February 16, 2023 - Sydney - Day 1

For anyone posting comments on the blog, they come to us as “anonymous”. Please add at least your name and maybe email, and I may be able to respond. THANKS!

 

Wednesday, February 16, 2023 – Sydney – Day 1 

A beautiful sail-in this morning to Sydney Harbor. Sailing between the two main headlands was done before the sun was up, but still dramatic.

North Head

A suburb of Sydney

Harbor Bridge

An interesting waterside neighborhood

 

Passing under Harbor Bridge

 

We are off this morning on an all-day tour that was negotiated for us by Andy Patterson. He was supposed to be with us but had to cancel his cruise due to family health issues. There were 37 of us that had signed up for this tour. We had two vans and two driver-guides. We were part of a group of 17 and had “Adam” as our guide. We were laughing with him before the van pulled away from the cruise dock. We had become “The Adam’s Family” complete with the jingle. 

We immediately headed for the hills to the west of Sydney. Adam was quite knowledgeable and was pleased to share as much of his knowledge as he could. A while into the tour, we pulled off the highway for a comfort stop and about 15 minutes of wandering among the shops of a quaint little town. Back in the van and we headed to our first scenic outlook of the 3 Sisters and Jamison Valley. While we were taking in those sites, Adam purchased our tickets for “Scenic World”.

3 Sister Rock Formation

Jamison Valley

 

Scenic World is a sort of amusement park. There are 3 “rides” and a Scenic Walkway. All turned out to be extremely worthwhile. We first took their Skyway which gave unobstructed views over the Jamison Valley and a very dramatic view of Katoomba Falls. Once off the Skyway at the top of the cliff, we headed for our next experience which was a Scenic Railway that drops you from the top of the cliff down into the Jamison Valley at a 52-degree angle. The steepest railway in the world. The ceiling of the railcar is glass, and you have an amazing view of the forest around you. Once off the railcar (the ride didn’t last nearly long enough for us) we headed out on a series of wooden walkways that wind through the forest. 

Katoomba Falls

 

3 Sisters from the Skyway

View through the ceiling of the rail car

A fun ride down that didn't last long enough

Train heading up the hill after we got off

 

The trails had information plaques and Adam filled in a lot of details. One of the exhibits was in an area that used to be a coal mine. Now an exhibit area. Being in the forest made for a pleasant walk in the shade. It was a warm day and if we had been out in the sun, we would have been uncomfortable. After spending quite a bit of time with Adam in the forest, we went back up to the cliff top via a cable car that is canted so that the passengers all have a great view out over the Jamieson Valley. 

Stats for the rail car

 

What you can do at Scenic World

The cable car getting ready to go up

Anthracite Coal

A vein of coal. This area used to be a coal mine.

 

We all enjoyed our time at Scenic World immensely. By the time we finished up we were all ready for lunch. We headed to a nearby restaurant where our lunch had been pre-arranged. In our group there were 15 waigu hamburgers and 2 chicken schnitzel. The burgers looked quite good, and I thoroughly enjoyed the schnitzel.

 

 

 

The next viewpoint was a bit of a walk, but the view was well worth the hike.

Another view of the Jamison Valley

We headed back into Sydney with a stop at a zoo that has only Australian critters. Adam said it was an older zoo, but because it features only critters from Australia, the local guides rather liked it. We were given tickets and about an hour to explore on our own. Although it was fun to see numerous koalas and some kangaroos as well as many many birds, monitor lizards and even penguins, we were disappointed in the conditions. It was quite warm, and many animals had no shade available. The croc had only a few inches of water available.

 

These are the type of penguins that fellow passengers saw at Phillip Island.

We snapped a few photos of the lights of Sydney.

 A very enjoyable day.

Wednesday, February 15, 2023 - Eden

 For anyone posting comments on the blog, they come to us as “anonymous”. Please add at least your name and maybe email, and I may be able to respond. THANKS!

 

Wednesday, February 15, 2023 – Eden 

We are in the little town of Eden, Australia today. We are even able to dock here. So many of these smaller ports are tender ports for us. 

Today we are taking the “included” tour which is a 3-hour bus ride. We have been warned that we will be transported to 3 local villages by the local school bus drivers. They will drop us off and possibly a different driver will be picking us up at the appointed time. We wonder if we will be on school busses. 

As it turned out, the warning was not quite accurate. The busses are normal tour busses, so they have been constructed for adults, not children. Although we must note that “tour” busses are designed to be comfortable for someone that is about 6 feet tall but has very short legs. We also had a guide that would be with us part of the way and our driver was staying with us the entire time. 

Our first stop was at the local Whaling Museum. A very nicely done small museum about the days this port’s emphasis was on whaling. The whales they were after were mostly blue whales. There were also Orcas in the area that developed a symbiotic attachment to the whalers. The Orcas would drive a blue whale into the bay and harass it until it tired. Then the whalers would finish off the whale and leave it for the Orcas. The Orcas would eat only the lips and the tongue. When they were done, the whalers would pull the whale to the beach and harvest what they wanted. Everybody won except the blue whales. 

Next we headed for the nearby village of Pambula. As we were leaving Eden, we saw some kangaroos at a mobile home park just off the highway. The town of Pambula has a population of about 1,000, with little shops and eateries along its main street. We weren’t interested in shopping so found some coffee and an almond croissant, then headed back to the pick-up point. 

The next village on our tour was Merimbula. Merimbula is a little larger and is a very popular local tourist destination. We had learned in advance that oysters might be had in Merimbula. At the Tourist Office, we asked for instructions on where and were given very precise directions to a local seafood market. At dozen small oysters were $26 AUS, which turned out to be about $18 USD. The man in the market gave us a couple of lemon wedges and a couple of forks and suggested a picnic bench along the beach. It took us about 3 minutes to slurp those oysters. They are the first oysters we’ve had on this trip and thoroughly enjoyed them. 

Time to head back to the ship. As we exited the bus, we could hear fun music that seemed to be coming from the ship. As we got closer, many of the staff had gathered on the dock to welcome us home. There were 75-100 personnel from various departments having a blast dancing to the music and clapping for all the returning passengers. They were also passing out cocktails.

 

February 13, 2023 - Koala and the 12 Apostles

For anyone posting comments on the blog, they come to us as “anonymous”. Please add at least your name and maybe email, and I may be able to respond. THANKS!

 

February 13, 2023 – Koala and the 12 Apostles 

We were some of the first ones off the ship this morning. Geelong (pronounced jih-LONG) is a tender port, but it was a quick 10 minutes between the ship and shore. And the water in this bay is very smooth. We were handed packets of information on the area by the local tourism office as we headed for our busses. We have a guide and a driver today (in many ports that we have visited, the ranks for both drivers and guides have been severely reduced due to Covid and its aftermath. The numbers are down drastically, and, in many instances, our driver and our guide were one and the same person. They’ve actually done a remarkable job. 

We are headed west along the southern shore of Australia. The section of road we will be on is named “The Great Ocean Road”. It was built between 1919 and 1932 by soldiers returning from World War I. And the road is dedicated to the lives lost in that war. It is the largest war memorial in the world. This was back breaking work with picks and shovels. They were able to clear only about 3 kilometers a month just in getting ready to lay the road. The road follows the coastline for most of its route and is rather narrow and very windy. During a couple of sections, we cut through very dense forest thick with tree fern, eucalyptus, conifers, etc. 

We stopped for a “comfort stop” after a bit at a little café. Just up a driveway next to the café a koala was spotted in a tree, just off the road. He/she/it was much larger than we had anticipated. Probably a couple of feet in body length. We couldn’t see the face, but after a few minutes it did stand up on the branch it was sitting on and reached above it for more leaves. How cool is that? We saw a koala! In the wild! Not in a park! We picked up a coffee to share and back on the bus we continued on our way.

 

 

The koala is in the center of this picture and is just a grey fuzzy patch.

 

We stopped for lunch on our own in Apollo Bay. Our guide suggested the scallop pie at the Bakery. It took us a few minutes to find it but took the recommendation and got a scallop pie and a pasty. The scallop pie was really good. Fun Fact: we’ve been noticing that disposable utensils “down under” are made out of wood. They work quite well and we have been surprised at how well the knife cuts.

 

 

 

More fun facts: We noticed in Tasmania some cockatoos and parrots. On our drive today, we’ve seen LOTS of white cockatoos and our driver pointed out a flock of black cockatoos. I asked a local about the cockatoos. She said they are a major nuisance. In the wild they maintain their beak by sharpening it on wood. When they move into a residential area, they tend to use deck furniture, the deck wood and window and door frames. They can completely destroy deck furniture.

 

Once the cockatoos land in the trees, they seem to tuck their heads under. Several cockatoos were in this tree as well as a soccer ball.

Time to move on. We reached the parking area for the “12 Apostles” rock formations. They are sea stacks and quite striking. There are now 8 rather than 12 due to normal erosion. But when you study the limestone cliffs, there are more forming. Lots and lots of people taking photos and cute young girls taking glamor shot selfies. After about 45 minutes we were back on the bus and heading to another lookout. This one is at the western end of the 12 Apostles and is named Loch Ard Gorge. There is a part fact, part myth story for this gorge but an amazing setting with more rock formations in the limestone, including one named “razorback”.

 

 

 

It is time to head back but we’ll be taking a different route back to Geelong. Some of it is still pretty windy, but eventually we got to a major highway, then zipped right along, returning to the ship about 7:00 p.m. On the way back we cut through farmland. Lots of cattle – both dairy and beef. Lots and lots of sheep. Grass pastures that are being cut and bailed. Throughout the day we also noticed agapanthus growing everywhere. Although they come from Africa, they seem to be growing wild here.

 

Another day draws to a close.

Saturday, February 11, 2023 - Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

 For anyone posting comments on the blog, they come to us as “anonymous”. Please add at least your name and maybe email, and I may be able to respond. THANKS! 

Saturday, February 11, 2023 

Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 

We sailed up the Derwent River in the early morning to arrive at Hobart, Tasmania. Tasmania is a state in Australia. It was primarily settled by the British transporting ships of convicts to the mainland of Australia as well as the island of Tasmania. Hobart and the immediate surrounding communities have a population of around 200,000, the state of Tasmania has a population of ½ million. Farming, tourism and fine Marino wool are main products of the state. 85% of the land is owned by the government. The government has adopted a policy of no controlled burns. This makes the wild lands much more susceptible to fire, which of course impacts the privately owned lands as well. 

Our included tour for the day is a 3-hour drive around. The first stop on the tour is free time at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. We are allowed an hour to explore and one of the docents at the Gardens was passing out maps. It is a lovely setting looking out over Hobart and the River. Hobart itself is very clean. A comment was made during our tour that all the “industrial” aspects of the port had been moved to another nearby port. This leaves Hobart for cruise ships and local pleasure boats. There were a couple of ferries running as well.

Jacaranda Tree

Lily pond with ducks and a cool reflection

Acanthus

This and the next several are "Banksia" The flowers are probably 8" long.

This looks kind of like a palm but isn't. It might be related to the banana family, although it does not produce fruit.

Certainly attractive in the right setting.
 

 

 

We then drove across the river and up to an observation point. Not bad views, but you had to kind of look between the bushes. Back across the river and a nice drive up to another viewpoint. This one had a much better view. But it was also the site of a system of semaphore communications towers. Prior to phones and even telegraphs, there were teams of semaphore signalers that could pass messages over lengthy distances rather quickly.

Hobart from across the river.

Sailboats enjoying a day on the river. Part of the Wooden Boat Festival.

Port Arthur in the distance.

 Hobart from the Signal Station.

Viking is in middle just above the bushes.

 

 

Every Saturday there is a street fair in Hobart, and it is attended by people from all over. We were looking forward to wandering the market after our tour. The market is just a few blocks from our ship. Another event happening this weekend is the Australian Wooden Boat Festival which will bring about 20,000 visitors. The event areas for the boat show are ½ a block from our ship. Many of the boat show visitors were also at the street fair. Just a few more people than we wanted to deal with, and we had a 3:00 p.m. back on board. More importantly, we needed to find an ATM. We have a private tour scheduled in a few days that we agreed to pay for in Australian dollars on the day of the tour. 

The ATM took a bit of doing to find, but after a lot of walking, getting to explore the downtown area of Hobart, we found an ATM, got our cash, went across the street to a Woolworths where a cashier was nice enough to trade a couple of large bills for smaller denominations. Mission Accomplished. We walked back to the boat and strolled through a small portion of the boat show on the way. 

Once back on board, we went up to the Aquavit Terrace (Deck 7 Aft) to have a toddy while lines were cast off and we sailed toward tomorrows’ destination of Phillip Island near Melbourne. Phillip Island has a facility that studies the local penguins. They are the smallest variety of penguins. They come ashore on Phillip Island every evening at sunset (a few hundred to several thousand) to return to their burrows and chicks after a day of fishing. 

Viking has made arrangements to take all passengers wishing to observe this to the island. A minor drawback is that we will be at anchor, not at a dock. It is a 30-minute tender ride one way. The tenders will be starting at 5:30 p.m. and probably won’t be returning to the ship until 11:00 p.m. or later. We have a very long tour on Tuesday that we are really looking forward to, so have decided to not take in the penguins.