A New Year for a New Adventure

Welcome to my fifth Blog – well they are more of a travelogue really but they are fun to write and I hope you enjoy this latest adventure which departs Southampton on Thursday 10^th January 2130 and is going to take me to a new continent – Africa – although I have visited Morocco and Tunisia previously and a new sub-continent – India and a new Ocean – the Indian!  The picture shows a map of the route and the next posting shows the full itinerary.

 

I am returning to the Fred Olsen Black Watch after an absence of a couple of years and the vessel on which I took my first cruise in 2006!!  At 28,613 tons Black Watch is the oldest vessel in the Olsen Fleet but with its long raking prow to my mind it looks and feels like a ship and not a floating block of flats!! With a capacity of 804 passengers Black Watch is now the smallest ship in the fleet but still very comfortable and very friendly.

 

So what highlights am I looking forward to:

 

• Passing through “Point Zero” – 0.00 degrees of latitude and 0.00 degrees of longitude as Black Watch crosses the Gulf of Guinea off the West Coast of Africa
• Disembarking at Walvis Bay Namibia for a 4 day Safari across the Onguma Plains.  If you watched the first part of the New Africa series then Etoshi in Namibia where I think the Giraffe fight took place is close to Onguma.
• Rejoining the Black Watch at Cape Town I will be visiting Table Mountain and Robben Island.
• The French Island of Reunion, Mauritius and the Maldives will be all no doubt be exciting as I make my maiden crossing of the Indian Ocean.
• From Cochin I will be taking another overland tour to the Taj Mahal rejoining Black Watch at Mumbai.
• From Safaga, Egypt, I will visit Karnak and Luxor, and from Aqaba the Lost City of Petra – the Rose City.
• On the run home I will visit Athens, Malta and Gozo before a final port of call in Cadiz where third time lucky I am hoping to get to Seville.  I have been thwarted on two previous occasions by bad seas so arriving late and a strike!!

 

There are 35 stops in all so the above is only captures a few highlights.  You can keep in touch with me via my o2 email account should you wish to.  Don’t use the reply facility on the Blog since these are directed to my Google email account which I will not be accessing whilst on board.

 

If you want to look at my other Blogs then click on the My Profile section of the Blog and if you want to find out more about the cruise or use the ship locator to find exactly where I am then visit Cruise W1301 at http://www.fredolsencruises.com/home

 

Enjoy and Happy New Year to one and all!!