Oceania Cruises: Lots of planning, saving goes into epic upcoming trip to Africa, Asia

Oceania Cruises’ Nautica carries 656 passengers on voyages known for their food and itineraries. (Submitted)

Like many others in my senior citizen age group, I’ve decided to get traveling again with a bucket-list trip. Social distancing and isolation have narrowed horizons in recent years, and it’s become a now-or-never scenario.

This map shows the route of travel writer Janet Podolak’s epic monthlong voyage. (Submitted)

In my decades of gathering stories for the newspaper’s Travel section, I’ve been privileged to visit many of the world’s wonderful places. And now I’m going back to some of them with a month-long voyage from Cape Town, South Africa, to Bangkok aboard Oceania Cruises’ Nautica. I leave next week.

Here’s how it came to be:

Last summer I began planning a safari — something I’ve wanted to do again since a visit to South Africa back in 1986. I wrote a half-dozen stories from that trip for several Ohio newspapers in a group that included The News-Herald and The Morning Journal.

Game drives are included as shore excursions on my cruise, so that cinched my choice.

I’m often hosted on press trips, in which writers for print and online publications are invited to experience a region, but this time I’m on my own dime. I financed this epic voyage with money saved to replace my 10-year-old Toyota.

Those who know me well also know my passion for seeing the world, but sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if I’ve finally lost it. This will be not only the longest trip I’ve ever taken but also the priciest.

But I’m celebrating my eighth decade on this planet and my fifth year free of cancer.

The Nautica is a smaller ship than my first experience in February with Oceania Cruises. I’ve booked a stateroom with a verandah to better enjoy our many days at sea.

We’ll be in the Southern Hemisphere, so it should be in the 80s most days as we cruise through the Indian Ocean, the Mozambique Channel, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, with as many as three days in a row without a port stop. Wondering if I’ll see a difference in the bodies of water and between the Seychelles and the Maldives, two island groups where I plan to go snorkeling.

We’ll be at anchor off Madagascar on Jan. 27, when I’ll be going ashore to see the lemurs. The Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Madagascar biome has, until now, been the extent of my experience with the world’s fourth-largest island, and I’m excited to make the acquaintance of lemurs in an area called Nosy Komba. Lemurs, the world’s oldest living primates, live only on Madagascar, where there are more than 100 species of them.

A lemur is shown in Madagascar. The whimsical primates, the the earth’s oldest, will be part of a visit to Madagascar on Jan. 27. (Courtesy of the Arbor Day Foundation)

I’ve been viewing YouTube videos to learn more about lemurs, which appear to be very sweet critters, as curious about us as we are about them. The ship’s shore excursion guide, however, reminds that although lemurs are accustomed to interacting with people, they are wild animals and can be unpredictable.

YouTube and Google Earth are wonderful resources for preparing for a trip like this. Both give a good fix on the location and tools for learning about the weather and other things needed to make the most of such an epic journey.

Because this trip had its origins with a desire to join a safari, the African game drive shore excursions were among the most important reasons for choosing this ship and its itinerary. And because the cruise line gives paid-in-full passengers the opportunity to also book shore excursions in advance, I carefully perused the six game drives offered in South Africa, choosing the five-hour visit to Hluhluwe-Immfolozi Park in Richards Bay as my top choice. But even in early September, four full months before the cruise, it was filled.

A tall male giraffe greets Tebogo Masiu and Smagele Twala during a game drive in the Dinokeng game reserve near Hammanskraal, South Africa on Dec. 5, 2021. An African game drive will be part of an elaborate upcoming adventure. (Associated Press file)

So now I’m wait-listed for that visit and instead am booked for the Thula Thula Game Reserve, also near Richards Bay, on Jan. 22, where a buffet of traditional South African dishes is included. In the Zulu language, “thula thula” translates as “peace and tranquility” and the reserve is said to be “teeming with elephants, rhino, giraffe, hippos” and many of Africa’s other creatures. A footnote, however, indicates wildlife sightings aren’t guaranteed.

I’ll be skipping Mozambique, scheduled for Jan. 23, because the $125 cost for a visa was out of my range for a three-hour visit. This African country once was colonized by Portugal, and its architecture and food is supposed to reflect that.

A visa also is required for everyone on board when the ship sails in Indian waters. Ports there include Mumbai, Goa, Mangalore and Cochin. I’ve never been to India before and am very much looking forward to it.

In Mangalore, on Feb. 7, I’m signed up for a day with a local, starting with a tuk-tuk ride to run errands along with visits to the local bazaar and post office and seeing thin beedi cigarettes being hand rolled. That visit concludes with a home-cooked meal at the host’s home.
Time spent with locals is something offered in several ports, an experience unique to Oceania Cruises.

By its nature, time on a cruise is spent with other passengers, often those much like ourselves. So spending hours with locals is especially precious for me when I travel.

The Mangalore excursion, however, includes five hours of walking, which may not be possible because an old knee injury has resurfaced and is giving me problems. I’m undergoing physical therapy this week to help my recovery and hope I don’t have to cancel. However, a refund of the $216 fee for that shore excursion is promised when cancellation is made three days in advance. By then, two weeks into the voyage, I should be able to better assess my knee function.

Although plenty of active excursions are available to choose among, I’ve chosen less-active ones for the most part.

In Goa, a Portuguese and Hindu city we’ll visit in India on Feb. 6, I’m planning to join a yoga guru on a houseboat river cruise where our group will be led in a series of meditative postures using deep breathing techniques. A healthy lunch will be served on board as we sail past tidal marshes and cultivated paddy fields with homes carved from the dense forest.

I’m also looking forward to Singapore and ports in Thailand, although I’ve been to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

The voyage concludes Feb. 19.