20250221 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 88/96 - Sea Day

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 88/96 - Sea Day Sausage Gravy and Songs

Ugh. We set our clocks ahead an hour overnight, losing an hour of sleep. We're now on UTC+1, or six hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast. This morning, we found out that tomorrow night, Morocco will switch to Daylight Saving Time, so we'll go back an hour. Then, the next night, we'll go forward an hour as we leave Morocco. Dang, three one-hour shifts forward, back, and forward over four days. Yuck.

We enjoyed another biscuit and sausage gravy for breakfast. Cruise Director Nick and Entertainment Manager Rhys joined us today. They can't get a special breakfast on their own, but they can if they are invited by a guest. Given everything they had done for us, it was the least we could do to invite them to join us. They both inhaled the yummy meal.

We were at sea today. That meant Baggo. Arlona and I made the semi-finals and I made the finals, but a couple errant tosses as the ship was rocking resulted in me losing. We're nearly out of space for more prizes anyway.

It’s hard to believe our trip is ending. We just had to share our luggage details with Guest Services and confirm our home address for the transfer from the Orlando airport. In just eight more days, we'll be heading home.

Arlona had beading today. She made a bookmark this morning and earrings this afternoon. 

I'm still trying to figure out how the bookmark will work on her Kindle.

We played trivia at noon. We have new members on the team and we seem to fit well together. Our mistakes today:

• What two elements are combined to create bronze?
• For some reason, we have a mental block on this - it is copper and tin
• In the song Proud Mary by Tina Turner, what did she do in Memphis?
• Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
• In what country was the French Horn invented (it wasn't France)?
• We guessed Austria - it was Germany
• Today's bonus - According to NASA, what percentage of the Earth's surface is covered by water?
• We guessed 67% - it was 71%

We're in the middle of the pack and have two more days to catch up.

Speaking of that, we only have two more sea days to go on this journey. For the next two days, we'll be in Morocco, then Gibraltar, a sea day, Spanish Morocco, another sea day, and then disembark in Barcelona. Hard to believe we're into single-digit days remaining.

 

We won a TV & Movie Theme Name That Tune this afternoon, scoring 19/21 points. We had to identify the TV show or movie franchise the song came from. It was a true collaborative effort among our team and a fun time.

We had dinner with a couple from the U.K. who just joined the ship and our trivia team. Tonight was our final formal night and a set menu for dinner. We had a very nice dinner getting to know them. I've said it before, but this is one of the things we love about cruising. We meet the most interesting and wonderful people.

Arlona had a view and caught the sun as it was saying its farewell for the day.

Tonight' guest entertainer was Martin Kaye. He had more energy than the Energizer Bunny. He played rock, soul, and a little personal music, all while getting the audience involved and energized. It was a fun show and we look forward to his second show in a few days.

We will dock in Casablanca, Morocco tomorrow morning. We start off at 8:00 for a 12.5-hour tour to Marrakech. Seven to eight hours of that tour will be riding on a bus to and from Marrakech, so that won't be a lot of fun, but we're looking forward to our time there. That means I'll publish the blog a little later tomorrow as we won't be back on the ship until 9:00 or so tomorrow evening. We'll be back at it at 8:30 the following morning for a tour in Casablanca. It will be a busy couple of days as we wind down this adventure.

20250220 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 87/96 - Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 87/96 - Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands - Another Canary Day, This Time With Camels

OK, before you go all zoologist on me, yes, we know that they are dromedaries, not camels, but the locals call them all camels and it worked better for the title. So, yeah, I'll be using "camel" today.

We're still in The Canaries today. This time, we on the island of Lanzarote, docked in the capital, Arrecife. We're roughly 74 miles off the southwest coast of Morocco in Africa, but this is Spain. 

Our tour today was called, The Island of Fire and Camel Ride. I interpret that as the island of fire, plus, there is a camel ride. If you read it literally, it sounds like it is an island of fire and an island of camel rides. Someone should proofread these.

The day was off to a good start

As we drove to our first stop, we started seeing some of the volcanic landscape and traditional buildings that Lanzarote is known for

A camel sculpture in a roundabout

Arriving at Timanfaya National Park

The landscape became more Moon-like

Each peak in the distance was a small volcano

We passed a large group of camels - foreshadowing what was coming later

We made the turn into the main area of the park - there were cars lined up to get it, but we were in a bus and we had  priority

We arrived at Restaurante El Diablo - The Devil's Restaurant. We got to see three different demonstrations of the power of the heat just below the surface.

The guide dug perhaps eight inches into the gravel and then placed a few small stones in our hands - we had to drop them immediately as they were about 175F - wow!

Here, they placed small amounts of straw into a hole

It immediately ignited as the bottom of the hole was so hot

We could see the glow of the lava just below the surface

They had several tubes buried in the ground - they poured water into the holes

Pow! A mini geyser

Finally, we were shown an open hole where the restaurant roasted chickens over the super-heated air coming out of the ground

The restaurant's logo

We boarded the bus and took a long drive through the park. Buses are the only vehicles allowed to do this. Private cars are not allowed. There is no opportunity to go out on the lava so it remains pristine and protected.

Comments we heard from other guests suggested that the landscape varied from looking like the Moon to looking like Mars. It was quite otherworldly.

A huge vent where gas escaped

The shifts from huge chunks to fine gravel/sand were interesting

I could envision a Mars rover out here

See? Looks legit, right?

The different textures and colors were stunning

Volcanos were everywhere, many with craters

We caught another glimpse of the camels we would soon be riding

A huge volcanic crater

Another look at the restaurant where we started

I thought the two contrails surrounding the moon  looked cool

The line of cars waiting to drive to the restaurant - the only parking in the park - was nuts

We made the short drive to the camel-riding area. Thanks to Anish, Clayton, and Herb who all sent us photos.

Meeting our camel

Waiting to stand up

Up and ready to go

Hunter, Clayton, Resheka, and Anish

Camel's tails are so pretty

Walking the volcanic dunes

A well-deserved rest

We continued the tour and headed toward our final stop.

More traditional construction

Our final stop was a winery - we saw these on the way

What are they?

There seems to be something inside each semi-circle

Each one contains a grape vine - this is a vineyard - there is no irrigation as the volcanic ash that covers everything gathers the humidity from the tradewinds, depositing the water directly into the soil

The vineyard where we stopped

A fun chandelier

The wine cellar

A closer look at a grapevine in the depression with the volcanic rocks as wind protection

Sculptures at the vineyard

A dragon tree

A small chapel between the vineyard and another vineyard across the street

More traditional architecture

The one 17-story building on the island - a hotel - regulations prohibit other taller buildings

We really enjoyed today's tour. When we returned to the room, this critter was waiting for us in the bathroom.

We wanted to call to get rid of it, but let's face it - it is kind of cute

We grabbed lunch and hung out for the afternoon. We visited the Observation Bar as we sailed out and then met friends for dinner. 

Cruise Director Nick confirmed that we have a full ship - all rooms are occupied. We have a guest compliment of 411 - shy of the 458 max double capacity due to the large number of singles traveling solo. The ship definitely feels full and we see the impact of the additional passengers.

We lose an hour tonight as we switch to Morocco time - UTC+1 or six hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast. Because of that, we opted to skip tonight's show and catch some sleep. We have a sea day tomorrow before arriving in Casablanca on Saturday for a two-day stay.