Thursday April 21, 2016 – After an amazing day in Muscat, we were glad to have a day at sea before arriving in our second Oman port of Salalah. Today was a day much about Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday with toasts and speeches and even an excellent celebrity speaker – Caroline Aston lecturing about the Queen and her childhood through her monarchy until today. A special dinner was prepared for the guests to enjoy and we opened a bottle of champagne in our cabin so the four of us could toast the Queen on her very special birthday. Caroline is a Royal columnist and presenter and recently had a long article in the commemorative issue of Majesty Magazine, entitled “The Queen at 90”. Additionally, Graham Howell did another port lecture, this time on Aqaba, Jordan which we will visit after Salalah. The four of us had booked the Jordan tour to go to Petra, which we were greatly looking forward to seeing, but based on the long walking in searing heat requirements, strong family suggestions given medical conditions and now Tachy’s leg situation, Tachy and Roger opted to change the Petra tickets for another tour going to the desert for lunch in a Bedoin tent, with Nelson and Diana remaining on the Petra tour. The other interesting lecture was by David Pollard on the history of the Suez Canal, which we are soon to transit. The other big news was unfortunately the increase in the number of cases of Norovirus on the ship. Further announcements and notices as well as measures for taking preventative measures are taken. Insistence on hand-washing, use of antiseptic gel, full food service in the cafeteria and dining rooms, minimising the touching of utensils by guests etc are in place and thus increase the delays in food service. All tables, chairs, railings etc are wiped down with antiseptic after each use and in general a heightened sense of awareness and precaution exists. All food, which we had now got accustomed to having, in the Atlantic room (for world traveller use only) has been curtailed. So we have decided to spend more time in our cabins and less interaction with the general public. An interesting “fact of the day” – Queen Elizabeth is the only person present at the inauguration / launch of the three Cunard Queen ships that bear her name – The original Queen Elizabeth in 1938 (which I sailed on with my parents in 1959), the QE2 in 1967 (currently being refitted to be a hotel in the Dubai harbour), and the current Queen Elizabeth in 2010 which is on it’s world voyage at the present time. The Queen also “christened” this ship – Queen Mary 2 at its launch some 15 years ago.
Friday April 22, 2016 – In Salalah, Oman – or so we hoped!!!! We sailed into the Salalah harbour and docked starboard to quay in the container / commercial port of Salalah (formerly Port Raysut) which is 10 miles from the city of Salalah. It is the second largest city of Oman and in the southern region of Dhofar, a mere 50 miles from the border with Yemen. It is said that The Queen of Sheba had a palace in Dhofar and the earliest settlements in this region date back to the 12th century BC. It has always been famous for it’s Frankincense and even Marco Polo in the 13th century AD remarked that it was a Prosperous City. It came under the rule of Oman in the 1800’s and is unique (other than certain parts of Yemen) to have a monsoon season, thus has a lot of green areas and cooler climate, contrasting with the surrounding desert. We were looking forward to seeing the place, particularly as tourism is still in its infancy, so it would be good to see prior to its commercialisation.
So after the ship was tied up to the quay, we got prepared and assembled, as usual in the theatre, getting stickers with our tour number and waiting to be called to the assembled coaches we could see on the dock. We waited and waited until finally an announcement was made that the local authorites who, as usual board the ship in each port, review the papers and then give clearance to proceed ashore, had denied us entry due to the Norovirus outbreak on board. Apparently much negotiation had gone on, but to no avail and we were denied entry. Then two things happened. One – a cardiac patient on board had to go to the local hostpital for urgent treatment, was initially also denied entry, but after much discussion was finally permitted ashore under escort of the ship’s medical team. Two – the entertainment staff had to put together a full day program to entertain the guests as we were to set sail as soon as the medical team returned from taking the patient to the local hospital. Disappointment reigned, but such is the situation and has happened twice before to us, for different reasons, while on this ship. Once in St. John’s Canada and the other in Dublin, Ireland, both due to weather situations which made it unsafe to dock. This was the first time we experienced having docked and were not permitted ashore for health reasons. So we enjoyed lectures aboard from Caroline Aston on “High Jinx in High Society” which was very amusing as well as Malcom Nelson a 40 year veteran of HM Customs Service talking, very amusingly of how the Customs agents, particularly at Heathrow airport, where he spent much of his career, catch drug smugglers. What kind of profiling they do, which are the flights and passengers that need extra attention etc. One common custom of smuggling was to sew drugs into a wig and then sew the wig on to the scalp of the runner. This would seem like regular hair even with a slight tug. One day they stopped a woman and started to remove her hair, only to find that it was not a wig! Other ways of profiling were to see the outbound and inbound weight of luggage of a passenger or awkward routing of flights from departure city to destination for no apparent reason. A very interesting and amusing presentation. So we spent the day on the ship and started our three day voyage to Aqaba, Jordan where we hope the local authorities will permit us entry.
Roger & Anne Travels 