"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report # 47 Cairns, Australia February 16, 2016 Tuesday Partly cloudy & 90 degrees Part #1 of 3 80 Pictures

Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2016 12:02:52 AM
Subject: Report # 47 Cairns, Australia February 16, 2016 Tuesday Partly cloudy & 90 degrees Part #1 of 3 80 Pictures

Report # 47 Cairns, Australia February 16, 2016 Tuesday Partly cloudy & 90 degrees Part # 1 of 3 80 Pictures

Our port of call for today was Cairns, Australia, also known as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. First sighted by Captain James Cook on June 10^th, 1770, which happened to be the religious day of Trinity Sunday. Cook named the inlet Trinity Bay, which has remained to this very day.

By 1876, gold was discovered, with the settlement of Cairns the main city. The inland railroad was built in 1885, making Cairns thee main center. Today it is the tourist capital of Northern Australia.

So what is here to see and do? Number one is the Great Barrier Reef. A typical tour to the reef would include a boat ride to a permanent pontoon, where you can snorkel, dive, go in a submersible vessel, or even go on a 10 minute helicopter ride from the pontoon. Shore excursions had an 8 hour tour for $300 that did include lunch. Not bad considering that a helicopter ride out to the reef and back again would set you back a whole lot more. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $859 for a a seven hour day.

You can leave town and head for the mountains on the Kuranda Railway, built in 1882. Deep gorges, rugged mountains, waterfalls, bridges, and tunnels can be seen on the way to the Kuranda Ranges.

You can tour the Daintree Rain Forest or go to Crocodile Park, and see huge "salties" jump many feet in the air to gobble a chicken.

We have gone on two different reef tours over the years. One was great, but the second one could have been disastrous. It was a "wall" dive, where the coral and fish were on a vertical sea wall out in the reef. There was a dangerous hidden riptide that we failed to recognize. We soon found out why there was a rope to hold onto while swimming over this wall. Letting go of the rope to follow a huge sea turtle was a mistake, since we ended up being swept far away from the pontoon. By the time we looked up from the speedy turtle, the pontoon was a speck on the horizon. We did swim until we made it back to the rope, but it took an hour. At least we did not have to be hauled into a zodiac boat by the backs of our swimsuits, like some other swimmers had to be. We informed all of our friends that were headed out to the reef to please read the warning material they give you on the boat.

We had been hoping for a cooler day in Cairns, but it was not to be. In fact, it was even hotter, if that was possible. Even by the time the ship was docked in Trinity Bay at 8am, we bet the temperature was already headed above 90 degrees. To make the heat worse, there was barely a breeze.

And we had company……the Pacific Princess was docked right in front of us. She is considered a small ship at 30,277 gross tons. Transferred over from Renaissance, she is the former R Three, and was redone in 2002. There are from 688 to 826 passengers, who are described as a mature crowd that likes the "English country house" décor the ship offers. We think she is on their world cruise like we are……..a little under 100 days we hear.

We headed out after a light breakfast, around 10am. Cairns Central Shopping Mall was our destination, since it has a shave shop that sells old-fashioned double edge razor blades. Good ones , at that. We cannot find this brand at home, unless we go online to order them. The best part of the walk in town was coming to one of the main streets, where huge trees are filled with fruit bats. Totally creepy, these unsightly creatures hang upside down, and fan their wide wings to keep cool. It appeared that these trees were alive as the bats fought to create a cooling breeze.

Many of us were standing outside the dripline to get photos, when a local gal came along and said these old trees were going to be taken down soon. Apparently, some of the businesses, in particular, the restaurants, were complaining about the unsanitary mess these birds make on the sidewalks. Got to agree, it is disgusting, but that has always been the personality of this town.

As these trees are removed, the concentration of the bats on the remaining trees got heavier. As we walked to the corner of Aplin and Lake Streets, we paused to watch the bats as they flew from tree to tree.

That's when we saw a most fascinating event happen. A very large sea eagle appeared from one of the trees, also flying into the trees with the bats. Out of the blue, a siren went off, like from an ambulance. That sent hundreds of the bats flying overhead. Suddenly, the sea eagle attacked a large bat, taking it down to the ground, fatally injured by the bird's talons. Happened so fast, we almost missed it. As the eagle sat on the ground with its kill, a couple of brave magpie larks pecked at the sitting bird, trying to drive it out of the area. We suspect that these birds had a nest nearby. The eagle flinched, but did not move.

A curious crowd had gathered by now, watching like we were and also taking pictures. It made the eagle nervous, so it finally flew with the dead bat to a high tree branch. It's possible that the eagle had a nest in that tree as well. He or she would have a constant source of food, that's for sure.

Time to head for the water and the Esplanade, where you can walk the bay for quite a long ways. Trying to ignore the heat, we followed the water's edge to take photos of the shore birds feeding in the low tidal pools. We decided not to go all the way to the mangroves, because the small camera was not the best for taking the shots in the distance.

We turned and went back towards the marina and the shallow saltwater swimming lagoon, where many people were already cooling off in the waters. Sure looked inviting, but we had to head for lunch. There is a restaurant near the ship that serves excellent pizza. Finding that it was not crowded yet, we took seats in the breeze and under a fan. We had ice cold beer, while we waited for a margherita pizza. It was just as good as we remembered it.

It was still early when we went back to the ship, but it sure was nice to cool down for an hour, downloading photos from the morning. We left again by 2:30pm, but armed with the good camera this time. One positive thing was that a strong breeze was blowing by now, helping to make the heat of the day tolerable. So we back-tracked, taking close-up pictures of the fruit bats, the esplanade, and all of the water and shore birds.

On the way back, we took a different path, and came across a small store. We bought a couple of ice cream cones, and sat outside of the cruise terminal finishing them.

Not wanting to be the last to board, we walked to the entrance and ran right into Gerald B, Mariner Director, as he was leaving for the airport, and eventually home, which is Seattle. We say eventually, because we believe he and the CEO's are going to pay a visit to the new ship, Koningsdam, while it is in Venice at the shipyard. We sure do hope that a visit will be arranged for all of us while we are both in the port for Rome in April.

Just as we got to the line to get on the ship, some of the CEO's and their wives were arriving back to the ship after a day trip to the reef. The two fellows, Stein and Arnold are leaving the ship also today, so they needed to clean up and get a ride to the nearby airport. Guess we won't be leaving too soon after the all aboard time of 4:30pm.

Guess who we ran into on our way back? Sir Pat, as we call him, or PapaKu, as the crew calls him. Pat D has been our tablemate, and lives in Cairns. We figured that if he was not cruising himself, he would make an effort to board this ship. Spending the afternoon in the Crows Nest, he met up with dozens of folks that know and love him. Perhaps he will consider joining the Amsterdam next year on some segments.

Boy, did that air conditioning feel great after a day of unrelenting heat. We went to the sail away, and shared the fun with Bill and Leta. They have invited us to dinner tomorrow, so that should be nice. Some tasty snacks were passed around the deck for a change. They were breaded ham and cheese, hot and really good with a honey-mustard dip. Martha was looking for Bob, who happened to be late getting back from the reef trip. One good thing, he was not worried about missing the ship, because his tour was booked through shore excursions. Private groups may not be so lucky, as the Captain will not wait too long beyond their leave time.

Dinnertime came quickly enough, with the three of us sharing our dinner event with the rest of our group. They were curious as to the type of food we were served. Did we mention that we ate the first course out of a sardine can? That was different…..We also found out that a special celebration was taking place in Townsville yesterday. Apparently it was a milestone date that the city was formed, and there was going to be a fireworks display, as well as other festivities, when it got dark. The officials had invited us to stay, but we needed the time to get to Cairns. So the offer was politely declined. Too bad.

During the sail away, Captain Jonathon gave his PM talk, including some info on the reef sailing the next three days. We were supposed to anchor at Sherrard Island overnight, to take in the sunset and sunrise on the reef. It's not going to happen, although we could not hear the exact reason for that. All we know is that this has never happened when it has been on the itinerary a few years ago. We will be sailing directly to the final stop in Australia….Darwin.

Bill & Mary Ann

PS By the way, our buddy Olaf, came from the big box discount warehouse at home. And the reason the amaryllis did so well has to be the amount of light and heat we get in the room. Speaking of heat, the air-conditioning on the ship is having problems keeping all the areas equally cool. It's always a problem with excess heat and humidity.

A correction in yesterday's report…..the Statendam sailed her first world cruise in 1958, not 1948.

Sunrise in Cairns