Live from the Wind - From the Amazon to Africa

[Fletcher]

11 - A fishing village

Today a strange spaceship called Silver Wind came out of nowhere and landed at an impoverished fishing village called Tokeh in Sierra Leone.  Strange people landed on the beach in zodiacs - and I expect there was many a villager who was desperate to get into a zodiac himself in a place called Calais and head for a wet landing in a place called Dover.

 

Our own zodiac crossing was enjoyably hairy with modest swells on either side of the operation.  Silversea were based at a hotel called The Place which had laid out sun loungers, seats and proper dining tables on the vast sandy beach.  There was an area for local handicrafts, a swimming pool and ten beach chalets available for Silversea guests.  There was a cultural show, free-flowing drink and finger-food.  As a logistical exercise it put the Moon landings to shame.

 

On landing we were in different groups - nature, birding, cultural, bone idle.  We signed up for the nature group but this village of some 4000 people didn’t have a lot of nature to show us.  They did have a lot of abject, crushing poverty on a level that caught us by surprise.  Our group of maybe 30 people started to wander around, led by the charismatic Greg who was being steered by various local people who were themselves monitored by armed police.

 

We started by walking along the beach, then into the village, past the boat-building yard and on to Main Street.  No one seemed to have a proper roof. It was all like a disaster zone.  I find it incredible that in 2024 people are living like this.  It looked like the catastrophic civil war ended only five years ago, not 25 years ago. There were chickens and cars and bikes and dust and rubbish everywhere.  The heat bore down on us like a concrete roof.  There were food stalls serving deep fried things and smoked fish.  And there were groceries selling bread and tinned produce. One passenger asked, “Are there any more boutiques to see?”  Greg said, “Boutiques? I think you’ve been on the ship too long.”

 

Every so often we’d be adopted by a teenage boy or a young man who all had a sorry story to tell.  They were orphaned, they needed to pay to go to school, they wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer, they wanted money from you.  They all had that story committed to memory.  Some of them were in their 20s.  It was all rather sad.

 

A few decades ago I used to breeze through these sort of places and regard it as rather exhilarating, one big photo opportunity.  I started to change my mind about this sort of thing when I did a Cloud cruise to West Africa when we stopped at town on stilts called Ganvie in Benin.  The hostility towards us was quite shocking.  The women turned their backs on us and the men often said “GO AWAY.”  The kids of course just fooled around with us because they didn’t know any better.

 

Today wasn’t as upsetting as Ganvie but I must admit to feeling rather uncomfortable wandering around Tokeh with a camera that probably cost as much as anyone here would earn in a lifetime.  Expedition Leader Lea made a point of explaining how Silversea contributes to this community by funding schools and things.  That’s great and I never felt physically threatened - there was a big police presence - but I always felt queasy.  Tourism should be a force for good but sometimes, despite everyone’s best intentions, I’m not sure that it is.

Edited April 27 by Fletcher

[Tothesunset]

Great post, Fletcher. 

 

We, too, are uneasy about poverty voyeurism yet it's inescapable in many parts of the world. 

 

I don't know the answer. I don't know if there even is an answer. But I do know how privileged we are to have had the good sense to choose our birthright wisely. 

[drron29]

20 minutes ago, Tothesunset said:

Great post, Fletcher. 

 

We, too, are uneasy about poverty voyeurism yet it's inescapable in many parts of the world. 

 

I don't know the answer. I don't know if there even is an answer. But I do know how privileged we are to have had the good sense to choose our birthright wisely. 

We donated libraries to schools in Laos as our way of giving back. We hope that by encouraging education lasting benefits can occur to those communities.

I spent a day at a library donation to a school in a rural village outside Luang Prabang. It was the most beautiful day with every emotion possible. I felt happy, sad, grateful and guilty. But there was so much laughter and crying. A day I will never forget.

[machotspur]

10 hours ago, drron29 said:

We donated libraries to schools in Laos as our way of giving back. We hope that by encouraging education lasting benefits can occur to those communities.

 

+1 drron29 - and what a rewarding and insightful country Laos is to visit.

 

Like you we toured IndoChina quite extensively a few years back. It was quite forceably suggested to us by local guides etc that the best thing we could do to help was to give things to the local community that would have a lasting affect e.g. education materials.

 

To this end there is (was ?) an NGO in Luang Prabang that supports the development of communities, including selling bundles of educational books to tourists, for them to donate to local schools as they tour around.(Hello cruise companies - are you missing a trick here ?). 

 

They emphasised that the very worst thing one could do was to give cash to kids that are begging, as this encourages parents to keep their kids away from school - to enable them to earn money, at the expense of their education. They suggested that the only postive (?) effect this is creating is to make the donor feel better - not the recipient !!!

 

There are examples like this all around Asia.

One is that a while back we visited Dharivi in Mumbai (of Slumdog Millionaire infamy). Our fee for the private visit was 100% given to Dharavi neighbourhood projects.

Dharivi, whilst being challenging to Western eyes, was an incredibly dynamic place, with a whole range of tiny industries supporting many 000's of local residents.We were truly astounded by what was being achieved in the face of apparent adversity.  

 

We visited one of the primary schools in the Dharavi slum which was - IMHO - equal to many schools in the West, in terms of the learning environment, disclipline of the children, their immaculate appearance etc. More beaming smiling faces than you would find in many London schools i'm sure ! All that was missing was more materials with which to educate with (see above).   

 

At the time of our visit the greatest fear of many of the locals we met was that their neighbourhood and community could be destroyed by the encroachment of the development of one of the wealthiest areas in Asia - Bandra. They didn't want pity, or charity - just a bit of respect and support as a community. Despite the challenging appearances to western eyes, they appeared to value their community and didn't wish to be displaced.      

 

So - like many of us I do not claim to understand in depth the real lives of people who live in environments we visit that are challenging to our sensitivities. I guess I rely on one thing when embarking on this kind of tourism - treat people with respect, whatever their circumstances.

 

This ethos will no doubt be tested later this year as we undertake a cruise down the west coast of Africa with Regent. 

 

My apologies to Fletcher for perhaps hijacking your really brilliant thread, particularly as my style is - unlike yours - not at all humurous 😉. Please keep up the absolutely brilliant postings sir. 

           

[Fletcher]

12 - Slavery etc

Taking my lead from people like Greta Garbo, the Pope, Stanley Kubrick and the late HM The Queen, I don’t give many press interviews.  But I made an exception today on Bunce Island, 20 miles up the creek from Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone.  There was a young man standing in the middle of a photo I wanted to take so we came to an amicable arrangement.  He would get out of my shot if I gave him an interview.

 

The young man was a reporter from Freetown’s leading newspaper and they were covering the visit of the Silver Wind.  Cruise ships - indeed any form of tourism - is a rare thing in Sierra Leone and this journalist wanted to know why I was here, how I got there, where I was going next, what the food was like on the ship, how many formal nights there were.  He also wanted to know what I thought of Sierra Leone and if they are doing the right things to attract tourists.  I answered every question and said I was not sure if tourism should be a priority for Sierra Leone’s government right now.  They should worry about the Chinese buying up everything, about the catastrophic levels of rubbish, about abject poverty, about housing, about health, about religious indoctrination and radicalisation and about pot-holes before they start worrying about hotels equipped with Toto toilets and Gordon Ramsay restaurants.

 

Silversea had arranged three excursions today - a city tour, a visit to a chimpanzee sanctuary and our trip to Bunce Island on which are the ruins of a British fort used in the slave trade.  Apparently some 30,000 slaves were exported from here to the Americas  between 1670 and 1807.  This was a mere cottage industry compared to the slave castles of Ghana which exported industrial quantities and continued to be used after the slave trade was abolished and are thus in a great state of preservation. This fort on Bunce Island fell into rapid disrepair and today is hardly more than a few arthritic walls.  And yet it was a splendid site to see, immensely atmospheric, vaguely reminiscent of Angkor because of the way the forest and the giant trees had smothered the ruins.  We also had a wonderful guide.  We loved our visit here.

 

The trip to the island wasn’t exactly dull, either.  The boat was small, battered and filthy, with two powerful outboard motors that roared and thundered us along.  At one point a window flew out and we stopped every ten minutes or so to haul out bits of flotsam and plastic. We sped past Freetown’s world class shanty towns, the world’s biggest floating hospital, the Global Mercy, which seems to be permanently moored here, and also a Turkish-owned floating electric power station which goes on and off depending on Sierra Leone’s bank balance.  This was an exciting trip, the best so far, and the waterway here proved to be so much more interesting than the Amazon.

 

Right now, as I write this, we are sailing to our first stop in Guinea-Bissau which is the main reason I am on this cruise.  As I eat my steak in The Grill we are sailing directly opposite Conakry, the capital city of Guinea.  This is reputedly one of the most hellish, violent, poorest and corrupt countries on the face of the planet.  It ranks high on my bucket list.  If I had a bucket.

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, Fletcher said:

We sped past ... the world’s biggest floating hospital, the Global Mercy, which seems to be permanently moored here

You might be interested to know that MSC is working with Mercy Ships International to build a new hospital ship:

MSC and Mercy Ships International to Build a Hospital Ship

[drron29]

That NGO is indeed still going @machotspur. They were who we donated through. They now build their own schools.

[fdnycruiser]

Fletcher, thank you for taking the time for posting the details of your amazing cruise and experiences. Well thought out, informative and some great pictures. Particularly like your details of the culture etc, of where you’re visiting. Thank you !

[kej1]

@Fletcher I’m really enjoying your live commentary on this very interesting cruise!  Thank you for sharing and I’m so glad I found it. 

[Fletcher]

13 - In the Bijagos Archipelago

Welcome back to the Silver Wind where the weather is warm and clammy and the air is hazy, filled with Saharan dust apparently.

 

Yesterday we pulled in to the Bijagos Archipelago off the coast of  Guinea-Bissau.  Expedition leader Lea had told us this was an unpredictable place where the immigration officials could take hours to complete all the formalities.  She also said we would have to have our passports on us at all times, even in zodiacs and when we went swimming in the sea.  In the end the formalities took less than ten minutes and the passport idea was dropped.  I think the officials were more interested in lunch.

 

The Bijagos is weird, flat and featureless, culturally quite distinct from the mainland and probably a good deal less turbulent and stressful as a place to live.  We went ashore at Bolama which was in fact the capital of the country during the Portuguese colonisation.  The lack of fresh water convinced the Portuguese they had made a mistake so in 1941 they upped sticks for Bissau, abandoning Bolama which they had designed on a grid pattern, like a Roman colonia.  The town fell into disrepair yet some 4000 humans plus goats, chickens and pigs still live here.  I thought the ones we encountered were either unfriendly or just uninterested in us. Someone put their frostiness down to shyness.  And that was just the goats. Nevertheless, this was a fabulous place to wander around, filled with buildings in various stages of collapse and decrepitude, most notably a huge Romanesque public building facing a square that could have been a Roman forum.  

 

In the late afternoon almost everyone went on a 90-minute zodiac tour of the surrounding mangroves.  I love these zodiac trips if only to see who has had their knees replaced and who has not.  To be honest the mangroves, which snaked for miles, were not exactly teeming with wildlife.  In fact, with 15 or so zodiacs in the water, there were far more noisy people than birds.  But it was fun and at the end the Hotel Director appeared in a zodiac laden with Prosecco and fruit skewers.  Then, as everyone was exulting in the luxury of sipping a fizzy drink in a mangrove swamp,  suddenly you could hear Lea on the walkie-talkies screaming “Leave now!” because the tides around these parts are treacherous, leaving mud flats in an instant.  Everyone fled back to the ship except for ophiologist Greg whose was alone in a zodiac and he got stuck.  I’m sure we’ll go back for him in a day or two.

[MikeD1000]

"Everybody out" reminds me of Miriam Karlin.

 

Mike

[Woodrowst]

On 4/17/2024 at 2:50 AM, Fletcher said:

4 - Amazon Immersive

I thought you might like to know that we have 148 passengers on board the aging river scull Silver Wind.  This makes the ship seem quite empty, a bit like a private yacht when you can sit for an hour outside the panorama lounge and not see a soul.  But it always makes you wonder - why did we choose this cruise when the majority didn’t?  What do they know that which what we don’t?  Are we stupid or a member of an elite?

 

 

I do not know why so few are on your cruise.  But I do know that the stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to Manaus - the trip most cruise lines take - is considered the most boring part of the Amazon.  It gets much more interesting as the river narrows and splits into the Amazon and Rio Negro - where the meeting of waters occurs.  You generally need a much smaller boat to go up the rio negro.  I took a 12 passenger boat for a week from Manaus up the rio negro and we got very up close and personal with birds, insects, trees, plants, flowers, fish (piranha fishing), and the indigenous population.  We bought fish from local fisherman who made their catch within hours of using their canoes to come alongside the boat.  We swam in the Rio negro (the piranha get a bad rap and will only attack if they smell blood).  We went out in canoes after dark to see Caiman, snakes, spiders, sleeping birds, the amazing night stars, and other things you can only see at night.

 

I guess what I am saying is that maybe there were few passengers because word gets around that a cruise ship that goes from the Atlantic to Manaus is not the best way to see the Amazon; there are better options.

 

Please understand I am not trying to be mean or belittle your choice of cruise.  I just want those researching Amazon cruises to have this perspective as part of their research.

[highplanesdrifters]

What a fascinating report. Thanks!

Sounds like Greg got the tide charts in the wrong language. 

That ghostly Romanesque building, wow.

 

@Fletcher. Off topic, did you ever take that trip on Aranui 5? Asking for a friend.

[Fletcher]

7 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

 

 

@Fletcher. Off topic, did you ever take that trip on Aranui 5? Asking for a friend.

Nope, never did. 

[Fletcher]

14 - Still in the Bijagos

Yesterday and today everything I had read about and expected from the Bijagos came true.  It has amazing towns, incredible mangroves and world-class beaches.  Yesterday we landed on one of the most hands-down-lottery-winner-drop-dead-gorgeous tropical beaches we have ever seen.  And we have seen quite a few.  This was on Meio Island, uninhabited, just a string of beaches encircling jungle.  Birds flew, fish jumped. People would pay thousands of dollars a night to stay in a place like this but probably no one ever will.  Guinea-Bissau lacks any sort of infrastructure so we privileged few on the Silver Wind saw it, experienced it,  photographed it, swam it, took it away as our secret.  Don’t tell anyone.

 

Guests went off on bird walks, nature walks, or just walks.  Silversea set up a small bar on the beach and sent out waiters armed with  martinis and beers and canapes and whatever you wanted.  This was a scene of pure western decadence.  Being here you could understand the Mullahs of Iran.

 

Today we were moored off the island of Bubaque.  Expedition leader Lea had devised a deviously complex day of action, combining visits to the township and a beach resort on the  nearby island of Rubane.  Our zodiacs linked the ship, the town, the resort. Lea kept insisting that her plan would work and was easy to understand.   Lots of people appeared baffled.   We are in zodiac group 3 but for today we were also in Group Two.   People who wore shorts were  in Group 2a and people in long trousers were in Group 2b which would leave before Groups 5 and 6 but only after 1215 when everyone would meet at the resort for lunch.  Vegans were in Group 8. Then everyone would go on zodiac cruises in strict Group rotation and return to the ship.  Got it?

 

In sweltering heat, not helped by the Saharan dust which hangs over everything, we wandered around Bubaque’s rubbish strewn streets all the way down to the little fishing harbour.  This is the Bijagos’s main community and while there were signs of business ventures, even a few little hotels, it’s basically a wreck with hardly any buildings worthy of the name.  Vultures and crows competed for the garbage.   There was an old Portuguese mansion which was an astonishing sight.  They put on a great dance show and the kids were all over us.  Despite all the poverty, this place had a lot of heart.

 

Guinea-Bissau has been a country I’ve long hankered after. It didn’t disappoint me, even though I never met a saltwater hippo.   It was also a challenging, tiring, exhilarating  definition of expedition cruising.  The team pulled out all the stops for us and somehow made it all happen.  We are now sailing away from Guinea-Bissau to Banjul, the capital of The Gambia.

 

We are also sailing away with an unwanted stowaway on board, namely the GI virus.  Five passengers are under medical supervision, dining procedures have changed, hand sanitising is enforced and the pool and jacuzzis are being drained.

[Gourmet Gal]

Wonderful account of this unusual itinerary.  Does anyone suspect the lunch ashore as the GI culprit or did SS cater that, too?

[Fletcher]

15 - The Bellies of Bathurst

The Silver Obesity is berthed in Banjul, formerly Bathurst, the capital of The Gambia, the country that looks like a nematode wiggling its way into the fat belly of Senegal.

 

It’s fun to sit on the back of the Panorama Lounge gazing at the vista and the activity - the unloading of container ships, the ferries, the colourful pirogues and the beautiful birds.  Hawks, egrets, pelicans and swallows swoop and soar and glide in an endless circus.

 

It’s also fun to look along the glass windows of the lounge and watch how a stomach will emerge through the door, followed some time later by a person.  This can take ten seconds, sometimes twenty and there are two extreme cases on board when it takes two minutes, especially after a buffet lunch in La Terrazza.

 

We still have a sort of medical emergency, a few cases of gastrointestinal infections and quarantines which has meant the closure of the pool and jacuzzis and the introduction of strict hygiene measures in the feeding stations, otherwise known as restaurants.

 

Last night most passengers went ashore for a dinner and culture show, something we avoid like the plague.  It seems likely that the current stomach bug came from a buffet lunch in a dubious Sierra Leone restaurant and last night’s bash in Banjul might yet turn out to be a super-spreader event.  Mrs Fletcher and I have a cast-iron rule of never, ever, eating at risky venues.  This dates back to a visit to Dera’a in Syria many decades ago and it’s a rule that has saved our souls and also our bowels.

 

That said, we have to endure the sometimes appalling food on the ship, like last night’s ‘Grilled Maine Lobster’ in the Restaurant.   The luckless crustacean wasn’t grilled, merely simmered in some liquid to render it like cotton wool and tasting of the same.  It was served with two tiny underdone globes of potato, some raw julienne of carrot, precisely two uncooked green beans and half a thimble of pink sauce.  It was by far the worst thing I’ve been served on this ship and, believe me,  there is quite a lot of competition.

 

Our Gambian excursion today was a two-hour boat ride up the creek which was pleasant, overly protracted and not nearly as bird rich as we were expecting, though those avians which were around - like spoonbills, egrets and darters - put on a good show.  Oysters grow naturally here on the mangrove stems and it was interesting to see how the Gambian women collect them from their canoes.  Other than that, it was all a bit reminiscent of an afternoon spent on the Norfolk Broads.  Most of us declined the appendage of an hour-long nature walk and headed back to the ship, past the unending chaos and squalor of Banjul where, it seems, all old Mercs come to die. We went straight for a G&T on the back deck where the bellies of old Bathurst belong.

   

[UKCruiseJeff]

Love your humour Fletch.  Do keep it up.  The humour that is. 😀

[kej1]

Love it!  Really enjoying your adventure!  Sounds like you chose your excursion wisely.  

 

Spent a day in Banjul on another ship not long before the Covid mess and we did not choose that wisely.  Did a taxi tour and although we weren’t out long worried we would miss the ship as there were demonstrations and tire burning in the streets - the President that had taken the outgoing President's place promised when he was elected he would not stay in forever like his predecessor. Well funny how that changes - after he was elected he changed his mind and that’s why everyone was burning tires. Anyway the good news was we were back in plenty of time as all the tours had the same problem and we actually beat most of them back due to the crazy driving of our local driver.

 

 

[MikeD1000]

We are due to board in Lisbon for the step to Tower Bridge, and so the risky trips ashore may not be relevant for us.  But the report of inadequate food is just as worrying.  Is the main restaurant really as bad as that?  We have sailed with Wind twice before, and it was up to standard.  We appreciate the description od the area behind the Panorama Lounge.  Our favourite sitting outside spot.

 

Great that your sense of humour is surviving!

[mklions]

Sitting in our Dakar hotel room being forced to listen to the awfully loud music coming from the pool DJ and hoping we can get some sleep before we board the Wind tomorrow.

The downside to booking a sea view/pool view room!

 

Had today a great independent pre cruise tour of Dakar city which was very enjoyable which included a 20 minute boat excursion to Goree Island a UNESCO World Heritage Site which was infamous for the holding island for hundred of thousands of African slaves before shipping them to the americas and Europe. A really poignant experience and one that can be quite emotional when you hear the full harrowing history of the ordeal of the African slaves and the horrendous slave trade industry back in the day.

Certainly a must visit should you find yourself in Dakar.

 

On a much lighter note we look forward to embarking the Wind tomorrow and hope that our voyage will be thoroughly enjoyable and the Silversea experience be of that of we have experienced in the past.

Thanks Fletch for you fantastic reviews sorry to hear about the declining food issues and l hope we don’t experience the same.

 

 

[Fletcher]

16 - World Heritage Site with fridge magnets

Today we took time off from this cruise and went to an Italian island in the Med.  Maybe it was French.  Or it could have been Croatian in the Adriatic.  Actually it was the Ile de Gorée in Senegal, West Africa, and it was a complete surprise.

 

This place, just off the mainland and Dakar, was one of the two main centres of the slave trade.  The other was Elmina in Ghana.  Industrial quantities of humans were exported from here to the Americas to provide a work force where otherwise there would be none.  To feed us and cloth us with the things we wanted in the 17th and 18th centuries.

 

I went to Elmina back in the 1990s when I was asked to write a piece about UNESCO World Heritages Sites for The Sunday Times.   Elmina remains one of the most unforgettable places I have ever seen.  Gorée, by comparison, is really tame, yet it is also a remarkably captivating place to visit.  One goes expecting a sombre memorial to slavery and discovers a vibrant little island community, full of young kids playing soccer, cats everywhere, pots filled with flowers, cafes serving French food, hawkers selling fabrics and fridge magnets, tourists arriving by the ferry load, even a white sand beach.  It is utterly gorgeous.

 

And yes, up a flower bedecked back street, there is the House of the Slaves, where untold thousands were kept prisoner and fattened up before export, but UNESCO has restored it into a bijou mansion in salmon pink.  You see the open door at the back and the Atlantic Ocean, the crashing waves and the choice of a watery grave or a life pickin’ cotton in the Carolinas, where nothin’ could be finer, and then you wander back to the real world and this Disneyfied version of history.  That’s what UNESCO does.

 

Back on board the Silver Wind, we had an issue with our cabin, namely a disturbing noise caused by a fender on the pier at Dakar.  Inside our cabin it sounded like chains being shaken and tuetonic plates being rubbed together.   To our intense pleasure they have moved us for the night.

 

It’s a transit day tomorrow.  Many are leaving, many more are joining, we are going on a full day’s excursion to see a pink lake which isn’t pink anymore.

 

 

 

Edited May 4 by Fletcher

[Fletcher]

17 - Something fishy

Senegal’s capital Dakar is a real city, with tall buildings, a huge port, proper roads, traffic police, banks, shops, hotels, a railway station.  Senegal is clearly several notches above our previous stops in economic prosperity.  Not that Senegal looks like the UAE or Oman.  And the further you drive away from Dakar the scruffiness and borderline Saharan poverty kicks in.  It becomes one long building site, with houses in various stages of construction but never completed.  The shops are just shacks.  Goats and cattle are herded through.  Rubbish is everywhere. Horses and carts fight for space on the roads.  But there are also modern cars and at the hotel where we had lunch, about 40 miles from Dakar, someone arrived wearing a Maserati Levante.  You don’t drive Maseratis.  You wear them.

 

I wanted to say that the best thing I saw today was that dust-cloaked Maserati.  But in fact it was a fishing village called Kayar.  This is not a fishing village like Padstow in Cornwall or Staithes in Yorkshire.  Or anything we have seen in the Solomon Islands or Sri Lanka.  This fishing village was the Taj Mahal or the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower of fishing villages.  It was absolutely, unarguably gobsmackingly amazing.  It might have been the greatest ship’s excursion I have ever been on.  Talk about immersive.  Our group from the Wind drowned in the cultural and fishy overload.  Thousands of boats, thousands of people, horses, and millions of dead fish on a vast sandy beach, stretching for miles.  Words rather fail me on this occasion so I’m going to show you a few photos instead.

 

 

 

 

 

  

[kej1]

Your photos are great.   Along with the terrific commentary. 

[highplanesdrifters]

That was one for the senses. Thanks.