Thursday, March 9th, 2023 Queen Victoria, Darwin, Australia
Updated: Jul 1, 2023
We’ve had three sea days since leaving Cairns last Sunday and during that time we’ve rounded the very top of Australia and turned west for Darwin. We attended a couple of lectures by Sir Peter Cosgrove, the former Governor General of Australia – a position that is the Queen’s representative in the country. Sir Peter is from Australia and after a successful career in the Army he was selected as Governor General – he had many great stories to tell and was a very good speaker. Yesterday the ship diverted south to enable a coast guard helicopter to airlift a sick passenger – it was quite dramatic and the third such event for us on this trip. The weather has turned very warm and very humid; 87F, 85% and this makes for very uncomfortable exploring a shore. Today we took a ship’s tour to the Northern Territories Wildlife Park, about a 45-minute coach ride south of Darwin. The locals refer to this are as “The Top End” and the port of Darwin sits in a gigantic natural harbor offering excellent sheltered anchorage for ships. Darwin seems to exist to support the import and export of goods to and from Asian countries further to the north. During World War two Darwin was quite heavily bombed by the Japanese in attempt to break the supply chain for American and Allied forces. We passed the entrance to several tunnels that were created during the war to store precious bunker oil and now serve as tourist attractions. The town has a quite modern center with nice roads and several high-rise buildings. The Northern Territories Wildlife Park is a government run facility set up to preserve the native animals and educate the public – kind of like an open-plan zoo. From the main building, several open sided buses (though they refer to them as trains) run on regular schedules around the paved roads that wind their way through the park. The trains stop at the major attractions and passengers can decide to get off and explore the area and then wait for the next train to come along. We viewed the nocturnal facility (inside, dark but airconditioned), the water buffaloes and the wild bird area. The nocturnal rooms were a bit disappointing as all of the animals were behind glass and often the glass was steamed up or dirty. The water buffaloes were very tame and, at the rattle of carrots in a metal bucket, came over the fence to be hand fed – it was a bit staged and not what we really expected. The bird display, although again a bit of theater, was very well done. Amongst others, we saw a barn owl, osprey, emu, parrots, and an amazing bird of prey that picked up a rock in its beak to crack open a large egg. By this time we were about to pass out from the heat and humidity, both of us were soaked in sweat and could hardly see for the sweat dripping down our faces. Of course we’d forgotten to buy some water at the main building before we boarded the train – a cardinal sin in the tropics. So we decided to head back to pick up some water before continuing our exploration. We walked back up to the road and joined about 6 other visitors to wait for the next train to come along. There was a little bit of shade and a couple of bench seats, but no breeze – and so we began to slowly dehydrate as we waited and waited. Finally after about 35 minutes the train came along, l must have looked like a big prune by the time I boarded. Back at the main building there was a small airconditioned café and gift shop. We quickly drained a bottle of water each and selected an ice cream bar from the huge selection in the freezer – this combination seemed to bring us back from the brink. By now there was no time to go back out into the park before our coach left for Darwin, again a bit disappointing. We’d expected to see Kangaroos and Koalas, but the park had neither, in fact we learned that the former doesn’t do well in tropical climates – they mostly populate the interior of the country (when we booked this trip many months ago, I could have sworn the information said we’d see kangaroos). We did see a wallaby, basically a small sized kangaroo, in the nocturnal facility, and we would have seen then out and about if we’d had more time. Just before leaving, a couple of the employees brought out a black headed python, a big lizard, and a baby wallaby – and visitors could get close for pictures. The coach dropped is Darwin to do a bit of shopping as we had a couple of hours before the ship would depart. The shopping center of Darwin reminded me of the UK in the 1960’s; there was one central main street that had been pedestrianized, and the shops on either side had overhanging permanent awning-type structures to provide a bit of shade or protection from the rain. By the way, they measure their annual rainfall in Metres in this part of the world – receiving between 1.5 and 2M per year on average. The central shopping area was not covered and therefore not airconditioned, however all of the shops were cooled and so we’d periodically pop into a shop to cool off. We wandered a bit, had a coffee, and then took the shuttle bus back to the ship. Later that night we attended a six course “Chef’s Tasting Menu” dinner in the alternative dining area of the ship – offered at a $25 per person additional charge. Unfortunately most of the courses were not to our liking; from under cooked lobster to oily barramundi and fillet of beef that was on the rare side and smothered in a mushroom sauce (we don’t like mushrooms) – we were not impressed. The table-side prepared Crepe Suzette, with dramatic leaping flames was passable though I thought it had too much orange rind. Even though Sandra and I were disappointed our 4 table mates all raved about the meal.
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