This is what
Fred and I felt like doing all day today!
This kid had the right idea. It
was another very hot and humid day today although the breeze was up and that
helped as long as you weren’t in the sun.
Sun protection
becomes a big part of your routine down under.
We use loads of sunblock and also wear hats whenever we’re outside. I noticed the locals don’t necessarily follow
suit but maybe they’ve built up a tolerance.
Today, we
took the shuttle into town, about a 10-minute drive or so. We could have walked in and we did walk back but
we decided to reserve some energy in the morning. Before we could board the shuttle, we were cornered
by Australian customs. A number of us
were lined up at random for an inspection by the sniffer dog looking for
agricultural products and the like. They
asked me and another person to hold a tote bag that was being used to test the
dog. He did stop and sniff longer at the
bags but I’m not sure what his reaction was supposed to be. At any rate they thanked us for helping out
and we were off.
Of course,
the ship offers all kinds of shore excursions, like the one we did yesterday. Among the offers for today: a trip to see the
Jumping Crocodiles($104pp); a leisurely tour of Darwin($69pp); visit a local wildlife
park ($98pp); ride a Segway through the botanical gardens($146pp); take a
harbor cruise($94pp) or go to a National Park($154pp).
Our plan
today was to walk along the town’s esplanade in a beautiful park we saw
yesterday. There was a bike trail going
the length of the park and several plaques with information about the town and
the Japanese attack in 1948. This
included a memorial to the USS Peary, the only American ship to be sunk during
the attack. It caught fire and
unfortunately most men on board died.
President Obama was here in 2010 and participated in a memorial service. Some of the ships have been salvaged and this
gun was brought up from the Peary and stands as a memorial to the men.
We got a
good view of our ship from the cliff. We
were about a mile or two away (this picture is zoomed) but we could hear the
distinctive tones broadcast by the bridge before they make an
announcement. We are trained to those
tones now. When we hear them, we stop
and listen! Cunard has a policy where
they don’t bother the guests with announcements except for a noon broadcast by
the Captain that generally lasts a few minutes and provides information on our
location, depth of the ocean, etc. If we
hear the tones at any other time, it’s generally a big deal and we all
listen. Today while we were at the park
there was a crew drill going on so we knew what the tones were about. It was just funny to hear them from so far away.
I forgot to
mention yesterday that we saw several Wallabies while we were out at the Defense
Museum. These are like smaller Kangaroos
except their noses are more rounded. Very
cute. Some on the tour also saw a dingo
but we didn’t see it.
Upon returning
to the cruise terminal we were asked to complete a survey. These are really helpful to the tourist
bureau and I was glad to spend the 5 minutes or so to do it. They wanted to know how you liked things of
course, but also how much you spent on food and then souvenirs. We really aren’t buying souvenirs on this
trip so our ‘food’ amount seemed very large by comparison. We know we could go back to the ship and eat for
free but it’s great to get something different and try out the local eateries. A lot of places had kangaroo on the menu, we
did not partake.
So now we
have three days at sea and then we’re in Cairns for a day although Fred and I
will be going to a seaside town an hour or two away instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment