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Day 131 May 17 Saint-Malo, France We had reached the last port of the cruise prior to our arrival in London. Saint-Malo is a pretty beach resort in Brittany. It has the distinction of having the highest tides in Europe. They can rise 13 metres so that at high tide there is no beach and water...

Day 128 and 129 May 14 and 15 Bordeaux, France The ride up the Garonne from Le Verdon on the Bay of Biscay to Bordeaux is quite pretty for the most part but you don’t see very many vineyards. It takes about 5 hours so we got to Bordeaux early evening. Many people had disembarked in Le Verdon...

Day 127 May 13 Bilbao, Spain One of the few disappointments of this cruise was that we had to miss out on the planned event in Bilbao. Silversea had put on a number of events the big one of which was a three day overland trip from Osaka to Tokyo. Another was a trip to the Opera from White Bay...

And a few more of my walk around Lisbon. I was happy to get back to the ship.

Day 125 May 11 Lisbon, Portugal. We didn't have any plans for Lisbon which was a good thing as we'd have had to abandon them. Both of us were coughing nearly non-stop and Turtle 2 was running a temperature, aching and had the shivers. The doctor tested and it was Influenza A. He'd clearly...

Now the final segment of 9 starts. It's the shortest of the cruise - just 8 days until we reach Greenwich.

Thanks for the kind words. We are coming to the end of a bad bout of illness. T2 was eventually diagnosed with Influenza A and me with a chest infection which wasn't the flu. Every drug known to man is inside us! Thank heavens we are both a good deal better - just in time to get off the ship...

Day 123 May 9 Seville, Spain After about 6 weeks that is Africa done and dusted for this time. Not much of it has not been interesting and all of it is challenging. South Africa remains one of our all time favourite pllaces and we want to spend more time there. At the moment I can't see how...

More of Rabat. These are in the Casbah and at the Mausoleum of Mohammed V.

Day 121 May 7 Casablanca, Morocco We decided to go to Rabat rather than spend our time in Casablanca. The first time here we’d seen a good bit of Casablanca and also visited Marrakech. Rabat was about 90 kilometres up the road, a decent highway, but it still took the best part of two hours...

Day 117 May 3 in the evening, Goree Island, off Dakar, Senegal Goree Island is an unforgettable place a few kilometres from Dakar. We had a dinner there. Kids lined up waiting for the ferry back to Dakar after a day on Goree Island.

More from Dakar. . Dakar Traffic. Kids playing in the fishing nets after school. Beachside rockpool. The Monument to the African Renaissance. It cost US$27 million and has been much criticised as a waste of money and in bad taste. It's a long way to the top. Goats at a beach market...

Day 117 May 3 Dakar, Senegal I found this place quite intimidating the last time we were here. The traffic was chaotic and the touts were everywhere and very persistent. With the unemployment rate through the ceiling and just no jobs it is not surprising that white tourists with all their signs...

Day 116 May 2 Banjul, The Gambia We are in the homestretch now. Just over two weeks to go out of 19. It is going to be hard to leave. The Gambia is shaped like a small snake along the banks of the Gambia River in West Africa. It is, except for its Atlantic coast at the river mouth, totally...

I'd hope ours was an isolated incident. The market we visited in Takoradi the day before was fine.

Day 112 April 28 Accra, Ghana More accurately, at Accra’s port, Tema which is about 45 minutes from the centre of town. It’s just a short sail from Takoradi to Tema but it is pirate territory, so precautions were taken overnight and all the decks and verandahs were closed for the second time...

We cruised here a few years ago but Sao Tome and Lome were not on the intinerary. I'm sorry we missed them this time, particularly Sao Tome, but it is understandable.

Day 111 Apr 27 Takoradi, Ghana We are now in Takoradi in Ghana. For us, it is a substitute port. We were scheduled to go to Lome in Togo just down the road but this got canned a couple of months ago because of security concerns. There has also been pirate activity in the Gulf of Guinea off the...

Yes, I understand that. Sorry, I may have used the wrong description for a manufactured tourist situation.

After 4 hours of going backwards and forwards on search and rescue we found nothing and have been released by the Portuguese Navy. We are now heading for our next port. Four people have been confirmed dead and 4 are missing but 52 have been rescued. So some good news when it clearly could have...