Well, you read about my other attempts to do live blogging during travel.
I couldn’t post from an Amtrak train trip because there’s no cell towers amidst the cows. I couldn’t post from aboard a Viking Riverboat Cruise because the wifi was too weak for the entire boat.
When we decided to take the 12-day cruise around South Africa with large cruise ship company NCL I was looking forward to having eight days with no excursions–four of them at sea–to get lots of writing done. I brought personal writing projects and books to edit (I have commitments to do eight in 2023), and of course blogging about South Africa.
NCL offered a high-speed, unlimited wifi time for a hefty-price but we paid it. Then, it didn’t work. It took three days to finally connect with the part-time computer support just to get logged in. But there were days–too many days–that I had no wifi. On the days I had wifi, it was so slow that the computer would time out before a photo could upload. A couple of times I deliberately tried to access the internet after midnight–server off. Really?
I was all set to write a letter (and I may still) to NCL protesting the charge for the wifi service, its instability, slow speed, not available, and lack of computer tech help, then Larry reviewed the bill yesterday before disembarking and NCL had reversed the charge. I guess other passengers let NCL know what they thought about the wifi packages.
I spent the past two days in Cape Town 1) elevating my ankle, and 2) writing up posts. Thank you for putting up with receiving multiple posts per day. I still have lots to tell you about my time in South Africa and South Africa. Look for those posts when we return to Whidbey Island, Washington on Thursday, January 4.
We board our first flight for home tonight at 11 pm on Delta Airlines. The flight is sixteen hours. Then a layover of about two hours in Atlanta and finally the flight to Seattle for a total travel time of twenty-three hours.
Jet lag? Who has time for jet lag? It’s a new year. I have more to write you about and books to edit. And, perhaps a little knitting. Oh, and catching up with what we missed on TV such as Yellowstone and the Yellowstone Prequel with Harrison Ford.
Thanks for coming along with me on my Christmas cruise around South Africa. We started out to honor my late father’s bucket list–Africa and Safari–but it turned out to be a trip of a lifetime for both of us. I actually want to return to Africa in the near future. So, I have some travel dreaming to do, deciding where I want to go next in our retirement travel adventures. Penguins in Antartica?
I’ll be back writing up my latest genealogy research for the Ragland Family History and My Family History. I hope you’ll stay with me. I appreciate your encouragement, comments, likes, and indications that I’m not writing to the universe.
Happy New Year. I wish you a year of good health, much happiness, and perhaps a travel adventure.
Debora Ragland Buerk
The Write Stuff
Looking at life from a different POV.
The Write Stuff 