Day 556 - The Denizens of L’Austral
The Northern Hemisphere and Tropic of Cancer - Transatlantic Crossing - Day 17
April 5, 2023 – day 16 of our transatlantic vagabond-adventure.
After sailing 11 ships and ferries since Cyn and I began this odyssey, we continue to marvel at the people we have met. Each of its denizens have different reasons for their journeys. Navimaggers (Patagonia) are not cut from the same gib as Australis (Tierra del Fuego) passengers. Australis was entirely different from Cunard’s Queen Mary II (transatlantic New York to London). Our voyage to Antarctica attracted one sort of passenger and the Hurtigruten trip through the Panama Canal still another. And now there was Ponant’s transatlantic voyage. One more breed of inveterate traveler; another take on the world. Of L’Austral's 21 passengers eleven speak French and 10 speak English. They come from everywhere— New Zealand, England, France, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Madagascar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia.
Each is unusually well traveled. By this I mean they have seen, and experienced nearly every sector of the planet, and make our adventures seem picayune by comparison. There is Francis, whom I’ve already mentioned, 82-years-old. His long, slender body moves precariously, but undaunted, through the ship. His fingers, which grip his cane like iron, are so long they would make Paganini blush. Each day he shows up cleanly shaven, his still ample, gray hair, tousled by the wind, because every morning he dines outside. Here he consumes prodigious amounts of pastries, coffee, bread, jam, and up to four or five small smoothies, yet remains slim as a stiletto. At breakfast whenever I ask him how his day is going, he spreads his long arms and shows us his Gallic grin – “What am I to say? It eeze magnificent!”
There are others. Christiana and Michel from the south of France. Michel is round and showing his years, but has the bright, curious eyes of a four-year-old. His wife is small and rotund too, yet she moves with the grace and speed of a girl. Michel calls himself a “fishmonger“ like his father and grandfather before him, but we come to learn that he owns a business and restaurant near Cannes so highly regarded that not one but three French presidents have dined there. Deirdre and Malachy are Irish and recently visited the Falkland Islands and Antarctica and are working their way back home. Malachy had a close call when he recently had a craniotomy to removed a non-cancerous tumor. Now he’s doing fine and more travel is on the schedule. All of these people are a library of travel information that would rival the Bibliotheque Nationale. Christian is a Swiss businessman who came from nothing but is admired throughout the country for his mastery of its largest and most revered hotels and restaurants. He tells us about a small town to visit near the border of Namibia and South Africa.
“It’s not easy to get to, but absolutely beautiful. They used to mine diamonds here and the Germans built a railway. Now you can see the rails extending right into the sand, where they then utterly disappear,“ Christian explains. And there is Patmos, a Greek island that is only a few miles from the Turkish border. It remains untouched, he says. Stan, a tall, dark haired Frenchman of impeccable kindness and good humor, lives in Brittany. He’s a doctor by day but on holiday without his wife, who is herself traveling in the Caribbean. He simply wanted to get away, he says with a shy smile. Rose spent years working as an engineer for Boeing, handling large aircraft projects. She’s tall with a thick head of iron gray hair she likes to keep short. In her engineering days she colored her hair, wore it long and went by the name Jennifer. Nowadays she’s traveling and while on Ponant shifts smoothly from French to English, delivering questions and witticisms with the speed of a Gatling gun.
“I’m so glad that Jennifer was a tight wad and worked so hard earlier in life so Rose could have a good time!” She says.
Robert grew up in Devonshire England. He now lives in Bali Indonesia, and absolutely loves being at the sea. At one point in his life, he boarded a cargo ship and traveled around the world – 135 days. And when he returned, he immediately boarded another ship and went around the world one more time. Might be a record. Each morning he dines alone in the open air, eating a spare breakfast and gazing with a faraway look at the sea, utterly at peace as far as I could see. And then there are Clara and Robin. Clara is from Madagascar, but lives in Paris. She is tiny and full of energy and completely fascinated with learning other languages several of which she is furiously mastering. She is the youngest among us, except for the dancers on board; in her 20s. Over several meals, she gives us all the information we could possibly need to get around her island home, plus a phrase or too of Malagasy. Robin is a diminutive Aussie with a prodigious knowledge of classical piano. He’s traveled throughout the world but specializes in Asia. He told us to be sure to book early if we hoped to ride the India Pacific Railway that transects Australia. We explain we are planning to take it through the continent from Perth to Sydney, and sure enough when I check online I see the train is booked through December 31, 2023 – every seat and berth. Note to self, I write: check for 2025.
Pictures: Bird in flight by Francis; Cyndy with Christian and Stan. Various shots of the Atlantic in different guises.
