FEBRUARY 17, 2008
CAIRNS

6 am! Oh Lordy. I did not want to get up! I let my Treo ring over 3 times and each time I’d stop it. We were entering the harbor of Cairns, so I turned on CNN and we got to watch the part about the Presidents’ health while the ship glided into the harbor. Room service arrived around 7 am and I finally got moving.
As we left the ship, we saw an adorable little beagle. His job of course was to sniff out the agricultural products folks weren’t supposed to be taking ashore. Since I once got busted in Chile because I wasn’t thinking and brought along an apple in case Ed’s blood sugar got low, I seldom attribute conscious behavior to folks having contraband in their carry ons. Well this little beagle just kept sniffing this one guy’s bag and he wouldn’t stop until the handler had checked it. We later saw another beagle and I supposed that this one was for narcotics as I’ve been told they “specialize.”
We were routed onto a bus on the pier. This bus had bucket seats! First time we’d seen that on a “motor coach”. Well it was short lived. Pretty soon, the guide called our name and said we were on the other bus. Rejected! We never did figure out why we were bumped as there were ample seats available on both busses and we went the same place.
Anyway, we got to see parts of Cairns on our way up to the rainforest which took about 45 min. Cairns has about 150, 000 population and is the jumping off place for The Great Barrier Reef. This is a righteous rainforest with all the heat, humidity and critters you expect to find in one plus a few new to us.
We got off the bus, walked through a souvenir area and were taken to ride on Army DUKW pronounced “ducks”. These amphibious craft were made in 1942 and expected to last only 3 mos. They’re still going strong though now they use LPG in it’s 6 cylinder, 10 forward and 2 reverse gear engine. Maximum speed is 85 kph on land, 16 kph in water. Driver can inflate and deflate tyres while moving. Propeller, rudder, bilge pumps and winch on board.
Our driver and tour guide for this was Shan (pronounced Shawn), and he was a real kidder. It’s hard to know what was real among his tales. He hopped on the hood with regularity and used a stick to point out things of interest in the forest.
We saw all kinds of animals here: small turkeys indigenous to this area—they don’t look anything like ours and are full of parasites so no one here eats them. Gorgeous butterflies, dragons, crocks, turtles, koalas (they charge $15 to have your picture taken with a koala cuddling you—we passed), and kangaroos of all sizes. We both had photos feeding them and I’ll try to select at least one to post for you. They are so delicate when they take the food out of your hand.
We also had a demonstration of dances by some aboriginal men. You could tell the animals they were imitating by their movements. Then folks got a lesson on throwing the boomerang. Later we were shown how they throw their spears, and a lesson on the digireedoo (sp). The sound is amazing that comes out of that stick. You can buy the latter all over Australia and they mail it back home for you.
There were dingos somewhere but we never saw them. Cassowaries were free roaming here: nasty disposition though. And as you may imagine, the flora was outstanding and so colorful.
The weather was overcast most of the time with sprinkles now and then but not enough to spoil our fun.
When we returned to the pier, we immediately headed into downtown CAIRNS. Since it is Sunday, not all of the stores were open. We did manage to see several internet and phone stores. However, we didn’t have the laptop with us and everyone was asleep where we call. We had a quick lunch at an outdoor café. We could have gone to the Odyssey in Chatsworth for the cost but you’ve got to consider the location. We walked around downtown and viewed lots of work by aboriginal artists. We did find postcard stamps and mailed a few postcards.
Many of us had asked the tour guide for a supermarket and she kept talking about Woolsworth. While we were in town we dropped in to Woolsworth. It is a supermarket here! So we got 30 diet Coke and 30 zero Coke. We must get some kind of wheeled device for times such as this; it’s much too heavy for Ed to lug around. We can divide the other stuff between our backpacks but it’s impossible with heavy liquids like this. Of course, we could have bought only a few instead of the 60 we got. So we figure we’re set for Cokes until probably Singapore.
THANK GOD FOR SHOWERS: We were both grateful for the shower on board as we were hot and sweater. It is humid here and while the temperature per se isn’t that great at the present, the humidity is high and the sun is blazing. I thought of Adrian as a baby today. When he cried, the tears would pool under his eyes. That’s where my sweat would pool and eventually drip down my face.
DINNER: Hank and Erna didn’t come but we figured they wouldn’t as we had seen them on shore and they had their one meal of the day already. We were joined by Lea and Bill, a couple we met at lunch some time ago who were looking for a compatible first seating table. It was a nice conversation about what they had done as they stayed in Sydney, flew to Cairns yesterday, and just rejoined the ship this afternoon. In the meantime, we regaled them with the stories of the reef pilot and the entertainers they missed while off the ship.
I’m feeling like a pig these days and resolve to watch my intake a little closer. It’s harder when you’re on shore; of course, being on the ship presents it’s own temptations. Dave and Twyla talk about the pastries that cause the tables to groan at the Buffet over lunch. That has never been my downfall==at least not so far.
ENTERTAINMENT: Tonite was the excellent pianist who Ed absolutely adores. She doesn’t disappoint. She practices in the Casino Lounge on occasion and you’ll find Ed (and others) there listening to her.
We have two pictures of her feeding the kangaroos today. Ed said that one of the kangaroos started to nibble on her fingers and he was thinking: Oh No! Not those fingers! She was telling us that she had the photo with the koala and that it kept scratching her trying to climb around her. She was afraid she’d drop him.

FEBRUARY 16, 2008 CONT…

Ed and I went to breakfast when he returned from exercising. I delude myself into thinking that the fruits I load up on equate with low calorie.
I went to the library and read the news, picked up the crossword puzzle for the day, and whispered hello to folks in there. I checked out the atlas to see exactly where we were. The Aussie reef pilot was making periodic announcements about our locations and what we were seeing. In some ways, it reminds me of Alaskan cruises where you have land and forests on both sides of the ship.
MYSTERIES OF SCRIPTURE: This man’s soporific voice volume isn’t what I wanted or expected. He reads some piece of scripture and then gives his explanation for what it means. I don’t know what version he’s using but even as Bible-illiterate as I am, I knew there were some differences in wording and certainly interpretation from what I know of the passages.
Folks in the audience sometimes offered remarks. It was interesting that not all those present were Christian; other faiths were represented.
We didn’t stay long as we wanted to hear the reef pilot’s remarks.
TRIVIA: My majarani was there and so I joined her. Then Eric and Val came in (the Aussies from Brisbane who came on in Sydney) and when Ed arrived we were now, by consensus, no longer the “two fools”, but now “five fools”. We all participated and rolled around the various answers. Eric was feeling he couldn’t make much contribution; he redeemed himself later when he correctly guessed the age of the cruise staff doing the trivia this morning! This was a tie breaker but unfortunately “five fools” didn’t qualify for the tie breaker. We had such great fun though. These folks are all a joy to do things with.
LUNCH: We joined a table with 6 other folks, four of whom we had visited with before. The conversation was fun but the food was disappointing: chicken dry, vegetable mousse (?) was non-descript, and so forth. We have so many new staff after Sydney and it shows as they haven’t gotten into the groove yet. You often have to ask several times for your drinks and getting refills if it’s not coffee, may never com about.
Breakfast and lunch are open seating so we don’t join our usual wait staff. Rod is still with us for dinner with a new assistant, Roy. They have their act together and are delightful.
AUSTRALIAN FOLKLORE: Our reef pilot continues to amaze us. He used a famous Australian poem as the structure for discussing Aussie folklore. There is a drawing on the Australian $10 bill that he explained via this drawing. Apparently there were two movies made about this poem by A. B. Patson (I think—I didn’t take notes; could be Patterson) titled something about the Snowy Road.
He donned an outback hat and vest and proceeded to recite this very long poem entirely by heart with emphases in all the right places. After this, he went through the words to explain those that may not make sense to non-Aussies. This all was used as a method of explaining Australian culture (not the aboriginal: we’ll get that later). I can’t tell you everything that we did but at the end someone asked him to sing “Waltzing Matilda”. He said he would if someone else came up to sing it with him. Eric popped up, was handed a mike, and we all joined in. It turns out that Eric is in a barbershop quartet in Brisbane and he knew all the words!
I can’t convey to you how much we have enjoyed this reef pilot. What a charmer he is, and so unpredictable with so many unexpected things he does. As we were leaving, the couple who sailed for 6 yrs in a 50 ft boat, said: “Now you can see why we loved our 6 mos in Australia. These people are such fun!” We lose the reef pilot in Cairns tomorrow.
WATERCOLORS: Hank and Erna were asked to demonstrate and discuss watercoloring. They have established a presence on the 4th deck where they paint almost every day. Hank has been doing this for 77 yrs; Erna only a few. They paint very different subjects: Erna has only done tropical flowers, bright colors, simple, elegant. Hank does what I’ve called his “Goya” pallet: darker hues of green and brown, and blue. He is a prolific painter averaging one a day. About 10 people showed up to watch them work and to ask questions. I think they’ll have a following now and will need a larger space to accommodate others who want to learn to paint this way. One lady already does this when she’s home.
PHOTO CONTEST: I discussed with Ed submitting two pictures of animals from our Galapagos experience. I double checked and unlike we were told originally, each passenger can submit one photo for each period of the contest. The topics for this section are Animals, Landscapes, Seascapes. It’s hard to choose! We finally settled on a baby and mother sea lion for Ed’s entry, and the sally light-foot crab that I posted on the blog earlier.
This section ends March 15th and it may be a little premature to submit these but I wanted to pre-empt anyone who went to the Galapagos from submitting a photo similar to the ones we are putting in. The video from the Galapagos has some footage of the colorful Sally light-foot crab so that might be a problem even though these are photos. I suspect there’ll be a great selection of photos for this section; many of these passengers have some Big Time camera equipment so it’s uncertain what chances the little guy or gal will have. The winning photos are based on votes submitted by the passengers. No names or cabin numbers are revealed; each photo has a number and that’s all.
The woman who won this time got a terrific camera from Olympus. Her winning photo was a close up of an aged woman with a turban like wrap around her head. She was also edentulous and was not smiling. She will not be allowed to submit another entry in the contests; at the end, all the winning photos will be judged by a representative from Olympus and the final winner will get a very expensive Olympus camera.
The second place photo this time was a little boy about 2 yrs old chasing pigeons in a plaza in Lima. There were many very colorful pictures; I was glad I didn’t have to be a judge.
WEATHER: Has been all around the block today. We’ve had frank rain, overcast, sunshine…you name it. And it’s 80 degrees and very humid.
PARTY POOPER: I asked Ed if he wanted to go to trivia at 4:30 p. He said no. so how did he spend this time? Asleep with CNN on the television. I ask you: what’s wrong with this picture? Of course, I could have gone on by myself but I fixed the pictures to submit and typed this blog.
DINNER: Dave And Twyla, Ed and I again. It’s his birthday and we didn’t even know! The wait staff had a small cake which we all shared with vanilla ice cream. The staunch Republican I’ve often mentioned also celebrated a 58th b’day.
ART AUCTION: There was a display of art in the atrium with wine and snacks. The Captain was there. Speaking of which, there’s a lot of gossip around him and the Art lady, Nicole. I figure it’s their business whatever it is but some of the ladies (haven’t heard any men who were concerned) are upset by what they think is going on---no real facts you understand.
TONITE’S ENTERTAINMENT: It started off with a skit titled “G’day Mate!” where the dancers and singers were dressed up as things Australian such as Capt. Cook, a kangaroo, and such. This was followed by an Auzzie who plays a mean banjo. He was fun as well as being very talented. Val and Eric had seen him before and told us we were in for a treat. Some of the numbers were new to us Americans but we enjoyed them all the more.
This was followed by the male singer in the show’s staff who came out in an old Auzzie uniform and sang a long song about the Gallipoli battle. It was so beautifully done: clear diction, notes held perfectly, just the right demeanor. It was all new to me as any of this Gallipoli info is, but it brought tears to my eyes: it was so moving.
PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT: This was being shown from 10 pm on. Much as I like it, I couldn’t do it because of the need to get up early tomorrow. Boo Hoo.