Summer Has Arrived in Cairns
Day 53, Grand Asia 2018
Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018, Cairns, Australia:
Happy Thanksgiving! We are 16 hours ahead of home (Central time in the U.S.), so we celebrate early. Tonight’s dinner included a plate full of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes and the rest of the traditional meal. I had a filet instead. They mucked up the traditional Thanksgiving desserts, in my opinion, adding chocolate to the pecan and pumpkin pies, so I settled for coffee. I guess I am a traditionalist in some ways and not in others.
The highlight of our Cairns stop is the opportunity to go to the Great Barrier Reef. It’s about a two-hour boat ride, depending on the speed of your boat. Last year a group of us chartered a catamaran to spend the day snorkeling there. When we returned, I wished I had more time to explore the waterfront. Today was that day.
The Amsterdam docked right in town, near shops, restaurants, a casino and the waterfront. But the temperature hovered around 90, the sun was intense and the humidity high. One place to cool off was the city lagoon, a large manmade pool of filtered salt water, mostly three feet deep or less.
Fellow cruiser Joyce wanted to return to a city market she discovered last year, but it turns out none of the usual markets are open on Thursdays. A few vendors pitched tents near the lagoon to sell jewelry, scarves, clothes and decorative items. Nearby the city was erecting its large Christmas tree, so I stopped for a while to sketch.
So far our Australian ports haven’t had the welcome and goodbye celebrations that the Indonesians and Japanese had, but today we had a special treat at the cruise terminal as we returned to the ship. A group set up a long table of local fruit samples – the familiar mango, papaya and pineapple, as well as some less familiar fruits: jackfruit, lemonade fruit, monkey bananas, pomelo, rambai and star apples. They were a refreshing treat after a hot day in the city.
I had thought I might have dinner at one of the waterfront restaurants, as “all-aboard” wasn’t until 8:30 p.m. But everyone I asked already had dinner plans on board, so I decided not to eat alone. At dinner I got good reports from those who went to Kuranda in the nearby mountains. They took a train to get there and an aerial tram to return.
When I come back in 2020 on Holland America’s world cruise, I’ll look forward to that side trip.
I really liked Cairns last year. I remember the heat and humidity also. We did go to the Reef last year too. Maybe we were with you?? Sounds like you enjoyed a wonderful time and a nice thanksgiving even though the pies weren’t the traditional ones!!
We did that Kuranda train and tram thing and really enjoyed it.
I’ll put it on the list for the 2020 World!