drron29

Looking forward to this report. Your last was excellent. But don't tell all on the CC Silversea board that you called the Duval-Leroy real champagne. That might start an argument.

Even in Australia in the 50s houses were built with outside dunnies and cans to be picked up by the local dunny truck. We mainly used the Sydney Morning Herald but I hated the news print. Fortunately my dad would always buy in bulk from the market so my preferred paper was the wrapper that always came with the apples. Nice and smooth.

Absolutely agree. Unfortunately most people only read what they believe. I read both right and left media locally plus a few international media outlets. I used to read Russia Today but now it’s outlawed here in Australia so I have substituted Al Jazzera. If you don’t know what you’re enemy is saying then you are in trouble.

A slippery slope. Getting a bit like USA air lines a little while ago. People pushing the envelope eventually led to the inevitable backlash. I remember waiting to enter an Admiral’s club and the fellow in front had a pig. The agent refused admission and the fellow went on a real rant that it was a service animal and he was allowed to take it on the plane. Yes sir you are allowed on the plane but this is a private club and the pig is not allowed.

Thanks for the great report and pictures. It brought back great memories of our first SS cruise on the PA 2 as it was then. A few differences as all the walrus had hauled out elsewhere but as compensation we did see 8 polar bears feeding on a whale carcass including a mother and cub.

Definitely 2 metres. I caught the fact that the phone wanted to change it to 2 minutes this time.

At Darwin airport now and noticed 2 people with a familiar sign. Here for the next Darwin to Broome cruise beginning tomorrow.

Sorry but in recent times the term waitlist after a cancelled cruise means wholesale changes a coming. I hope not so in this case but I wouldn't bet on it.

No problems if you don't want to use a zodiac. Best though to tell an Expedition staffer before hand as they may think they need to wait for you. They won't wait long though. As to being fit it is not a problem if you aren't. On our cruise up the west African coast on the Explorer a wheelchair bound woman in her nineties was taken ashore in a zodiac a couple of times. The staff really went out of their way to help. I have seen zodiacs returning to the ship in absolutely terrible conditions. Once it was I who was last to board. The weather turned quickly at Cape Dorset and I was in the last zodiac back. It was a ride of over 2 miles back to the Explorer. I was last off the boat. The 2 crew on the ship had hold of an arm each. As I stepped onto the ladder the zodiac dropped about 2 minutes and there I was swinging in the breeze. At that stage I weighed 110KG without all the cold weather gear. I didn't panic because I had seen similiar things before. Eventually the zodiac came back to me and very quickly I was onboard. Again I was not terribly fit but went on the hikes. On a couple of occasions I couldn't keep up. A staff member would drop back and we worked out a plan. Often returning the way I came.

She was and hopefully still is a great ship. Very stable in Rough seas. We went through 3 Force 12 Atlantic gales on her and she handled them beautifully.

Very sad. We sailed with him on a few occasions and did have dinner with him one night. A lovely person.

Another very good Darwin restaurant if you are there before or after your Kimberley cruise. We found this one when the Muse stopped here last November. Moorish. At our time in life we like the idea of tapas so we can enjoy a few flavours. So first the menu. We shared the scallops. Great. Spiced lamb strips. roasted pork belly. grilled half quail. NT barramundi with coconut and lime. (kokoda from Fiji or Ceviche.) Excellent. marinated Italian white anchovies. Really beautiful. I had Coopers Pale Ale - worth a try if you are in Australia and rojaan had her SB. She finished with her favourite dessert. Turkish delight ice cream with strawberries. It does come with a chocolate sauce but she much prefers it without that sauce. We were there for an early lunch.

Yes they did. We always book our own hotels and flights and usually turn up at 1pm and have always been able to check in. It was deliberate on our part this last time to see how early we could check in.

When we boarded the Muse in Bali recently we turned up a few minutes before noon. About a dozen others were there. We were told checkin opens at noon and right on the dot of noon we were all processed. On board very soon after

And to finish the day we have just experienced our hotel shaking from an earthquake in the Banda sea.

We are now in Darwin taking the long way to get to Hokkaido. We booked this about 8 months ago and the reason for coming via Darwin was very simple. There were no Business class redemptions on Singapore Airlines from Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne. I hadn't realised that Queensland School Holidays began 3 days ago. but I remembered SQ flies from Darwin to Singapore and they had business class awards available. Again on this holiday I had taken no notice of SS sailings so we leave Darwin a day before the Cloud arrives back from Broome. But as a few on this board may do a Kimberley cruise in the future I will report on our restaurant experiences. Tonight we dined on the Darwin Waterfront at Wharf One. We really enjoyed it. We began at 5pm as that is when happy hour started. We got a bottle of a Margaret river Sauvignon blanc at $7 off but with complimentary dips which were more than we figured on Hummus ,babaganoush and a sweet potato dip with Rosemary and maple syrup. Very nice. Then sharing some small plates. Best was rice pickled scallops with a ponzu glaze. Excellent. A very nice carpaccio. Citrus cured yellow fin tuna lovely. And finished with wood grilled baby octopus with balsamic viniagrette. Definitelt worth a visit.

But if it is a nearly sold out cruise it’s possible to find out on embarkation day. My sister and her husband joined us for our recent Muse Cruise. The first notification they got from Ss was the day they boarded. Fortunately for them we were able to find out their assigned suite 10 days earlier from the hotel department.

That certainly is the way to go JP. I "retired" at 60 but 3 weeks later was on my first locum. It was basically 6 months work, 4 months travel and 2 months to check whether our home was still there. I originally intended to fully retire in early 2020 but Covid intervened. One of the tasmanian hospitals emailed me to work full time over the pandemic. I agreed to do 3-4 monts woring and a month off before going back again. What else could I do. That time has paid for all the travel in the last 2 years. I finally retired on the first of March 2022. 53 years of Medicine was enough. But I now miss it. Particularly teaching the young doctors and following their careers. On the other hand I know that I retired at just the right time as my skills had begun their downward spiral and had I continued I wouldn't have felt right. And thanks for this report with the wonderful pictures and videos. It was a lovely trip down memory lane.

As I have said before we reaced 350 days on SS and only once have had the upgraded champagne. We have has 12 cruise sectors since covid and not even once on those sectors. I really couldn't care less. Not much difference IMHO. Just a few dollars at the bottle shop is the difference between them. I can't for the life of me see why a different champagne should cause so much angst. Not going to us when considering whether we will or won't cruise SS in the future.

We have started our next trip. In Sydney to see our grandchildren before flying to Darwin for 3 days. Once again staying at the Intercontinental. great views from our room this time. But for Sunday lunch went to an old English style pub. The Lord Dudley in Paddington. Most went with the roast chicken or pork but I had the Lambs fry and bacon. I didn't leave much. Washed down with a pale ale. The pub.

@Lois R went there a little over 20 years ago but remember it well as it was the first time we saw a moose in the wild. Beautiful place.

My thoughts exactly.

Indeed. We did the falls on Orion. We picked the cruise to go with the full moon. So not only an incredible ride through the Horizintal falls but the Stairway to heaven in Broome.

Back to music. There are many pieces that are associated with various times in my life. One time that had profound repercussions for me was when we first moved to Queensland. At the hospital a colleague was doing things that doctors shouldn't do.One of the patients came and told me what was happening. The fellow laughed it off and the hospital administration backed him up. Pressure was on me not to do anything. It was the time this song was released. So I backed up the woman complaining to the Medical Board. He got struck off and I moved hospitals. No physicians left at the original hospital so now it is a psychiatric clinic. If the song comes on when I am driving down goes the window and I and the radio are at full blast.