In early November we did a short cruise to complete our year celebrating Dad's 80th birthday. Mum and I took him on a cruise up the Queensland coast from Brisbane to Cairns. Since we have visited all of the places the ship called at we didn't need to go ashore at all. The ship was "Quantum of the Seas", the largest ship we have sailed on. The usual crew of Scruffy, Milkshake and Blue tagged along. The weather did not do the right thing, it was cloudy, windy and wet the whole cruise. However, I had the big ship to explore and the ocean to scan from the balcony, searching for whales and flying fish. First stop was at Shute Harbour in the Whitsunday Island group. Transport from ship to shore was by the ship's boats and some local fast catamarans. The Whitsundays are mostly uninhabited except for campers but there are a few resort islands. The one in image 6 is Daydream Island. We visited it a few times some decades ago. In the meantime it has been destroyed by a cyclone, rebuilt and is now owned by a Chinese company. On the way back from Cairns we went past Willis Island, the only inhabited island in the Coral Sea. It's a low coral cay with a weather station on it. Plus a gannet colony; gannets followed the ship most of the day. Inside the ship was very like all other Royal Caribbean ships we have been on. One of things that I liked was a restaurant called Wonderland. It had a huge finger pointing to the entrance and a huge chair outside. The food is spectacular; try it if you get the chance. There was another huge chair near the Pub and a huge red bear near the walking/running track. Outside another great restaurant, Jamie's, is a huge crystal artwork. And there are lots of small statues just the right size for a small bear to ride. The shows are spectacular, the image shows a wall of drummers/acrobats. One fun thing is a robot bar - dial in your mix and the robots make your drink. Mum made a good one, Dad made an almost drinkable experiment... The great thing is now that I am over 21, I can legally drink alcohol even on American ships, no need to sneak some of the Oldies' booze. A good cruise, but I have to admit that I prefer the smaller ships.
Labels: boats, cruising, Queensland
The Canberra weather has been cold and wet so we haven't been at the zoo for a while, but yesterday we made a special visit to see and photograph two of the new baby animals. My favourite critters are giraffes and zebras and new ones of both were born in the last month. The new giraffe, called Mkali (Swahili for Bright) is already standing proud and acting like she owns the enclosure. The parents are keeping a close eye on her. The zebra herd also has a new member, Ndefu (Long) just three weeks old. Mother zebra is keeping him close and not letting other members of the herd get close enough to bother him. If you look closely at the last image you will spot the latest member of the herd, yes, visiting small bears can join.
Labels: animals, Canberra, zoo
