Queensland is the deep south of Australia except for its being in the extreme northeast. It's hot, humid, and the people are gracious but perhaps a bit insular. We sailed north for a day or two to reach the capital city, Brisbane. The approach is up the Brisbane River where a dozen or so light ranges guide the ship through the narrow channel. It was fun to watch each set of lights line up again--this was my 4th visit and 3rd cruise to Brisbane--and see the modern (read charmless) city approach. We made the most of it by wondering in the botanic garden, taking a walk through the Queensland Technical University where groups of incoming freshman were being guided around, and even took the free downtown circle city bus provided for tourists who want to see traffic jams.
After another sea day (spent reading and watching for various wild life and also looking at the water) we reached Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday Islands (or was it Whitsunday Island in the Hamilton Islands?). No matter, this place is the largest resort in the Southern Hemisphere or maybe just in Australia. I forget which. It is huge! The entire island is owned by the same company--recently sold by the original founder for billions--which provided a free tour of the tacky mariner area, the tacky condos and staff resident areas, and the pretty nice resort hotel. Families with small kids abounded. It's the end of the "summer holiday", and the art work in one of the shops kind of summarized my attitude to this place. I guess maybe my feelings were affected by the extremely expensive excursion offered by the ship to the Great Barrier Reef that this stop was a "technical stop" for and which we didn't take. The weather did turn rainy later in the day so that Silver Whisper's 39 nautical mile detour to pick up the snorkelers did provide some diversion of hearing the unhappy participants report that they were disappointed that they were getting wet. Not a bad day, however, since I did get the obligatory picture of the ship from one of the hills in the resort. We returned to the ship in time to enjoy the Glenmorangie in the room. It would have been nice to phone for the butler to bring up some munchies for our cocktails, but I was afraid he would fill the room with potato chips and he would polish our sneakers.
Yesterday's port call was in Cairns (pronounced "cans"), a touristic city surrounded by barrier reefs and mountains. We tried three alternative methods to get on the fantastic train to the "tablelands" town of Kuranda. Any of these methods would have worked if it hadn't been for the fact that the train's departures had been canceled due to excessive rain or wind or something. Oh well. The porter at the railway station pointed out a sleeping tour guide who awakened and for $AU 20 each gave us an extensive city tour and dropped us off at the Cairns rain forest park and botantic gardens where we walked miles on nice dry boardwalks as we observed completely unfamiliar birds, trees, flowers, and uh boards. As the guide made hourly circuits--with or without passengers between his naps--we were picked up after our walk and returned to the ship as he regaled us with stories of the bad habits of the native people, most of the stories pure prejudiced lies that many of the otherwise pretty tolerant Aussies feel are part of their oral heritage. He also pointed out the only original structures in Cairns, all bars where he said he spent his youth in.
This was my fourth visit to Cairns in 20 years. I've watch most of the appeal of the town disappear to the lowest common denominator of tourism. Nice place to buy DEET (needed) and sunscreen (not needed yesterday due to the rain), but it's no longer a quaint outpost before venturing into the bush. I did spot a curious menu selection and found a store completely devoted to "chinese lucky cats". It was a nice day, but our feeling is that with today's day at sea and despite it being Monday tomorrow's stop at very isolated and new port for me Thursday Island we are starting the real cruise. Then off the Indonesia where after three days at sea we arrive at Komodo. I hope they throw the goat.
Ship, food, everything actual is fantastic. The butler, however, is now looking into our room frequently so as to find faults he can resolve. "I've seen you've put your underwear on the couch. May I fold it for you?" I wanted to ask him to bring us afternoon tea yesterday, but I was afraid we would be floating in tea by today if I did.
More after Monday's stop at apparently misnamed Thursday Island.
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