As always, the images and any videos in this posting are best viewed on the web page. View the complete set of blog posts here.
Today, we start a six-day cruise to Cape Verde, west of the African continent. We will have a post for the first three days, followed by a post for the second three days. As you know, sea days entail: laundry, relaxing, reading, exercising, blogging (of course…), and as always, eating.
April 12: The following image was taken from the sliding door of our stateroom.
Medical news today: we have heard that multiple cruisers who attended the Namibian pop-up dinner event two days ago have come down with mild foodborne illnesses. Cheryl and I had no symptoms, but neither of us ate very much that night, thank goodness. We believe that because the event was in a national park, Viking had to use local food vendors, and they were likely the root cause. Regardless, the last thing this ship needed was more sick passengers.
Enrichment – “Economics of Wildlife Tourism.” Explore the history of safaris, from big game hunts to sustainable photo safaris – John Wakeman-Linn
John was the perfect speaker for this presentation as he and his wife have lived in numerous African countries. He told us he has been on nearly 100 safaris over the years (the cost for people living in a country is roughly 10% of the cost for those outside a country because they can drive their own car, camp, or sleep at home).
Safaris initially started out as hunting expeditions. The excursions were made famous by professional hunters Frederick Courtney Selous and Walter “Karamojo” Bell, as well as celebrity hunters Theodore Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway. Photo safaris started in the early 1900s and became the expedition of choice by the mid-1900s. Hunting safaris still exist, but in significantly drastically reduced numbers and are very highly regulated.
Numerous countries have developed strategies to make safaris sustainable: stricter and better-enforced poaching laws, improved habitat management, improved animal management,
including translocation, giving locals a financial stake in keeping the animals alive, and more local resort management. Years ago, locals were financially motivated to kill animals and sell the artifacts. As trade in wild animal furs, tusks, etc., fell because of restrictions and photographic safaris grew, Africans have become much more motivated to keep wild species alive. This is crucial to long-term sustainability. In addition, countries have made it more difficult for outsiders to set up and run safari-based resorts, encouraging companies to use locals for hotel management.
The results have been very positive. Although animals remain endangered, by giving the local population a stake in keeping populations healthy and alive, as well as a stronger stake in resort leadership, the safari industry’s sustainability has improved significantly.
April 13 – The following image was taken from the sliding door of our stateroom. There were great views from the stateroom throughout the day. The second image is a video of the ship making steady progress north. The third image shows dramatic-looking clouds on the horizon.
Big news of the day is that the laundry rooms are open again! That’s a sign that the onboard illnesses are abating due to increased handwashing and comprehensive ship sanitization updates.
Enrichment – “Look Who’s Talking—Explore Animal Communication.” Discover how to recognize and interpret animal communications, from alarm calls to mating rituals – Neil Caithness
Neil covered categories of animal communication.
- Aggression/threat/warning
- Contentment/enjoyment
- Status signalling/dominance/submission
- Group cohesion / social bonding
- Alarm/warning
- Territory/demarcation
- Intent/body language
- Parent-offspring recognition
The presentation gave numerous video and photographic examples of all 8 forms of communication. He started with grey wolves, sharing how they howl, bark, growl, and whimper depending on what they want to communicate. They also use body language: tail position, ears, and postures to communicate. Finally, the use of scent marking: urine, scat, and scent rolling to transmit other information. Another interesting species he covered was the howler monkey. They have an extra-large hyoid bone, enabling their booming calls that can be heard for 3 miles. The calls are used to define, defend, and claim territory. The videos he showed were deafening.
As part of this presentation, Neil covered species naming. He quickly reviewed the work of Carl Linnaeus: “known as the ‘Father of Modern Taxonomy,’ for creating the standardized system used to name and organize all living things. He also formalized binomial nomenclature (the two-name system for species, like Homo sapiens) and developed a hierarchical classification framework.“
Enrichment – “Ernest Shackleton’s Epic South Atlantic Expedition Journey.” Trace Shackleton’s bold voyage across the South Atlantic and the ultimate test of survival – Dr. Scott Cady
Scott shared the story of the Antarctic expedition of Ernest Shackleton and his crew on the ship Endurance. The following summary, from the internet, is consistent with Scott’s talk:
“Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–1916) aimed to achieve the first land crossing of Antarctica. Though the mission failed when the expedition ship Endurance was crushed by pack ice, it is celebrated worldwide as one of the most miraculous survival stories in history.
The Timeline of the Expedition
Ship Trapped (1915): Just one day from their destination in the Weddell Sea, the Endurance became locked in dense pack ice. The crew drifted with the ship for ten months before the crushing pressure breached the hull, forcing them to abandon ship.
Life on the Ice: The 28-man crew survived for months on floating ice floes, hunting seals and penguins, until the ice broke apart.
Journey to Elephant Island (1916): The men loaded into three wooden lifeboats and spent five harrowing days navigating treacherous, freezing seas to reach the barren, desolate shores of Elephant Island.
The James Caird Voyage: Knowing they were entirely isolated, Shackleton and five men took a single 20-foot lifeboat, the James Caird, and sailed roughly 800 miles across the notoriously dangerous Southern Ocean to South Georgia Island.
Island Crossing & Rescue: After surviving the 16-day boat journey, Shackleton and two others became the first men to traverse South Georgia’s mountainous interior to reach a whaling station. After four grueling months of attempts, Shackleton successfully chartered a ship to rescue his remaining men on Elephant Island.“
The expedition, even though it ultimately ‘failed,’ remains one of the legendary stories of survival in recent history. Not a single crew member died during the ordeal. Much of the success is credited to Shackleton’s positive and unwavering leadership.
April 14 – The following image was taken from the sliding door of our stateroom.
At 06:30 (that is AM folks) this morning, there was an announcement throughout the entire ship that we were at Null Island, an imaginary landmass with latitude 0.0° and longitude 0.0°. I was already downstairs working on the blog and went outside to see what there was to see (water folks, just more water). Cheryl was in bed and, suffice it to say, not thrilled to be awakened and notified we had arrived basically nowhere. One of the enrichment speakers talked for 10-15 minutes about our arrival and the history of this place that basically does not exist. I am not sure how many cruisers wanted a 1/4 hour discourse about an imaginary place at 6:30 in the morning….
We both received a certificate commemorating the event.
Enrichment – “Green Investment in sub-Saharan Africa.” Learn about the exciting ways sub-Saharan African countries are moving to a green future – John Wakeman-Linn
This presentation reviewed renewable energy strategies developed and implemented by many of the African countries we are visiting. John covered Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Cape Verde, and Morocco. Kenya stood out as being very proactive, and the country can actually produce more electricity than its current demand. They are actively working to entice energy-hungry industries, data centers, steel production, AI modeling, etc., to the country to consume excess production. Most of the countries we are visiting either already have or are planning to embrace multiple renewable sources of energy.
A huge challenge for the entire African continent is delivering electricity to all areas, primarily in sub-Saharan rural regions. The infrastructure is simply lacking to deliver electrical power to all territories.
John reported that Africa has the resources to become a leader in Green Hydrogen: “hydrogen produced by splitting water through electrolysis, powered entirely by renewable energy (like wind or solar). It emits zero greenhouse gases, offering a clean energy solution for decarbonizing heavy industries—such as steelmaking, long-haul shipping, and chemical manufacturing—that cannot easily run directly on electricity.” Because it has access to so many renewable assets, the continent could supply over 10% of global exports by 2050, driven by multi-billion-dollar investments, to both decarbonize heavy industries and export derivatives to markets in Europe.
One issue that must be overcome is the ‘Resource Curse.’ “The resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty or the poverty paradox, is the hypothesis that countries with an abundance of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and certain minerals) have lower economic growth, lower rates of democracy, or poorer development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources.” Many of the countries we have visited have the characteristics applicable to this theory.
John is optimistic about African energy strategies and usage, and this was one of the few African presentations to date with an encouraging outlook.
Enrichment – “In Search of Human Origins.” Explore the background to some of the major discoveries that have shaped our understanding of human origins – Dr. Neil Caithness
The focus of this presentation was how the theory of human evolution has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Initial theories proposed a very serial evolution; images 3 and 4 imply a linear progression in which pre-sapian species did not overlap with their predecessors. The latest scientific findings support a theory that multiple pre-human species existed simultaneously. Neil reported that the concepts shown in slides 3 and 4 have actually been harmful to overall understanding, as they strongly imply an evolutionary path that is simply unsupported by the latest fossil record.
As the fossil record grows, it becomes clear that the linear theory is incorrect and hinders the development of more accurate hypotheses. As more modern dating techniques are used and gaps in the fossil records are closed, the accepted belief changes. The current widely accepted theory is that Homo erectus, Homo naledi, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo sapiens all inhabited the Earth at the same time. And there was interbreeding among these various species. See slides 10 and 11. Only Homo sapiens survived.
A major contribution to the most recent theory came from the findings at The Dinaledi Chamber, “a remote, deep-underground cavern located within the Rising Star Cave system outside of Johannesburg, South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.” The underground area contained thousands of Homo naledi fossils, including 15 nearly complete skeletons. The cave had drawings on the walls indicating that earlier species communicated through art. The cave is believed to be a burial ground. Carbon dating of the fossils indicates that the species co-existed with early Homo sapiens. From the internet: “The coexistence of these two vastly different hominin species demonstrates a complex diversity in human evolution, upending the notion of a single, straight evolutionary line. While Homo sapiens possessed large, modern brains, Homo naledi survived with a much smaller, chimp-sized brain and primitive skeletal traits.” Over time, Neanderthals migrated to Europe and Denisovans to Asia, predating when modern humans migrated out of Africa.
Cheryl and I had no idea that this type of presentation and material would be such an important part of our 4-month journey. The enrichment talks have been a terrific and unexpected learning opportunity for both of us. This talk was an excellent overview of the current theory of human evolution, and relevant as we have visited many of the African countries where early human fossils have been discovered. To have quality presenters like Neil, David Anderson, Bryan Babcock, and Julian Dowdeswell give presentations relevant to places we are visiting was an unexpected bonus.
End of Post.