I have been a bit slack with maintaining my travel diary – apologies to those of you who have been wondering what has happened!

At Cape Town we boarded the Seabourn Sojourn which was to be our base for the next 70 days. It was a most amazing adventure with many friends from previous cruises on board as well as an opportunity to make new ones.

We left the ship in Durban to fly to Hoedspruit and then drove to Lukimbi Lodge in the Kruger National Park for a three day safari. Our group was only eight people, including our Seabourn escort and we knew five of the six others before we left and quickly bonded into a happy group.

At the end of our time at Lukimbi we had a two hour drive to meet up with the ship in port at Maputo in Mozambique. The crossing from South Africa into Mozambique was very interesting as the passport processing was done using a computer system but the power kept failing every few minutes, always in the middle of a process, which meant it had to start all over again. The process included a fingerprint scan but the equipment was not reliable and my scan was rejected several times and the decision by the operator was that my spirit didn’t want to enter Mozambique so I couldn’t be processed… next in line please! Fortunately a supervisor came to the rescue and we were eventually all processed without the need to pay any extra money – which I suspect was the reason for the failure.

Once on the road again having left the rigors of the border crossing behind us, we were stopped by a police roadblock where an extended conversation occurred between the policewoman and our driver. Once released, our driver explained that she was looking for a “Christmas Present”!

We were not particularly impressed with the town of Maputo as we drove through it on our way to the ship and we got a longer than expected tour because the driver got lost. We tried to help by saying “find the water – the ship will be near that!” but it didn’t help. Once we found the ship there was another very long delay while we went through border control again, in order to leave the country – and this was for only eight people! We were all grateful to get back on board our sanctuary!

Travelling through Mozambique to Maputo was an eye opener.

After leaving the African continent we were to visit Madagascar and Reunion but due to cyclone activity in the area we were unable to stop at either of those places so our next port was Mauritius.

In Mauritius we visited the Grand Bassin Hindu temple and sacred lake and the Seven Coloured Earths,  coloured sand dunes of seven distinct colours.

From Mauritius we had several days at sea before stopping in the Maldives. We had previously visited the Maldives and the best attractions there are the various islands so we elected to stay on board and relax.

Next port was Colombo in Sri Lanka where we did a tour to see the elephants.

Next port was Singapore where we had a major changeover of staff and passengers and then on to Myanmar. We had three days in Myanmar and did forays each day from the ship, which was a challenge because the local infrastructure is not well developed. Myanmar is a most amazing country – very photogenic and the Burmese people are very friendly.

From Myanmar we sailed back to Singapore with a few stops and then around Cambodia and Vietnam, places that we have visited before. We had a day in Halong Bay, Vietnam where the weather was overcast and foggy. We spent the day in a Junk touring around the bay with only our small group on board and had a very pleasant day.

From Halong Bay we went to Hong Kong and then on to the Phillipines. We visited several ports in the Phillipines and were always greeted at the dock with a band, dancers and great celebration.

From the Phillipines we sailed around Borneo, stopping at Kota Kinabulu, Brunei and Kuching and then into Singapore again as our final destination.

An amazing 70 days!!