Monday 2^nd March – Day at Sea.

During our time on this ship we’ve discovered that everything costs extra – even photos – so we weren’t surprised when an advert appeared in the daily programme saying that a “crossing the line” certificate will be available to purchase from the photo gallery. But – guess what? Apparently there were so many complaints received that we all got one for nothing! People power or what!

Another busy day – we went to a lecture on the first convicts arriving in Botany Bay by Colonial Historian Evelyn Evans. We have to say that neither her style nor her content were as good as Helen’s.

Nesta watched a show by the classical guitar duo (Duo Diez) and then went to a “scrapbook workshop”! Ian could hardly contain his excitement – but in the end decided to give both of these a miss!

In the evening we went to the pre-dinner show to hear the final rendition by the “voice of Portishead” Benjamin Makisi and during dinner we drank the last (honest) bottle of Mullygrubber on board.

Tomorrow is Australia – which is exciting - but it is also where we say goodbye to the Captain and Deputy Captain – which is disappointing.

 

Tuesday 3^rd March – Darwin.

We docked safely and caught the shuttle bus into the centre (not far!) There we bought “hop on hop off” bus tickets and did the whole tour (about an hour and a half) before getting off at the waterfront precinct. Here we had a cup of coffee and admired their new wave pool. We discovered later that this was where most of the crew, who were allowed to go ashore, spent their time! (Swimming in the sea is not a good idea in these parts due to crocodiles and lethal jellyfish named “stingers”).

The weather was very humid with the occasional spot of rain (quite cooling) but we walked back into the centre (slowly!) where we both had a haircut, bought some more wine boxes and Nesta finally found some flip-flops (or thongs, as they are called here). They were reduced from $68 Aus. to $48 but when we got to the till $10 appeared (about £5) and the shop assistant honoured that…Even said she was going to get herself a pair!

We wandered a bit further – past the “Crocosaurus” stall where a man was holding a live crocodile (albeit a small one) for us to stroke! And then we cut across to join up again with the bus and got off at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territories.

It has some interesting aboriginal and local art and artefacts and also a display about Cyclone Tracey which destroyed 95% of Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. It included a dark sound booth which played an actual recording of what the cyclone sounded like. Difficult to explain - but two minutes of listening to a deep rumble and the screeching of metal was unpleasant – the cyclone lasted for three hours!

We then caught the bus back to the port and this time Nesta was ready with the camera when we came to the area where wallabies could be seen. She even managed to photograph some of them – but at rather a large distance unfortunately.

We really liked Darwin – as it is a small, clean, laid-back and interesting city with friendly locals – let’s hope it isn’t spoiled by the tourist trade!!

The sail away party got rained off again and the new captain spoke briefly over the tannoy to announce our departure – none of the character or humour of Capt. Wells unfortunately but at least he delayed departure until the rain stopped so we could all go out on deck to watch Darwin say goodbye to us. We went up to the observation deck on 11 to watch where Ian had the pleasure of talking to Ian La Frenais! (Well, I say talking – eventually when he had received monosyllabic answers to three comments, Ian decided to retreat as it was obvious that Ian La Frenais did not want to talk to him!!)

 

Monday 4^th March – Day at Sea.

We are now on GMT+10! Didn’t wake up until 9-30am – all this fresh air must be getting to us.

Nesta only just had time to bring Ian his morning tea before going to the 10am lecture “Where did Australia come from?” by Dr Brian Finlayson who specialises in geomorphology, speleology and environmental hydrology! (You can’t go wrong if you have an “ology”!) He is Australian but got his doctorate at Bristol University!

Ian made it in time for the 11am presentation by Capt. Dave Sanguinetti – who is our Great Barrier Reef pilot – on the make-up of the reef. All we can say is - we hope he’s a better pilot than he is a presenter!

After listening to the new captain’s midday navigational update (again he didn’t sound enthusiastic – merely gave out information) and finally found time to eat at 12-30pm.

This evening we are dining at the “Captain’s table” with the senior safety officer (more later) but this afternoon we had lunch at the next table to Captain Oprey and his wife! He didn’t speak or make eye-contact with anyone… bit of a change from Captain Wells!

In the afternoon Nesta wrote up the diary but ran out of “pritt stick”. The shop didn’t have any in stock – suggested we come back at 6pm but our schedule is tight today, we’re watching a film then – so eventually we went up to our world voyage concierge in the Atlantic Room and borrowed hers! (Must remember to give it back!)

The film – with Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith was very good and finished in time for us to get dolled up again for another Captain’s table. (Pippa must have taken us at our word when we told her that if she couldn’t find anyone who wanted to dine with an officer, Nesta would be happy to talk to anyone!)

The Safety Officer – Aureliano Mazzella – is the number three on board after the Captain and the Deputy Captain. He is from Rome, although lives just outside Banbury, so Nesta, of course, had to chat about the Costa Concordia! He was very easy to talk to and told us a few funny stories that have happened to him on board ship. He normally works on the Queen Victoria and is leaving us in 20 days’ time to re-join the Victoria in Sydney.

We learned from our last visit that the quicker you drink the wine the more often it is refilled! When the wine finally stopped being poured – and after a very nice meal – we left the restaurant and went to see comedian Adrian Walsh. He has made over 300 television appearances in the UK – but we’ve managed to miss every one of them! We’ve never heard of him and Nesta was not impressed - even though Ian did hear her laughing a few times.

Another day in Paradise (as Vladi would say)…