Queensland, Australia

Now that we crossed the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea, our number of continuous sea days has dropped. Where before we would have up to five sea days in a row, we now have one every now and then. So we don’t attend as many lectures or musical events. But recent lectures of note include three by Captain Vikram Hede – A Pilot’s Life on the Reef, Keeping the Reef “Great”, and Strait Facts. A captain in the Australian Reef Pilots and a licensed reef pilot, he works onboard with ship’s captains to navigate through the Great Barrier Reef, mitigating the risk of any potential environmental or ecological harm. Any ship over 70 meters (229.659’) must engage a reef pilot to navigate their way through the GBR. He joined us in Sydney and will be on board until we reach Thursday Island and the Torres Strait (due south of Papua New Guinea).

2/19/2023 - Mooloolaba
The Aboriginal name of this town means snapper fish and red-bellied snake. After dropping anchor offshore and taking the longest tender ride ever up the Mooloolah River to our drop-off point, we boarded a bus for a typical Viking “Scenic” tour. The bus tours can be a bit tedious, but we do get to see some things we’d otherwise miss. Our little tour took us inland a bit with a quick stop at “The Pineapple” -- Aussies are known for exceedingly large yard art. Then we drove on through the towns of Nambour (means “bottle brush”), home of many macadamia farms and pineapple fields, as well as Yandina, home of a ginger factory, which was started during WWII. Our 30-something female bus driver grew up in the area and provided a wealth of information, along with our German transplant guide, who only spoke German and Russian before arriving in Australia. We arrived in Noosa (meaning shade or shadows) in the middle of a busy Sunday. The Noosa Summer Swim Festival was underway, with 2,500 swimmers participating in 1K, 2K, and 3K open water swims. They brought along 5,000 supporters, so it was quite the happening place. Busy and fun with everyone having a great time. Even Mike took a swim and, like a native, wrapped himself in a towel and changed his clothes in public. Back on the bus, we rode down the beautiful coastline, through the town of Coolum Beach, home of the 600 ft Mount Coolum (would be fun to hike), and back to Mooloolaba (Moo-LOO-la-ba). There we watched the Queensland Youth Surf Life Saving Championships events going on – again, big doings and everyone was having a blast. We walked from one end of the beach to the other – about 8 miles in all, and even got shots of one of our tenders making the really long trip up the Mooloolah River. Back on board, we

celebrated Mary’s 70th birthday with a cake & sparkling wine surprise from Viking followed by dinner with a few of our newfound friends – Ellen & Jim from Illinois (near St. Louis), Phyllis & Don from NC, and Suzanne & Phillip from a couple of hours west of Brisbane. Our other friends, Rich & Karen from Northern VA, were under the weather and unable to attend, but the rest of us had a great time using the “Captain’s Table” for this little get-together.

2/21/2023 – Airlie Beach
After cruising the Coral Sea for a day, we arrived at today’s destination – the jumping off point for the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. Since we had the opportunity to snorkel the GBR in 2016, we opted for a quiet shore day. The day was projected to be rainy, which it was, so we were glad for the walk around town. We dipped our toes in the town lagoon, which is a fresh water pool and free to all. Pools like this provide an environment that is completely

safe from stingers (jelly fish) and marine wildlife. One of the locals told us that the net set up at the town beach cannot keep out the tiny stingers, so no one ever swims at the beach. Our walk included the most beautifully decorated toilet facility we’ve ever seen – with live plants growing on the outside walls; a lot of public art, including the Australian manatee look-alike/twin, the dugong; and lots of trees, flowers, and birds.

2/22/2023 – Cairns
Taking another day off from participating in an organized excursion, and since we did almost every excursion possible here in 2016, we did our own thing, including the Cairns Aquarium. The ocean swim-over tank scared the wits out of us. Among the dozens (hundreds?) of cool-looking critters we saw, the Freshwater Moray Eel, Red-Claw Crayfish (hint: it’s blue), Boyd’s Forest Dragon, Manta

Ray, Blue Spine Unicornfish, & a couple of unnamed “lizards” caught our fancy. Then, as we walked around town, we saw lots of birds, including the Bush Stone Curlew, Australian Plover, Magpie, Australian Pelican, Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo, & Lorikeets that swooped in at dusk as well as an interesting tree called a Sea Apple, from the rubber tree family. The fruit is extremely poisonous, which is why I guess the trees are full of them…. All of this was followed by a swim in the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon, a 5,200 square foot saltwater swimming lagoon – open year-round – and without stingers (jelly fish) and crocodiles to worry about! Relaxing with friends at an outdoor bar along the Esplanade, and dinner at an outdoor restaurant connected to an art gallery ended our long, 8-mile hike around town day in north Queensland. Oh, but wait. We had the best shopping day ever, with both of us getting new thongs. Say what?! You do know that in Australia, flip-flops are called thongs, don't you!? Whew (you are saying quietly to yourselves as you read this).

2/24/2023 – Thursday Island, Torres Strait
Our ship completed its journey through the Coral Sea and we entered the Torres Strait early in the morning. You may remember the Torres Strait from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as this is where the Nautilus was stranded. We feel privileged to be able to visit here, as only 1% of Australians ever visit the Torres Strait. After making our way down to Thursday Island, the ship dropped anchor and we tendered to shore. TI is the Australian administrative center for the Torres Strait islands. As in French Polynesia, all of the children come to TI from neighboring islands to attend high school. Unfortunately, it started raining right after we arrived, but we carried on with a bit of a hike on the south side of the island. Just as we were making our way back along the main shopping street to circumnavigate the 1.35 square mile island, we were summoned back to the tender to re-board the ship. We were disappointed to not be

able to visit the four pubs or five churches on the island, but we did make a slight detour to Mona’s Gift Shop to purchase a little Thursday Island bling. It turns out that the weather was getting a bit squally and the captain determined it was a safety issue. The ride back on the tender was quite an exciting ride, with waves of up to 8’ (our best guess) and water flying over the top of the tender. We understand a few people got a bit green, but these two crusty old salts just enjoyed the ride. The highlight of the day was watching our Reef Captain “transfer” (that means leap) from the Viking Neptune to the Reef Pilot boat that took him over to Boobie Island, the HQ for the Reef Pilots. The ship and boat don’t stop. The boat just comes along side and the suitcase and pilot hop off/hop on. Esow (goodbye) and Kapu Yawo (thank you) to Capt. Hede for successfully piloting us through the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait. It was an amazing journey.