Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

March 12, 2017

Our tour of Darwin today is scheduled for 12:15, so we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel – late.  They also had one of the juicers with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables available to make your own.  I guess it might be an Australian thing.

Our driver, Ray, picked us up in another one of those big truck/buses.  We only had about 15 people with us and most of them were Greek, so the language in the bus escaped us most of the time.  Some of them spoke English at least a bit though, and one couple had moved to Melbourne.

Darwin, as it turns out, has a harbor that is twice the size of Sydney’s which was a surprise to us.  It is a totally different city from Sydney, though, only 87,000 population although people of 70 nationalities live here. It is Australia’s only tropical capital city.  We didn’t go to the commercial port but Ray told us it is constantly being enlarged and improved.  Interestingly there are 4 marinas that have locks, one for commercial fishing boats and the other three in private marinas.  This is because the tides are so dramatic here.  

There is lots of water and many beaches but no one swims at them.  Ray says maybe some tourists who don’t know any better might.  Why?. Crocodiles and deadly jellyfish.  In fact, Australia has more dangerous species of animals, reptiles, insects, etc.  than anywhere in the world.

Low tide now.

We first had a drive around some of the waterfront parts of town.  These unique benches started out as gun look alikes to deter the Japanese from coming on land.  They never did come on the land, so they kept them there and now they are growing plants over benches that have been placed looking out on the water.

Some history Norm and I certainly never learned is that just 10 weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, they also attacked Darwin – on the 19th of February, 1942.  There were a total of 64 air raids on the city.  It is said that it is the battle Australia tries to forget.  Although there was much to be proud of that day, the dark side of the story lingers – looting, desertion and a failure of Australian leadership.

The difference between the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Darwin is startling – the Japanese dropped more bombs on Darwin, killed more civilians in Darwin and sank more ships in Darwin than in Pearl Harbor.  It remains the single deadliest event in Australia, yet it remains mostly unspoken about.

We saw the first telegraph pole which became functional in 1872 and represented the first communication between Australia and the rest of the world.  Before that, a letter could take 4 – 6 months to arrive.

We passed St. Mary’s Church which has a black madonna, and it was said by the church that their tradition demands that it faces the water.  The church required special arches in another building before they would approve its application so that they could still have the water view.

Here are some of the other interesting buildings in the city.  The one shaped like an elongated egg is to make it able to withstand cyclones – that winds would go around it so that it would be less stressed.  They had a very severe cyclone in 1974.

This church was almost all destroyed in the cyclone – only the front facade remained so they kept it and rebuilt the church behind it

The view of Darwin from the park is very nice, and you can also see the huge mangrove forests. There are 40 different kinds here.

Next we visited the Darwin Aviation Museum which is just large enough to contain a B-52 – the plane and its wings fills the entire building and the other smaller planes and exhibits fit underneath it.  This is mostly a WWII museum with lots of stories about the war.  The Japanese bombed Darwin to assure that Australia would not enter the war, and they did not, but they suffered casualties anyway.

These bunkers we passed were covered with vegetation which made them invisible to the attack planes during the war.

We visited the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory – really enjoyed the art.  They have a Country and Western section which has a whole different meaning here – Country is Aboriginal and Western is the white population.  Here are two of the Country pieces. I am really intrigued by the Indigenous art and bought a necklace in the gift shop.

There are many other exhibits of shells, wildlife, the 1974 cyclone and one of the highlights is the presence of “Sweetheart”, a crocodile that was known for attacking aluminum boats.  They attempted to remove him to a sanctuary but unfortunately he died and he now “rests in peace” in the museum.

I never want to see one up close and personal!

Our last stop of the day was the George Brown Botanical Gardens, renamed for the man who gave so much of his life to rehabilitating the Gardens when they were devastated by the cyclone.  It was beautiful and peaceful.  They have these benches made of trees in all of the parks we have visited.

There is a dramatic difference in everything between the wet and dry seasons.  As I mentioned, this is the wet season – the dry is June – October.  Operating hours of attractions, excursions available, restaurant hours and much more – Ray mentioned so many times that things are available only in the dry season.  Of course our flight in Kakadu is only in the wet season!

Very interesting day – Ray was a good guide and showed us many other things in Darwin – I tried to cover just some of it here. It was about 100 degrees and humid, so we were really glad we did this option vs the hop on hop off bus which would have been a scorcher.  Lots of lightning in the sky later in the day but no rain.

We ate at a restaurant in the Waterfront, got gelato on our walk back to the hotel and now I am doing my last “easy and fast” blog post.  Tomorrow in the late morning we will check out and go back to the ship.  Once we get organized we may venture out again as the ship won’t sail for Komodo Island until about 6 PM.  Or we might just stay on board and relax.  It has been a wonderful, educational week.  Soon we will say goodbye to Australia – who knows if we will be back so we were glad to see some of the outback and the National Parks.

March 11, 2017

We flew into Darwin yesterday and checked into the Hilton.  In fact, I checked in from our transfer in the Alice Springs airport.  Love these apps.  I even selected our room using the app.

We met a woman from the Philadelphia suburbs in the airport.  She shared this t-shirt design:

Remember I mentioned how much avocado they seem to serve here? (and I love avocado).  In the Quantas magazine I saw this small article about the different foods that they like here in Australia.  This is the explanation for the avocado:

“When social commentator Bernard Salt pontificated in his newspaper column last October that young people could afford a mortgage if they stopped paying $22 for smashed avocado on toast, he unwittingly put this humble fruit in the national spotlight.  Now you can’t find a cafe without smashed avocado on the menu!”

So after we actually arrived at the hotel, we went for a walk to the waterfront.  Very hot here but the waterfront is just a few blocks away.  In fact, I think we will be able to see our ship when it arrives on Monday morning.

We went to a local pub for dinner – sat outside and this tree was right in the middle of the pub!

After a short night’s sleep – again – we had a trip today to Kakadu National Park.  It is a 3 1/2 hour trip to the part of the park we were headed for, so we left at 6:15.  We were with a group of 30 people and our driver/guide was Michael. He was a wealth of knowledge – his mother has aboriginal background.

 The park covers an amazing 20,000 square kilometers and is on the UNESCO World Heritage List in recognition of both its outstanding natural values and as a living cultural landscape. It is known as the oldest living culture in the world – aboriginal people have lived here for what is believed to be 70,000 years!  It is also known as the cleanest park in the world – it is a weed free environment.  Much like Uluru, this park land was returned to the indigenous people and was leased back to be held as a national park for 99 years – in 1992. Both Uluru and Kakadu are managed by a Board of Management which has an Aboriginal majority representing the traditional owners. There are thousands of rock art sites here, we saw just a few – most are sacred sites and cannot be visited or photographed.

There is a uranium mine within the park and it is still operational.  The mine workers are breathalyzed and drug tested every day.  

The name Kakadu comes from an Aboriginal language called Gagudju which was one of the languages spoken in the north of the park at the beginning of the 20th century.

Kakadu is home to 68 mammals, more than 120 reptiles, 26 frogs, over 300 fish species and over 1/3 of Australias birds.  We saw many wallabies frolicking along the road.. but what we really wanted to see was either a fresh water or salt water crocodile – but Michael said it was too hot and they were probably under the water.  They are prevalent – 80 crocodiles/kilometer and there are warnings everywhere.  But we didn’t see even one!

They are the world’s largest living reptiles as well as one of the oldest having existed unchanged for nearly 200 million years.

This is the wet season here, so we had the opportunity to take a flight over the park to see the waterfalls.  This flight is only  operated during wet season since the waterfalls dry up the rest of the year.  9 of us decided to do the flight with Kakadu Air.  Vincent was our pilot – there were 4 in our plane and 5 in the other one. The planes are Airvan G8 high wing aircraft and hold 7 plus the pilot.

The flight was at 1500 feet and the perspective of the huge park was amazing.  Here are a variety of shots from the plane.

The first is the Mercure Kakadu Crocodile hotel. Wonder why they named it that?

And here is a view of the landing strip as we were coming in for the landing.

The people who didn’t take the flight continued on in the bus and visited the cultural center.  We met them at Cooinda airport.

Our next adventure was a boat trip in the Yellow Water wetlands.  Our boat captain was Dennis and he explained all about the waterways and we learned that a billabong is a permanent source of water.  Because it is wet season, the rivers are full but that is not the case the rest of the year.  We were on the Alligator rivers – there are three of them. There are actually no alligators in Australia but an American explorer named the rivers thinking that the crocodiles were alligators.  By the time it was on all the maps, they decided not to change the names – they are the South, West and East Alligator Rivers.

We saw many cockatoos – pure white – lots of lilies (the native people eat the roots and say they are delicious) and lots of magpie geese – the rarest goose in the world.  They have half webbed feet so they can both swim and land in trees.

Great time and lots to see.  But still no crocodiles.

We had our lunch at the Cooinda Lodge where I spotted this sign:

After lunch we went to the Anbangbang rock walk to see the art sites there.  Michael explained the meaning of the art.  The act of painting was more important to the people than its permanence, so some of the sites were painted over. The art was interesting and the additional rock formations just awesome.

Yes, we saw another impressive spider. But this kind does not eat the male after they mate like the one we saw at Uluru!

Wonderful, amazing day and again, quite a spiritual place in so many ways.  We have really appreciated getting an understanding of the indigenous people here and learned so many things about their culture and the beauty of their surroundings. They value their land so much and here at Kakadu, like at Uluru,  they ask that we respect their culture by not entering restricted areas.  They may be sacred sites, ceremonial sites or burial sites.

On the way home, we had thunder, lightning and heavy rain.  The water came up past the bus windows as Michael drive through the standing water.  I see why they call it the wet season!  Here’s a shot of the sky just before we reached our hotel at 8 PM. Just beautiful.

Tomorrow we are doing a tour of Darwin and I will have fast wifi here at the hotel to post about that.  Then on Monday, we will rejoin the ship.  Back to painfully slow internet, but looking forward to seeing our friends and the next ports of call.

March 8 and 9, 2017

We were up very early yesterday to catch our flight from Brisbane to Ayers Rock, the flight was at 6:30 so we needed to get up at about 4:30.  We saw the sun rise over the airport!

We traveled on Virgin Australia to Sydney where we changed planes for the trip to Ayers Rock.  They had a system that you could use with wifi on board to watch TV, movies, play games, listen to music, take a class, etc.  I watched a movie I have been wanting to see – Manchester by the Sea.  And I can see why Casey Affleck won best actor for it.  

I wonder why airplanes can get good wifi and the Insignia can’t? You will also notice the full size pictures in this post because this entire resort has high speed internet – it works everywhere you go in the whole resort which consists of 3 hotels, an apartment/hotel and a campground.  It also has several restaurants and shops, a theater, an art gallery/museum, spa, camel farm, tennis and volleyball courts and a supermarket.

We arrived at the Ayers Rock airport (which had a sign that it is only open from 8 – 4.) 

And here’s the other sign that greeted us!

Our first tour was called Sounds of Silence and it took us to a viewing platform overlooking the Uluru-Kata Tijuta National Park.  We were greeted with sparkling wine and canapes while being entertained by the humming sounds of a didgeridoo.

As the sun set and it got dark, we moved to a close by location and had a wonderful dinner under the outback sky. We had a “bush tucker” buffet that incorporated native bush ingredients – crocodile, kangaroo, barramundi and quandong. We were also entertained by indigenous dancers. Norm had a cucumber crocodile canape and he said it tasted like a mild tuna fish.

After dinner, the resident star talker described the southern sky as we had our dessert, tea, coffee and port. He pointed out many of the constellations including the southern cross which appears on the Australian flag.

It was a truly unforgettable experience.  We met some great people, at our table there was a couple from Australia, one from the UK (Devon), one from Toronto and one from Salt Lake City.  The wine flowed all night and although we were tired, we wanted it to go on forever.

And this couple got married there!

We returned to the resort and conked out for the night as our wakeup was at 4:20 for a 4:50 departure – our next adventure – Desert Awakenings.

Amy Pierce, our guide, met us right on time in a huge off road truck like vehicle.  There were 18 of us on this adventure.  I will describe it first, then give a bit of what we learned in our 6 hours with Amy today.

We went out into the bush in the pre dawn – and the sky was so clear and beautiful, I don’t think I have ever seen so many stars.  We had a traditional Aussie breakfast of fruit, fresh baked danish, homemade damper (a traditional bread served with golden syrup) and bacon and egg rolls as the stars faded and the sun rose. It was so beautiful, that, as I have said so many times – photos cannot capture the experience.

And here’s Amy and our chef!

This is the central desert region of Australia and has been home to the Indigenous people – the Anangu – for tens of thousands of years.  No one really knows how the huge rock formations were created.  Geologists have one theory and the native people have another – that this is sacred and cannot be explained.  This is a sacred and spiritual land to them.  In 1984 the Commonwealth Government handed the Uluru National Park back to the Traditional Aboriginal Owners.  It is now a National Park and the resort is managed by Voyages which has a commitment to increase Indigenous employment.  The resort now employs about 900 people and 30% are Indigenous.  They hope to have this up to 40% by the end of next year.

After our breakfast, Amy took us all around the National Park and explained the stories and legends that the Anangu teach.  They believe in Tjukuya – that they should teach the next generations how things came to be, how to behave toward each other and how and why things happen.  Amy proved to be a wonderful story teller, in fact, when we visited the cultural center later, we knew all of the stories that were on display there. We had heard from friends that the flies can be bad, so we got these fashion statement fly nets – and we were glad we did!

We learned about the creatures here – lots of spiders, 400 species of lizard, mammals including kangaroo (we didn’t see any), snakes  and many varieties of birds. 

 We also learned that to climb the rock is considered to be sacred and that the Anangu people ask visitors to their land to respect their wishes, culture and law by not climbing.  That said, there is a climbing area for those who feel they must do it, and we did see some going up there.  It is a hard climb and causes environmental damage.  Some have died.

This National Park encompasses more than 327,414 acres of the desert outback and is home to two of the world’s most iconic rock formations – Uluru and Kata Tijuta. Uluru is more than 348 meters high, it is higher than the Eiffel Tower. It continues below the ground for possibly 5 – 6 km.Kata Tjuta consists of 36 domes, thi highest rises 198 meters higher than Uluru.  Both are spectacular and change almost constantly in the different light.  Sunrise and sunset are the most beautiful which is why we booked the tours we did.

The Park is a dual World Heritage site for both its cultural and natural values.  

The Anangu paintings are created for educational and ceremonial purposes.  The symbols are similar to the cave drawings we saw.  They had some artists working in the cultural center but photos were prohibited there. We made purchases of these two paintings. The one on the left is the bearded lizard and the one on the right represents the honey ants that are dug up and eaten by the native people. 

We got back from the tour about 11:30 and had lunch – then we went to a Mani-Mani Indigenous Cultural theater production.

It is very hot here so I am now writing this in the cool comfort of our room overlooking Uluru (Ayers Rock).  I’ll have a swim in the pool before dinner and then we will pack up for our flight to Darwin tomorrow morning. This has been a moving and probably once in a lifetime visit that we will never forget.  In fact, Amy gave us time to just breathe and take it all in at the end of the tour.

March 7, 2017

After our evening in Byron Bay last night, we were serenaded by the beautiful lorikeet birds who are very loud as they land in the Norfolk Island pines outside our hotel.  They are beautiful green and orange birds, but boy are they loud!  Between the birds and the reggae just outside, it was a “happening” night!  and in spite of it all, we slept well.

** and Jesse, Emmanuel, Sri and Bojan, I have more money now – not missing you at all (just kidding!)

Here are some pictures of our hotel.  Perfect location, and the view first thing this morning was this one – many cars already bringing people to the lovely beach.

We had a wonderful breakfast at a nearby cafe.  Loving sitting outside in the sun.  Followed that with a beach walk, a walk around town and another coffee here at Cool Katz.  Peter knows all the good coffee places.

Eggs on sourdough with mushrooms and avocado for breakfast!

After the beach walk, we set out to visit many of the small charming towns as we made our way back to Brisbane.   We stopped in the lovely little shops and really enjoyed our visits.  We ended up at the Crystal Castle Shambahala Gardens and spent an enjoyable several hours among the gardens, statues, and rain forest.  We also walked the spiral and the labyrinth.  It is a beautiful, peaceful place. There are displays of all kinds of crystals here, shops, glass singing bowls, and you can see the prayer wheels.  You could also write out a wish and place it on the tree nearby.  We all did that, and I do have many wishes for healing in the US.  We have had so many people ask us if we are embarrassed to be Americans and it makes me very sad.

“Rosie” a 4 ton piece of rose quartz

Hard to tell, but this is one of the Crystal Guardians, the world’s largest crystal geodes. They are smoky quartz with amethyst, clear quartz and agate

Lunch was at the Poinciana Restaurant in Mullumbimby.  All of the places we have eaten have wonderful food.  Lots of avocado, sourdough bread, great beers and natural foods.  And this one had a couple of resident gekkos.

We ended at the entrance of the ocean to the river and again, wonderful beach walk, watched the kiteboarders and had a few pictures to mark almost the end of a great two days.

Thanks, Peter and Kate, for being wonderful host and hostess, choosing the very best things for us to see and do, including the meals and the coffees, and generally being terrific ambassadors for your beautiful country!

We are staying at the Novotel Hotel near the airport as we need to get up at 4:30 AM to make our flight to Ayers Rock.  So we said goodbye to Peter and Kate at about 6 PM and had a bite before getting organized for the next adventure.