centre from where we with the help of a friendly parking attendant got a cab to downtown. After sightseeing we left the taxi at the magnificent beach front and strolled along to find ourselves very soon thirsty and hungry. We enjoyed very good lunch in a nearby hotel restaurant with fantastic service. Our young waitress kept us laughing all the time. We then satisfied returned by taxi to the ship. After one day at the sea we were early in the Sunday morning in Port Elisabeth. Our shuttles brought us to a amusement and restaurant park, where I with my Australian/English friend Bill from Sydney soon found a great place to dine and enjoy the wine. After very many sunny and warm days we now had a slightly rainy and cooler day, which did not disturb us a bit. Next day, late afternoon we saw Table Mountain and Lions Head from the sea, when nearing Cape Town. There were no clouds in the sky and I got very good pictures of the city profile. The evening I spent by myself in a nice steak house at the Water Front preparing my self to a very early wake up call, to leave for Zambia.