Azamara World Series - South Africa: Part 1, Cape Town to Richards Bay
When Azamara introduced South Africa to their itinerary programme they invited us to join the Quest on one of her maiden voyages, a round trip from Cape Town. We arrived into Cape Town the afternoon before we were due to embark and spent the evening at the perfectly located Southern Sun Cullinan. Following a delicious breakfast at the hotel we took a short taxi ride to the nearby cruise terminal, and despite thorough health checks (our cruise being just as the Cover-19 outbreak started to emerge), check-in was very quick and smooth. Since we were both full from breakfast and the weather was so nice, we just headed to the pool bar for a cold beer and waited for our room to be ready. At 1.30 the announcement was made that the rooms were ready and we were delighted to find that our room steward was our old friend, Revon, who had looked after us so well on our Spice Route voyage a couple of months previously.
Following muster we had been invited to a reception party on the bridge for a maiden season plaque exchange with the Cape Town port authority. Up on the bridge we were delighted to see some familiar faces among the senior officers and crew present. We enjoyed an hour on the bridge eating delicious canapés, drinking champagne while listening to live piano music and watching a pod of dolphins swimming around the harbour. We even managed to sneak in a quick photo on the open bridge wings with the Captain, with Table Mountain as a backdrop.
This being our first evening on board and the ship staying in port until later in the evening we decided that after a pre-dinner drink and catch up with Gemma (the best piano entertainer at sea) in the Den, we would go to the Patio Grill for dinner, where we could enjoy the balmy evening weather and soak up the gorgeous view of Table Mountain from the Harbourside. After dinner it was time to leave Cape Town, so we stayed on deck to enjoy the sailway party featuring live music from the Fancy Triplets and Amarula shots. We weren’t long out of the harbour and into the open seas than the waves started to get a little bigger so we headed off to bed.
Our first full day on board the lovely Azamara Quest was a sea day, which started with a little lie-in and balcony breakfast followed by a lazy few hours lounging around the pool. The skies were clear but the high winds made it a little chilly, so after a long lunch in the Windows cafe we headed back to our room to sit on the aft balcony and enjoy the sunshine and the wake view whilst sheltered from the wind.
On this voyage we were staying in a Club Verandah Plus room which has a few perks attached to it, one of them being a complimentary meal in one of the speciality restaurants, so we had made reservations in Aqualina for dinner this evening. We started the evening in the Living Room for a pre-dinner cocktail and a plate of tapas before heading off to Aqualina. We love Aqualina (see our Azamara dining guide for more detail) and it didn’t disappoint.
The next morning we arrived into Port Elizabeth, the gateway for our excursion to the Addo elephant park. We headed out early and after an hours drive - including citations of zebras, giraffes and elephants along the way - we arrived at the park and boarded the large safari Jeeps. We spent two hours driving around the park, the third largest national park in South Africa, and home to more than 600 elephants. Along with the many herds of elephants we saw herds of Cape buffalo and antelope, warthogs, a tortoise, a goshawk and a rather too close for my comfort encounter with a very large dung beetle. After our exciting drive we headed back to the coach and were presented with an unexpected but very welcome picnic box.
By the time we arrived back at the ship it was mid afternoon so we spent a couple of hours lazing on our large, sheltered balcony (the wind was still high but our balcony was nicely sheltered from it) enjoying the warm weather and sunshine with a gin and tonic in hand. The weather was so lovely we decided to eat out on the sunset terrace for the Chinese buffet this evening where we were treated to a spectacular sunset which created the most amazingly colourful sky over port Elizabeth. The evening was perfectly rounded off in the Den with a bit of Dixie jazz from the ships band who whipped up a jazz storm as guests sat round drinking cocktails.
The following day was another sea day and though it was a little windy and the sea was somewhat choppy, the weather was lovely, a perfect for a lazy day around the pool in readiness for our long safari day in Richards Bay the next day.
Despite the next day being Valentines day there was no romantic lie-in or lazy breakfast in bed for us, we had a very early start for a day long safari excursion at Thula Thula game reserve, located an hour inland through gorgeous rolling hills dotted with Zulu villages. Thula Thula is the oldest game reserve in the region and is renowned for its conservation work. Along with 6 of our fellow passengers we boarded a safari jeep for what turned out to be 2 of the most incredible hours of my life. Our ranger made it his goal to ensure that in the two hours we encountered as many animals as possible, including herds of zebra, a family group of giraffes, a wallowing rhino, lots of indigenous antelope, vultures and semi-submerged hippos. However, the highlight of the day was a very close encounter with a large herd of elephants, one of whom was rather too intrigued with my phone than I would have liked! Having never experienced a safari before we were overwhelmed by this excursion which whetted our appetite for our upcoming 3 day safari at Bukela Lodge following our cruise (see our Bukela Lodge blog post for more details of this amazing trip). This amazing excursion was finished off with a delicious home cooked buffet lunch back at Thula Thula lodge before the coach ride back.
Although it was quite late in the day by the time we arrived back at the ship, we still had time to wander around the local trade stalls that had set up in the port and we spent some time wandering around, enjoying the gorgeous green fields and sandy beaches that surround picturesque Richards Bay.
Despite the unromantic start to the day it had turned out to be a very good Valentines day after all, but it wasn’t over yet. that evening there Quest crew went above and beyond decorating the living room with hearts and flowers and setting out the most amazing chocolate buffet dessert extravaganza. When we could no longer face the sight of chocolate we headed down to the Den to finish our Valentines day with Gemma’s love song set, perfect!
If you would like to make an enquiry about a cruise on Azamara, or any other cruise line, simply click here and someone will be in touch with you soon.
We would like to thank Azamara Cruises for paying for us to go on this cruise and for all of the shore excursions described above. Keep an eye out for part two of this blog post where we voyage from Richards Bay back to Cape Town, via Durban and East London.
If you enjoyed this blog, why not take a look at other voyages in our World Series, The Spice Route or Italy and the Adriatic.
If you would like to receive notification of any new blog posts, updates of our travels or links to our vlogs we would love for you to sign up to our mail list below. Thank you.
