First Half Circumnav

Hello Everyone! Sorry for not updating. We just finished the first half of our circumnavigation of Australia. It has been a pretty amazing journey, though internet has been unavailable for days at a time (a partial excuse for me not posting sooner!!!) , and even the phones were down for a few days on our way to Bali.

Since the cruise was so long (17 days!!) we have had a LOT of guest entertainers to fill up the evenings for the guests, and quite a few long nights with additional big band sets after a full night of shows. We actually have been working pretty hard. Tonight is finally the easy farewell show, and tomorrow only one welcome show, and I feel a great sense of relief for the momentary pause before plunging into my last cruise.

I'll catch you up on some of the highlights of the ports this cruise. In Brisbane, Tim and I went out to the Southbank waterfront to enjoy the atmosphere. We took a ride on the Wheel of Brisbane - basically a huge ferris wheel, and got lunch at a little kebab place we found on the river.

Cairns turned out to be really amazing. Tim, Tracy and I went quadbiking on All Terrain Vehicles, out in the rainforest. We each had our own ATV and all followed our guide, and he took us on a crazy journey up and down hills through the forest, through mud and across rivers, and even along a shallow river in the water. We got totally covered in mud, and it was so awesome!! We were all sore the next day from hanging on over all the bumps, and we had blisters from gripping the handles and the brakes. We had such a great time and felt so alive. I was grinning the whole time, which actually worked against me cause I kept getting dust in my mouth, ha ha. Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with some Aussie-style burgers complete with beetroot and a fried egg.

In Darwin, in the very far northern tip of Australia, we only had a few hours ashore, which we spent drinking coffee and visiting a Crocodile park. We got to hold a baby crocodile!!

After two sea days we arrived in Bali, Indonesia!! Tim and I signed up for one of the guest tours, which turned out to be a really great decision. We visited an ancient temple and saw a cave full of thousands of bats, visited a palace, and saw a traditional performance of the Barong - something every village in Bali does a version of. It was accompanied by awesome traditional instruments. The tour really exceeded our expectations. Even just looking out the window as we drove through the island was really interesting, because Bali is such a unique place.

After Bali we returned to the coast of Australia to make the journey down the western coast. We visited Broome and Exmouth, two very small towns that basically serve as jumping off points for travelers and tourists, and bases of operation for people who live further afield in the outback. In Broome we saw a lot of little planes taking off and landing, as bush-living Aussies came into town to pick up their groceries and check their mail. Both of those ports really made me feel like we were in the outback, dry and deserted, as I imagined it to be.