Tag Archives: cruises

Fits and Starts

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Here it comes in fits and starts, the return of travel. Beginning in late June a British cruise line will send out a ship capable of holding 3,647 passengers  and … just sail around, not stopping anywhere. More wandering than cruising.

China says it is processing visa requests from vaccinated individuals, but only from those who have been vaccinated with a Chinese-made vaccine, which are not available or approved in much of the world.

And the Icelandic government announced today that from tomorrow, visitors who can prove vaccination will be welcomed into the country with no test or quarantine. If you time it right, just before the coming big volcanic eruption, maybe you can trade where you’re stuck now for being stuck in Iceland.

New On the Road Article at 3QD

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There’s a new monthly On the Road article this morning at 3 Quarks Daily. This month, Ascension Island. You can read it today at 3QD, and I’ll post it here on CS&W later this week.

And there are more photos in the Ascension Island Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

In Transit

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I like the going, the getting there. Unless I’m desperately tired, I like the anonymous feel of places like the Felixstowe Seafarer Centre in this short video from UK director Eleanor Mortimer. Places like this affirm that you’re out there, on the road.

When you can block out eight minutes for yourself, have a look:

 

St Helena Airport Opening Postponed – Again

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StHelena

The site of the long-sought, still unrealized airport.

So close!

This has got to be frustrating for all concerned. Intrepid little Atlantic Star airlines has been sending out emails for months with news of one problem after another involved in getting the air link to St. Helena Island up and running. At the time of our visit to St. Helena aboard the RMS St. Helena in December 2009/January 2010 they were already working and planning for this new airport and still today the Royal Mail Ship is the only regular transportation to the island, around 1200 miles west of Angola.

Hang in there, Saints.

(Here are some photos of St. Helena Island, one of the more remote corners of the world.)

 

Friday Photo #44 from Papua New Guinea

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mudman

Here is a Mud Man, costumed for the annual Goroka Show, held in September in Goroka, Papua New Guinea. If you go, you’ll see a couple of days of dance presentations from maybe a hundred tribes from all over Papua New Guinea and as you can see from our Mud Man friend’s headgear, the whole thing is elaborate, exotic and while our man is all white other than his betel juice stains, the rest of the festival is wildly colorful. Wild might be the best word for Papua New Guinea overall.

As festivals go, this one has to be near the top of the list anywhere in the world for reasonably hardy travelers. It’s not the easiest to get to, but with a little determination it’s not that difficult. In our case it required a flight up from Brisbane to Port Moresby, then two more short flights to Mt. Hagen and then Goroka.

We did it independently but group tours are possible, although probably the biggest tour operator is already sold out for September 2016 here in November 2015.

See more photos from the Goroka Show in the Papua New Guinea Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

On the same visit to Papua New Guinea we arranged a (sort of) cruise on the also wild Sepik River on which we were the only passengers who turned up. I wrote about it in the book Common Sense and Whiskey. You can read that chapter and see photos of life along the river here, and you can get the book locally from Amazon in your country.

More: See the rest of the Friday Photos, and check out photos of 844 more pretty exotic people from all over the world.

A good weekend to you!