East Africa extra -- infrastructure

As an electrical engineer, I'm fascinated by the ad hoc nature of the wiring infrastructure in these old cities.  It looks like once a utility runs a big wire, everybody jumps in with their little wires, using the structure and supports of the first wire.  But since they don't have ice storms here, and no trees to fall across the wires, it seems to work for them.

In administrative matters, we're now 10 hours ahead of EST (UTC+5), so for the next month or so we're on the opposite side of the clock from most of you.


Also, there will be a pause in any new entries here on blog, as we're leaving the ship for three nights going overland to Dehli and Agra in India to visit the Taj Mahal.  We'll be back on the ship on March 4 and have a sea day on March 5 where we might be able to get some new entries in.

Zanzibar extra -- the doors of Stone Town

Stone Town is known for its doors.  It's one of the reasons it has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Here the ones we liked.

This is the door on the Freddy Mercury house, the location of his birth as Farrokh Bulsara.

Feb 26  Victoria, Seychelles

We didn't do much in the Seychelles, only visiting the Botanical Garden and walking through the downtown area.  There's not much to report from here, but we do have some pretty pictures.

Coco de mer tree has the heaviest seed in nature, a double coconut weighing up to 25 kg (In the US that would be 50lbs...)

 Here it is on the tree

 And up close and personal with the fruit of the tree.  Don't stand under this tree when the fruit is ripe!

Just some pretty pictures from the garden ...starfruit

 A flying fox

 

The Clock Tower in the middle of downtown is a memorial to Queen Victoria.  It is a replica of one near Victoria Station, London.

 flowers for sale in the Central Market

Art in a Roundabout

Victoria is a beautiful town of approximately 26,000 people.  It is clean, the buildings are very well kept, the streets are maintained, grass is mowed, shrubs are trimmed, no litter anywhere.....it is a lovely tropical port.  Well done, Victoria!!....c

And a followup to a previous musing.  Smoking was prevalent in Africa only in Cape Town.  Very little or no cigarette advertising anywhere in Africa.  

During our walk through Stone Town in Zanzibar I saw only 3 people smoking, all of them teenage males who were hawking things to people passing by.   Maybe those in desperate economic conditions can't afford it, maybe the betel nut substitutes, but those are my observations.....D

Tuesday, February 23, 2016  Mombasa, Kenya

Today we take a long excursion -- get in an airplane and fly to Amboseli National Park.

Buses waiting to take people out for tours

An indication of the troubles in this area

We left the ship this morning and boarded a bus that took us to an airport in Mombasa.  We climbed aboard a twin engine airplane bound for Amboseli National Park, Kenya.

Our plane held 19 passengers and 2 pilots;other planes held 12 passengers --5 planes total.

We had two reasons to go to make this trip.  First was to see Mount Kilimanjaro and secondly, to see the Serengeti--that vast savanah in the western parts of East Africa.

Our pilot, who was a corporate and instructor pilot making a few dollars on the side

We sat on opposite sides of the plane and seeing mountains twice on the left, I asked David "is that it?"  Glancing at his GPS, he shook his head until finally he looked out his window, his eyes widened, he glanced at the GPS and turned and pointed.

I stood up quickly and was among the first on the right side to see Mt Kili in all her splendor.

Blue skies, white clouds and a beautiful, fully visible mountain--my childhood dream come true!!

Wildebeest visible on approach into Amboseli

Landing easily, I was so surprised to see green plains.  I thought  the Serengeti was mostly shades of brown but  it rained for several days at Amboseli before we arrived.

We boarded our safari jeeps--and off we went.

I didn't care if I didn't see many animals since our two goals had already been met; nevertheless, we did see many. 

Hippos

Buffalo

Mother elephant

 Thompson gazelle

 Wildebeest

 Another mother elephant

Well-fed hyenas

Zebra

I was particularly happy to see monkeys.  I understand they can be pests....
but they were very cute sitting in the middle of the road eating seed pods.  There were so many of them we could hear them chomping!!

Because of the green plants and the abundance of water, we saw many birds.

Queen of the Marsh, Crown bird

 Fish eagle

Ostrich

We ate lunch at the Amboseli Lodge and young Masai men were employed to keep the monkeys from taking our food or bothering us.  They weren't totally successful as one of our fellow cruisers had a monkey jump on his shoulder, snatch the roll off his plate and leap away!

After lunch we rejoined our jeep but by this time it was well into mid-day and the mammals were asleep somewhere.  The birds were out feeding, however.


Dave checked, the lat/long is correct

Workman at the lodge with our traveling Pelican.  Look at his ears (worker, not pelican)

 nubian vultures

Bookends

Vultures sharing an intimate moment, or a meal

Serengeti plain

Kili was sort of visible in the afternoon

 Weaver birds

 Ibis

 We drove back to our planes, flew off, said goodbye to a now visible Mt Kili, and landed back in Mombasa.

 Driving from the airport to the sea port  Here's the water delivery guy (only 40% of Mombassa has running water)

Tuk-Tuk

We were so lucky--the great memories are piling up.  Thank heavens for photography; it keeps those memories fresh.....Cynthia