Townsville and Cairns

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At Sea to Townsville it’s a GLORIOUS DAY as we breakfast on the 11th deck’ La Veranda Restaurant after the obligatory walk around the sports deck with Lorraine, the fitness director. We enjoy a day of deck games, educational lectures, wine tasting from the Australian vintner Chareau Tanunda (“from down unda”) by its owner John Geber. A former marketing executive he shows off this skill in describing his wines as we taste them. Guest Chef Owen Andrews teaches us how to create a great soup and aparatif. Then it’s on to Tea Time Trivia (we lost), CBS Sports’ Jim Nance giving us answers in a Q and A, another cocktain party hosted by Virtuoso Travel, and a singer,violinist variety show.
The next morning we arrive in Townsend, Australia. It is warm and wonderful and after breakfast at La Veranda we observe the arrival in port from the Observation Lounge forward. After tying up at the pier, the crew runs through a full drill of fire aft and abandon ship. During the drill I came upon crew standing by in their life vessts and identifier caps and vests and I asked these young people what their responsibilities were. With pride they recited that they were to direct passangers here or there or assure that such and such was accomplished. Some crew portrayed passangers going to the life boats and as I smiled to them as they passed they smiled back, assured that the new what was expected of them. All was accomplished with quiet assuredness. After securing the drill the bos’ns lowered the lifeboats and ran through operating procedures, assuring that the equipment would work if needed. Periodically a supervisor would pull a crew member out to accomplish a more pressing passenger need. I was impressed as I saw each crewmember understand the importance of what they were practicing without faltering in their concern for passenger care. In my days of dealing with emergency planning in health care I wished that our professionals had the same approach to emergency preparation.
We also are having fun with all the Aussies on this segment. Many of them got on for the ride around to Darwin and they’re adding a wonderful aspect to the discussions. One reason, they point out, that there is a real affinity for Americans is our participation in WWII. It seems that with Japan threatening, Churchill drew the famous Brisbane line in the sand across Australia, vowing to save the southern part and sacrifice northern Australia to the invaders. It was Gen McArthur and the Americans who came to their rescue (while their own troops were fighting in Great Britain to save the empire’s motherland). In fact, MacArthur set up HQ in several locations here and troops trained and R&R’d here.
Our Townsend tour begins with a city tour and a stop at the Museum of Tropical North Queensland. HMS Pandora was sent to retrieve HMS Bounty mutineers so they coule be tried in England but it floundered on the Great Barrier Reef in 1791. This story is told as we view pictures of the wreck and displays of the coral. Great Barrier Reef Headquarter (Reef Wonderland) is an aquarium built out into the harbor to ensure natural circulation of water to feed the largest living coral reef in the world and tropical fish exhibit. In air conditioned comfort we walk in a Plexiglas tunnel through the watery exhibit enjoying the vast variety of fish and other aquatic animals. Volunteers point out the nuances and explain how the exhibit was created and thrives. It even has an artificial wave machine to simulate the ebb and flow of the ocean.
On the last day of February we visit Cairns (pronounced “Cans”) and take a gondola ride from the Skyrail Rainforest Cable Car Station across the World Heritage Site Tropical Rain Forest. This is the best view we’ve had of the thick vegetation we expected and the views of the Barron Falls from the elevated platform are magnificent. The recent rains have turned the falls into an angry, cascading marvel reminiscent of our trip to Mucho Picchu last year. At the Kuranda Station we enjoy the shops and seeing that the local Rotary Club has a charitable donation box available for all comers. We return to town and see the local commercial sights including a casino which Mary passes by with its three penny (non-stacked) machines and the older quarter, dollar machines. One of our traveling companions is desirous of a Mexican Restaurant, since we discovered our Spanish trained chef is Mexican food challenged. We’re working on a special meal where we’ll provide the recipes, another wonderful feature of this vessel. In the meantime he searches local ports. Today we found two such eateries available but opening later in the afternoon. One was the local outlet of the USA’s chain Cactus Jacks! We return to the ship for our Teatime Trivia and cocktails. We enjoy the dinner companionship of the onboard Bridge experts and another couple from the US. On March 1st we sail in smooth seas toward Thursday Island, the northern most point in Aussie land.

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