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Silversea from Africa to Europe

We booked our trip on Silver Wind with Val at Travel The World. The Silver Wind cruised, in March/April 2011 for 28 nights from Capetown to Lisbon up the west coast of Africa, including ports like Walvis Bay,Namibia; Sao Tome and Principe; Dakar,Senegal; Cape Verde Islands , Canary Islands, Morocco , Spain and Portugal.

There were 10 relaxing sea days on this trip. This enabled us to enjoy the very interesting lecturers on board, particularly the series of lectures on Nelson Mandela given by Tim Hughes. The ports were fascinating, and a little “ off the beaten track” so we thoroughly enjoyed visiting these ports but it was nice having the luxury of the ship to return to for our meals and accommodation.

Walvis Bay and the town of Swakopmund was our introduction to the desert landscapes of Namibia, with enormous dunes and sand everywhere . Here we attended a tented banquet in the desert at night was a unique event, typical of the Silversea experience.

Sao Tome was very poor but you could see the influence of the early colonial settlers with the broad streets and European architecture. Buildings were in very bad condition. It has been referred to as the “centre of the earth” because of proximity to the equator and the Greenwich meridian - 0 degrees crossing.

Dakar, Senegal was a bustling , large city with a beautiful coastline. The drive to the statue celebrating the “Renaissance of Africa” was interesting and dotted with small fishing villages. We thoroughly enjoyed Dakar.

The Cape Verde Islands were interesting and we enjoyed our visit to Porto Praia and Porto Grande. A visit to Mt Tiede National Park ,( the snow covered volcano on Teneriffe) and Fire Mountain on Lanzarotte were highlights of our visit to the Canary Islands.

Silversea, as usual, lived up to their excellent 6 star service. We look forward to our next Silversea cruise in November, from Athens to Dubai.

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Pam and Phil Fogg