“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”, the daughter of my friend advised her, as she was choosing a travel destination. And, as Dean and I are about to embark on another cruise, I am feeling a bit out of my comfort zone.

To fill in some of the cancelled itinerary of our recently completed “world cruise”, we are about to explore the west coast of Africa, from Lisbon to Cape Town on Oceania’s Marina, November 3, 2015 to November 28, 2015. In between Lisbon and Cape Town is mostly uncharted territory to me and, sadly, with as little as I know about this coast of the continent and no knowledgeable expectations, the prevailing world news puts it in my naive, over-generalized category of “the Ebola side of Africa”.

While traveling on a cruise ship provides a certain level of security and comfort, this should still be a great and new adventure in unfamiliar lands. Perhaps my life is about to begin. We’ll excitedly see…

“Outside of the comfort zone is where the magic happens.”