Equator and Maldives

Thank you so much for reading my last post and commenting. I was surprised that anybody still had my blog in their feed.

After the crappy weather, lots of sunshine and warmth. 

A cocktail (or two) of course

A souvenir from crossing the equator

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 Returned to the Maldives, a lot has changed since I was last there in 1987. The water is still beautiful though.

Male, Maldives

Cruising

I didn't advertise it, but we were on a cruise at the beginning of the year, that's if you hadn't guessed already. I have decided to try and catch up on posts, primarily for my benefit as I'm terrible at keeping a diary, not much better at blogging either. So if you're interested, there will be a couple more posts until I catch up and start showing you what quilty stuff I've been working on this year. I had started working on this post while we were still on the ship but I couldn't access the draft so "cracked the shits" and gave up on trying to write any more.

So here's this one written six months ago.

 It's been great even though the weather was decidedly dodgy last week.  So bad that apparently a number of our fellow cruisers packed their bags and left when we finally made land on the weekend.

Before the bad weather, beautiful sunshine, calm seas and evenings outdoors enjoying the balmy weather.

In the picture above, we had to sail between tropical cyclone Chedza on the left, just over Madagascar and tropical cyclone Bansi on the right just west of Reunion and Mauritius.  The picture below shows how high the waves were.  Where we were the waves were at 12 feet high. Not too high you would think, but gee it was really rough.  Lots of people got sea sick. We didn't but we spent most of three days sipping on ginger ale, which seemed to help considerably.  The seas were that bad that we couldn't dock in Madagascar which was a bummer as I was so looking forward to seeing it.  We also couldn't go to Reunion as they closed the port because the sea was too rough.

Nobody out and about as the wind was at about 70kph and it was raining on and off. 

Before the weather really deteriorated we sat watching the waves in the pool get bigger and bigger. It finally had to be emptied out.

Not an experience I'd really want to repeat, but also not bad enough that I wanted to get off and go home.  We were extremely grateful though that we finally made it to Mauritius and were able to stand on something that wasn't rocking and rolling.

Port Louis ,Mauritius

Ganga Talao, a crater lake that is a pilgrimage sight for Hindus.

Black Gorges National Park

Chamarel coloured earth, Mauritius

Maputo, Mozambique

We heard A LOT of negative  information about Maputo before we arrived.  We were in two minds as to whether to go and take a look around, but after hearing so many negative comments and only one slightly positive, we decided to stay close to port.  

Maputo

This is the presidential candidate who won the Mozambique election in October 2014.

Apparently it was a wise decision according to the feedback from others.

More wildlife.

Weaver birds.  Their nests are made by weaving grass blades. 

The beginning of a new nest. 

A smile from a crocodile.............

before he disappears. 

Entertainment (eye candy)

What can I say.........

 

KwaZulu-Natal

Durban.  We didn't get to see much of Durban. This is pretty much a whirlwind tour, sooooo much to see and so little time.  I succumbed to a quintessential touristy tour to the Valley of 1000 Hills which included A Zulu cultural experience. It was interesting but ohhhhh so touristy.