Africa to Europe by boat

We have traveled for 19 days from Capetown, South Africa to Lisbon, Portugal. The west coast of Africa is not much of a tourist destination. Lome, Togo(picture of low-rise apartments) and Takoradi, Ghana (picture of 2-storey market)remain mostly undeveloped. These are towns rather than cities and have gone almost nowhere since independence They are less than shabby. Dakar is a city with considerable development in the peninsula of the old French colony. High rises here are mostly drab(one under construction in picture!) and the downtown is shabby. It is as if most development ceased at some time 30 years ago. The port facilities are extensive though and the rail station at the port is very modern. It is over 1500 miles from Ghana to Senegal and another 1500 from Senegal to Lisbon. The entrance to Lisbon’s harbor, the Tagus River, seemed spectacular this morning. The clear skies and cool air were invigorating after months in the equatorial zones. Lisbon is rather charming and has enjoyed several fresh coats of paint and stucco in the past 10 years. There is a tremendous amount to see from the street level and quite a number of museums that seem worth exploring. Many of the public squares and monuments have been cleaned up too(pictures). The lower downtown is quaint and we spent a bit of time exploring the fabric and trim stores. The selection was good. Prices, though in Euros, seemed below what one would pay for goods of similar quality(if you could find them in a medium-sized city in the US). It appears the Spanish banks are here in force and there is even a new El Corte Ingles in the city. Portugal has recently accepted a bailout package from the European Union and the IMF, so it is unclear exactly what the near-term portends….but it will be painful. Portugal has spent a lot of money restoring its capital city. It needed to be done. But the bill has come due. We will arrive in London in 3 days and pick up the ship to America on 10 May.

Bom Bom Island

Following three days in Capetown, we had a day at sea and stopped next in Walvis Bay, Namibia. This port town is nothing more than a trans-shipment zone, with coal and containers piled up on the docks. It rained all day, a rare event. The desert begins about 1 mile inland. (see picture) We had a beautiful sunset as we left the port. This town had its modern roots as part of the German colony of Southwest Africa and it is directly west from the mines at Kimberly, and the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg. Three days and fifteen hundred miles later, we’ve arrived on Easter Sunday at the Bom Bom Island, or, maybe I should say, islet. It is a speck of land adjacent to Principe. Principe and Sao Tome are the two main volcanic islands that comprise the Republic of Sao Tome and Principe. There is a small resort here and we had a day at the beach. (Three pictures) Get out your maps because it is off the west coast of Africa at 1.5 N and 7 E. The islands were uninhabited until the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century. Principe is notable because British scientist Arthur Eddington’s expedition came here to observe the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919. This is where Paul Johnson chose to begin his story in Modern Times. The experimental observations made by Eddington confirmed predictions made by Einstein almost two decades earlier in his theory of relativity . For Johnson, this process: A theory validated(or invalidated) by objective experimental observation …represented an epitome of the scientific method as the way to discover the truth about our world. (He contrasts Einstein’s insistence on proof before acceptance with Freud, who demanded no such thing regarding his celebrated hypotheses about the sub-conscious mind.) For Einstein, it meant the Nobel Prize in 1922 and ascension to “rock-star” status. The Western world at large, their confidence in their institutions and certitudes severely shaken by the events of 1914-1918, translated relativity into relativism. So if space and time were not absolute, then neither were moral concepts. And where was God in this new cosmos? According to Johnson, into the void created by a shrinking God rushed the modern politician, one often unhinged from traditional morality and quite willing to subject his people to unproven theories. We will see some of the results of modern politics in the days ahead as we visit Ghana, Senegal and Togo.

South Africa

We stopped in Durban, South Africa after 3 days at sea. Durban hosted last year’s Soccer World Cup and built themselves a fancy new stadium. The city has a large geographic footprint and stretches a long way from north to south. Its mild climate and excellent beaches attract many sun and surf lovers. Sugar cane is king here. The downtown is not large and a bit shabby. Growth has extended in all directions. The terrain is hilly and relatively lush. South Africa is struggling to recover after a tumultuous 30 years. The political leadership since the end of apartheid has been so-so and often seems motivated by revenge rather than reconciliation. The years of apartheid have yielded a substantial proportion of the population that is unequipped to compete in the modern world, and handicapped in their ability to make their democracy function. But this is a country very rich in resources. I guess we could say the same about Argentina or Burma or Indonesia. There’s a long list of countries that should be prosperous but can’t seem to keep themselves sufficiently organized to raise the standard of living. And South Africa is the richest country on this continent. Cape town is a very large port at the southwestern tip of the continent so it serves as the most important shipping center on the Atlantic. Its importance as a re-supply center and transshipping center have diminished since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The original Cape Colony is perched on a rather small bit of land, backed up against a huge mountain that protects it from any incursions from the east, south or north. The downtown, proper, has a few new buildings and a fabulous waterfront shopping complex called Victoria & Alfred. (Not Albert!) The central zone containing The Company Gardens is a lovely park and borders the Parliament. The west side of town has a series of beach coves with apartments, some rather new, and closely packed, overlooking the sea, a la Nice. The east side of Table Mountain contains some vineyard estates. The climate is pleasant. It’s not clear which way South Africa is headed. The political leadership seems to have been captured by modern liberalism (with all its wealth-destroying slogans and practices), but still fueled and energized by their sense of moral righteousness derived from their victory over the policies of apartheid. Good leadership will go a long way in helping this gifted country confront tribalism and stark poverty. Let’s hope they get it. Allpictures were taken in Capetown.

Mauritius

We arrived in Mauritius on Thursday, April 7, approaching Port Louis from the west after crossing from the east over the north end of the island. The city is on the west side of the island, facing Africa. The island is volcanic and closely resembles Papeete and Hawaii in profile. The French ran this place for most of the 18th century. With the Napoleonic Wars, Britain eventually took over in 1812. I would imagine the Suez Canal and the British possession of East Africa made this island not terribly important as a coaling stop. Mauritius is named after Maurice, a Dutch prince. So it is the nation of Maurice. Maurice sounds like a prenom, and I can’t think of many other countries with such a designation. Everyone knows of St. Moritz, but that’s a city. Only Mauritania, how strange! This calls for some research. At any rate, we took a walk around the downtown, visited the market, found a fabric store, and the church of St. Louis. The people on the street were mostly ethnic Indians, with a minority of black Africans. There is quite a bit of recent development on the waterfront and the shopping offered a wide selection of up-scale clothing. The market displayed bountiful supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables, and the prices for these locally grown goods was similar to prices at our local price-chopper. I include a statue honoring their first French governor. The people speak French and English and a local dialect. The post office dates from 1868. There is international banking here and of course, high-end tourism. The next day brought us Reunion, which is about 150 miles southwest of Mauritius. A landslide prevented us from visiting the main town, St. Deny. So we traveled in the other direction to a beach town, St Giles. Reunion is part of French overseas department and is sincerely French. The island resembles Maui, the roads are excellent, and there is even an active volcano. For Frenchmen who want a tropical paradise with their croissant, this is it. No hula here. Your pension can be generated in Paris and your Euros are pumped out at the local ATM here. It probably takes as much time to get here from Paris as it does, NY to Honolulu. You don’t hear much about Reunion but it seemed very nice. I wanted very much to visit the main town, but this will have to wait. From here, it’s still 1500 miles to Durban, South Africa. All pictures today are from Mauritius.

The Indian Ocean

We departed Marmagao, India for Male in the Maledive Islands. Though Male is due south, we tracked southeast úntil we reached the apex of the subcontinent, practically to Sri Lanka.. At this point we headed south for a day and then headed due west toward Male. What explains this indirect route? Pirates. The international naval task force has established protected corridors for shipping in this part of the world. The captain warned us about evasive maneuvers the ship would make in the unlikely event of an attack. We arrived safely in the Maldives . These are a group of reclaimed sandbars that have become high-end beach destinations for the jet set. The main island Male is the capital of this exclusively Moslem nation. There are hundreds of small islands. The international airport is on a piece of land reclaimed from the sea just across from the main town. I suspect international money helped build the runway. This airport is much closer to the sub-continent than the base at Diego Garcia. You must take a water taxi to get there, or a sea plane. We visited the main town and I’ve included some pictures. There are 2 pix of the presidential palace and one of the cemetery across the street. The male headstones are pointed and the female, round. There is a lot of development here. The town is relatively clean and I felt safe on the streets(picture). It is as crowded as any spot in Venice, perhaps more so. The main island is no bigger than say, Di Lido Island in Biscayne Bay(picture). Eiko bought some fabric here at a good price. From here it is 2000 miles (4 days at sea)to reach Mauritius.

India and its neighbors

We left Rangoon at 330 pm as the tide rushed in. The trip to the mouth of the river takes about three hours. There’s not much to see on either side of the river except flat farm land. From here it’s about 1000 miles or two sea days to reach the Indian peninsula. We entered Colombo Harbor in the am. Sri Lanka is not much different than Burma in climate. The port is the usual jumble of old warehouses. We elected to go on a mission to paint a school in an outlying village about 20 miles from the city. We were greeted by the local officials and they had assembled the children to perform a welcoming parade. We enjoyed some tea and things to munch on before we set to work(picture). The exterior of the school really needed a cleaning rather than a fresh coat of heavily watered paint. The representative of the non-governmental organization which had arranged this project, as well as the school’s principal, were on hand to thank us. After lunch, more painting, and a small presentation, we headed back to the port. I am skeptical about the utility of these kinds of projects. Having worked with Global Volunteers and the Pathologist Group, it’s clear some projects are useful and others(perhaps most), contrived and ineffective. The recipients are generally looking for anything they can get that doesn’t cost them too much.Props! Action!(Out on display are the beautiful and innocent children dressed in traditional garb, doing(picture)traditional dances!)The NGO’s are eager to show themselves useful as the caring and prudent mediators between donors and recipients. Cameras!The donors are generally Westerners looking to demonstrate their good will, genuinely want to improve the world, and/or unburden their guilt. Is this kind of handout more effective than the efforts and decisions the local people could do on their own? I doubt it. What the town really needs is a system that generates the dollars necessary to maintain the school. For example, there were no toilets at the school we could use. In the end we got to see a small (not very poor) village and their children, and I must say they were rather good-looking and healthy, and prepared to be able-bodied adults.

The ship arrived in Cochin, India the next morning and we decided to visit the St. Francis church (picture) and the synagogue. Vasco de Gama died here and was originally buried in the wall of the church.His body was later returned to Portugal. The church is the oldest one in India, dating from the mid 1500’s. Over the years it has seen different Christian denominations practiced within. Today it no longer serves a strictly Catholic congregation. There’s a monument to World War I dead in front. From there we visited the Chinese fishing nets (picture) deployed in the harbor’s inlet. We went to see the old synagogue. We had never been inside. In 2004, we saw the clock tower(picture) before its recent renovation. The tower abuts a compound containing the synagogue. Photos of the compound were not allowed. The Jewish presence in India dates to the Roman Era, following destruction of the Jerusalem Synagogue and subsequent diaspora. Other groups of settlers appeared in India following the European expulsions. Finally, the British rule attracted Bagdadi Jews seeking relief from decadent Ottomans. With the establishment of the modern Israeli state, most of the young Jewish people have left Cochin. Mumbai is next on our itinerary.

Rangoon- the city that time forgot

After leaving Singapore following our 2-day stay, we headed off to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived early the next day at Port Kelang, the port for KL. It is a long boring ride into the city and we’ve been there before, so we elected to visit the local shopping center. We were here 3 years ago and it has been spiffed up quite a bit since our visit. There is now a food store on the bottom floor and there’s a fancy electronics store up on the second floor. We were unable to find any fabrics for Eiko and returned to the ship within 2 hours. Following 1 day at sea we arrived at the dock in the Rangoon River at 330 in the PM. The water is rather muddy in the river and in the shallow sea 40 miles in front of the river’s mouth. There’s a strong river tide and the river must be almost a mile wide near Rangoon. Rangoon is located at a bend where 2 rivers meet. Our ship docks across from the city, in the industrial terminal, as it did 3 years ago. Not much has changed in the port. The people here are Indo-Chinese in appearance while in Vietnam; they are Chinese-Indo or Malay-Chinese. While there are some churches and mosques in town, the people are overwhelmingly Buddhist. The Buddhist monasteries and pagodas with their golden stupas dot the landscape. And the Shwedagon Pagoda is the grand-dad of them all.

Our first full day here we took the shuttle into the Traders Hotel. This is an hour’s drive. We took off in search of the Strand Hotel, which is just across from the old docks on Strand Street. There is some demolition and foundation-creation on the river side of Strand Street. What this activity will eventually yield is unclear at this point. The Strand Hotel has been beautifully refurbished. Sad to say most of the city is still in decline. To go to the Strand, exit the Traders hotel and go to the right down Sule Pagoda Road. When you reach the river, turn left. It’s about a 20-minute walk. We found the St. Mary’s Church undergoing repairs and perhaps the City Hall as well. It was difficult to tell since high fences surrounded city hall. Most of the colonial buildings are in a deplorable state. It doesn’t look like too much was added after 1915. We found some unusual crafts in the hotels’ shops. The sidewalks are broken or absent and making your way in town on foot is not easy. But I think you are probably not in danger of physical assault during the day. People do approach you in the central district to change money or tell you of their business. But it is not aggressive. Walking is the best way to savor the markets and feel the street life. I imagine the Chinese will finally jump-start this country as it needs their abundant resources. But I doubt I will see much physical improvement in my lifetime. There’s a heck of a lot of repair to do. The international community has pretty much isolated this country, financially. My sense is that this is counter-productive. It generally just punishes the people and the leadership finds a way to hang on. We will sail west from here for 2 days across the Bay of Bengal to arrive in Colombo, Sri Lanka. All pictures are from Rangoon.

Singapore-Futuristic City

Singapore is a fantastic place. The ship docked at the terminal across from Sentosa Island. The Sentosa Project is nearly finished. It is a large casino and amusement park with beaches on the south-facing side. We visited the new ION Center and then the Takashimaya Department Store located in Ann Ngee Plaza on Orchard Road. These shopping complexes are beautiful, clean and ultra modern. We then waited for the Orange On-Off Bus which offers 4 slightly different routes through town, for one price, and one ticket is good for 2 days. You can pickup the bus on Orchard Road just east of the Tourist Information Booth. The price was 19 Singapore dollars each and Eiko couldn’t resist this bargain, because this bus can serve as your taxi. Singapore is a confusing city because there are no mountainous landmarks, other than Mt Faber’s cable cars….only the winding Singapore River and the giant skyscrapers. There are many hills covered with beautiful trees. But they block your vision of landmarks from street level. It is spread out, hot with frequent downpours and this makes an entire day, outside, on foot, difficult. The first day we ate lunch at a Japanese noodle place in the shopping center. The second day we brought sandwiches and ate on board the buses. Singapore is crowded (but not so crowded as Hong Kong) with immense complexes of enormous buildings. There is tremendous activity here and I can think only of Miami as a US city with so much building. Europe seems somnolent compared to this. The shopping experience is high-end although we didn’t have time to explore much. European fashion brands dominate these shopping centers. There are a couple of museums that probably merit some time. We have been to the Botanical Gardens but there is also a Bird Park that might be fun. I would have enjoyed exploring the new shopping center at the Sands Resort but there wasn’t time. We were able to avoid most of the rain and the ship pulled out of port about 7 pm, headed for Port Kelang, the port for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All the pictures were taken in Singapore.

Finishing Australia

We visited Brisbane, Cairns and Darwin to complete our Australian visit. Brisbane is a riparian city, and is situated in a sigmoid-shaped bend in the Brisbane River, about 8-10 miles from the ocean. The skyline is modern and expanding rapidly(picture). The climate reminds me of Miami and its latitude is about that of Hollywood. There are mountains nearby to the west and south. On this summer day in the Southern Hemisphere, I found it altogether too hot and humid. The downtown is the same combination of office towers, casinos, condos and shopping centers we saw in Melbourne and Sydney(picture). There are tremendous numbers of young Asians, mostly Chinese, on the streets. Eiko thinks many are here to learn English. Many are. But many are here to make money and find opportunity. And I think they are more appreciated here(where there is a lot getting done) than in a place like Fiji. Well, we walked the downtown a bit and returned to the ship. After 2 days at sea, we arrived in Cairns, a littoral town facing the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef is a vast sheet of relatively shallow water which even contains mountainous islands. It extends from just north of Brisbane almost to New Guinea. Fresh water washing out of the Fly River in New Guinea is lethal to the coral. We passed through a channel formed by the WhitSunday Group, named by Cook. There’s not much to do in town. Darwin is completely tropical and steamy. It is the capital of the Northern Territories so it is an administrative center. We spent time in their new library and visited an exhibit about its participation in World War II. The war forced the construction of a road north from the nearest railhead as well as the construction of airfields around Darwin. I noticed a liquefied natural gas ship in the port. We headed northwest to Komodo Island in the Indonesian Archipelago. Following a day at sea, we arrived at the island. We took a stroll on-shore with our guides. (See pictures.) The guides carry long poles with forked ends to deflect any aggressive dragons. We ran into them almost immediately. Many were gathered around the watering hole. I would characterize these reptiles as land-based alligators(picture). They are large. Why they are here and nowhere else is not clear to me. There are no barriers to separate the people from the animals. The following day we arrived in Bali and toured some of the palaces and recreational parks of the now defunct monarchs(picture).You can see the quiescent volcano Mt Agung as it towers over this end of the island(picture). I thought the water park at Tirtigangga was beautiful(picture). Bali is unusual because it is primarily Hindu in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. The bombing attacks of 2002 occurred there in nightclubs of Kuta, a strip of beach shops at the southern tip of the island, not too far from our dock. Following our return to the ship, we heard the news of the large earthquakes and tidal waves in Japan. The captain told us there would no impact in the Java Sea. With that, we headed off to the northwest. Singapore, the next port, is about 1000 miles and 2 sea-days from Bali.

We arrived in Melbourne on Friday February 25, Eiko’s birthday for a 2-day stop. The port is within view of the downtown just a couple of kilometers away. Arriving the same day (Friday) was the new Queen Elizabeth of Cunard. We took the shuttle bus over to the Federation Square and picked up the on-off tram for a bit before getting off at the 1880 Exposition Grounds to view the gardens(see picture)and the exhibition hall. These were magnificent. We walked north a bit to pick up the on-off bus and rode this back to our start. Melbourne has a compact complex of tall buildings. It spills south over the Yarra River to form an area called Southbank. Here is a casino complex, museums, concert halls and gardens. On the following day, Saturday 26 Feb, we went to the library for some internet, and headed over to the Immigation Museum. I was surprised to learn the Australians also interned suspect foreign nationals and its own nationals of Japanese and German origin in camps during WWII. These predate the American camps. We then headed off to the open air market. These are almost identical in any city on earth and didn’t hold too much interest. Melbourne is a dynamic and clean city. There is a tremendous amount of activity here. The parks are beautiful. I’ll show you an equestrian statue of Edward VII and a picture of the railroad station on Flinders Street which dates to 1910. The Australians have done a great done of maintaining their colonial architecture and combining it with great new skyscrapers. Following a day at sea, we arrived in Sydney and parked right across from the opera house. If Melbourne was really good, Sydney is just sensational. It has a downtown absolutely bustling with people and buses, cars and trams. The buildings are immense, tall and broad. The skyscrapers are modern and tower over the colonial era structures. Sydney has spent an enormous sum redeveloping its colonial era buildings and developing its waterfront. They have created a magnificent downtown, maybe the best I’ve seen. It is packed with just about everything, exhibitions halls, museums, casinos, parks, shopping centers, luxury hotels and office buildings. It is beautiful and clean. They even have a new swimming complex named after Ian Thorpe, their recent Olympic hero. Can you imagine a project brought to fruition so quickly in any American city? There is certainly no city in Europe which matches the dynamism one finds here. We spent our day on the on-off bus. One segment covered the inner city, the second took a trip out to Bondi Beach, about 20 minutes by car to the East. Bondi is a resort beach but the communities leading back to the city, such as Double Bay, Point Piper, and Rose Bay, are even nicer. It was a beautiful day to be on the top of an open-air bus. We left Sydney at 11:59 Monday night, Feb 28 headed north to Brisbane.

Melbourne and Sydney

We arrived in Melbourne on Friday February 25, Eiko’s birthday for a 2-day stop. The port is within view of the downtown just a couple of kilometers away. Arriving the same day (Friday) was the new Queen Elizabeth of Cunard. We took the shuttle bus over to the Federation Square and picked up the on-off tram for a bit before getting off at the 1880 Exposition Grounds to view the gardens(see picture)and the exhibition hall. These were magnificent. We walked north a bit to pick up the on-off bus and rode this back to our start. Melbourne has a compact complex of tall buildings. It spills south over the Yarra River to form an area called Southbank. Here is a casino complex, museums, concert halls and gardens. On the following day, Saturday 26 Feb, we went to the library for some internet, and headed over to the Immigation Museum. I was surprised to learn the Australians also interned suspect foreign nationals and its own nationals of Japanese and German origin in camps during WWII. These predate the American camps. We then headed off to the open air market. These are almost identical in any city on earth and didn’t hold too much interest. Melbourne is a dynamic and clean city. There is a tremendous amount of activity here. The parks are beautiful. I’ll show you an equestrian statue of Edward VII and a picture of the railroad station on Flinders Street which dates to 1910. The Australians have done a great done of maintaining their colonial architecture and combining it with great new skyscrapers. Following a day at sea, we arrived in Sydney and parked right across from the opera house. If Melbourne was really good, Sydney is just sensational. It has a downtown absolutely bustling with people and buses, cars and trams. The buildings are immense, tall and broad. The skyscrapers are modern and tower over the colonial era structures. Sydney has spent an enormous sum redeveloping its colonial era buildings and developing its waterfront. They have created a magnificent downtown, maybe the best I’ve seen. It is packed with just about everything, exhibitions halls, museums, casinos, parks, shopping centers, luxury hotels and office buildings. It is beautiful and clean. They even have a new swimming complex named after Ian Thorpe, their recent Olympic hero. Can you imagine a project brought to fruition so quickly in any American city? There is certainly no city in Europe which matches the dynamism one finds here. We spent our day on the on-off bus. One segment covered the inner city, the second took a trip out to Bondi Beach, about 20 minutes by car to the East. Bondi is a resort beach but the communities leading back to the city, such as Double Bay, Point Piper, and Rose Bay, are even nicer. It was a beautiful day to be on the top of an open-air bus. We left Sydney at 11:59 Monday night, Feb 28 headed north to Brisbane.

New Zealand

We arrived in Auckland, 11Feb, to very good weather. The following day, Saturday, Segment 3 began. The weather was still very good and we went for a walk. We hiked down Queen street and then left to find the Albert Park. This is a lovely piece of real estate on a hill overlooking the old harbor. Here you find two guns mounted on tracks. Eiko bought 2 bathing suits. Auckland looks clean and dynamic. We went to Tauranga on Sunday and had a nice stroll of the beach. It is a shipping port and the town is not much to speak of. Everything was closed. Tuesday brought Napier and the weather was still pretty good. We toured the art deco district on foot and it reminds one of Delray Beach or parts of Miami Beach. On Wednesday we arrived in Wellington and we took a stroll down Lamston Quay where I found a McDonalds across from the train station. On Thursday we visited Christchurch. The weather is cool but there was sun. I included a picture of the stone church. This was heavily damaged in this week’s earthquake. On Friday we went North to Picton, a cute seaside town(see picture) but not much else. On Saturday, we were in Dunedin and it was wet and cool.Here’s a picture of city hall. We strolled the central octagon of streets. Dunedin was organized by a splinter group of Presbyterians from Scotland. Christchurch was organized by the Anglican Church. A gold rush helped to populate Dunedin. On Sunday morning we arrived on New Zealand’s west coast to visit 3 fiords…Dusky, Doubtful, and Milford. Milford is the most dramatic with its deep and narrow path between looming peaks of glacier-sculpted granite. The Mitre Peak is famous but the waterfalls were impressive too. Unfortunately, a combination of fog, rains and clouds obscured a good deal of the peaks. We had two rocky days at sea on our way to Hobart. Here’s a picture of the harbor. We had a good tour of NZ, and I think I understand it a bit better. It is remote, unspoiled, rugged and small. It is clean and a good citizen among the family of nations. While the Northern Island is warm, the South is cool and blustery in late summer. I can’t imagine a winter there. NZ is rich in many natural resources, especially timber, sea food, and vegetation for livestock livestock. There’s lots of green pasture and hillsides for sheep to graze upon. We tasted some ordinary NZ white wines and their yogurts were good too. The trip across the Tasman Sea was rough and everyone was glad to arrive in Hobart. It is a good port, well-protected from the southwesterly gales we experienced on the Tasman Sea. It is a small city and we took a walk around the downtown. Again, as in Dunedin, I found free internet in the public library. By the way, most McDonalds have a wireless café and the Ipad has been a good traveling companion. Its lightweight and long-lived battery as well as its quick-start abilities make it superior to a net-book. Next..it’s off to Melbourne.