Three days and counting…We’ve accumulated too much “stuff!”…

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This is Bossy’s baby who may be a boy with a lumpy structured forehead that will eventually have a full set of horns that last a lifetime.

I am busy sorting and packing, deciding what to leave behind for when we return, what to throw away, what to pack in our bags, and carry-on. Tom packs all of his clothes and digital equipment, and zillions of power cords. But, as always, which he prefers, he doesn’t start until the day before we leave.

Since I am the cook, I prefer to pack all the kitchen items we’re leaving behind since we aren’t taking any of those items with us. Also, Louise provided us with many household goods from her inventory,  and we are sorting and keeping those separate to return to her. It’s been a daunting task.

Bossy arrived with three young calves. She was on babysitting duty.

Usually, when we’re moving out of a holiday home, we only have to pack our clothes, toiletries, and equipment. But, this time, it feels like another time in my life, many moons ago, when moving from one house to another. Every cupboard, drawer, and cabinet in this house has our “stuff” in it.

It’s not as if we did a monthly run to Costco, loading up on inventory of household goods. But, over the 14 months, we’ve spent in this house, we accumulated enough to make packing more challenging this time. I have run out of room in the two plastic totes I borrowed from Louise, and she, too, is also out of empty containers. Soon, we are heading to the hardware store to see if we can find a few more bins.

Two youngsters were fussing over one another.

As for leftover food, we are in great shape. We will have used every frozen item and all meats by tomorrow night. Tuesday, we’re dining out with Louise and Danie on our last night. Tonight and tomorrow night, we’ll be eating grilled chicken breasts with sausages, green beans, rice (for Tom), and salad. We’re using all of our eggs and bacon. Since we don’t snack, we don’t have leftover chips and other snack bags to toss.

The few things left in the fridge, such as unopened butter, cheese, sour cream, and a few condiments, we’ll give to Zef and Vusi. Plus, I have accumulated a pile of clothing for their wives and daughters in good condition, which they may or may not be able to use.

It was tricky getting the three young kudus in one photo.

Shortly after returning from the local hardware store, unable to find any large plastic containers, Vusi showed up at the door with another large empty tote. Louise emptied it so we could use it. That’s her! She’s always thinking of everyone else. They are such great friends and the best property managers in the world. We know from experience!

We enjoy our wildlife friends in the garden even though it’s a school holiday and the park is packed with tourists. We couldn’t believe the number of tourists at the shops, the water park at the Bush Centre, and the restaurants. At these holiday times, we don’t often see many animals. But these boys and girls know, after 14 months, which “side their bread is buttered on.” Pellets are still offered in abundance.

Here’s all three of them together. Kudus are very social animals.

We have over two 40 kg, 88 pounds bags of pellets left to use before we go in three days. Certainly, we’ll have no trouble getting them tossed into the garden in the next few days.

Our flight from Nelspruit/Mpumalanga/Kruger Airport is at 6:30 pm, 1830 hrs, so we don’t have to leave here on Wednesday until about 3:00 pm, 1500 hrs, leaving us plenty of time to drive the problematic N4 highway, in the event of any unforeseen slowdowns.

Are we excited about our upcoming visit with Karen and Rich in Apollo Beach, Florida? Absolutely! We missed their wedding due to Omicron, and it will be fantastic to spend time with them at their oceanfront home. As for the two cruises, we’re very excited to be cruising again and surely will enjoy both Atlantic crossings on two very different ships.

Bossy and the three babies.

Then, of course, we’re excited to spend time with our adult kids, grandchildren, Tom’s siblings, and hopefully, my sister Julie (who may come from LA) in Minnesota and then off to Las Vegas/Henderson, Nevada, to see son Richard and his girlfriend. If time allows, we hope to see some of the many friends we left behind in 2012 when we began to travel.

Thanks to many of our readers who have written to wish us safe travels. Finally, you’ll be able to read and see photos of something other than wild animals in our garden! They never bore us, but they may have become “old news” to all of you.

We hope you have a pleasant Sunday. We’ll be back tomorrow with more!

Photo from one year ago today, March 20, 2021:

These three warthogs, whom we’ve named Bennie, Hennie, and Lennie, visit several times a day. But in the past several months we haven’t seen them together. For more photos, please click here.

Four days and counting…Busy packing the house…

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Look how swollen Big Daddy’s neck signifies he’s ready to mate. Amazing!!!

The only time since we began traveling in 2012 that we stayed in one property for over a year was here in Marloth Park when I had heart surgery, and we didn’t leave for 15 months, the final three of which I spent recovering to become well enough to travel.

Now, during times of the pandemic, we will have lived here for 14 months due to many travel restrictions in force all over the world. We would have left sooner had it been a little easier to travel. In the past 14 months, we left, once to Zambia for a week and another time to the US for a  month.

On another occasion, we’d booked an exciting trip to Kenya, which was canceled due to Covid-19. Is it any wonder we were hesitant to book anything when we’d already lost so much money due to the pandemic in the past two years? In many cases, we got most of the money back, but it required hours and hours of phone calls, documentation,  and applying pressure to the providers to give us a refund.

We became weary of all of these issues. We’re facing another possible cancellation on the cruise scheduled to travel to Ukraine. We’ve decided we won’t accept the Black Sea price to swap out for the Greek Islands. We’ve done that route in the past, and we’re not willing to pay twice as much as other such cruises are charging right now.

What a handsome animal!!!

We’ve been watching opinions from other passengers on that cruise via cruisecritic.com. They feel like us. They want their money back. If we apply for the refund now, we will get 100% of what we paid, applied to a future cruise which must be used by the end of 2022 or one year from the original cruise date, whichever is later. That may not work for us. We’d be happy to have them apply the funds to the other cruises we have booked with Azamara.

However, if enough passengers cancel, the cruise line will cancel the cruise. According to Azamara’s cancellation policy, if they cancel a cruise, we’d get 125% of the cost of the cruise as a future credit since it’s only a 600 passenger cruise with most likely only 500 passengers that would account for approximately 250 cabins.

Thus, instead of canceling now, we will wait a few weeks and see if the cruise line cancels. We’ll receive a 100% credit for everything we’ve already paid in advance to Costco Travel in the worst case. Whew!

As for the packing, after living in this house for so long, the packing is more complicated than usual. Since we are returning before too long, we are leaving the non-perishable kitchen items in a big tote. Also, we’re leaving some clothing that we won’t need on the cruises or in the US to lighten the load.

I fed him an entire bag of whole large carrots. He inhaled them in seconds. He was quite thrilled with the treat.

We are allowed two 23 kg (50 pounds) bags each. We will each bring our largest bag, the yellow supply bag, one duffle bag along with two carry-on bags for me, and the computer bag for Tom. We’ll have to pay baggage fees on the US flights (one to Minneapolis and the other to Las Vegas). There’s nothing we can do about that.

After all, we’ll be sailing on two very distinct cruises in the next six weeks, and we’ll need different clothes for each, although some everyday items will work for both voyages.

That’s it for today, folks. Enjoy your weekend!

Photo from one year ago today, March 19, 2021:

This is a monitor lizard that Tom spotted while driving. It happened so quickly I had to take the photo through the windshield. For more photos, please click here.

Now we know about the changes to the cruise to Ukraine…Decisions for the future…

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Zebra on the veranda!

This morning at 5:00 am, we received an email from Azamara explaining the new itinerary changes excluding Russia and Ukraine. It has changed as follows. To see, you must click the following link.

ON_29_June_2022_ItineraryChange

The cruise is still priced as expensive as the original Black Sea cruise, which we’d been willing to pay for since this was a long-desired itinerary since we began traveling. This new itinerary doesn’t appeal to us. We’ve already done a cruise to the Greek Islands, thoroughly enjoying it but not interested in repeating that past itinerary. We’d booked the back-to-back to Greece because we wanted to extend the long-awaited Black Sea cruise.

Zebra’s tails appear to be braided, but obviously, they are not.

Now, with the Black Sea out of the question due to the war in Ukraine, we aren’t interested in the second leg. Thus, we’ve decided to cancel this cruise and the back-to-back second leg (again the Greek Islands) we’d booked for 21 nights. We have to call Costco Travel to do this, and the only time we can call in is at night due to the time difference. Each time we call, we’ve been on hold for at least an hour.

This morning, there was a message on Costco Travel’s website stating they were recovered today from a phone outage yesterday and waiting times will be longer than usual…what??? Longer than one hour on hold? No thanks. We’ll wait a few days and call. We could cancel online, but we’d lose our deposits.

The only way we can be assured the amounts we paid in full for these two cruises of US $14,923, ZAR 223257 is to call and ask them to contact Azamara, explaining we want to cancel due to the unforeseen itinerary changes and have the funds transferred to our other upcoming cruises starting in November 2022. This can’t be accomplished online.

Zebras love pellets, as do most of the mammals in the wild.

When booking through a travel agency such as Costco Travel or Vacations-to-Go, the cruise line requires all changes handled through the booking agency, not through the cruise line itself. Otherwise, we’d call Azamara ourselves.

So with these changes, we’re back to May 22 when our time in Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada ends, and we need to decide where we’ll go until the next cruise sails in November, which is a full six months. When we peruse the world map and consider places we’ve been and places we’d like to go, we find issues due to damage done to the economy of many countries due to two years plus of Covid and the remnants of lockdown and isolation.

We’ve already spent over two years in the South Pacific, visited many significant areas in South America, spent plenty of time in Europe, and had a long, painful time in India. And it goes on and on. Please take a look at our world travel map on the top right side of our page. As you can see, we’ve visited many parts of the world.

After getting their fill of pellets, they wandered off to the front of the house to lounge in the driveway, like Hal and Broken Horn often do.

Sure, we could easily spend the next ten years visiting new places. And we will see new and unusual places. But at this point, we ask ourselves, do we want to go there based on a burning desire or just to go somewhere? With the high prices on fuel with airfare and car rental rates escalating by the hour, where exactly do we want to go?

We aren’t done traveling by any means. There is nowhere in the world we’d like to live permanently right now. But, we have become a bit disillusioned by the outcome of the pandemic and now the war in an area of the world we longed to see. We don’t feel compelled to go anywhere in particular right now. For now, we love cruising, and the more we can do, the better.

So, our focus will be on where we can visit and cruise to fill in some of the blanks in the itinerary we’ve built over the years. Searching and discovering those desirable new places and cruises continues to be exciting and fulfilling. It is from that perspective we continue on our journey. And, of course, we always enjoy our time in South Africa and always will.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 18, 2021:

I could not take the photo of this elephant from the car, and thus, I got out, walked down a narrow, uneven path, and made my way to the fence. For more photos, please click here.

Photos from dinner out with friends…Food photos, too!…Happy St.Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate!…Six days and counting…

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The six of us at Giraffe bar for dinner on Tuesday evening. From left to right: Lynne, Jan, me, Tom Mick and Steve.

Most likely, Tuesday evenings dinner out with friends, Lynne and Mick and Janet and Steve was the last time we gathered with local friends in Marloth Park, except for dinner on Friday night at Jabula with Dawn and Leon, owners of the beautiful establishment, with whom we’ve become good friends over the years.

Dawn and I had our pedicures done at our favorite local spa here in the park while Tom and Leon got together at Jabula to do “guy talk.” I rode back to Jabula with Dawn to find Tom and Leon enjoying uninterrupted guy time when we were done. I joined in on the conversation while Dawn went about some work for the restaurant. It was a pleasant start to the day.

It’s hard to say goodbye to everyone we’ve come to know and love since we first began coming to Marloth Park in 2013, the only place in the world to which we continually return. If someone had asked us years ago if we’d be willing to live without power and water at least several times a month and the occasional failure of WiFi, we would have emphatically stated a resounding “NO!!!”

Lynne and Jan had the chicken schnitzel with creamed spinach and topped with cheese.

But, here we are after over a year of load shedding, most months, with several days without water, and still, we’re coming back for more, a mere nine months from now.

If someone asked if we could spend our days in 100 F, 36C heat with no air-con except in the bedroom, spending daylight hours in the sweltering heat and humidity, we would have again said a resounding, “NO WAY!!! But, here we are in the hot, sticky, tropical climate of summer in Africa, spending our days dripping in sweat, rarely whining over the annoyances and discomforts typical of living in the rugged bush. Who knew that would appeal to us to this degree?

If some asked if we could live with insects, mozzies, and the constant prospect of a snake popping up out of nowhere, we would have flatly refused to visit such a place. But, here we are, 14 months later with all of this, and we’ve been quite content as we were on all of the other occasions we’ve lived in Marloth Park over the past nine years.

My grilled chicken salad with feta cheese and lots of vegetables.

Whether its spending time with the fantastic friends we’ve made or reveling in the exquisite nature of the bush, we’ve genuinely become bush people, not so much in the cruder sense, but in the mind of those who come to Africa and become entrenched in its magic.

It’s not easy to leave, even now, when we are excited about the prospects of the next few months, visiting friends in Florida, family in Minnesota and Nevada, and of course, embarking on two very different types of cruises; one, the first transatlantic on a Celebrity ship, familiar to us in its ambiance, style, food, entertainment, and people and two; sailing back across the Atlantic Ocean on a more formal British cruise line, Cunard on the famous Queen Mary 2. What an adventure after these past few years of relative confinement!

Surely, we’ll miss the animals. And there’s undoubted, a slight hesitation knowing when we return it will be to a different house, a few kilometers from here, where those animals we’ve come to know and love may never find us again such as Little, Broken Horn, Hal, Gordy, Thick Neck, Bossy, The Imposter, Holey Moley, Frank, and The Misses, Chevy, Mom and Babies, Lori and Barbara, One Tusk, Bad Eye, One Wart, Wounded, and the list goes on and on.

Tom, Mick, and Steve had this steak topped with an egg, chips, onion rings, and a small salad.

We may never see them again. But, new relationships with these fantastic beasts will develop in our new location, and we’ll have names for all of them in no time at all.

Many of our human friends won’t be here when we return in December. Some prefer to stay away during the heat and humidity of the summer months with all the above challenges as mentioned above. We can only play it by ear and see who can return.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate and special birthday wishes to RL!

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 17, 2021:

Tiny often lay down while I talked to him and listened attentively, his ears flipping back and forth. When we returned from the US visit n July, he never returned. He could have died of old age or injury, could have been culled, or moved on to another territory when he discovered we were no longer here. For more photos, please click here.

Wild action in the garden…A fight like none other…7 days and counting…

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“How do wildebeest fight?
They follow a series of ritualized actions: bucking, snorting, pawing at the ground, fighting, and grunting in a deep, croaking manner like a frog. The wildebeests will face one another on their knees, foreheads to the ground, ready for combat.”
Typically, wildebeests fight over territory and during the mating season.
Yesterday, while we were outside on the veranda, an unusual sighting occurred. Hal and Broken Horn were visiting the garden simultaneously. We’d seen them arrive at the same time, but in all of those past cases, one of them quickly wandered off. Most often, it was Hal, who is gentle and easy-going.
Broken Horn can be very aggressive with other animals when pellets are around. But, Hal is always willing to share. In this case, we certainly didn’t toss out any pellets when we were fearful they could get into a fight. We carefully avoid tossing any pellets into the garden when we see aggressive animals that may fight over them. We never want to incite hostility among the animals.
When they first arrived, it appeared that everything was going to go well. However, we held off on tossing any pellets to them.
By nature, kudus, zebras, and warthogs may enact aggressive behavior among their species, even on occasion in their own family/friend groups. Generally, this type of behavior is short-lived, resulting in a chase into the bush. Yesterday, it was not the case.
At first, Hal smelled Broken Horn’s butt, and we thought nothing of it. The snorting and pawing at the ground ensued within less than a minute, and the fight began. Dogs do this all the time, and most often, the intent is to determine “who” is in their territory. We’ve seen this behavior among warthogs, but not many other animals.
Stunned and speechless, we watched in horror, fearful one of them would be injured. We saw no evidence of injury during the 15 to 20 minutes they were at it. We quickly realized we needed to make a video, although I anticipated it would be over before I even got started as I grabbed the camera. But, that wasn’t the case. We were easily able to get this video.
Hal then proceeded to sniff Broken Horn’s butt to see if he knew him.
After a while, my arms were tired of holding up the camera, and I stopped. We had to leave the veranda a few times when they were too close to us. We moved inside and watched from the bedroom window, especially as they upset all the boulder edging around the cement pond.
Finally, they ran off to the driveway in a mad chase. We couldn’t see who was chasing who. The only differential in their appearance is Broken Horn’s one broken horn that’s been that way since we’ve known him for the past 14 months.
Later in the day, we headed to Giraffe Bar and Restaurant to meet Lynne and Mick and Janet and Steve for dinner. As always, the six of us had a fantastic time, laughing, talking, and sharing endless stories. In a few weeks, they’ll all return to their other homes in Jersey. Hopefully, we’ll see them at some point after we return in December. Tomorrow, we’ll post photos of all of us and our various dishes.
It didn’t take long for the fight to commence. We knew that something was going to happen once they were on their knees.
As mentioned in our heading, the departure countdown has begun. We leave Marloth Park one week from today. Most of my clothing is packed, Tom’s shirts are all washed, dried, and neatly folded. All I have left to do is pack the kitchen items we’ve purchased since our arrival; spices, unopened condiments, canned coconut cream, coconut oil, and a few pans such as a  non-stick skillet, a muffin tin, and a few roasting pans.
In no time at all, we’ll be good to go.
Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 16, 2021:

Four oxpeckers started working on this female kudu to remove bugs and ticks as her trance-like state began. For more photos, please click here.

Today is our 10 year anniversary of posting!!!…Hard to believe it!…

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Big Daddy is bold coming up onto the veranda. He had to duck his head to get under the roof.

When we first started writing these posts on March 15, 2012 (see the first post here), we never imagined we’d still be doing this 10 years later. Today’s post is #3494. It would have been an easy 365 x 10. Still, in the beginning, we didn’t write every day, and we’ve missed some days due to circumstances beyond our control, such as power and WiFi outages, poor WiFi signals on ships, travel days without access to WiFi, and occasional medical issues.

Ten years? Who knew? When we started traveling seven months after the first post, on Halloween 2012, we thought we might last two to five years, tops. But, here we are, continuing with the same enthusiasm and passion as in the beginning. We aren’t tired of it yet. Its become a way of life.

Any differences in our state of mind is due to how we’ve learned to adapt to unexpected situations with less worry and concern coupled with bundles of resiliency. We realize that many could and have given up being world travel nomads with some of the challenges we’ve encountered.

Warthogs often photobomb!

Along the way, we’ve met countless nomads, like us, but most decided to retire from full-time travel for one reason or another. We don’t judge them for ending the lifestyle. Their circumstances may have changed, or they may have stopped enjoying it after a few years. Several nomads stopped traveling due to health reasons, requiring that they live near their medical providers.

Please let us know if any of our readers have been traveling for more than 10 years. No, we aren’t backpackers, mountain climbers, or even hikers. For that matter. We’re simply two people, now 69 (Tom) and 74 years old (me), budgeting, planning, and thriving in our desire to see as much of the world as we can. We’d love to share stories with you.

We don’t have a so-called “bucket list” or a certain number of countries we’d like to visit. We travel to countries and locations within those countries that appeal to our tastes and desires. We only did a “should do” when we traveled to Paris and London, thinking it made no sense to travel the world and not visit these two amazing cities.

For safety’s sake, we shooed him off the veranda. Tom has a water-filled spray bottle that does the trick. A few squirts, and they move away.

As it turned out, we had a fantastic experience in both of these locations, leaving us with memories we’ll always treasure. In reality, isn’t that what it’s all about? Making memories. The added benefit for us is that we have almost 3500 posts enabling us to look back and read those stories and see the photos that have become a vital part of our “memory making.” How lucky is that?

Well, I suppose it’s not luck. I’ve spent the better part of almost every morning for the past 10 years thinking of topics, writing, researching, dealing with photos. Tom has been there right beside me, proofreading, fact-checking, and conducting research to support our daily topics. I may type the words and insert the photos, but he is constantly on the alert for photo ops, topics, and links to enhance our daily story.

Now, as we work our way out of a relatively stationary period since the onset of the pandemic, we look forward to what the future may hold. By walking over 25 miles, 40 km a week, I feel all the more optimistic that we may be able to continue for more years. At this point in our lives, the only thing that will stop us is allowing ourselves to become frail and out of shape as we age, resulting in the necessity of regular medical care.

Please check back tomorrow. We had the most unbelievable event occur in the garden only minutes ago. We have photos and videos we are excited to share.

So, there we are, folks, 10 years later, and hopefully, we’ll have plenty more posts in the future. In any case, the next few months will be fun!

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 15, 2021:

This is where we’ll sleep tonight. We won’t even have to change the bedding when Zef and Vusi take care of everything tomorrow. We appreciate them too, as we do Louise and Danie, for always making everything perfect for us. For more photos, please click here.

New itinerary…We’re booked almost through the end of May!!!…What a task!!!…Hot today, 100F, 38C!!!

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A lone waterbuck on the bank of the Crocodile River at sunset.

We spent most of the day between my walking and posting yesterday, booking everything we needed to get us through May 22. That doesn’t seem far away. But here’s our basic itinerary and what we’d already had booked, including what we booked on Sunday.

  1. March 24 – Arrive in Florida, staying with friends Karen and Rich – Booked: Rental car.
  2. April 8 – Transatlantic cruise, 13 nights, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Southampton, UK
  3. April 21 – 24 – Hotel for three nights in Southampton, UK (no car)
  4. April 24 – Transatlantic cruise, 7 nights, from Southampton to New York – Cunard Queen Mary 2
  5. May 1 – Booked flight from New York to Minneapolis, Minnesota
  6. May 1 – Booked rental car and hotel for 14 nights (staying in Eden Prairie, Minnesota)
  7. May 15 – Booked flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas
  8. May 15 – Booked rental car and hotel in Henderson, Nevada (staying in Henderson, Nevada)
  9. May 22 – Check out the hotel in Henderson – We don’t know where we’re going from there!!

    Tail-less Mom with a muddy face.

All of this is fine and good. But, we still don’t know about the cruise sailing from Istanbul, Turkey, on June 29. We have no doubt; we will know sometime next month how this former itinerary to Ukraine will be rerouted. We will decide from there what we’ll do after May 22.

In prior years, such uncertainty would have been concerning. But now, after two years of uncertainty due to the pandemic and now this war in Ukraine, we take it in our stride.

Two “Go-Away” birds, enjoying the birdbath in our garden.

Yesterday’s booking process was painstaking. Prices for the same cars, hotels, and flights were all over the place. Of course, we sought to find the best possible prices, and we feel comfortable with our decisions. I won’t take the time to go into each one now, except to mention a few for illustrative purposes.

For Minnesota, we booked the same hotel in a central location to our family member’s homes, in Eden Prairie, near a huge shopping mall and dozens of eating establishments. It has self-service laundry, a kitchen with range, oven, microwave, and a full-sized refrigerator, free WiFi, and “to go type’ breakfast included.

Broken Horn and two female kudu sharing pellets.

For Nevada, we were enthused. When checking online for the fabulous hotel where we stayed last July, Green Valley Ranch, and Casino, it appeared the rates had gone up considerably. We ended up booking our flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas for a better rate than what we paid last July at the link to Expedia on our site. We were thrilled to stay in that beautiful resort once again, which we thoroughly enjoyed last time.

It’s a huge relief to have all of this done. All we have to do is pack up this house, leave a few plastic bins with items for Louise to store for us when we return in December, buy clothing in Florida for the Cunard cruise, and apply for the renewal of our passports while in Florida.

Bright sunset at the Crocodile River.

As for today, on this ultra-hot day, we’re laying low. I will do some online research to see if I can find any dresses suitable for the upcoming Cunard cruise. In the past, I’ve had a lot of luck buying dresses online, so we’ll see how it goes. Of course, Tom will have to be fitted for a suit. Buying “off the rack” never seems to work for men.

We hope you have a pleasant day and evening!

Photo from one year ago today, March 14, 2021:

The mating hornbills continue to return, but no babies yet. For more photos, please click here.

Serendipity…Last night’s fun trail cam photos…

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This is Little Imposter. He pretends to be Little by mimicking Little’s behavior, but the differences in their appearance make it easy for us to determine who is who.

Today, we’re sharing photos from last night’s trail cam that made us smile. These fantastic animals never cease to amaze us.

Also, on another note, this morning, I received an email from a lovely couple we met at Hotel Grums in Barcelona on May 5, 2013, where we stayed while waiting to board another cruise. See that post here.

He settles in, just like Little does.

That afternoon, we met Adele and Wally, only to discover they were sailing on the same cruise we were boarding the following day to the Middle East, from Barcelona to Dubai for 15 nights, which proved to be one of my favorite cruises.

We got together several times with Adele and Wally during the cruise, as mentioned in this post on May 7, 2013. At that point, we had already sailed on five previous cruises, and we had begun to feel a little like experienced cruisers, appreciating the opportunity to make new friends with other passengers, as we have, over the past several years.

Hal and Mom, and Piglets arrive very early in the morning, long before we are up.

This morning, I read this message from Adele and Wally, whom we’ve stayed in touch with over the years.

“Absolutely unbelievable! We are getting on the Queen Mary 2 in Brooklyn on April 17 for a two-week cruise…one week over in one week back. Will we be on the ship together? I’m a little confused with your April 24 date because that’s the sailing from Southampton to New York.
Of course, we would love to see you!”
Hal was sniffing a tree.
Promptly, I wrote back telling them we will be sailing from Southampton to New York on April 24, the same cruise they will be on, stating how thrilled we’d be to see them again after all of these years. What a delight that will be! There’s no doubt we’ll have plenty of stories to share.
On the Queen Mary 2, cruise dinner seating is different from what we’ve enjoyed about cruising in the past. When we’d sit at a shared table with other guests, we may not have already met. On Cunard’s sailing, each couple (passenger) is assigned a table for dinner, which is the same each night. If passengers don’t connect with their tablemates, it could be frustrating.
Bossy often visits during the night.
Fortunately, this particular sailing is only for seven nights but, most likely, we’ll be OK with whoever may be at our table and they with us. It’s always enjoyable to meet new people and hear about their travel adventures since most cruise passengers are frequent travelers.
Today, we are busy booking flights and hotels for our upcoming travels, including the hotel in Southampton; the flight from New York to Minneapolis, the hotel and car in Minneapolis; the hotel and car in Las Vegas. At this point, until we hear more about the Black Sea cruise itinerary change due to the war in Ukraine, where we’ll go from Las Vegas is up in the air. In any case, we will be leaving the US sometime in June.
Our porcupine often stops by.

By the way, it was two years today that everything in India started to unravel due to Covid-19. See the post here.

Have a pleasant Sunday wherever you may be!

Photo from one year ago today, March 13, 2021:

Bossy always stares at me for more pellets. She has us both well trained. This was her before her pregnancy was showing. A year later, she has an adorable little kudu calf she brings along on occasion. She still comes each day looking for pellets and attention. For more photos, please click here.

We have a plan, in the short term…New booking!…

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Cunard Queen Mary 2

Since the onset of the slaughter of the citizens of Ukraine, many of our plans have been up in the air, not unlike the uncertainty we all experienced after the start of Covid-19 in 2020. We strive to ensure our safety.  Somehow, in these next many months, we’ll discover some resolutions to itineraries that no longer are safe on the many cruises we have booked into the future.

It’s not as simple as canceling the cruises. The cruise lines in the process of changing their itineraries still have restrictions on how and when we’d be refunded or credited. They may determine that we must use the funds for other cruises. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll get the money back that we’ve already paid in full for the cruise scheduled to go to Russia and Ukraine.

For us, this doesn’t present a problem when six of our cruises are with Azamara, the remainder of which we haven’t paid in full as yet. Those payments are due several months from now. In any case, we have to play it by ear to see what they offer as an alternative.

The Black Sea cruise to Russia and Ukraine was more expensive than, let’s say, cruising the Greek Islands. It wouldn’t be “apples to apples” if they rerouted that particular cruise to the Greek Islands and expected us to have paid the higher amount. We should be hearing about that cruise in the next 30 days or so.

We’ve been in a quandary over where we’ll go when we get to the UK via the Celebrity cruise. We are faced with a few challenges such as:

  1. If we proceed with our remaining cruises (once the Black Sea issue is resolved), we have to be mindful of the Schengen visa rules for Europe. As mentioned in prior posts, only certain countries in Europe and surrounding countries aren’t part of the Schengen, most of which are Russian-influenced countries. Do we want to spend time in any of those countries in light of the war in Ukraine? Probably not. Everything could change in a day, and we could end up stuck in a war-stricken country. We hear about such cases all the time, don’t we?
  2. If the Black Sea cruise is rerouted to our liking and pricing is determined accordingly, we need to be in Istanbul, Turkey, by  June 29th to board the cruise. Turkey is not a Schengen country, so we could stay there before the cruise. However, holiday home options are limited and extremely expensive. Nor can we book anything until we know what is happening with the Black Sea cruise.

Based on these frustrating facts, we decided to return to the US to apply for expiring replacement passports while waiting to find out what transpires. We’ll still take the cruise to Southampton, England, and planned to fly back to the US. However, when we started pricing flights from London Heathrow Airport, after considering the cost to get to London from Southampton, the cost was over US $1000, ZAR 15046 per person, plus another US $200, ZAR 3009, for the shuttle. We’d spend no less than US $2200, ZAR 33101, plus baggage fees.

I came up with what sounded like a hair-brain idea at the time…let’s cruise back to the US! The cost to sail on a seven-night Cunard cruise from Southampton to New York on the Queen Mary 2 was US $2200, ZAR 33101, for two passengers. But that includes housing and feeding us for seven days! Besides, we’ve heard so much about these “fancy” cruises. We may as well experience one now at this reasonable price.

We went ahead and booked the cruise, which sails on April 24. That will leave us with three nights to spend in Southampton where we’ll do some sightseeing. We stayed there a few years ago at a lovely hotel where we’ll visit again. We realize the added cost for the hotel, meals, and sightseeing, but it will be a worthwhile excursion. Another additional cost will be the flight from New York to Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is under US $200, ZAR 3009, each, where we plan to stay for two weeks to visit family.

We’ll need to purchase a few clothing items for the Queen Mary cruise since it’s dressier than most cruises. While we’re in Florida, we’ll do some shopping and buy Tom a suit and tie and a few dresses for me. He needed a suit for the upcoming dressy nights on the Azamara cruises as well, and I can always use a few dresses. I won’t buy evening gowns, as some wear on those cruises, but I will wear long dresses that can be dressed up with a few accessories. That will be fun!

Here’s the cruise information. We booked it through Vacations to Go since they had the best prices. See below:

“Vacations to Go, FastDeal # 22813
7 nights departing April 24, 2022
Cunard ❘ Queen Mary 2
Brochure Inside $1,459
Inside $699

You Save 52%
Brochure Oceanview $2,949
Oceanview $2,255

You Save 24%

Brochure Balcony $1,859
Balcony $999

You Save 46%
Brochure Suite $5,179
Suite $3,969”

Our friends Linda and Ken often cruise on Cunard, and they love it. We selected a balcony cabin which we have no doubt we’ll be happy with. We feel comfortable we’ve made a good and will prove to be an enjoyable decision.

After two weeks in Minnesota, we’ll head to Nevada and finish any paperwork we need to accomplish in our “home state” and also see son Richard and his girlfriend, which is always delightful. During those few weeks visiting family, we’ll surely know what’s transpired with the Black Sea cruise to determine where we’ll go from there.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 12, 2021:

Queen Mary 2

You won’t believe the prices!!!…

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I dumped four medications for six months in this pile on the bed to illustrate how inexpensive drugs are in South Africa.

Yesterday, we headed to Dr. Singh. The high-tech dentist is Malalane, who patients visit when they need more than fillings, cleanings, and basic dental care, which Dr. Luzann provides in Komatipoort. There are other dentists in the area, but we’ve been delighted with the combined care of these two dentists.

Since an old crown was replaced by Dr. Singh many months ago, the discomfort I’ve felt was entirely self-imposed. He explained I have been brushing too hard and applying too much vigor when flossing in an overly enthusiastic attempt to keep my teeth healthy. Yep. I can be that way.

Dr. Singh didn’t charge for the appointment, and I learned my lesson: moderation and gentle treatment are more appropriate for teeth. I don’t generally do much of anything in moderation. I either go “all the way” or not at all. This doesn’t always serve me well, and in this case, it became apparent. I will temper my teeth cleaning vigor.

With our eye doctor appointments out of the way a few weeks ago, resulting in new prescriptions for both of us and our teeth cleaning done, all I had left to tackle was an appointment with Dr. Theo in Komatipoort to refill enough of my basic three prescriptions and as a safety measure, an asthma inhaler to use needed. My appointment with him was this morning at 11:00 am.

The total bill for the doctor visit was (without insurance) ZAR 675, US $44.77.

No more than about five minutes into my appointment with Dr. Theo, load shedding started, and their generator kicked in with ample service for lights but insufficient for air-con. The building heated up in only a few minutes, but Dr. Theo and I were so busy chatting neither of us minded.

He’s not only an excellent primary care physician, but over the years I’ve been seeing him, he’s become a good friend. He promised he and his wife would attend my 75th birthday party at Jabula next February. I mentioned how fun it would be to have him there. Most of our close friends are his patients. Through our friends, we chose him as our “family physician.”

In 2019, Theo discovered I had heart disease, and his first diagnosis ultimately saved my life. He arrived at his office on a Saturday, wearing shorts and flip-flops to give me an exercise stress test. From there, you all know what transpired, emergency open-heart surgery due to three 100% blocked major arteries. Yes, Dr. Theo saved my life.

He wrote prescriptions for six months. In addition to what I have remaining on hand, I have an ample supply to last until we return in December. If I run short of anything, I can always order online from ProgressiveRX. It will all work out. As an alternative, I could have gone to a doctor in the US and paid out of pocket for the appointment and the pills. I can only imagine how costly that would have been.

The receipt from the pharmacy for all of the drugs plus a few toiletries that were only 10% of the total. The total bill was ZAR 4015.64, US $266.27

As shown above, in the photo, the doctor visit was (without insurance) ZAR 675, US $44.77. The six-month supply of meds was well under ZAR 4015.64, US $266.27, when 10% of the total pharmacy bill included a few toiletry items. For example, from a US site:

“The cost for Premarin oral tablet 0.3 mg is around $676 for a supply of 100 tablets, depending on the pharmacy you visit.”

As you can see, it paid for me to obtain my medications in South Africa rather than from the US. In the UK, there may be no charge for tablets due to their universal healthcare system, but its nearly impossible to get an appointment unless its a dire emergency,

We could submit the doctor bill to our global health insurance company., SafeTrip, with United Healthcare. But for two reasons, we do not; one, we haven’t met the US $250, ZAR 3750 deductible, and two; we’d prefer not to enter any claims for small amounts.

Before we leave, the only other appointment I need is a pedicure at the local spa, which Dawn and I plan to do together next week.

That’s our news for today, folks. We’re off to Jabula on our own tonight for the first time in a long time. Have a pleasant Friday evening and weekend.

Photo from one year ago today, March 11, 2021:

No photos were posted on this date, one year ago. The text-only post may be found here.