In which we cruise through Indonesia to Bali, cross the Timor Sea to Australia, land at Darwin, NT, sail round the tip of Queensland to Cairns, come down inside the Great Barrier Reef to Brisbane, and go on to Sydney, NSW.
Having spent the previous day washing our tent, I slept really well, but still, getting up in time for an early breakfast to leave enough time for repacking, checking out and getting over to the cruise terminal by noon was a bit of a shock to the system.
The whole process of getting to and onto the ship was really easy. Basically, having attached the personalised cruise luggage labels we printed out on our way home the other evening, we didn’t have to touch our bags from hotel room to ship cabin. [PoP (Point of Pedantry): Celebrity Cruises, like most cruise lines, refer to cabins, even little inside ones like ours, as ‘Staterooms’.]
Our ‘stateroom’ wasn’t (none of the staterooms were) ready when we got on board, so we took advantage of the delay to have some lunch from the extensive buffet in the Oceanview Cafe before exploring this vast ship (all fourteen and a bit decks of her). One of the on-board attractions of cruising is the food, and, in addition to the buffet restaurant, the main restaurant (Grand Epernay) a bunch of other cafes and grills and a special restaurant (called Blu) for their Aqua (first) class passengers, they have three speciality restaurants: Murano, which offers contemporary French cuisine; Silk Harvest (Asian fusion); and the Tuscan Grille, which is an Italian Steakhouse. Everywhere else is included in the price of the cruise, but for these three, there’s an additional fee to eat there. They offer a package deal, which covers you for one meal each at the speciality restaurants, and we decided to sign up for it that afternoon, because that evening we wanted to mark our 10th wedding anniversary, and, with a full moon and my birthday coming up during the cruise, we had a full set of three reasons to celebrate.
That evening we celebrated ten years of marriage (eleven since meeting on our first big trip) in Murano’s and had the most amazing evening enjoying some of our favourite things. At the end of the meal, they brought out a special little ‘Happy Anniversary’ chocolate cake with a single candle on it. Small though it was, there was just no way either of us had room for another mouthful, so they sent it up to our cabin for later instead.
The main dining room on the Celebrity Solstice is amazing, huge and quite noisy. It covers the back third of deck 3 and has two balconies to each side on deck 4. It must seat over a thousand diners at a time because most of the ships 2,800 passengers eat their main meals there, so they probably have to accommodate something like 2,000 people a night, which they manage over two sittings. Our assigned sitting was the later of the two. This means that, while we ate a bit later than we might have liked, there was no rush to finish, which made for a more relaxed meal.
The menu is impressive and changes every night, though they always include certain popular choices. Our waiter was excellent and seemed to enjoy telling us about all the dishes, which he obviously knew all about, but would always make a personal recommendation each evening. He was also very keen for us to bring any problem to his attention and said that if, having order a dish, we didn’t like what we got, that we should tell him and he would bring us something else instead. In fact, if we couldn’t choose between two dishes, he would even bring us both. Needless to say, we ate far too much, and, indeed, that first evening, I had two starters and two puddings.
Singapore is very close to the equator and we actually crossed it at around 7 o’clock in the morning, well before we got up. However the big event of the morning activities programme was the equator crossing ceremony, conducted by King Neptune himself (Paul, the Cruise Director) with several of his court (various of the Activities Department staff members) in attendance.
The ceremony was also presided over by the captain and some of his senior officers and seemed to involve humiliating a number of his junior officers who hadn’t crossed the equator before. For the rest of us ‘Pollywogs’ (those who haven’t crossed the equator at sea) the process by which we became ‘Shellbacks’ (those who have) boiled down to being anointed in green slime and kissing a dead fish. Lovely.
After showering, we went to see Guest Relations to ask if thy could do something special for Adam and Corinne, who, you may remember, were emigrating to Australia. We wrote them a note to be delivered to their stateroom along with some flowers and a bottle of wine the evening before or morning of our arrival into Darwin: our first Australian port of call, at which time their permanent residency visas would be activated. That was followed by lunch in the main dining room, coffee in the cafe and a visit to the Hot Glass Show.
The Hot Glass Show is something unique to Celebrity’s Solstice class ships. Celebrity Cruises has team up with the Corning Museum of Glass, in up-state New York, to install and staff fully functioning glassblowing workshops on each of these large ships, at which usually twice-daily demonstrations are performed. The work they produce would be amazing anywhere, but that they do it at sea, well, we went to several demonstrations and were astounded by the beautiful pieces they create.
After tea (and scones), I went back to our room to blog for a bit, while Juli hit the gym to try and counter the effect of all this good eating, so that she could stay the same size as when she was fitted for all her lovely new frocks. I, on the other hand, had already acknowledged defeat, knowing that Mario, the Tailor on Koh Samui, had wisely anticipated my weak will and allowed a little extra room in the waist band.
Soon it was time to change for dinner – a formal night this evening – and to meet Adam and Corinne for pre-dinner cocktails. Another excellent dinner was followed by a song and dance show (Pulse) in the three deck high, 1,400+ seater theatre, and a look-in on the dancing going on after that in the groovy, 60s styled, Austin Powers set-like Sky Observation Lounge.
Red peak is the highest point on the cable car ride, and you have to change car here because the ride is actually split in to two section either side of this point. You can also get out and wander through the rain forest along a short length of boardwalk (at ground level) where park rangers give free guided tours or are available to answer any questions.
At the bottom, there are more opportunities to spend money on over-priced tourist tat and a restaurant, where we enjoyed a cup of tea while waiting for the shuttle bus back to the boat club and the tender back to the ship.
The driver of the shuttle bus gave us a bit of a running commentary on the way back plus some fascinating facts about Cairns. Did you know, for instance, that tourism is the number two industry in Cairns (pronounced Cans, by the way) and second only to sugarcane production. Australia was the first country in the world to mechanise sugarcane harvesting, which means they no longer have to set fire to it to burn off the leaves and kill the snakes. The sugarcane crop takes 12 months to mature and requires no watering because Cairns is so wet. In deed, it rains so much there that Cairns is the only city in the world I have ever heard of having its annual rainfall measured in metres. Just over two of them, in fact.
Back on the ship, we uploaded our photos from the day then went to see Seven, the ship’s photographer, to arrange a viewing of his pictures of us for the next day. That was followed by dinner in the main restaurant then another Hot Glass Show. It was great to see them working at night when you can really see the glow of the hot glass. Also, you get the benefit of a video camera they have set up behind a panel of special high melting point glass set into the back of one of the furnaces, where they return the piece they’re working on every now and then to keep the glass at the right temperature. As the cruise goes on, each time you go to see a show they explain more about the art of glassblowing, the pieces they produce get more elaborate and the techniques they use more sophisticated. It’s just magical to watch and quite mesmerising.
Today was my birthday and we had breakfast in bed followed by birthday cards, some brought out from home by Marion. (Thanks again, M.) After that, I went to a talk on writing to persuade (mostly people to part with their money) while Juli went to a lecture on art and a preview for an art auction that we both attended after lunch. Lunch, which was in the main restaurant with Adam and Corrine, was a bit disappointing (more cards and presents – a new Moleskein notebook – though) and the auction – conducted by Park West, the largest art auction house in the world, apparently, who have, they claim, something like 10 million dollars worth of art on board at any one time – was boring, so I made my excuses and left. Instead, I went to a demonstration of Sushi making, followed by a an ice cream from the Gelateria. Well, it was my birthday.
Later, we both attended the first viewing of the photos that Seven took, and I have to say, they weren’t half bad. During the two hour photo shoot, Seven took 185 pictures, and Juli and I took almost as long to whittle them down to a more manageable number. We ended up with a short list of 32, which Seven printed off as a couple of contact sheets for us to go through again later to reduce the number still further and to decide on a style.
Our final activity before dinner was going to watch a movie (Geoff, Who Lives at Home) in their second, smaller theatre, which doubles as a cinema sometimes. Not, as we had expected, some so-so slacker flick to pass the time, but a heart-warming portmanteau movie we both thoroughly enjoyed.
While changing for dinner, Juli gave me her main present: a very smart Guess? watch in gun metal grey steel with a single diamond at the twelve o’clock position. I’ve never had a posh watch before and, once it had been adjusted to fit my skinny wrist, it finished off my posh new clothes rather better than my fabric-strapped Casio managed.
Dinner was at the last of the restaurants in our speciality dinning package, Silk Harvest, their Asian Fusion restaurant. We ordered three starters to share between us and two main course dishes, including steamed Barramundi, a famously delicious fish from Australia, which actually tastes a lot like Sea Bass.
We finished off we a couple of desserts and were thinking that was that, when a group of wait staff approached our table with one more dish: a small birthday cake (a lot like the one we had for our anniversary, except with ‘Happy Birthday’ on it) and sang a Balinese version of Happy Birthday. We hadn’t told them it was my birthday, but it seems they knew anyway. Apparently it flashes up on their computer automatically along with our reservation details. Again, we were far too full to do the cake justice, so, like before, they arranged for it to be sent up to our stateroom , where it was waiting for us when we turned in at the end of a lovely day.
However, there was one last treat in store. No, not that: we spent a couple of hours going over the contact sheets Seven had prepared for us. We eventually settled on a set of 20 shots, reduced resolution versions of which you can see if you click on the following link to this special Picasa web folder. [10th Anniversary Photoshoot]
Once the bus had dropped us off, we headed straight to the nearest shopping centre in search of a Starbucks, not to fuel our caffeine addictions, but to use the free Wi-Fi connection we’ve always enjoyed at their stores elsewhere in the world. However, we were forgetting – or rather, still hadn’t quite learnt – that in Australia, nothing comes for free. You get half an hour per hot drink, and, at Oz prices, that works out to be about 16 cents a minute.
Anyway, about six drinks later, we’d managed to get all our online jobs done including uploading a few posts and pictures. Unfortunately, Juli began not to feel too well again and so we came back to the ship a bit earlier than planned, but that was okay, as we’d be returning to Brisbane later while staying with Juli’s Aunt in Worongary (about an hour south of the city) from where I’m writing this post, as it happens. Hello, Connie.
Back on board, Juli rested for a couple of hours while I started to read The Hobbit on Juli’s Kindle. I’m hoping to finish the book in time to see the new Peter Jackson film this Christmas.
After dinner, we went to see the Aussie Boys – a trio of young, Australian men – perform various classic songs from down under. Yeah: I had trouble identifying more than a couple myself.
And that was that for our first ever cruise. I have to say it was both brilliant and utterly exhausting. If that’s what a 16 night cruise does for you, we’re going to have to come up with some kind of strategy to survive our 88 nighter next year, or we might never get back to the UK.
Next time, I’ll tell you about getting off the boat in Sydney and the first of our two visits there.
TTFN - N
Days 160 & 161 (Singapore)
Having spent the previous day washing our tent, I slept really well, but still, getting up in time for an early breakfast to leave enough time for repacking, checking out and getting over to the cruise terminal by noon was a bit of a shock to the system.The whole process of getting to and onto the ship was really easy. Basically, having attached the personalised cruise luggage labels we printed out on our way home the other evening, we didn’t have to touch our bags from hotel room to ship cabin. [PoP (Point of Pedantry): Celebrity Cruises, like most cruise lines, refer to cabins, even little inside ones like ours, as ‘Staterooms’.]
Our ‘stateroom’ wasn’t (none of the staterooms were) ready when we got on board, so we took advantage of the delay to have some lunch from the extensive buffet in the Oceanview Cafe before exploring this vast ship (all fourteen and a bit decks of her). One of the on-board attractions of cruising is the food, and, in addition to the buffet restaurant, the main restaurant (Grand Epernay) a bunch of other cafes and grills and a special restaurant (called Blu) for their Aqua (first) class passengers, they have three speciality restaurants: Murano, which offers contemporary French cuisine; Silk Harvest (Asian fusion); and the Tuscan Grille, which is an Italian Steakhouse. Everywhere else is included in the price of the cruise, but for these three, there’s an additional fee to eat there. They offer a package deal, which covers you for one meal each at the speciality restaurants, and we decided to sign up for it that afternoon, because that evening we wanted to mark our 10th wedding anniversary, and, with a full moon and my birthday coming up during the cruise, we had a full set of three reasons to celebrate.
That evening we celebrated ten years of marriage (eleven since meeting on our first big trip) in Murano’s and had the most amazing evening enjoying some of our favourite things. At the end of the meal, they brought out a special little ‘Happy Anniversary’ chocolate cake with a single candle on it. Small though it was, there was just no way either of us had room for another mouthful, so they sent it up to our cabin for later instead.
***
The ship wasn’t scheduled to leave Singapore until later on the second day, which, after a late start, gave us the opportunity to explore the marina area and, in particular, the new Marina Bay Gardens: a complex of green spaces and themed show-gardens that the owners of the Sands hotel had to create in order to secure planning permission for their extraordinary new building just across the road from them.
It took us a long time to workout how to get from where the port shuttle bus dropped us off to the gardens’ entrance. Our route took us via the Sands hotel’s own gigantic shopping mall, their reception area and a dedicated underpass / MRT station ticket hall. It was a really hot day and, after walking what seemed like miles already, by the time we got to the gardens, we were exhausted and about ready to give up and go back to the ship without even bothering to look at the gardens themselves. I’m glad we didn’t, though, as we quickly discovered that there was a little tram to take you round the site and save you the bother of walking. Sweet.
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| The Super Trees of the Marina Bay Gardens |
Back on the ship, having missed lunch, we had a burger from the Mast Grill, which seems to be open for burgers and hotdogs pretty much anytime of the day and very good they are too. However, they don’t do teas and coffees there, so it was back to the Oceanview Cafe for a cuppa (plus maybe a cake or two) and waited for the ship to set sail, or whatever motorised vessels do.
The ship was due to leave port at 6.00 pm, but even after many repeated announcements urging passengers to hand in their passports, several of our fellow shipmates didn’t and the port authorities wouldn’t permit the ship to leave port until they did. In the end, after waiting an extra two hours passed the scheduled time, we had to go down to change for dinner, as we had a fixed dining time. We eventually left port about half past nine – while we were eating – once the offending guests had been tracked down and all the paperwork had been completed.
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| Looking back at Singapore at night |
The main dining room on the Celebrity Solstice is amazing, huge and quite noisy. It covers the back third of deck 3 and has two balconies to each side on deck 4. It must seat over a thousand diners at a time because most of the ships 2,800 passengers eat their main meals there, so they probably have to accommodate something like 2,000 people a night, which they manage over two sittings. Our assigned sitting was the later of the two. This means that, while we ate a bit later than we might have liked, there was no rush to finish, which made for a more relaxed meal.
The menu is impressive and changes every night, though they always include certain popular choices. Our waiter was excellent and seemed to enjoy telling us about all the dishes, which he obviously knew all about, but would always make a personal recommendation each evening. He was also very keen for us to bring any problem to his attention and said that if, having order a dish, we didn’t like what we got, that we should tell him and he would bring us something else instead. In fact, if we couldn’t choose between two dishes, he would even bring us both. Needless to say, we ate far too much, and, indeed, that first evening, I had two starters and two puddings.
Days 162 & 163 (at sea en route to Bali)
Singapore is very close to the equator and we actually crossed it at around 7 o’clock in the morning, well before we got up. However the big event of the morning activities programme was the equator crossing ceremony, conducted by King Neptune himself (Paul, the Cruise Director) with several of his court (various of the Activities Department staff members) in attendance.The ceremony was also presided over by the captain and some of his senior officers and seemed to involve humiliating a number of his junior officers who hadn’t crossed the equator before. For the rest of us ‘Pollywogs’ (those who haven’t crossed the equator at sea) the process by which we became ‘Shellbacks’ (those who have) boiled down to being anointed in green slime and kissing a dead fish. Lovely.
After showering, we went to see Guest Relations to ask if thy could do something special for Adam and Corinne, who, you may remember, were emigrating to Australia. We wrote them a note to be delivered to their stateroom along with some flowers and a bottle of wine the evening before or morning of our arrival into Darwin: our first Australian port of call, at which time their permanent residency visas would be activated. That was followed by lunch in the main dining room, coffee in the cafe and a visit to the Hot Glass Show.
The Hot Glass Show is something unique to Celebrity’s Solstice class ships. Celebrity Cruises has team up with the Corning Museum of Glass, in up-state New York, to install and staff fully functioning glassblowing workshops on each of these large ships, at which usually twice-daily demonstrations are performed. The work they produce would be amazing anywhere, but that they do it at sea, well, we went to several demonstrations and were astounded by the beautiful pieces they create.
After tea (and scones), I went back to our room to blog for a bit, while Juli hit the gym to try and counter the effect of all this good eating, so that she could stay the same size as when she was fitted for all her lovely new frocks. I, on the other hand, had already acknowledged defeat, knowing that Mario, the Tailor on Koh Samui, had wisely anticipated my weak will and allowed a little extra room in the waist band.
Soon it was time to change for dinner – a formal night this evening – and to meet Adam and Corinne for pre-dinner cocktails. Another excellent dinner was followed by a song and dance show (Pulse) in the three deck high, 1,400+ seater theatre, and a look-in on the dancing going on after that in the groovy, 60s styled, Austin Powers set-like Sky Observation Lounge.
***
Breakfast the next day was ordered the night before from their pretty good room service menu and delivered to our stateroom at a time chosen by us. (Late, as you may have guessed.) Once we’d surfaced, we (and half the ship, so far as I could make out) attended a galley talk and tour. Apparently, each and every day, the food and beverage staff (about 600 of them – just over half the ship’s crew) prepare and serve in excess of 16,000 dishes. As you might expect, the main galley (one of several) is huge – I don’t think we saw more than a fraction of it on our tour – and the washing up area more like a hyper automated factory. After that we treated ourselves to a speciality coffee at the Cafe al Bacio, where we met an Australian couple on their ninth cruise this year!
They have a number of lecturers on board, who present talks on a range of interesting subjects from espionage to sea mammals. One of the regular speakers delivers presentations on the various port towns and cities the ship calls at from a historical and political perspective. We attended one to see what they (and he) were like. He clearly knows his stuff but, because he likes to jump around his subject quite a lot, sitting listening to him is a bit like watching a collection of badly edited ‘best of’ highlights from several of his lectures. Very entertaining, though.
After that, we had lunch from the buffet followed by a movie in our stateroom chosen from a long list of free to watch movies on demand. After that, Juli went up to one of the three pools to swim a bit while I stayed behind and blogged a bit, followed by tea (sushi) then dinner (a buffet of Singapore inspired dishes) another movie and finally bed at the end of another typical ‘sea day’. Exhausting.
Day 164 (Bali)
The port of Benoa on Bali – our only stop in country number 27, Indonesia – is too shallow to accommodate a huge vessel like the Celebrity Solstice. So, instead of docking, they anchor off shore and ferry passengers to and from the ship in small tender boats. I say small, but each one holds 120 passengers and doubles as a lifeboat, in which guise they can carry 150 souls.
We’d booked a shore excursion here to take us round the island a bit by bus, so that we could see as much of the place as possible. It was a long day, and we were taken to a number of temples, craft workshops and other cultural sites plus, of course, lunch at a very nice restaurant overlooking (from a safe distance) Mount Batur, the still active volcano at the heart of the island. The tour was very slick and the guides excellent, but I’d have to say that it seemed more like a series of linked shopping opportunities: not really enough time anywhere: not really our thing. Lunch was good, though.
By the time we got back on board, it was almost time to change for dinner, which we had in the main restaurant again. Considering what they have to achieve night after night, they do a grand job, but it isn’t Murano’s, the speciality restaurant where we ate on the first night: our wedding anniversary. We wished we could afford to eat there every evening, and, of course, some guest can and do. Ah well, we can all dream, though this night we had less chance, as the ships clocks went forward one hour.
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| Solstice anchored off Bali |
Days 165 & 166 (at sea en route to Darwin)
Juli wasn’t feeling too good today, so I left her in bed with a cup of tea and took myself off to a couple of activities (a food presentation and a talk on Darwin) interspersed with trips back (with more tea) to check on Juli. Still not well, she managed a little lunch, but then spent the rest of the afternoon in bed watching movies. She felt a little better later, which was good as we were booked into the second of our speciality restaurants that evening: the Tuscan Grille for our habitual, though lately only infrequently marked, celebration for full moon. Another excellent meal, though marred for me by my own gluttony and not knowing when enough is enough.
Clocks forward another half hour tonight.
***
Today it was my turn to feel unwell and, after a light breakfast followed by a talk on how the earth was formed by fire and ice, I spent the rest of the day in bed. In a complete reversal of the previous day, it was Juli’s turn to look after me in between attending a number of activities, including another Hot Glass Show in the afternoon and what sounded like a very amusing Mind and Mentalism show in the evening. She also had diner on her own, because I was too sick to eat, so you know it must have been serious.
Day 167 (Darwin)
Still not good in the morning, but feeling a bit better by lunchtime. Not wanting to miss, not only our first port of call in Australia, but our only stop at the ‘Top End’, after a light lunch, we went ashore and took a taxi to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. The MAGNT is a first-class cultural institution that aims (and succeeds) to place the region’s art, history, culture – including aboriginal culture – and natural history in both an Australian and international context. We managed to fill several hours touring its many galleries and exhibition spaces, but by teatime Juli began to feel un well again, so we decided to cut our losses and return to the ship.
One last observation: a tale of two taxis. Our taxi driver to the museum was originally from Holland, but emigrated thirty something years ago. He told us he loved Darwin, its climate and the culture and wouldn’t return to the Netherlands even if he could. Our taxi driver back, however – originally from Naples, twenty something years ago, and still goes back to Italy every other year – really didn’t have that much positive to say about the place at all and was especially critical of the drink and drugs fuelled party culture he says is the main feature of the town now, especially amongst, as he put it, the Blacks and Asians. You pays your money and you takes your pick, I suppose.
Days 168 – 170 (at sea en route to Cairns)
Juli not well again this morning, so quick breakfast on my own then back to the room with tea. Seem to have done nothing in the morning, according to my diary, but evidently Juli was well enough to get up by midday, as I’ve recorded that we made it down to the Bistro on Five, which is a very nice creperie, for lunch, so that’s good.
After lunch, just to continue the food fest theme, we went to a cooking demonstration, where the Executive Chef cooked crab cakes, pork chops and apple crumble.
After that, we attended the opening ceremony of the Pool Olympics, where teams of flag carrying guests from Australia, America, Canada and the UK, plus a fifth team to represent ‘The Rest of the World’, compete against each other. Events on opening day included hockey, water basketball and expressive dance. The UK – incidentally the only country represented, including The Rest of the World, which seemed embarrassed to wave its flag – did quite well, on day one, finishing joint first with Canada with one point each.
After tea, we tagged along at a general knowledge, brain-teaser, quiz type event (it’s not the winning it the taking part that counts) before going to see one of the ship’s photographers about having some proper portraits taken of us. He showed us some examples of his work and we arranged to come back the next day to have some shots taken in his studio and some taken around the ship with no obligation to buy any prints if we didn’t like what he’d done.
Another formal night tonight, so another opportunity to wear one of our new frocks/suits in the main restaurant. Adam and Corinne brought down the bottle of wine the ship gave them for becoming Australians, after which we went to another song and dance show in the theatre, followed by dancing in the Sky Observation Lounge ‘til two in the morning. Yes, really.
***
Veeery long and late lie-in the next morning. Brunch at 1.00 pm and first cup of tea not until 3.00 pm. At 4.00 pm we got ready for the photo shoot, and by 5.00 pm, we were sitting in the photographer’s studio. I have to confess, when Juli first suggested we do this, I wasn’t all that keen, and at one point we actually called it off, but, in the end, the photographer, Seven, made the whole thing a lot of fun and we managed to take up two hours of his time having a laugh and our pictures taken all over the ship.
After dinner from the buffet, we watched Thursday Island float by before returning to our cabin to watch a movie or two. Another good day.
***
Spent the day blogging while Juli attended various enrichment activities including a lecture on the night sky. Later we re-watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (lovely) before changing for dinner (delicious) and attending a 50s-style party in the Sky Observation lounge (swingin’).
Clocks forward another half hour.
Day 171 (Cairns)
Early start today and straight down to pick up tickets for the tender over to Yorkey’s Knob, a small harbour with a boat club along the coast from Cairns. At the club house, we bought a combined ticket for Tjapukai (an aboriginal cultural centre, where we watched a series of dance and dramatic presentations that feature an aboriginal creation story, the didgeridoo and traditional songs and dances) and Skyrail (a seven and a half kilometre long cable car up and over a mountain covered in original rainforest). Both are a short taxi ride from Yorkey’s Knob in a place called Caravonica, from where the Skyrail cable car goes to Kuranda Village, via Red Peak and Barton Falls.
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| View out over the rain forest from Skyrail |
In addition to the theatrical presentations at Tjapulkai, they have a small aboriginal art gallery, a place where you can learn to play a didgeridoo and to throw a boomerang. You can also learn about bush tucker and some of its medicinal uses. They also have a pretty good restaurant, where we finally had some breakfast.
Red peak is the highest point on the cable car ride, and you have to change car here because the ride is actually split in to two section either side of this point. You can also get out and wander through the rain forest along a short length of boardwalk (at ground level) where park rangers give free guided tours or are available to answer any questions.
At Barton falls, as well the impressive (in the wet season, anyway) waterfall, they have a visitor centre, which has lots of information about the fauna and flora of the rainforest and about the eco-system of rainforests generally.
Kuranda is a small town in the rainforest which earns a living out selling tat to tourists at massively inflated prices. However, apart from shopping, you can take a longer walk through a bit more rainforest on an accessible path. The route takes about an hour or so and is a very picturesque way to return from the top of the town back to where the Skyrail stops.
Normally, having taken the Skyrail to Kuranda, you can make the return journey back towards Yorkey’s Knob on what all the guide books say is a very lovely scenic railway. Unfortunately, on the day we visited, the line was closed for maintenance, so we had to take the Skyrail back down again, which is okay as you get to see it all from the other direction too.
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| Solstice far out at sea from Skyrail |
At the bottom, there are more opportunities to spend money on over-priced tourist tat and a restaurant, where we enjoyed a cup of tea while waiting for the shuttle bus back to the boat club and the tender back to the ship.
The driver of the shuttle bus gave us a bit of a running commentary on the way back plus some fascinating facts about Cairns. Did you know, for instance, that tourism is the number two industry in Cairns (pronounced Cans, by the way) and second only to sugarcane production. Australia was the first country in the world to mechanise sugarcane harvesting, which means they no longer have to set fire to it to burn off the leaves and kill the snakes. The sugarcane crop takes 12 months to mature and requires no watering because Cairns is so wet. In deed, it rains so much there that Cairns is the only city in the world I have ever heard of having its annual rainfall measured in metres. Just over two of them, in fact.
Back on the ship, we uploaded our photos from the day then went to see Seven, the ship’s photographer, to arrange a viewing of his pictures of us for the next day. That was followed by dinner in the main restaurant then another Hot Glass Show. It was great to see them working at night when you can really see the glow of the hot glass. Also, you get the benefit of a video camera they have set up behind a panel of special high melting point glass set into the back of one of the furnaces, where they return the piece they’re working on every now and then to keep the glass at the right temperature. As the cruise goes on, each time you go to see a show they explain more about the art of glassblowing, the pieces they produce get more elaborate and the techniques they use more sophisticated. It’s just magical to watch and quite mesmerising.
Days 172 & 173 (at sea en route to Brisbane)
Today was my birthday and we had breakfast in bed followed by birthday cards, some brought out from home by Marion. (Thanks again, M.) After that, I went to a talk on writing to persuade (mostly people to part with their money) while Juli went to a lecture on art and a preview for an art auction that we both attended after lunch. Lunch, which was in the main restaurant with Adam and Corrine, was a bit disappointing (more cards and presents – a new Moleskein notebook – though) and the auction – conducted by Park West, the largest art auction house in the world, apparently, who have, they claim, something like 10 million dollars worth of art on board at any one time – was boring, so I made my excuses and left. Instead, I went to a demonstration of Sushi making, followed by a an ice cream from the Gelateria. Well, it was my birthday.Later, we both attended the first viewing of the photos that Seven took, and I have to say, they weren’t half bad. During the two hour photo shoot, Seven took 185 pictures, and Juli and I took almost as long to whittle them down to a more manageable number. We ended up with a short list of 32, which Seven printed off as a couple of contact sheets for us to go through again later to reduce the number still further and to decide on a style.
Our final activity before dinner was going to watch a movie (Geoff, Who Lives at Home) in their second, smaller theatre, which doubles as a cinema sometimes. Not, as we had expected, some so-so slacker flick to pass the time, but a heart-warming portmanteau movie we both thoroughly enjoyed.
While changing for dinner, Juli gave me her main present: a very smart Guess? watch in gun metal grey steel with a single diamond at the twelve o’clock position. I’ve never had a posh watch before and, once it had been adjusted to fit my skinny wrist, it finished off my posh new clothes rather better than my fabric-strapped Casio managed.
Dinner was at the last of the restaurants in our speciality dinning package, Silk Harvest, their Asian Fusion restaurant. We ordered three starters to share between us and two main course dishes, including steamed Barramundi, a famously delicious fish from Australia, which actually tastes a lot like Sea Bass.
We finished off we a couple of desserts and were thinking that was that, when a group of wait staff approached our table with one more dish: a small birthday cake (a lot like the one we had for our anniversary, except with ‘Happy Birthday’ on it) and sang a Balinese version of Happy Birthday. We hadn’t told them it was my birthday, but it seems they knew anyway. Apparently it flashes up on their computer automatically along with our reservation details. Again, we were far too full to do the cake justice, so, like before, they arranged for it to be sent up to our stateroom , where it was waiting for us when we turned in at the end of a lovely day.
However, there was one last treat in store. No, not that: we spent a couple of hours going over the contact sheets Seven had prepared for us. We eventually settled on a set of 20 shots, reduced resolution versions of which you can see if you click on the following link to this special Picasa web folder. [10th Anniversary Photoshoot]
***
After such a full day, the previous day, it wasn’t surprising that we completely missed breakfast. However, we were too early for lunch, and the only place serving food at this in-between time was the Mast Grill, so burgers for breakfast it was.
Later, after yet another Hot Glass Show – I tell you: they’re addictive – we were having a cup of tea and some fruit in the cafe, when we got talking to a guy about whales. Juli remarked that she was sorry it was the wrong time of year for seeing whales and the guy suggested that that was fine by him in a if-I-never-see-another-whale-it’ll-be-too-soon sort of way. Turns out he recently lost his 30 foot sailing boat when a whale (of similar length) surfaced directly under it and flipped him over. However, that was far from being the long and short of it.
On the night it happened, a Monday, he was on his own about 30 miles out to sea at one of his favourite fishing spots. When the craft capsized, he was caught underneath it and under the water, holding his breath and unable to find his way to the surface. He was about to take his last ‘big gulp’ of sea water (to end it all on his terms) when suddenly, he found himself in a small air pocket. Although saved for the time being, the oxygen in the air pocket soon began to run out. Faced with the prospect of suffocating in the bad air, he was again about to take his last ‘big gulp’ of water when somehow he found himself on the surface, from where he was able to pull himself up onto the kitchen table-sized piece of hull that was still above water, where he waited to be rescued.
The problem was, it was now the middle of the night, all his radio equipment and signalling devices were lost or ruined and he was a tiny speck on a dark sea miles from land. One boat did come out near his position, but apparently couldn’t hear his cries above their engine.
Several hours had passed on the upturned vessel, when finally (and amazingly) another boat came to his exact location – apparently, and quite independently, these guys had downloaded the same GPS coordinates from a fishing website – and, when they turned off their engine off to fish, heard his shouts for help. They rescued him of course then called the coastguard.
The chances of them being in the right spot were remote enough, but it seems the odds of them being there at anything like the right time were even smaller. For a start, this group of men never normally fish on a Monday night. Secondly, they almost didn’t make it there at all, as on their drive to the harbour, with their boat in tow, they were involved in a traffic incident that saw their trailer hit by a another vehicle that turned out to be a getaway car driven by a gang of armed robbers being pursued by the police.
You might think that was enough excitement for one tale, but this one doesn’t end there. When the coastguard got out to the wreck, after getting our guy on board, they decided that his semi-submerged vessel was a danger to shipping and began to tow it to shore. The way he told it, watching the coastguard attach ropes to his pride and joy then drag it along behind them was too much for his dickey ticker – he has a history of coronary disease – and the poor guy had a heart attack on the spot. The coastguard called in an air ambulance and the doctor on board it advised, cutting the guy’s boat free so that the coastguard’s boat with this half drowned, half suffocated, now critically ill chap on it could make better speed to rendezvous with the helicopter. Good call, I’m thinking.
Well, obviously, since we were getting all this first-hand, everything worked out okay in the end. The boat was declared a right off – there’s a whole other chapter to the story involving a botched salvage operation, denied by the insurance company, of course, not only witnessed, but videoed by an astonished boat-loving onlooker. However, the guy’s already bought his next boat: the biggest they could afford. Wonder if he’s planning any more solo night-fishing trips.
After that, Juli went to another Hot Glass Show, but I went back to our room to write down the preceding whale of a tale. Later, we had a cup of tea and my birthday chocolate cake (yum) then got ready for dinner, which was oysters followed by my favourite: beef wellington. (Yum yum.)
Day 174 (Brisbane)
Our last port of call before Sydney was Brisbane, or rather a commercial harbour some 45 minutes by shuttle bus from Brisbane.
Once the bus had dropped us off, we headed straight to the nearest shopping centre in search of a Starbucks, not to fuel our caffeine addictions, but to use the free Wi-Fi connection we’ve always enjoyed at their stores elsewhere in the world. However, we were forgetting – or rather, still hadn’t quite learnt – that in Australia, nothing comes for free. You get half an hour per hot drink, and, at Oz prices, that works out to be about 16 cents a minute.
Anyway, about six drinks later, we’d managed to get all our online jobs done including uploading a few posts and pictures. Unfortunately, Juli began not to feel too well again and so we came back to the ship a bit earlier than planned, but that was okay, as we’d be returning to Brisbane later while staying with Juli’s Aunt in Worongary (about an hour south of the city) from where I’m writing this post, as it happens. Hello, Connie.
Back on board, Juli rested for a couple of hours while I started to read The Hobbit on Juli’s Kindle. I’m hoping to finish the book in time to see the new Peter Jackson film this Christmas.
After dinner, we went to see the Aussie Boys – a trio of young, Australian men – perform various classic songs from down under. Yeah: I had trouble identifying more than a couple myself.
***
Our last day on the boat consisted of a bit of breakfast before going to see the final Hot Glass Show and failing to win anything in their raffle; lunch (fish curry) before a little packing; resting; collecting our photographs on CD-ROM; tea with Adam and Corinne because we weren’t going to see them at dinner due to them having an early night on account of wanting to get up supper early to watch the ship sail into Sydney harbour the next morning; a little more packing; getting dressed for the theatre; watching the final show, which was a sort of compendium of all the other shows; one last, delicious diner (lamb shanks slow cooked in a tagine) and setting the clocks forward another hour for New South Wales Daylight Saving Time.
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| The final Hot Glass Show |
And that was that for our first ever cruise. I have to say it was both brilliant and utterly exhausting. If that’s what a 16 night cruise does for you, we’re going to have to come up with some kind of strategy to survive our 88 nighter next year, or we might never get back to the UK.
Next time, I’ll tell you about getting off the boat in Sydney and the first of our two visits there.
TTFN - N
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