This will be a fairly long trip.

Starting the Voyager on May 14, from Athens to Istanbul. Greece and Turkey ports. Then a group of us are going to Capadoccia, the land of the fairy chimneys. This will be our third or fourth trip and it is a unique and special place to visit. So looking forward to this immensely. Link to pictures from a prior trip below. This is a place I think everyone should try and see, very special.

https://ngaire.smugmug.com/TOURS/Cappadocia-Turkey/

Then after that I am off again to South Africa to go on safari. Also one of my most favorite things to do. Always great pictures from safaris. You never know what you may see.

We leave on Friday and I promise to post pictures during the trip. Thanks to Kim I can do that now!!

Cappadocia is a fascinating place. Will you be staying at the Museum Hotel again? Great memories!

We are doing the REGENT Capaddocia post cruise program so unfortunately not the Museum Hotel. I remember us taking a picture of you and Jerry in your cave bedroom. You were sitting on the bed. We had a ton of fun on that trip.

It was substanially less expensive for all of us and we will still see the wonderful sights that Cappadocia offers - but you are right i will miss the Museum Hotel.

Things are off to a good start. Security was a breeze. We signed up for CLEAR. Which worked great, scanned our eyes and taken to the front of the TSA line. Did not have to take anything out.

First flight to Toronto the meal was great. Tender chicken, nice salad and cheesecake. Better than most international flights.

The Air Canada Lounge in Toronto has a sit down restaurant. We both had ginger sweet potato soup, Ken had Cod and I had beef tenderloin. All good.

Waiting now for fresh berries with orange sorbet and Ken is getting Chocolate cake and ice cream

Yes life is GOOD.

My daughter and SIL are boarding in Istanbul when you get off. Celebrating a 10 year anniversary. Please keep the photos of the Voyager coming as this will be their first Regent cruise. I have shared all of my photos with them and will share all of yours. Have a wonderful cruise.

Jay

Just boarded the Voyager...love the new (to me) expedited boarding process. 10 minutes from cab to gangway.

Life is good on the Voyager. Food has been good. Dinner first night with Chris and Linda and second night with Dick and Kate. Both very enjoyable.

This is an exceptionally busy cruise no sea days. At trivia yesterday there were only 3 teams. We only got 8 right but that was enough to get first place, second place was 5 right. We will see what happens this afternoon.

Having a cocktail party is hard because of late tours. We are doing the part tonight at 5.00 pm to 6.00 pm ( will be a lot of late arrivals) and then the Captains welcome reception is 6.00 pm to 7.00 pm.

Will post a few shots of Rhodes. We decided just to walk into Rhodes. Following us are a Viking ship and Virgin Cruises. The Virgin ship is called Resilient Lady. Really an ugly looking ship painted grey.

Dick and Kate enjoying my daughter Cindys, special Margarita. Dick and Kate call it cindarita.



Pictures from Rhodes.

So today we arrived in Alayna, Turkey. We were here quite recently and did a tour so we decided to just walk into town.

As we were about to come back we saw one of the little tourist trains and decided to do that. Glad we did it took us to the downtown and around all the beach areas. I had no idea this was such a tourist area. Extremely popular destination.

The weather was perfect, warm but not hot, bright sunshine and no wind. I will post some pictures below.

Beautiful vegetation including these stunning flowering trees.


Some really small cars.


A massive area full of shopping


There quite a few of these boats sailing in the harbor. 5 euros per person. We did not do this as we heard the loud speaker commentary and not for us. However, they were interesting and each boat had a different back with a huge character.


Ken liked this shot. The waterfront was interesting with a lot of activity.

So due to high winds we had to miss our next port, Limassol, Cyprus. This was not announced until around 6.30 pm. We stayed docked until the next morning and had a day at sea.

As many of you know we now do a private KLT lunch on a sea day. So at 6.35 pm I asked the ship if they would be able to give us the KLT private like we usually do on a sea day. They came through and did a fantastic job.

The meal was great with lobster, a king cod paupiette with prawn mouse and a beef medallion followed by a Grand Mariner Souffle. After we finished this great meal the tables stayed for quite awhile just talking. What was great was nearly everyone is going to Cappadocia so this a nice time to get to know each other.

Tonight we had dinner with Chris, Linda, Dick and Kate in Chartreuse. It was very good. Following will be a picture of Chris and Linda at dinner.

Thank you for the updates.

The lunch sounds just spectacular. We love cappadocia--haven't been there in a long time, but the cave hotel was very cool.

So today we are in Kos, Greece. We tendered to port and did a tour to the ruins of an ancient hospital. Huge area of ruins on three levels. Lots of ruins but really not much to photograph.

Then onto to a small mountain town called ZIA which was delightful. Right at the bus stop was an inviting ice cream stand. Of course I have to keep up my tradition of trying find the best sorbet in the world. They had a mango/passion fruit sorbet. Not on display, I said I liked passion fruit and he pulled it out from under the counter. It was great fresh passion fruit on the top, yummy but not out ranking the passion fruit sorbet in France.

We walked the town, flowers, views of the ocean just delightful. Shops full of things I did not want nice to look at.

After such a great first sorbet I went back to get a rasberry/blackberry sorbet. Fantastic. He asked where we were from and he got all excited as his friend had been to Dallas. He called him over and great enthusiasm about Dallas/Texas/USA. I noticed the lemons they were HUGE. He said they are grown in the garden behind his restaurant, and he uses them for the lemon sorbet. I was tempted but decided two sorbets were enough.

Will post pictures below.

Our tour today about five hours. We went WAY UP a mountain to a monastery.
It was quite pretty and worth seeing. A delightful small chapel, lots of attractive foliage, and a great view. Then we back on the bus and went even higher to a plateau where there were agriculture fields. We stopped at a restaurant and tasted some local produce. Then off to see the windmills on the way back. It was an extensive time in the bus but on the way back Linda and I played scrabble. That made the time pass quickly.

I will post some pictures below.

Chris and Ngaire at the Monastery.


The red flowers look similar to Pohutukawa trees in New Zealand. These flowers have “itching powder” and the boys at school would put it down the girls back. Bought back some memories for me.


The winding roads on the mountain side.


The windmills

So today we are in Bodrum. We took the shuttle into town. Huge area of winding streets with all kinds of shops. Lots of fake bags and jewelry. The harbor is full of all different types of boats. Beautiful day, sun is shiny but it is not hot. A few pictures will follow.

The outside display of two people kissing an all cotton clothing shop.


Walking through local neighborhoods, very narrow alley ways, lots of scooters and such beautiful flowering trees. Note the flowers on the door to the house.


Not sure what this replica of a wooden boat was all about but Ken took the picture so I posted it.

Bozcaada was our port call. A small island close to Istanbul. We just walked into town. We visited the castle and had it all to ourselves. As we were leaving the tours arrived. Large castle great views of the Harbor and town. A far number of graves but only one headstone was ornate.

Fortunately on Wednesdays they have a big market. Lots of vegetables and souvenirs, really fun to wander around.

This must be a busy island with lots of tourists as alley after alley was filled with small restaurants and tables. All very colorful.

Pictures will follow.

The ornate grave stone


Nice place to sit


The market


The tents of the market from the castle.
[img][/img]

One of the alley ways


All the restaurants were decorative I liked this one v


Seating for children with the appropriate back drop

Istanbul. Today we went to see the Dolmabahce Palace and then onto the Four Seasons Hotel for high tea. We enjoyed the tour of the palace we did it last year as well. We were with Dick, Linda and Chris, five of us. The afternoon tea was great. Scones with Jam and Cream. Along with a cream ball filled with passion fruit. I was in heaven. We were seated next to the sea.

Cappadocia was fantastic as always. First morning it was perfect conditions for the ballon ride. Everyone had a great time, it definitely was the highlight of the trip. This is such a magical place. I have been three times before and still saw areas I had not seen before. Out guide was excellent. He took us to see his aunt who is in her eighties. She wanted us to come inside her house but the guide said no if we did that we would never get out. I will post a picture of her. I need to get Ken’s pictures and will post those when I can. So many pictures going to take a while to pick the best ones.

Our hotel was not great, but acceptable. A maze of flights up and down very confusing. Food very average. So much Turkish food is what I call mush. I lived on a fruit salad and green salad. Finally on the last day we went to a very nice restaurant and got a nice plate of steak and mushrooms. Plus six of us are allergic to onions so they made six plates without onions.

Yesterday was Election Day in Turkey. Lots of places were closed and when we flew back to Istanbul and were driving to the Intercontinental Hotel (which was great) celebrations were at full blast. People waving flags, loud music from the cars and people sitting on the windows. Some cars had giant flags.

Sitting in the lounge now with Chris and Linda waiting for our flight to Doha and then to JNB. Cannot wait to go on safari again.

BALLOON SHOTS

The underground where they lived to avoid the Romans. The group in the underground. The second picture shows the narrow tunnels.





This lovely girl posed for Ken. That made him happy





Ngaire and Kate.

SO WE ARE NOW ON SAFARI.

Been super busy but it is SO GREAT to be back in the bush. Plus seeing people from the 2021 safari just a fantastic group. We at Dulini and all is good. Nice rooms, great staff and the food has also been good.

Some basic details on our first two days. Highlights included.

Leopard in a tree with a kill. Two lions arrived and one climbed the tree grabbed the kill. Sheila got a video of fighting interaction with the leopard and the lion fighting in the tree. We did not get to see all of this but we did see the other vehicles pictures and videos. An amazing sighting. We arrived just in time to see leopard come down the tree. Then we followed the leopard through the bush and he finally climbed a termite mound and posed for us against a pink sunset.

LIONS.
One male with two females. A lion really close to a buffalo who was not aware of her presence. She quietly called for help to take him down but no one came. A mating pair, stunning male lion and a not very interested lioness.\

ELEPHANTS
Close encounter of the scary kind - but exciting. A huge bull elephant. There is a tree the elephants shake to eat the fruit. They elephants were gathered there. One HUGE elephant bull, biggest I have even seen in this area with HUGE tusks, looked at us shook his head (but his ears did not go against his body - that is a sign of “intent to charge”) and walked past our vehicle so close you could touch him. Theh later we parked in the field and the elephants with little ones were around the car. Always fun.

WEATHER
Reallly strange. Not cold in the mornings or evenings and not hot during the day. Dark clouds and white clouds, gorgeous sky, Ken got a shot of a rain falling from a cloud I will post it. I love this weather I hope it continues.

Ken has good shots but no time to work on them yet. I have a few on his phone that I will post below.

Shot of Doha from the plane




The unique cloud with the rainfall.



Leopard with sunset in the background.

Ngaire asked me to post this video of a big bull elephant. It's really good. I could only put it on YouTube and post the link. Let me know if can't see it.

Big Bull Elephant

The link takes me to You Tube but it says the video is “Private”.

Lori - please try again. I’m a YouTube novice.

Another nice game drive the highlights were as follows:
.
Saddle Back Stork- stunning bird. Flew in and landed near our vehicle and proceeded to fish. Strange way he walked almost like a dance. He caught a talapia. Pecked it to death and swallowed it whole. I think that counts as a kill.

Two male Nyala looked like they were going to fight. Strange behaviour - walking in slow motion, picking their legs way up as they walked, and the hair on their back (that is normally flat) spikes way up. Never seen this before.

Leopard. The Hippos were going crazy as he was on the dam. Followed him for a long time. It was getting dark and it was a lot of fun. We finally lost him and gave up just to find him again on the road infront of us as we left.

Pictures will follow later.

The link should work now.

Moved lodges now at Makanyi. Lunch was great, they always have wonderful fruit along with a delicious chicken breast with mushroom sauce. Changing lodges there is little down time so hopefully more I can post more pictures tomorrow.

Highlights of first game drive.

Giraffe, wart hogs, and general plains game

While we enjoying sundowners and we’re all out of the vehicle a WILD DOG popped up on the road in front of us. There were three dogs that crossed the road a few times. Rangers said nothing to worry about they are not interested in people.

Male and female lions, Lion posing on a termite mound.

From Dulini courtesy of Linda a leopard mother and 3 month old cub. The cub is in the left hand corner of the picture.



L