G’Day from Down Under

Day 45, Grand Asia 2017

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017 – Darwin, Australia

With today’s port call of Darwin, Australia, we’ve left Asia behind. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I feel a different vibe on the ship. Those who joined us in Hong Kong and will leave in Sydney are past the halfway point of their cruise, as are those of us on for the entire 80 days.

While Asia felt exotic, Australia feels adventurous.

The Darwin area is called Top End. It’s the top end of Australia, much closer to Indonesia than the larger cities of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. It mixes a combination of Asia and Aboriginal culture into an adventurous spirit in a cosmopolitan, if small (pop. 110,000) city. The parks and public areas are green with tamarind trees interspersed among palms. It is hot!

Just a few weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed Darwin. The city marks the occasion with a marker and a museum.

Popular shore excursions headed up the Adelaide River to see jumping crocodiles and onto a boat for a harbor tour. I took advantage of the complimentary shuttle from the cruise pier into the central business district.

If not for the heat and humidity, it would have been a nice walk. If you can’t find shade, you could roast in the sun, I think. Fortunately, the outdoor mall provided plenty of shade, along with souvenir stands, coffee shops and clothing stores.

I had a list of things to look for: a new memory disk for my camera, perhaps a few Christmas gifts and fast free Wifi. I found the latter in an air-conditioned coffee shop and spent an hour sipping a latte while downloading new magazine issues into my Texture app and catching up on newspapers, Facebook and Twitter. I also found a couple of gifts, which I will keep a surprise. The camera memory drives were more than I wanted to pay, so I’ll copy mine onto a thumb drive I bought along and reuse them.

As I passed by a grocery store, the holiday display reminded me that Christmas is only 40 days away. To us it seemed early to see a Christmas tree in the mall, but I’m sure the decorations at home have been up for weeks.

Gathering in the Crow’s Nest – the bar and expansive lounge on Deck 9 forward above the bridge – has become a habit during happy hour and sail away. We left on time at 6 p.m. as the band struck up Anchor’s Aweigh. By the time we sat down to dinner at 7 p.m., the sun was setting and we saw a spectacular sunset. Of course, I didn’t have my camera. Oh well, the pictures seldom match the memory, anyway.