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Day Nineteen. Toulon, France
We woke up to our second last morning on the ship, opened the curtains and we were docking in Toulon. This is a French port town and has a naval base. The weather was overcast but reasonably warm and humid. We had a couple of options to get to the town centre being a water taxi or regular cab. We decided to grab a cab and were in the town centre 20 minutes later.
We had nothing planned for the day except to have a bit of a look around and grab a coffee or some lunch. We took some photos, found a small cafe where we had a coffee and baguette, and then went for a walk down towards the water. We checked out some markets and while we were looking around, it started to get dark and we heard a couple of rumbles of thunder.
We had been off the ship about 2 hours and with the weather looking ominous, we decided to grab the water taxi back to the ship. By the time the boat left the terminal there was lightning striking the mountains that overlook the bay and we were in a race against time to get back to the ship before it hit us. The boat ride was about 15 mins and when we got to the terminal, the odd heavy drop of rain was coming down. The storm looked like Armageddon, and we then realised it was at least a 10 min walk back to the ship with little cover except trees and metal light poles.
We only had two ponchos between the four of us, so the girls got those and the boys took off for the ship. About halfway, the full force of the storm unleashed itself on us. It was literally a white out, and we hoped the people running in front of us were heading in the right direction as we couldn't see a thing. The wind was tremendous, lightning and thunder constant and we were wet through.
We ended up back at a small demountable building near the ship and had to sit the rest of the storm out in there. It was too dangerous to venture outside as the hail started coming down and the wind had gone up to another level. It must have been gusting over 100kmh. As we watched the hail grow from pea size to marble size to golf ball size, the noise in the building was deafening. Finally after about 20 minutes, it subsided and the authorities unlocked the doors and let us out. The wind was still strong but blowing from the opposite direction.
We were freezing and headed upstairs to our rooms. Unfortunately we had done some washing in our bathroom before we headed out and put it out to dry on our balcony. It was of course as soaked as we were.
About and hour after the storm had subsided, we noticed a mass of brown water slowly heading our way. It must have been the run-off from the mountains and the contrast in colour of water was something we had never seen before. Check out the photos and to see what we mean.
After cleaning ourselves up we watched a bit of the Footy (Swans v North) before heading up for lunch. We then had a quiet afternoon watching TV and having a sleep.
We then did our usual and sat on the balcony with a drink as we sailed out of port. Except today was different. Just after we exited the heads, the ship slowed and started to turn around. A message came over the PA advising a passenger needed immediate medical attention and we were heading back to port. It was the second time on the cruise a passenger was required to get off the ship and onto an ambulance.
We had our last dinner at 7:30pm and ate up big. One of the best things about the cruise is the food and drink. Five star food every night.
We also did some last minute shopping and had a couple of drinks at the casino bar before heading back to the room at 10:30pm.
Tomorrow we disembark at 7:25am and head to our hotel in Barcelona where we will spend our last three days.
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