Days at Sea and down the Suez Canal

We occasionally have days of rest from excursions when we have a long journey to the next port of call.

Minerva is small by cruise ship standards but very comfortable with plenty of places to relax. The sunny deck areas were a favourite place for our group to meet up. Here Chris, Liz and Annie with Clodagh and me. There are two restaurants and three bars where eating and drinking seems to fill much of the day between lectures. Below Chris, John and Liz with Clodagh.

The lectures were on such subjects as the conquests of Alexander, the travels of Herodotus, the changes effected in Turkey under Ataturk and the creation of Islam by Mohammad. The last was a somewhat partial lecture suggesting those of other religions and especially those of none should be making much stronger efforts to understand Islam. If any time is left in between, one could use the spacious and well stocked library, the card room or the Internet lounge - unfortunately there was some incompatibility problem in connecting to iPads.

My own preferred activity first thing in the morning was walking a few miles round the promenade deck. The most interesting of these early morning circuits of the ship was while travelling down the Suez Canal. We had arrived at Port Said the evening before, where we took a stroll along the noisy and grubby waterfront running a gauntlet of the merchants anxious to ply us with their wares. The ship had to wait there for permission to leave southwards in a convoy of other ships.

We eventually left port at 3.30 in the morning and were travelling through the canal by the time we got up. As I circled the ship, I almost felt it possible to reach out and touch each side of the canal; on the left the largely barren desert of the Sinai Peninsular; on the right some habitation with more trees and vegetation gaining its fertility from the River Nile a little further to the west. We travelled through these relatively narrow canal stretches, through a small lake, past the city of Ismailia on the west bank and then into the Great Bitter Lake where we anchored for an hour or so to allow the north bound convoy of ships to pass.

We had been 11th in our convoy of 12, with just a German naval ship behind us. But then the last shall be first and we followed the German ship as we sailed on again across the lake. This was followed by another canal stretch with sand on our left and palm trees on our right. No sign of life on one side except a few goats and all the villages and towns on the other, including the large town of Suez as we left the canal and entered the Red Sea. A fascinating journey.

 

Robert Cole