Where in the World?

[Andy Holloway]

Not accessible to QE2, but it was to RVS.

A clue is in the height of the towers of the jetty, but not the wording!

[Andy Holloway]

Very disappointing, nobody even going to try with a guess.

A clue; The wombles!

[Thomas Hypher]

Somewhere in South America, judging by the environment around the berth?

[Andy Holloway]

Somewhere in South America, judging by the environment around the berth?

You're going to make a good Navigation Officer one day young Thomas! Now which rivers are navigable, and then which one is this?

[Thomas Hypher]

You're going to make a good Navigation Officer one day young Thomas! Now which rivers are navigable, and then which one is this?

I am not familiar (yet at least) with any South American Rivers except the Amazon. I'm guessing this is the Amazon though because of the apparent significant width of the river in your photos and because QE2 was too large and/or deep drafted to navigate the Amazon.

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

A clue; The wombles!

Surely not Wimbledon Common? 

[Peter Mugridge]

Tobermory Harbour?

[Rod]

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Beautiful music, and gives it all away!

Congratulations Thomas, what gave you the clue? Andy, let us have the story please .

[Lynda Bradford]

Agree - good music

Well done to Thomas for participating and I have learned something as well, about the Orinoco, one of the longest Rivers in South America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orinoco

[Andy Holloway]

It was a place called Ciud Guyana which as you rightly guessed is some way up the Orinoco River in Venezuala.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Guayana

A few more  photos and some text later as i have to go for my 2nd injection now and then cut the grass before my 'dear lady wife' explodes!!

[Chris Thompson]

I should have spotted that one, used to go there on the OCL Ocean Princess in 1987, back in the days when Venezuela was a paradise!

[Andy Holloway]

So 2nd Covid Vaccination done, no side effects so far! My wife says that 'where there's no sense there's no feeling', so she's not expecting me to have any!
Front & back lawns cut, to an 'acceptable standard' as passed by the 'Head Gardener'!

RVS arrived at the anchorage at Ciud Guyana at around 1800, just as it was getting dark, once we anchored and the first tender was prepared and in the water it was truly dark! The Chief Officer, one Chris Wells, and i went ashore on this tender to establish where we were due to operate our shoreside tender service from. The local Agent had given us a 'rough' idea as to where we were to be but........   Anyway, after clambering over a very wet and slippery jetty, illuminated only be our flashlights, we decided that this was not safe and therefore not suitable for what we wanted, we then moved a bit further up river to the pontoon where the accompanying photos were taken. The time of year we were there was within the 'dry period' but, looking at the pillars of the pontoons, we could fully understand when we were told that the river rises up to a further 30ft when in flood!

To explain the photos;
001 - top to bottom;
The landing pontoon with two deck boys relaxing in between tenders.
Just to prove we were there and at anchor.  Note the small white flag, bottom right, more on this later.
It's only when you look at photos like this that you realise just how big these rivers are.
002 - A good view of the pillars to show just how much the river rises when in flood.
003 - The connection between pontoon & dry land.

To explain the 'flag'!
There were an American couple who were regular RVS passengers called Barney & Ellen Cogan, they always had the 'Owners Suite' - and thought that they really were! - when they travelled and were 'allowed' to fly their flag - 'Camp Cogan' - from their balcony. Stories about their exploits onboard were numerous and were often about things & incidents that wouldn't be allowed onboard these days.

Where RVS excelled over the rest of the Cunard Fleet was not only in her quality of service, but also that she could get into smaller, out of the way and less 'popular', ports around the World that were inaccessible to QE2.

[Thomas Hypher]

Beautiful music, and gives it all away!

Congratulations Thomas, what gave you the clue? Andy, let us have the story please .

The vegetation and the amount of it going off into the distance, and the sort of geology and small rocks in each photo. It reminded me of the Panama Canal too. I was going to say somewhere in Venezuela as a wild guess but I didn't know about the Orinoco River or any other South American rivers so stuck with the Amazon.

[Chris Thompson]

One memory of that port was that there were always a bunch of rather ragged looking young children begging for money there.
At sunset their parents would show up in big old American cars to take them home!
Regarding cars there and in most of Central and South America, I can still smell the terrible exhaust fumes there!
The low grade petrol locally plus the absence of catalytic converters must have been to blame.