UK/London Profile: Australia by Sea, Tops in World for 2016

From the London/UK Telegraph newspaper yesterday, they have this headline: "20 destinations you must visit in 2016". This includes tips, ideas and details for sailing in and around Australia.

Here are a few of the story highlights about this historic area: "Australia – which has more than 16,000 miles of coast – offers some world-class cruising experiences. Let’s be honest: who wouldn’t want to arrive by way of Sydney harbour? Sydney is just the start. Queensland’s coast and islands (including the Ribbon reefs and Lizard Island) and the southern cities of Adelaide and Hobart (in Tasmania) are all on the cruising map. Australia is also a springboard for Asia, the Pacific and New Zealand. A number of itineraries, for example, include the Indonesian islands of Bali, Lombok and Komodo. For those who are time-stretched, or travelling with family, a cruise is certainly a practical option. Royal Caribbean is deploying its new, 5,000-passenger Ovation of the Seas Down Under next year".

Lots of great memories from when we visited Australia, did stops near the Great Barrier Reef (including Lizard Island), Kangaroo Island, Sydney, Tasmania, etc. Below are a few of my visual highlights for what we saw, experienced and loved most in Australia. More on this link:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

Full news/travel story on top places for 2016 is at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/12063983/20-destinations-you-must-visit-in-2016.html

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Did a June 7-19, 2011, cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Dozens of nice visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc. We are now at 207,539 views for this live/blog re-cap, including much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

From Port Arthur, the historic Tasmanian penal colony seen during our stop in Hobart, here is just one of the many views for some of the sights there. This gives an overview for a portion of this prison site. This location was nearby to the water area as the prisoners would arrive from England for this “visit”. It took six to nine months to make the journey from England to this distant part of the world.:

With Craig Wickham, the operator of Exceptional Kangaroo Island on this famed Australian island near Adelaide, he took us on a "hunt", successfully, to find more Koalas out in the wild. Here is just one example of these Koala finds that we enjoyed so much. Aren't they cute? So lovable?:

From amazing Kangaroo Island, 70 miles south of Adelaide in South Australia, here is a picture of two kangaroos doing what they do best on the open plains of this island while we observed at a distance.:

The Kuranda Scenic Rail trip took us back to Cairns along a dramatic routing, plus interesting sights, dramatic waterfalls, major engineering work, many train tunnels, big bridges, etc. The rail line dates back to 1891. For our group of six, we did the upgrade to the "gold" rail seating with plenty of wine, nice food/snacks, etc., in a wonderful, old-style rail car with great service and attention by the staff The great company and nice sights (plus the flowing wine), made it very much fun on a day with on and off patches of rain.:

For the Great Barrier Reef, we chartered a plane and flew out from Cairns to Lizard Island, one of the most isolated locations in Australia. Chief Pilot Greg has done about 2200 trips to this location and really knows it well. Here we are on the beach getting his briefing for snorkeling in these reef areas right off of this location/beach. Yes, we saw real lizards here when we walked from the landing strip to our beach location. Captain Cook named this island because when he landed, he saw so many lizards!! Had a wonderful lunch on the beach. On the way to Lizard Island, we flew our over the edge of the reef to better understand this amazing 1500-mile long natural wonder, how it works, etc.:

We got great views of the harbor and shoreline areas on a Captain Cook harbor tour in Sydney. We also enjoyed seeing the Rocks historic area with a shopping/market day. This water cruising worked well for seeing the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from different angles, beach scene with its nice bathhouse building, seeing Luna Park on the other side of the Harbour Bridge, etc. It was a fun narration done on this ship, pointing out celebrity homes, learning historic details, etc.: