World Circumnavigation 2024 - Sector Three

27^th February - 16^th March 2024

Itinerary: Sydney - Newcastle - Cairns - Alotau - Komodo - Lembar - Singapore - Phuket

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February 27. Sydney, Australia. Arrived on time, but slept through the sail-in! For the first time, we had to have a face to face with Australian immigration. We took the shuttle bus into town, where I needed to buy some t-shirts and a pair of trousers, which I did. We then took a ferry to Darling Harbour. A stroll around there, back to the shuttle bus drop off point, where Rob and Lin took the bus back to the ship. Barbara and I stayed downtown until my trouser alterations were ready. For the first time on this cruise, we ate dinner in the buffet.

February 28. Sydney, Australia. A trip to the Blue Mountains today. We drove to Leura, where I managed to find the old fashioned sweetie shop from my last visit in 2002. Then we travelled to Echo Point for a look at the mountains and the Three Sisters, a rock formation. We were much closer than last time. After lunch, we went to Scenic World, where we took a ride on the world's steepest railway, then a walk along the scenic walkway to a cable car. Rob and I tried to ride the skyway, but time was against us. A selfish couple did, however, causing a 20 minute delay to our return back to the ship. Around 9pm, Barbara and I were on deck and saw fireworks from Circular Quay, which we assumed was QM2 leaving, but could have been something to do with Mardi Gras.

February 29. Newcastle, Australia. Once again, we were late arriving. This time because of propulsion problems leaving Sydney. We finally got off the ship in the very late morning. After a coffee, we took a tram to Newcastle Beach, where we strolled along the front to Fort Scratchley. At the fort, we saw the one o'clock gun being fired, followed a couple of minutes later by the Number One gun, in honour of the cruise ship. This gun and its sister (Number Two gun!) are the only two land guns ever fired in action in Australia. We then had a late lunch in a pub, before returning to the ship. It was hot!

March 03. Cairns, Australia. A hot day in tropical Queensland. The four of us got off the ship and wandered into the town. We visited Rusty's Markets and then went to the Aquarium, which was good. At the Aquarium, Linda wasn't feeling too good, so went back to the ship. The three of us strolled along the promenade to Hemingways Brewery, where we had three small beers for $44 including 10% Sunday surcharge! Then back to the ship.

March 05. Alotau, Papua New Guinea. Linda was still not well and confined to her cabin, so the three of us grabbed a cab for a four hour tour of Milne Bay. In the event, there really wasn't much to see and we curtailed it at just over two hours. We saw a couple of war memorials from the Japanese invasion of 1942, drove up to a lookout out point and through large palm oil plantations to the 'airport'. We, of course, ended with a local beer.

March 10. Komodo Island, Indonesia. The home of the famous Komodo Dragons, monitor lizards that can grow up to 3 metres in length. We tendered to the island and then went on an organised walk in small groups with a ranger and guide. We saw about 7 or 8 dragons on the walk, some of which were quite large. We also saw a dragon nest, where the hatchlings will appear in about June. A white macaw was in a tree, but I couldn't get a picture. There were also some yellow snails on a tree and lots of butterflies. On the way back to the tender, Barbara and I stopped for a beer and a small dragon was just walking along the bars and tables!

March 11. Lembar, Lombok, Indonesia. Our original port of call was supposed to be Bali, but today is Nyepi, the day of silence, so it was changed to Lombok. The (false) information that Fred. gave us was that it was very expensive to travel in Lombok, so we bought, an equally expensive, ships excursion. In the port itself were many taxis touting for trade, but of course we weren't able to use them. It transpires that the Hindu population of Lombok also celebrate Nyepi. This meant some places were closed and traffic lighter. Our tour was 'Colours of Lombok'. This turned out to be a visit to a pottery shop in Banyumulek, where they were making small pots, then reusing the clay to make other clay artefacts. This was a demonstration! Followed by a long visit to the shop. Next we went to Sukarara for a visit to an unfinished museum and saw a couple of women weaving fabrics, (another 'demonstration')! This too was followed a long shop visit. A waste of a day, but I did enjoy seeing Lombok.

March 14. Singapore. For the first time ever on a cruise visiting Singapore, we had to pass through Immigration and Customs. After this, we went to Universal Studios, my third visit and the other's first. Rob and I went on most of the big rides and the girls went on a couple of the smaller ones. We saw a couple of the shows too. A Japanese meal before returning to the ship. A good day all round.

March 16. Phuket, Thailand. The last port of our original itinerary. Another good trip. This time we drove off the island of Phuket to Phang Nga Bay, famous for its karst formations. We took a long-tailed boat to Koh Tapu or James Bond Island which featured in The Man With The Golden Gun. After lunch at Panyee village, which has a school with a floating football pitch, we went to see Suwankuha Cave Temple. A temple built into a cave! Then a drive back through the Chinese part of Phuket Town to the ship. This part of Phuket was settled by Hokkien Chinese from Penang and Hokkien is still spoken here.