Komodo or "Watch out for Dragon Poop!"

Friday, January 29 we woke to the sight of islands outside our window.  This time the sun was shining.  It was a hazy but beautiful morning.  I hurried up on deck to watch the sail in to Komodo.  Michael and I were able to have breakfast on the deck behind the Terrace Café while we watched the approach.  We were assigned to the first group ashore.  Komodo is mostly a national park run by Indonesian park rangers.  There is a fishing village of several hundred people there, around a bend from the beach where we landed.  The villagers were out in force.  They had constructed a shopping mall of tents.

The hike through the dry forest wasn't all that long but with 60 of us broken up into groups of twenty per guide and couple of dragon wranglers with pointed sticks, the walk took more than an hour.  At first the guide talked about the vegetation and the mostly dry climate.  There are only two rainy weeks per year.  Last week was one of them.  We walked along a gravel path that had game trails of some sort criss crossing it.  The guide told us that some were wild boar tracks and others were lizard tracks.  Twenty minutes into the walk I was beginning to think that lizard tracks were all I was going to see of the famous Komodo Dragons.  Then we passed a water hole and soon after some log like shapes resolved into three Dragons as we approached.

The Dragons waited almost patiently as our group stopped for a lengthy picture taking session.  People were well enough behaved not to try and approach the lizards too closely.  They only pushed and shoved each other for a good view.  The danger is not so much that the lizards will eat you alive as that their bite is toxic.  The guide mentioned that medical care is at least twelve hours away by boat.  As we continued our jungle walk we spotted at least two more Komodo Dragons just going about their business.  They appeared to be reasonably used to humans.  Since they are no longer fed but exist in an ecological balance with the other local wild life, they no longer flock around when people show up to view them.  I did learn that they have all been micro chipped.  The park rangers can be sure of finding Dragons as they can locate them electronically.  I guess that takes some of the mystery out of the jungle experience.  Nevertheless seeing these prehistoric beasts was an awesome experience.

As we made our way back toward the shore, Michael murmured "Watch out for Dragon poop!"  There, in the middle of the path was a fragrant heap of Komodo Dragon dung.  I gather they eat berries and fruit as well as meat.  I didn't think fast enough to take a picture. We returned to shore near the shopping tents of the locals.  After a look around at some tame deer and another laid back Komodo Dragon resting under the restaurant building, we headed back to the ship.  In order to get pack to the pier and our tender we had to go down the middle of the tent city the locals had set up.  They were hawking hundreds of tee shirts, probably made in China.  There were some nice wood carvings, post cards and other Dragon related trinkets.  We managed to make it through without purchasing anything but it was certainly not for the local's lack of trying.  Even toddlers were calling out, "buy picture, only a dolla."  It was sad to see their poverty.  We hiked down the beautiful beach to the pier and came back to our ship by tender.  The 90 plus degree temperatures and almost 100 percent humidity notwithstanding, it had been a wonderfully worthwhile adventure.

Later as we were watching the ship's preparations to sail we noted that all the colorful tents had been removed, all the little boats had left and the Dragon preserve's beach looked entirely deserted.  The locals had all gone back to their village where they will presumably fish for a living until the next cruise ship visits. 

Michael has been doing a somewhat satirical blog of our trip. To view his version of events, check out

http://cbu-sin.blogspot.com

Thursday Island, Sort of

Our visit to Cairns, Australia was followed by another day at sea.  Again the time went swiftly.  I have been reading a biography of Carl Sagan and made good progress.  It was rainy with rough seas.  The "cyclone" Olga didn't hit Cairns directly but was in the general area and has been more or less following us.  We moved fast to get out of the bad weather as soon as possible.   Monday morning we awoke to the sight of islands on both sides of us visible through the mist.

After a while I realized that we were circling around and around, not going anywhere in particular.  We were scheduled to go ashore just after 8:00 a.m.  The time came and went.  The ship was still circling.  Around 9:00 a.m. the Cruse Director announced that we would not be landing at Thursday Island.  The seas were too rough.  The tender could not land.  I took a few rain drenched pictures of the islands in the distance.

Thursday Island is the administrative center of the Torres Straight Islands off the northern tip of Australia.   It was originally settled by Melanesian Islanders.  The island is a pearl diving center and served as a military base for Australian and U.S. forces during World War II.  I doubt we missed much. We are now really in the tropics.  The outside temperature was in the 90's even with wind and rain.

Unable to land, we headed into the Gulf of Carpentaria followed by the sea of Arafusta and the Timor Sea. It will be a total of four days at sea.  Normally guests would sit in the sun, frolic in the pool and attend events such as lectures and games organized and scheduled by the cruise director.  There are a lot of first time cruisers on board.  The rough seas rain and wind have them pretty glum.  Many are sticking to their cabins.

On the other hand I am having a great time.  I have attended the occasional lecture and cooking demonstration.  I toured the bridge, which was interesting and informative.  Michael and I watched a water volleyball match between the housekeeping staff and passengers.  It was fun to see the staff playing and cheering.  I doubt they get much chance to get out in the open air.  I finished my Carl Sagan biography and started a book on musicology. 

Tuesday was Australia Day, the Australian equivalent of our Fourth of July.   Almost half the guests are Australians.  I heard Waltzing Matilda for the first and probably last time this trip thanks to Michael's request to the sound technician. The ship celebrated Australia Day by holding a pool barbeque which we peeked in on and a late night disco dance that I fell asleep long before.  There is entertainment most nights which I mostly miss.  Michael and I are early risers.  10:30 or 11 p.m. shows are just too late.

Wednesday we attended a Venetian Society reception and later dined at the Hotel Director's table.  The Venetian Society is composed of repeat Silver Seas customers.  Michael was honored for achieving the milestone of three hundred fifty days on Silver Seas ships.  He was presented with a certificate for a free seven day cruise and a silver pin inset with a tiny ruby.  We looked elegant in our formal attire.  Unfortunately the glitter from my dress shed prolifically.  It is now in the carpet, on Michael's tux on the bedspread – everywhere.

My account of the trip is now mostly up to date.  It's Thursday and the sun is shining.  People are a little happier.  We are all looking forward to Komodo Island tomorrow.

Cairns – Pronounced Cans by Australians

Michael and I got up early to watch the ship sail into Cairns harbor.   We were in rain squalls, some quite severe.  Every so often we could see the city emerge from the clouds.  It's hard to believe that I am on the other side of the world visiting a port that is on the edge of true wilderness!

We wanted to take a railroad tour into the nearby mountains but the weather did not cooperate.  In addition to our late arrival due to picking up the folks who visited the reef yesterday, the severe rain caused the tour operator to cancel this tour.  We were not interested in the tour to the crocodile preserve, about the only one not canceled.  We walked into town and visited the local tourist information center.  All the alternative trips to the mountains were in danger of cancellation too.  Cairns was expecting a "cyclone" (the Asian version of a hurricane.) We obtained information on the local bus to the relatively nearby Botanical Gardens.  As there was an hour wait, we walked to the train station to check it out.  Ten years or so ago the original station had been sold off for development as a shopping mall.  A new station has been built behind the original.  It is actually a rather small affair with a small ticket office, only two tracks and simple platforms that looked more like an above ground subway station than anything else.  Michael had a nice conversation with a gentleman who turned out to be a railway porter.  He told us the history of the station.  The major local industry is growing sugar cane.  The raw cane is turned into syrup and shipped south by freight cars so most rail traffic is freight.  There are two trains a day from Brisbane, 400 miles to the south, and two tourist trains to Karunda in the mountains to the north.  It was the tourist trains that had been canceled due to expected rain and high wind.

When the porter heard we were going to take the bus to the Botanical Garden he lead us to the bus stand in the adjacent rail/shopping mall garage.  There he introduced us to a van driver who offered a tour of Cairns for $20.  It was a hop on, hop off tour with seven or eight stops, one off which was the Botanical Gardens. 

It had stopped raining so we had an interesting tour of the city.  Most of the development of the downtown area is relatively recent.  Michael visited about 20 years ago when the town was a sleepy backwater with a few tourist stores.  Now there is a fancy new marina, high end hotels, a casino and streets and streets of tee shirt and souvenir shops.   Most of the older buildings have given way to cement and steel structures.  According to the guide, there was once a bar on every corner.  Cairns was founded in the late 1800's as a gold rush jumping off point when gold was discovered in the nearby mountains.  I took some pictures of older structures.  One of the most interesting was a bar in the shape of a crocodile.

We got off the van at the Botanical Gardens.  These are relatively small but very well thought out.  We walked through an area of less than twenty acres yet it appeared we were engulfed in wilderness.  Across the street there was a rainforest walk through several hundred acres of vestigial rainforest.  The original Cairns was built on land reclaimed from mangrove swamp and tropical rainforest.  This preserve is all that is left.  The rainforest walk was wonderful; probably better than the one on the mountain that had been canceled.

There were boardwalk paths through at last four different habitats all wet and beautiful in their own ways.  The boardwalk ended at contrasting salt water and freshwater ponds.

We got the tour van back to Cairns on the next hourly swing.  Both times we were the only passengers so we benefited from a very personalized tour.  Our guide/driver was very personable and friendly.  He is probably the local equivalent of a "red neck" in that his opinions of the Aboriginal population were unflattering in the extreme.  I'm not sure his stories of cannibals were not all true.

We ended our tour at the shore side casino and walked back to the ship for lunch.  I still had not seen a koala so after lunch we went back to the casino which featured a rooftop animal preserve.  By the time we got there all the daily programs had finished.  We could have spent $60 to walk through and view the animals but, much as I would have liked to see koalas, kangaroos etc, that was too much.  I'll be able to say that I visited Australia without seeing any of the indigenous wildlife except birds and bats. See the bats hanging from what looks like a banyan tree.

I did buy an Australian tee shirt.  I wanted an Australian flag beach towel but they were all made in China and of such poor quality that I feared they would come apart with the first washing.  I snapped several pictures of a souvenir store that sold nothing but Chinese lucky cats, all made in Japan.

The sail out from Cairns was really something.  The rain held off until we cleared the harbor.  The harbor is very shallow and the ship passage is marked by red and green beacons.  It appeared as if we were heading down a runway or following the landing lights from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  It was seemingly unreal leaving this city on the edge of the world.

The Whitsunday Islands – Hamilton Island

The day at sea following Brisbane went by so quickly, I couldn't account for my time.  Between attending enrichment lectures, cooking demonstrations, walking laps on the upper deck and eating gourmet meals the day gently slipped away.    I worked some on this blog but did not finish.

Friday we awoke to an island view.  We were anchored in the Whitsunday Islands, discovered by Captain Cook.  Captain Cook appears to have named a lot of the real estate he discovered for the date he thought he discovered it.  The Thursday Islands come later in this trip.

The cruise line had scheduled this stop to enable "guests", i.e. passengers, at $300 each to take a tour to a pontoon anchored in the Great Barrier Reef.  There they could snorkel or view the reef life from a glass bottomed boat.  We decided to pass on the tour and went to Hamilton Island for the morning. 

Hamilton Island is a large privately owned resort.  Michael and I took a free shuttle bus tour which sounded remarkably like a real estate pitch.  Part of the attraction of the place is that since it is privately owned, there is no police force, just private security.  There is allegedly no crime. I'm not sure whether or not the guide was suggesting that residents can do drugs or engage in otherwise illegal activities as long as it's discrete.  We got off and walked around.  We stopped at some of the hotels, some beautiful swimming pools, over priced tourist shops and a restaurant that featured breakfast with koalas for an additional $20 apiece.  The koalas were hidden behind solid wooden fencing.    All the good stuff cost extra. In little more than an hour we had seen all there was to see and it was back to the ship for lunch.

We returned just in time as it rained most of the afternoon.  The ship got underway at 1:00 p.m. to go out to the reef to pick up the 100 or so "guests" that had taken the reef tour.  When they reboarded around 3:00 p.m. we heard a lot of complaining about the seeing conditions at the pontoon not being that good.  In addition, they got rained on!

Formal Night and a Visit to Brisbane, Australia

The first evening at sea is traditionally the Captain's welcome dinner.  Michael and I missed the receiving line and reception in favor of visiting with fellow passengers in the bar.  Michael looked wonderful in his tuxedo and I felt elegant in my sparkly evening wear and diamond necklace (small diamonds, but real.)

We had dinner with the Cruise Consultant, Anna who is from New Zeeland.  She hosted us, another American Couple and two single Australian gentlemen.   We had mostly interesting and entertaining conversation while eating caviar, salad and lobster accompanied by wine.  The gentleman from Chicago did insist on bringing up U.S. politics.  His observations about the state of American politics were not only not factually correct; they were not particularly interesting to non Americans.  His attitude was apparently influenced by several pre dinner cocktails.  Even though it was pointless, I couldn't help mentioning that this is not the only time in our history that extreme partisanship has been the order of the day.  It occurs elsewhere in the world too. 

Afterward Michael and I went on deck to view the stars.  Unfortunately they were clouded over.  We had to content ourselves with looking at the lights of small Queensland communities as the coast of eastern Australia passed to our port (left) side.  We finished the evening visiting with a delightful Australian couple over cognac.  

Wednesday (still Tuesday in the U.S.) we sailed up the Brisbane River to Brisbane, Australia, the capital of Queensland.   We did not sign up for the rainforest hike or the tour of the Koala sanctuary.  Instead we walked around the downtown area and through the City Botanical Garden.  We had hiked in rainforests in Panama and Costa Rica last fall and the Koalas on the Brisbane tour were in cages. Wandering the city was more interesting. The city is a mixture of new office towers and old colonial era buildings.  We walked back toward the shuttle pick up point by way of cutting through Queensland University of Technology.  A new term is just about to start and everywhere there were orientation groups looking a bit stunned.  We are starting to get into the tropics.  The climate is similar to Florida in the summer.

The shuttle bus that was to bring us back to the ship was late.  There were two of them and one had been in an accident earlier.  Fortunately no one was hurt but the driver who eventually showed up to bring us back pointed out the broken glass where an auto had run into the other bus.  Interestingly, the tour director at the ship knew the busses were late but had not been informed why.

Sailing out down the twisty river in the early evening was spectacular.  I watched everything light up.  The stars came out and I saw Orion upside down again as well as the Southern Cross and Canopus.

At Sea off the Coast of New South Wales, Australia

 

Michael and I left Boulder, Colorado Friday, January 15^th at 1:00 p.m.  We landed in Sydney, Australia shortly after 7:00 a.m. Sunday, January 17^th.  There was no January 16^th because of the International Dateline.    We left cold and snow on the ground and landed where temperatures were in the 70's and sunny.   I have never taken such a long journey.  I was able to sleep maybe two hours on the plane.  Otherwise I was awake for something over thirty hours.  Jetlag, I know thy name!

Fortunately we were able to check in to the Marriott hotel on Circular Quay in Sydney shortly after 8:00 a.m.  A shower and a 20 minute nap and I was ready to go.

I had spotted our ship, the Silver Whisper, sailing into Sydney harbor just as our plane was descending for landing.  Michael was most relieved to see the ship berthed at the quay on our arrival at the hotel.  Even with jet lag and unknown allergies kicking in, I think we made the most of our two days in Sydney.

We took a number of ferry rides, walked around a lot, rode the train across the harbor bridge and rode the monorail around the central business district.  We had a wonderful lunch of fish and chips, very fresh, at a little shop on Manly Beach.  Dinner was at a very modern Thai restaurant at Darling Harbour.  I had chicken and beef satay and spicy soft shell crab.  What a treat.  Much of downtown Sydney reminded me of New York City.  There is a lot of colonial British influence as well.  We stopped at a shopping mall built in the 1890's and remodeled in the 1980's.

Thanks to Michael's large number of days cruising on the Silver Seas line, we were able to embark early on Monday.  By 11 a.m. we were in our cabin.  Michael gave me a tour of the ship and we then had a lovely lunch in the ship's main dining room.  The Silver Whisper is like a luxury hotel only it floats and moves from place to place.

After lunch we were back to sightseeing.  A walk around the Circular Quay got us to the Sydney Opera House where I took a lot of pictures. 

The Opera House adjoins the botanic gardens.  We saw a small trackless train taking people on tours.  We got there just as the last tour of the day left.  There was an empty train waiting to go back to wherever they are stored overnight.  A wonderfully accommodating guide offered us a ride at no cost back through the botanic gardens, but no tour.  It was fun trying to follow the map and figure out what we were seeing.  We ended up at the succulent garden and walked back through rainforest, herbs and other assorted displays.  At one point there were signs warning patrons not to touch the "flying foxes," actually large grey bats.  They were infesting a stand of trees and causing a lot of damage.  They also carry diseases.  The botanic garden staff is trying to discourage the bats from roosting without killing them.   On the way out we passed a sundial that appeared to read backwards – it was set up for the southern hemisphere!

Back on the ship we enjoyed a gourmet dinner.  Afterward we went out on deck to watch our departure from Sydney.  It was magnificent in the dark with all the city lights sparkling as the ship made its way down the harbor to the open ocean.  The sky was mostly clear.  I saw the Southern Cross, the star Canopus and the constellation Orion upside down. It was my first view of the night sky from the Southern Hemisphere.

Today is a sea day so there has finally been time to write down my impressions of the trip so far.

All Packed

About to start on a 25,000 mile journey.