L & D: travel reports: Pirate attack

FAMOUS LAST WORDS! thankfully not her LAST…

SEVENTY-FOUR Australians were among more than 1500 passengers caught up in the dramatic failed hijacking of a cruise ship by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.

L & D are onboard MSC Melody

‘We are fine – emails are almost blocked here – terrfied night – pirates attattacked us about 11pm  we were on pool deck watching italian concert – lots of gunfire – took photos this morning of bullet holes in glass panes – all confined to cabins and locked doors and no lights on – so scared but they never got on board at 4pm today we will be covered by a escort and hopefully get more cover as we were orignially to meet up with convoy anyway apparantly .   Seychelles just beautriful but pirates had taken 2 boats off their coast just a few days ago must fly not sure if this will go throug     love L’

read the report n The Australian Newspaper

now the Australian Government have warned Australians re traveling by sea in the area need to know the high risks involved. 

 

 

 

Text is from emails received from L. 

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We are enjoying the relaxing pace of the ship now and our first stop tomorrow in french speaking Reunion Island – we have just sailed past Madagaskar (see map below)  so well on our way. However we and a lot of others are disappointed we are having one less stop at Egypt where we wont get to see Valley of the Kings - for security reasons because of the Pirates we wont be sailing as close to Somalia now, instead going a further 400 kilometres further out – so out the window goes my next adventure…

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Our “tent” living – yes girls before  you think “wat the” it isnt exactly 5 star but extremely confortsble with electric blankets, hairdryer (a must) and hot running shower with the showerhead clamped to a large tree and a normal toilet – so all good.   Have loved the 2 morning river cruises up a very flooded Chobe river. – the worst flooding since 1964 but its so beautiful and the birdlife and the animals is just fantastic – in one shot this morning there were geese a large vulcher bird, elephants, hippos, kudu, impala – just amazing.  We got very close to one lot of hippos (in the water) and one extrememly aggro one  charged us –  we were terrified – the driver took off quickly.

The night safaris have been good but nothing up to the experience we had at Sabi Sabi – it would be hard to top that.

 

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just come back from a 1 hr bush walk with Cameron – just David and I and of course :the gun:  thank goodness nothing huge came near us but learnt a lot about the whole eco system where each plant does its bit for the feeding of the animals etc etc and saw some beautiful low native species of grasses flowers insects butterflies, spiders with gold webs , – just lovely.

The guys here are trying to get me to put on Utube my video segment of the hippos where one lunged at us amidst a huge splash twice in the water – it was so close the second time it was extremely scary –  I managed to capture it like a stunned mullet - it would have made great headlines – 4 Aussies 2 Brits and 4 Americans killed by pod of hippos…

 

We are eating back in the Boma tonight which is a wonderful experience and before and after dinner we all sit around a open fire having drinks watching the wildlife come into the water hole next to us.  

At the moment we have elephants, giraffes (in the distance) some impala and heaps of Baboons - they are such gutsy annoying and scary when up close.   They always seem to start their loud call to each other about 4am – a early wake up call and again late arvo .

 

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Sabi Sabi, a private Game Reserve is situated in the Sabi Sand Reserve

which is in the South Western section of the Kruger National Park

A = the approach to Sabi Sabi. 

more images here 

 

…having the most amazing amazing amazing experience up here at the Earth Lodge in Sabi.  Just cant describe it but Margot thank you so so much for telling us about it – last nights safari for 4 hrs was absolutely incredible and Cameron our driver said it was in the top  3 safaris he had ever done and he has done 2 a day for the last 6 years.

 Not only did we see the big 5 but a pride of lions had just killed a buffalo and we sat almost on top of them for an hour and watched them feast, snarl and gorge themselves and then roll around with their stomachs so huge.   Then later on we were amongst some leopards where a pack of hyenas circled a leopard and it escaped up a tree and after watching the activity for some time our tracker said theres got to be something going on over in this dense bit of bush so in we went to discover a leopard that they had killed and they kept dragging it away from us but we kept right on top of it and that was amazing to watch - they roll themselves on top of this dead carcus as well as eating it – of course we have been up close and personal with magnificent elephants and their babies I wouldnt have believed we could get so close and a baby rhino got so nosy he almost put his head into our jeep - I must admit sometimes you get a little edgy but the driver and tracker are just so calm and certainly have the gun ready as a last resort.