Silver Experience with Silversea Cruises

Having travelled with Silversea last year where we had such an amazing time, I had high expectations with this trip. We got off to a brilliant start, with 5 nights at the very impressive One and Only hotel in Cape Town where we did little more than laze by the stunning pool and eat and drink at the V&A Waterfront area (oh and a lengthy tour and wine tasting at de Grendel Winery which produces very drinkable wines!).

We then set off on Silversea's Silver Wind bound for Maputo, Mozambique before returning to Cape Town 10 nights later. The ship is smaller than the Silver Shadow which we sailed on last year (see my earlier journal), which in my opinion is not a bad thing. But if you are a Silversea regular, then you will need to know that the cabins and public areas are smaller than their other ships. However, the evening entertainment was better than last year, the crew were great and we had a marvellous time.

Due to windy weather the ship was late arriving into Cape Town so it was fairly chaotic at embarkation, and when we reached Port Elizabeth our first port of call we were unable to do the fly-in elephant back safari we had booked due to rain at the airstrip at Addo Elephant Park. That's the nature of cruising, however - if your tour is cancelled due to weather or late arrival you won’t be able to try again the next day!

Maputo was interesting - a large city with a lot of poverty, but with a lot of interesting architecture, and it was good to tick another country off my list, even though we were there only a few hours! Our next port of call, Richard's Bay, proved to be the highlight of the trip - we successfully embarked on a safari at Hluhluwe where we saw lots of giraffe, elephant, white rhino, impala, water buffalo, zebra, warthog and many species of birds. The zebras and elephants were particularly exciting, the former galloping quickly past our open sided safari vehicle, and the latter a group of about 20 crossed the road in front of us, stopping and turning to face us ominously. After the safari we did the real touristy bit and visited a Zulu traditional village (a very touristy one!) to watch some dancing and have some traditional dinner.

The following day we did a lake cruise at St Lucia Nature Reserve where hippos and crocodiles were in abundance, and again it was a very good day.

We sailed on to Durban where we found a fabulous local African restaurant for lunch, and then onto East London. Unfortunately our planned safari at Inkwenkweze had to be cancelled due to bad weather, so we had a mooch around the town and a drink in a bar overlooking the ocean.

All in all we very much enjoyed our holiday, we were just a bit unlucky with the weather and sea conditions. As said previously, the Silver Wind isn’t quite as premium as Silver Shadow, but it is still a marvellous ship and the staff can’t do enough for you.

So I'm rating this trip a Silver rather than Gold, but am looking forward to sailing with Silversea again as soon as I can.