Dave’s Trip To, Around and Into Australia, Sept. 26 – Nov. 23, 2016

[Karennella]

As always, such a treat following you along. Amazing photos! I would love to hold a koala too. Thank you so much!

 

If you seriously want to hold a koala and not just stand beside it, you must make sure you go to either Queensland or South Australia. It is not permitted in the other states.

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 24, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

Tonight, I discovered something rare: a new dish on HAL I have not had before, but really enjoyed. Here are the MDR dinner and dessert menus:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dish I discovered I had for the starter, the scallop and crab gratin, I ordered because I like all three of those things, plus I wanted to know what the heck a cheese damper was. Turns out, it was a small biscuit (in the U.S. sense of the word – a quick bread) with a bit of cheese melted on top. That came in handy in soaking up the buttery sauce that came with the seafood, which was served in the escargot dish, and came with a thin cheese gratin on top. It was excellent. DW had the prosciutto.

 

For main dish, I had the cobb salad (minus the moldy cheese, and substituting ranch on the side for the vinaigrette) while DW had the always-available oven-roasted chicken. For dessert, DW came to the dark (chocolate) side and joined me in ordering the chocolate delight, sinfully delicious as always.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

If you seriously want to hold a koala and not just stand beside it, you must make sure you go to either Queensland or South Australia. It is not permitted in the other states.

 

Thank you - we did not know that. We had an opportunity to have a photo taken beside one in the Featherdale park near Sydney, but the line was long, and DW knew she would have the opportunity to hold one near Brisbane: she has been looking forward to it for months. We did not realize it was a relatively rare opportunity, and are even more glad we hustled down and stood in that line at Lone Pine.

 

Dave

[Cruising-along]

If you seriously want to hold a koala and not just stand beside it, you must make sure you go to either Queensland or South Australia. It is not permitted in the other states.

 

Good to know, thank you!

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 25, Hamilton Island

 

 

Today, we visit Hamilton Island. We have booked a morning excursion to go fo a boat ride among the Whitsunday Islands. Here are the first four pages of the On Location for today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 25, Hamilton Island (Cont.)

 

 

Here are the other two pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the Explorer pages about Hamilton Island:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[Karennella]

I hope you enjoy Hammo, as the locals call it. It is where we have our holiday home! That is not a good map they have given you. You can download the Hamilton Island app, which is very good, or get one at the main beach. If you are energetic you should walk up to One Tree Hill where there is a great view and a bar, or you can catch the free shuttle there.

Then you go to Cairns. I love North Queensland. It is a different world to Sydney.

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 25, Hamilton Island (Cont.)

 

 

Maasdam maneuvered in the Whitsunday Channel in the early morning. Here is a typical shot of what we saw on our approach through the archipelago:

 

 

 

 

 

One of the first trips to leave was for the all-day trip to the Great Barrier Reef. The fast boat boarded directly from Maasdam:

 

 

 

 

Me met in the showroom for stickers for our trip, the ship’s High Tea on the Sea excursion, which was called about 9 a.m. We boarded a tender hired from the town; HAL was running those as well as the ship’s tenders:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a transit of less than 10 minutes, we were ashore in the small marina, and shortly boarded our tour boat, the Hamilton Star:

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 25, Hamilton Island (Cont.)

 

 

We set out on a tour of the islands that lasted for two hours. We first went back toward Maasdam, and then around Hamilton Island to the other side. The island has lots of houses and resorts. Our tour boat crew told us there is no natural water supply on Hamilton Island, but that water was piped from the mainland. That allowed a sizable resort to be built; the island has hotels, restaurants and even an airport. It is a popular destination. Here are shots of houses on Hamilton Island, and of the main beach, Catseye beach, which is on the other side of the island from the harbor, but within walking distance because the island narrows at that section:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a shot typical of the scenery we saw in the rest of the island chain:

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 25, Hamilton Island (Cont.)

 

 

The Hamilton Star has three decks, the first two enclosed, although the second ahs a narrow outside area around three sides, and the top open. We spent time on the top deck and the outer deck of the second level. Most of our indoor time was on the second level. It has a bar area from where staff demonstrated the life jackets, and from which they later served tea, coffee or water:

 

 

 

 

 

Staff also circulated with lots of types of food – muffins, cookies, Danish pastries, and sandwiches. And later they brought out excellent scones with cream and jam:

 

 

 

 

After touring for nearly two hours, we made our approach back to harbor:

 

 

 

 

We went ashore and walked around a bit. We walked nearly to the end of the harbor, a leisurely amble, to the Marina Tavern for a drink. The walk back was about a 10-minute mosey. We saw no cars, only small free shuttle buses. But, there were lots of golf carts:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was an easy-going day, and the weather was outstanding for a sailing tour of this beautiful area.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 25, Hamilton Island (Cont.)

 

 

We read the On Location and saw the team trivia in the Crow’s Nest, which along with sailaway from a beautiful port call meant crowds. There was culinary trivia in the Mix. So, Ocean Bar it was for happy hour. It was busy but not crowded and noisy, so we enjoyed our pre-dinner drinks.

 

For dinner, I faced the same dilemma I did on the trans-Pacific portion – prime rib or calf’s liver, two of my favorites. I went with the liver; DW, who thinks liver is cat food at best, went with the prime rib. For starter, I had the tortellini and vegetable soup and she had the salad minus the cheese. For dessert, we were in agreement – hot fudge sundae again.

 

Here are the MDR dinner and dessert menus:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 26, Cairns

 

 

Today we are scheduled to arrive in Cairns at 10 a.m. We have booked a tour to see the rain forest and, we hope, at least on platypus. The tour leaves at 11, and lasts eight hours, so I will not be updating the blog for a while.

 

Here are the first four pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 26, Cairns (Cont.)

 

 

Here are the other two pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

Here are the Explorer pages about Cairns:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[jaspersmycat]

A funny picture placement in the ON location below the "Better Breakfast" at 9am. It really made me laugh.

[Skipper's Mom]

A funny picture placement in the ON location below the "Better Breakfast" at 9am. It really made me laugh.

Hahaha!

 

Sent from my XT1064 using Forums mobile app

[PhoenixCruiser]

We are really appreciate your review!

 

###

Edited October 26, 2016 by PhoenixCruiser

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great pictures.

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 26, Cairns (Cont.)

 

 

(Note: Our tour lasted until 7 p.m., and when I tried to get on line in the evening, the ship’s LAN system was down, so I have been unable to post for a while.)

 

 

We pulled into Cairns about 10 a.m. Cairns has a large new cruise liner terminal, which is walking distance of the pretty compact downtown area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our tour was called just before 11. A total of 51 of us boarded a bus and drove south on the A1 highway for a few miles, and then turned right to go past suburbs and sugar can farms, and then up a twisty road that wound and climbed up to an elevation of about 600 meters (2000 feet) or so. At the top of the mountains is a rolling pleasant land of dairy and other farms and towns as well as patches of preserved rainforest. The whole area is called the Atherton Tablelands, and reminds me of the Virginia piedmont, or Prince Edward Island:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 26, Cairns (Cont.)

 

 

We drove a total of about one hour 15 minutes from the cruise pier to our first stop, Lake Barrine, one of two crater lakes in the tablelands. Most of the land is private, but there is a national park bit as well. We walked a short path to two large ancient Kauri pines which had been spared from logging:

 

 

 

 

Those who wished to do so could continue on the rain forest path of 600 meters and then back down the drive to the bus. The path was pretty smooth the begin, but there were spots of some rougher surface with tree roots to watch out for:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were restrooms at the national park, but there were only two uni-sex single-person rooms, and the line got long for a while.

 

 

After the nature walk, we went a few miles away to a fig tree which has pretty much overwhelmed its host. I’ve seen them, called strangler figs, in the Caribbean, but this one was very large and had spread over a larger area; as the host tree bent under the weight, the fig put out more and more roots. It is called a curtain fig because of that:

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 26, Cairns (Cont.)

 

 

Next we drove a bit further south to the Tarzali Lakes, a place that farms fish, allows fishing for a fee, and also has duckbill platypuses (platypi?). We stopped first for a buffet lunch at a building situated near a pretty pond. Here are some photos of the facility and of our lunch buffet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were salads, smoked ham and brisket, fresh fried barramundi fish (easy to do at a fish farm) and fried potatoes. Water and coffee were included, or you could purchase beer and wine at the counter of the small souvenir area.

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 26, Cairns (Cont.)

 

 

After lunch, it was time to try to see a platypus or two. Our host told us he had started fish farming and at one point tried raising a kind of shrimp. A cyclone went through and killed his fish, but the shrimp thrived, so he raised those while trying to restore his fish farms. One day he noticed that a pair of platypuses had discovered a shrimp bonanza in his ponds, and decided to add platypus viewing to his enterprise. He said all of them were females, as the males only show up in mating season, which had passed. He also said that, unlike what had been reported, they were not active only in the early morning and in the evening. Because they have a high metabolism, they need to eat a lot, so are active much of the day. We hoped so, since it was mid-afternoon.

 

As we went down to another pond, he gave us a few rules on how to behave so as not to alarm the creatures. These were also posted:

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the pond, and began looking. Very quickly, we saw one at the edge of the water lilies. That was the only one I was able to get a relatively OK photo of. They were smaller than we had imagined, but very nimble and agile. We saw lots of them, or more likely a few of them several times each. But, they would surface for a moment or two, and then dive again to search for food. I got several shots of ripples just after they dived :D . But, it was a great experience to see them in the semi-wild - they were not pets or zoo animals and ranged freely, but were somewhat more protected in their farm pond than they may have been in the wild.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that, we drove back down the twisty road to the valley, and stopped for about 45 minutes at the Mountain View Hotel for a complimentary beer, wine or other drink.

 

 

On the way back to the ship, the driver stopped the bus so we could get photographs of a huge colony (bunch? congregation?) of flying foxes, aka fruit bats. There were hundreds hanging from the branches of about a dozen trees, right next to the highway:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a long day, but worth it to us to see such beautiful countryside, and see platypus in their habitat.

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 26, Cairns (Cont.)

 

We had had a late lunch at Tarzali Lakes so we passed on dinner. However, I was able to scan the MDR menus. Here are the dinner and dessert menus:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[rajkr74]

Dave,

As usual you are putting on a great "Live" cruise review. Love your photos also, (we have this thing about good photography) :D. Say Hi to your DW.

Rick

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 27, Great Barrier Reef

 

 

Today we have the first day of the Great Barrier Reef Experience portion of the cruise. Here are the first four pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Oct. 27, Great Barrier Reef (Cont.)

 

 

Here are the other two pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave