RachelG

July 24, 2024–Ashmore Reef, Australia

Ashmore Reef is very remote, so even with sailing all night we didn’t arrive until after 9 am.  We slept well, best thus far of the cruise.  When we awoke, it was already brightly sunny.  Forecast was for temperature in the 80s.  There was a light breeze.

Since we had lots of time, we decided to give the restaurant a go for breakfast.  I had my usual yogurt, but you can order fresh strawberries, so I added that.  George had delicious blueberry pancake and a waffle with strawberries and cream.  Great breakfast!

When we arrived at the reef, we had to anchor quite a ways off as this is a protected area.  We could see the graduations in color of the sea, from a deep navy to the lightest aqua blue, depending on depth.  There are 3 small islands, and you are not allowed to land on any of them.  Only one are you allowed to approach closely.

Our zodiac was first group out.  It was quite a long ride to the island with a bit of a swell, but we stayed dry.  Once near the island, we were greeted by literally thousands of birds of all different species.  There were brown and red footed boobies, frigate birds, a very rare white bird which is endangered but I can’t remember the :name, some gulls, and a bunch more.  Occasionally one would try to dive bomb us or zoom right past our heads.  Then the sea turtles appeared, and there were lots, but impossible to get a good picture of those.  We also saw some stingrays, but again, good pictures are difficult.

After an hour and a half, we came back to the ship, having a bit of a race with another of the zodiacs.  Since breakfast was so good, we decided to give the main dining room a go for lunch as well.  Again delicious, and they figured out how George likes to make his own iced tea and brought all the ingredients.  I had a Niçoise salad which was quite nice followed by a quinoa cake (sort of a veggie burger without the bun). George had some hummus and pita followed by a delicious looking fettuccine dish with tomatoes.  This is definitely the place to eat if you aren’t in a hurry.

I walked upon deck to finish out my steps while George went to the gym.  He is still mad about the no snorkeling thing.   We went down to the expedition desk this am to complain.  First they said that it was because there wasn’t enough time here (we were here from 9:30 to 4:00–more than enough time).  Then they said “well, we would have to do a briefing and a sign up sheet and issue equipment.”  So??  I can’t imagine with the demographic on this cruise that there would be more than a dozen or so that would want to do it.  Basically they just didn’t want to bother.  We pointed out that we knew it had been offered the previous cruise in June as we had friends on that and had seen their pictures, so they couldn’t tell us it wasn’t ever offered.

We came in third at trivia today, having recruited 2 Aussies for our team.  We missed a couple that we should have gotten (should not second guess ourselves).

The Venetian society reception and dinner was tonight.  We had the 3rd highest number of nights.  There are only 80 Venetian sailors onboard, a lot of newbies, which you can tell.

We had dinner in La Terrazza with the assistant expedition leader, Ben, a very interesting fellow from Belgium who now lives in New Zealand.  I had the pasta pesto which was great.  The seabass was over cooked, but I had plenty to eat.

Landing site 

On 7/22/2024 at 8:53 PM, Port Power said:

 

July 23, 2024–Vansittart Bay and Jar Island, Australia

For the first time this trip, my alarm woke me up.  It was bright and sunny, with a forecast high of 78F.  Perfect!

We were anchored in a bay with small islands all round.  Our morning excursion would be to an island where a US C-53 crashed during WWII.  We had a fairly short smooth zodiac ride to a flat island with a nice broad beach and a mud flat in the middle.

No dilly dallying getting out of the zodiac as there was a large saltwater crocodile patrolling nearby just off shore.  We scampered up a sand dune to a safe distance then hiked across the mud flat to see the old plane.  

The plane crash landed because it ran out of fuel.  It was supposed to be going fromPerth to Broome, but they had no navigator onboard and got lost.  The pilot saw the mudflat and made a belly landing.  No one was injured, and they were rescued a few days.

The body of the plane is still pretty much intact and in fairly good shape considering.  It was actually built in Wichita and Tulsa (George looked that up).  After we poked around the plane a bit, we were able to hike pretty much all over as long as we stayed away from the shoreline and away from some nesting birds.  We saw some nice sea shells, footprints of the feral cattle that live on the island, a large boab tree,  and another tree with an orange seed pod.

On the zodiac back to the ship, we saw a bunch of sea turtles really close up.  Impossible to get a good picture though.

We decided to give the pool grill another try for lunch.  They again brought me some weird flavored iced tea.  La Terrazza just brings normal tea, so not sure what the deal is.  I had a wonderful taboulleh salad which I remembered from a previous cruise while George had a hot dog that was massive.  He said it was good, but a one per cruise experience.  

The afternoon excursion was to Jar Island where some ancient rock art is found.  Nobody knows just how old it is as carbon dating doesn’t work on it.  But it is really old, somewhere between 17,000 and 40,000 years old.  It is amazingly well preserved in parts.

The landing was on another nice sandy beach.  We walked up a pretty s,path nice trail to the first gallery.  There were paintings of people, very stylized dancing, very elaborate costumes, on the rock walls.

The second gallery required a bit of a rock scramble and climb, so fewer people went to that one, though the guides were very helpful.  The paintings there were of more people and costumes, but also a snake and an echidna which is that little cute Australian hedgehog looking animal.

We went back to the beach, and the guides were nice enough to let George do some rock scrambling on his own while I beachcombed and found some pretty s hells and driftwood.  

The ride back to the ship was a little damp, so we had to shower and change before trivia.  The social hostess said we could now have 8 per team since she didn’t want to break up the already formed teams.  Very annoying.  We will have to find more people.  We did not place as we missed all the Australian questions.  We will have to find Aussies.

The sunset was spectacular, red all across the sky.  Recap and briefing —tomorrow is Ashmore Reef.  JP and Chris snorkeled here a month ago.  George had brought his new snorkeling gear with him looking forward to this as a highlight of the trip, and nothing was mentioned at all about any snorkeling.  He is really upset.  No one at the expedition desk to give any explanation tonight.

Our dinner in La Dame was delicious.  The food is excellent though very rich.  But everything perfectly prepared.

16 hours ago, Port Power said:

It’s amazing that there was any water falling at all at this time of year!  Lucky you.  Did you see Ospreys and an osprey nest?

We saw one osprey at a distance and an empty nest.

i tried to post a video f George getting wet at the falls , but it just froze everything up.

13 hours ago, Qaqortoq said:

Following as I will be boarding in August. Looking cooler so far than what I expected.

 

Who is the current Expedition Leader on board? Thank you.

it is definitely cooler than I expected it to be.  I have been wearing my windbreaker in the zodiacs.  The expedition leader is Skulk (not the correct spelling).  We have sailed a few times before with him and he is very capable.

The cruise to the falls

The falls  

July 22, 2024–Koolama Bay, Australia

A smooth night sailing, and we woke up at 5 am. Our group was the first departure at 7 am.  Our morning excursion was a zodiac cruise up King George River to reach King George Falls, which actually is a twin falls.  The ship has to drop anchor pretty far out in the bay, so the morning zodiac excursion would be 3 hours long.

It was bright and sunny with a nice breeze and temps in the low 70s.  The water was a beautiful pale blue.  The first part of the zodiac ride was fast, though open water until we reached the mouth of the river.  Going down the river, there were tall red rock formations which looked a bit like Lego construction projects.  Every so often, there were mangroves.  We spent some time meandering in and our of the groves and rocks. We saw a few birds but no crocodiles.  

Eventually we reached the falls, a big fast on on the left, and a small more misty one on the left.  Our driver maneuvered the zodiac up close, and those who wanted could get a shower.  George did it, but I declined as I hate cold water.

On the return, the water between the river and the ship had gotten really choppy as the wind had picked up a lot.  Soon water was pouring into the zodiac with every wave.  We were in no danger of sinking, but gallons of water came in, and everyone got soaked.  George was drenched.  I had my new waterproof jacket on, and everywhere it covered was dry, but my head and bottom half of body were soaked to the bone.  We got back to the ship just as the next group was going out.  We were dripping wet, and not just a few of those in line to go out turned around and stayed on the ship.  It truly is the wettest I have ever been on a zodiac ride, and I have been on a lot.

When we got back, I sent our wet clothes to the laundry and dried my shoes in the dryer in the self serve laundry.

Now another rant—George and I have over 150 days on Silversea.  I always have to work onboard, and logging into my account at work requires 2 factor authentication.  So I have to be able to use my iPad and my iPhone at the same time.  It has never been a problem ever, and wasn’t a problem the first 2 days of this cruise.  Starting yesterday, I was unable to log in because it wouldn’t allow me to have 2 devices attached to the wifi at the same time.  I tried using my personal hotspot to do it, as I have had to do that in some places in the past, but it wouldn’t load. So I had to pay an extra $30 to be able to run 2 devices.  Very nickel and dimey IMO.  If they changed the policy, fine, but why could I do it previously, even on this cruise, but can’t now.

Rant over.  Now a praise.  I love the new water bottles.  They are insulated and good quality with a lid that doesn’t leak.  They kept our water cool all day yesterday.

We had lunch out on the back deck of La Terrazza, and it was perfect.  Just the right temperature and very calm.  I made myself a big salad and had a piece of pizza.

The afternoon zodiac cruise was closer to the ship to a place called Tranquil Bay.  They warned us it would be wet and bumpy.  A lot of people canceled, so they only ended up sending out 3 zodiacs.

It was indeed tranquil.  Very quiet. We cruised along the coast, saw a few birds, but not much else.  The ride back to the ship was rough and bumpy to say the least, but not wet.

Back on board, we went to trivia.  We did decidedly better today coming in 3rd, but I noted that the 1st and 2nd place teams each had 7 players (limit is 6), and that they were the teams that were 1st and 2nd the previous day.  We pointed this out to the social hostess who runs it, and she says she will enforce the 6 player rule.  I know it’s just a game, but we would recruit another person if you are allowed 7.  

Dinner was in the main dining room.  It was a mixed bag.  Service was excellent.  My steak was perfectly cooked as was George’s tandoori chicken, but the bread pudding dessert was a total waste of calories, dry and tasteless.

Sorry about how weird my pics came out.  They certainly didn’t look like that when I posted them

Wildlife along the river

Big boab tree

Our wounded bus and the crime scene

July 21,2024-Wyndham, Australia 

We were able to sleep until 5:30 am, so improving.  The sun was just coming up.  We were in a bay with hills covered with dry scrub, boab trees and eucalyptus all around, just coming to a small quiet port that was clearly meant for commercial business.  Wyndham used to be a center for shipping cattle, but not so much now.  It is a very small town, less than 900 people.

It was still cool outside, but sunny and clear.  The temperature would change soon.  We went to breakfast at La Terraza. Too cool to eat outside.   We were on the second departure for the Ord River expedition so had time for a leisurely breakfast.

Aboard a nice bus, we drove through Wyndham, a sad town that has clearly seen better days.  Lots of boarded up vacant buildings and run down houses.  

We were about 20 minutes out of town when we were ATTACKED!  There was a loud popping noise, the bus shuttered, and one of the windows toward the middle of the bus shattered.  I thought we had been shot at or had hit a large animal at first.  The driver quickly pulled over, and George was out the door in seconds while I went to attend to the injured.

Turns out, a delinquent had thrown a large rock, hitting the window of the bus.  He was on a bike but abandoned that to try and run away in the bush, but George and some guys in a vehicle behind us had him cornered, and the police arrived almost immediately and arrested him.

There were a few people with glass cuts, but thankfully all superficial. The rep from the ship had a pretty good first aid kit, and no one required stitches, so I was able to bandage with Steristrips and bandaids.

Three people wanted to return to the ship, so another bus arrived to take them back while yet another bus was sent to pick us up.  We ended up about an hour and a half behind schedule, so had to skip a visit a homestead and go directly to lunch.

On the way, we crossed over a large dam and through the town of Konanarra, which is clearly a much more prosperous town than Wyndham with lots of motels, a golf course, and many businesses which seem to be doing good trade.

Lunch was at a campground/RV park/motel complex with a nice outdoor restaurant and bar.  Lunch was a buffet but very good with excellent roast beef and chicken and a wide assortment of salads.  Everyone received a drinks voucher for one drink, and you could buy more if you wanted.  

We then took a short bus drive to the dam where we boarded a large flat but fast boat for our Ord River tour.  The river was pretty narrow and fast flowing at first but then widened out.  The vegetation near the river was lush.  We saw many fresh water crocodiles, eagles, a stork, a lot of other smaller birds, a whole group of flying foxes, and 3 rock wallabies (though they were asleep in a cave, and I could barely make them our without binoculars).  The scenery was jaw dropping, more spectacular than I could have imagined.  

We drove back to the ship where we were greeted with cold juice and a big welcome home sign. Recap and briefing featured a recap of our encounter.

Dinner in the main dining room was actually really good.  George had a Caesar salad and I had a avocado and shrimp salad, both good.  We both followed with penne pasta with a bolognese sauce which was very nice and ended with vanilla panna cotta which was a small portion, but just right.

July 20, 2024–at sea heading for Wyndham, Australia 

Sailing was as smooth as can be, but we were up at 3 am, partly due to setting the clocks back an hour and a half, and partly due to a flood of text messages on George’s phone. His colleagues apparently don’t understand time zones.  I tried to sleep through it, but it was impossible.  So I did some work online and read a bunch of emails about cyber security from my office.

Seaday today.  We went to breakfast in La Terraza, and it was by far the best meal thus far.  Buffet has good variety,and you can get cooked to order eggs as well.  I had some good thick crispy bacon, very tasty watermelon, and probably one of the best Greek yogurts ever.  Sadly missing was any type of berry.  I know it isn’t the right season here.  George ordered his big pot of water with 3 teabags and a big glass of ice, with a sliced up lemon, and the waiter knew immediately what he was doing.  He said “oh, you are making iced tea.”  All components arrived rapidly.

It was nice and sunny with a breeze and temperature in the 70’s, so I went for a post breakfast walk about on the track up on the top deck.  I was quickly reminded just how small this ship is—lots of laps required.

A couple of notes on the ship.  They have gone to the large containers of shampoo,shower gel,  etc. it is a brand I have never heard of, and the lotion is terrible.

Also no Perrier , pelligrino, or even club soda.  They tell you that the Vero fizzy water is the same.  That is a lie.  We can tell the difference 

There was a mandatory zodiac briefing at 10:15.  Looking around, I was skeptical that some of the passengers would be able to get in a zodiac at all.  The seamen who help you get in will have a test of strength.

Lunch in La Terraza was better.  I made a nice salad and had a piece of pizza.  We had a lazy afternoon watching movies then went to trivia.  The questions were really difficult, very Aussie centric, which is a weakness in my knowledge.  Recap and briefing immediately followed then the captain’s welcome.

We had dinner reservations at the Grill (night time version of the pool grill) so that George didn’t have to dress up.  They now give you the option of cooking your own, or the chef will do it for you.  We chose the chef.  I started with Caesar salad which was better than yesterday’s.  George had a pasta salad .    I had the lamb chops which were great.  George’s steak was perfectly cooked, but the qualities of the meat was poor.  I think the chef did the best he could with what he had.

July 19, 2024–Darwin, Australia and embarkation 

Our flight from Sydney to Darwin was uneventful. The business class seating is pretty much like domestic F on AA, but the seats were very comfortable with headrest and good recline.  They gave us pillows and blankets, which were handy as George was still hypothermic.  Dinner was just ok, not to my taste, but I wasn’t that hungry as we had had some excellent veggie chowder in the Qantas Club.  I was actually able to sleep for 2 hours.

The Darwin airport was surprisingly lively for 1 am with shops and bars still open.  We took a taxi to the Hilton, the hotel that Silversea is using this cruise.  They were able to take George’s Hilton number and gave us a room upgrade and assured us that he would get points for the stay even though it was booked by Silversea.

Our room on the executive floor was comfortable though totally lacking in USB ports, a problem as I had forgotten to bring my converter collection.  We had to have bags out by 7 am, so we quickly rearranged and put out the large bags.  We were finally in bed by 2 am.

We woke up at 7:30 am as George’s phone was ringing.  Calls from the states.  Ugh.  Breakfast buffet was adequate.  They had good yogurt, lots of breads, a make it yourself pancake machine which my grandson would have loved, and omelettes and eggs made to order.  Bacon was the British type, basically sliced ham.  We saw several friends who are on the trip, which was great.  Some we hadn’t seen since pre covid.

For the morning, I wanted to go to the Royal Flying Doctor Service museum.  I had only become aware this even existed a few months ago as there was a fictional series on PBS about it—very well done medically, BTW.  I had looked at a map online to see where it was, but by this time, all our electronics were dead.  So I had to go on memory.

We made it there, a good walk.  Temperature was perfect, in the low 70s with a breeze. The museum is on the dock,  and the Cloud was right beside.  The museum also has a large exhibit about the bombing of Darwin in WWII which was very educational and well done, something I did know a lot about previously.  George was more interested in that, while I enjoyed looking at the medical stuff.  No pictures as phone was dead.

Walking back, some aborigines engaged George in conversation as they loved his cowboy hat, and of course, he will talk to anyone.

We fetched our hand bags from the room and killed time in the exec lounge until time for the bus to the ship at 12:45.  It was a short ride to the cruise terminal in a brand new very nice bus, with new bus smell still intact.

Boarding was fairly quick, and soon we were up at the pool grill.  Lunch was a total miss.  First I ordered iced tea.  They brought me some sort of nasty herbal concoction.  I asked for real iced tea, and they brought decent iced tea, but why did they bring the weird stuff first?  George ordered a Caesar salad which had the most anemic romaine I have ever seen.  Then they brought my tomato mozzarella and arugula wrap, which I thought would be fresh and cold.  It was cooked and limp.  My onion rings were just mainly batter and grease with no detectable onion. And George’s Reuben was lacking thousand island dressing, which I thought was an integral part of a Reuben.  He asked for some, and the waiter said they didn’t have any.

Hate to be a complainer, but it was bad.  If this continues, I won’t have to worry about gaining weight on the cruise.

Suites were ready at 2.  Our luggage was already inside, so we unpacked in time for muster drill at 3 which was pretty efficient.  Sailaway at 4.  TV and wifi not working.  George is frustrated.  Turned out it is a global thing, but he is still unhappy.

The briefing overviewed the cruise.  I was astounded at how many of the passengers had never done n expedition cruise before, over 75%.  Should be interesting.

We had dinner in La Terrazza, again underwhelming.  The tomatoes had clearly never seen sun in their short lives.  The antipasti that they bring out seemed that it had been prepared hours earlier, total waste of calories.  My pork and George’s beef were both tough.  Expectations for food on this trip are dropping rapidly.

6 hours ago, DavyWavey70 said:

Was that Echo point Rachel? I was there in January. Such a beautiful place. 

Good eye, you are correct!

Our steep trail

Cockatoos and frozen George beside a termite mound

The beautiful Blue Mountains 

Tiny baby joey 

My pet koala    

July 18, 2024–Sydney and the Blue Mountains, then on to Darwin, Australia

We had a good sleep until 3:30am when George’s phone rang.  I had silenced mine, but he is in the middle of a huge case and needed to be available.  Neither of us could go back to sleep, but we had gotten a good 7 hours as we had gone to bed early.  Not bad for first night.  We both worked for a while, then ate breakfast in the lounge.  I love that they have salad and smashed avocado.

The schedule to called for hiking in the Blue Mountains followed by an evening flight to Darwin.  It would be a long day.  To maximize our time, I had hired a private guide/driver.

Our driver picked us up promptly at 7:30 in a lovely van with plenty of room for our luggage, including the taped together suitcase.  We drove out of Sydney to our first stop, Calmsley Hill Farm.  This is a real working farm of 400 acres, just outside the city.  We saw several interesting birds in the aviary, emus, kangaroos and wallabies.  They also had the usual farm animals—goats, sheep, cows, donkeys, chickens and turkeys.  Plus a camel.  But the highlights for me were the koalas, a wombat, and a tiny kangaroo Joey which had been rejected by its mom.  I got to pet and interact with the koala for a really long time, not that they are that interactive.  He seemed pretty bored me, but he had nice fur.  The wombat was in her log, but she woke up and came out to sniff us.  The Joey lives in a makeshift pouch which they have placed in a sunny spot , so he is nice and warm.  He was just adorable.

We then set off to the Blue Mountain National Park.  First stop was Lincoln Point, a overlook where we could view the steep canyons and verdant forest of pine and eucalyptus.  It was really windy and cold, and there was a wedding going on.  George says I attract weddings in weird settings.  All I can say is that I am happy not to be the bride in this one.  She had a cute fur jacket on, but must have been freezing.

Our guide and George happened to be the exact same size, lucky for George as our guide loaned him a jacket.  We then drove to EchoPoint, another overlook, where you can view the Three Sisters, a huge rock formation that is very impressive and apparently one of the iconic features of the park.  There were lots of tourists here,including some particularly rude Asians who wouldn’t let anyone else have a chance to get a good photo.  

Next stop was Katoomba Falls.  Much fewer people there was it required actual physical effort to get to the falls, and they were impressive, but my favorite part was the flocks of cockatoo which were wild .  They are beautiful large white birds with a yellow topknot and very noisy.

It was time for lunch, so our guide drove us to the start of the Cliff Top Trail, which is a very steep trail that hugs the edge of the canyon.  He gave us lunch boxes and set us off in the right direction where he promised to meet us in 1 1/2 hours.  The first part of the trail was deceiving, pretty flat with the drop off on one side and eucalyptus forest all round.  Soon though, it got very steep.  We were huffing and puffing for a bit, so took a lunch break.  Refreshed, we pushed on.  The views to our right were spectacular with hi cliffs and waterfalls rivaling anything I have ever seen.  Not a lot of wildlife though, apparently due to the devastating fires they had a few years back.

Finally we arrived at the car pack, and our driver was there was promised. He decided to take a different route, so we drove through a more agricultural area with lots of cattle and sheep in the fertile looking fields.

Then we spotted a mob of kangaroos (yes, that is the correct term).  Probably 20 of them, just hanging out eating the rancher’s grass.  Reminds me of deer in Oklahoma.

A little further, even more kangaroos, probably 30-40.  The cattle don’t seem the least bothered by them, but George was bothered that they were eating the pasture.

Final stop was the Blue Mountain Botanical Garden.  It is a beautiful property, but it was super cold,probably around 38F, and windy.  We walked around a little, but just too cold.

Our guide drove us back to the airport through dense traffic.  We are currently in the Qantas lounge awaiting the flight to Darwin.  All in all, a great day.  Not cheap, but you do get what you pay for most of the time.