Around The World Without Flying: En route to Jordan

Just a few little tidbits from around the ship and my recent shore excursions . . .

First, after mentioning the Queen’s birthday, I discovered a ‘birthday cake’ for her in the Grand Lobby, so I have taken a couple of photos of that. I am sure it was no coincidence that the film screened last night was ‘The Queen’ with Helen Mirren, an excellent filming which transported me back to the shock so many felt at Princess Diana’s untimely death. To me it was well-timed for another reason, and that is the very recent public admission of Harry of how he bottled up his feelings about his mother’s death for so long, and now he and William and Kate are promoting mental health and an end to the unhealthy British stiff upper lip approach to troubles.

With regard to photographs, I did not have quite enough room for a couple of other photos taken in Dubai and Muscat I would like you to see, so I am including those as well. Speaking of those ports, the people I know who were in the group that went to the desert barbecue in Dubai told me very excitedly they did get to ride camels. And a couple at our table were telling me about the most unique experience they had in Muscat. They went to a place like a spa where you put your bare feet in a particular pool and tiny ‘cleaner’ fish treat your toes. They said it was a most extraordinary, ticklish feeling. I have seen documentaries of such fish at ‘cleaning stations’ that service large fish, but this is the first I have heard of such fish being used to service humans. What an unforgettable experience! I reckon it would beat the exotic and very expensive spa baths and pools and beauty treatments in the salons here on the ship. (I, of course, prefer to spend my money on WiFi, which is equally expensive, so I can keep my blog and emails going.)

I am very much missing the lovely and very kind friends I have made on my journey. That is the difficulty with a long sea voyage - so many people join the ship for just one or two stages, and then depart. Of course, that is understandable, when they have a limited time for their holiday. And on 2 May, I in my turn will be leaving the ship in Naples, before the end of the next leg - Dubai to Southampton. I have now been on the ship almost seven weeks - how time flies! Only a small proportion of passengers are on the ship for its entire around-the-world voyage - about 240 of the approximately 2800 passengers. By their journey’s end, they will have been on the ship about five months!

But already I have had two very kind couples offer to meet me in England - one couple to show me around London, and one to meet me in Etchingham in Sussex from where my maternal forebears, William and Sarah Head, migrated as young farmers to Australia almost 180 years ago, though their ship was a far different cry to this, and their voyages to Sydney then to Melbourne were far more perilous. This couple will then travel with me to Battle, a couple of stations further on, where the famous Battle of Hastings occurred. Until they told me, I had no idea the two places were near each other. What a wonderful and unexpected opportunity this will be. I am immensely grateful to both couples.

Yesterday I went to a brilliant talk by an historian called Dr Susannah Lipscomb, entitled ‘Why care About the Past?’ She lectures at a British university and was just so articulate and perceptive about our human foibles. I already am looking forward to her next talk. Such activities for me are the icing on the cake for a voyage like this, when we have four sea days to fill in between Muscat and Aqaba, Jordan. I am really looking forward to walking down into the Lost City of Petra in Jordan, which will be an arduous 8-hour tour. But what an opportunity to visit this important historical site!