A Brief Trip to Town in Townsville
Day 67, Grand World Voyage 2020
Wednesday, March 11, 2020; Townsville, Queensland, Australia
What can I say about Townsville? Actually, not too much. I took the free shuttle to town, ran into a friend, went to a bar for a beer and came back to the ship.
It was a good day.
Townsville is a little bit south of Cairns in Queensland on the eastern coast of Australia. Both towns are popular gateways to the Great Barrier Reef. We arrived to rainy weather, so I wasn’t in too much of a hurry to get off the ship and didn’t have any tour planned.
Actually, I had some personal business to take care of while I had strong Internet access. I called the Social Security/Medicare office back in the states to resolve an issue, and actually reached someone quickly who took care of everything. This was after I had been trying since the early days of the cruise. Seems they blocked my account when I tried to access it from South America. In my earlier attempts (from Chile, Tahiti, New Zealand) calls kept getting dropped, or they made odd suggestions such as emailing the foreign office in Manila. This time was the charm. Now I will have health insurance after my current policy ends at the end of March – a good thing.
We also managed to vote in the Super Tuesday primary, mailing out ballots way back in Buenos Aires. Next challenge is the census.
Elaine went ashore in the late morning to visit the reef aquarium. I grabbed a couple of her photographs. It was a good place to learn about the Great Barrier Reef, as we didn’t plan a 2-hour boat trip to snorkel there on this cruise.
While ashore I briefly considered getting a haircut after seeing other passengers doing that at several salons right in town. But so far I’m doing okay with trimming my own bangs and letting the rest grow. (Don’t tell anyone, but I also manage to color the roots every now and then, too….)
Our hotel manager Henk and guest services manager Crystal, who happen to be a married couple, put some kilometers on their tandem bike in town. I ran into them in the port terminal, where it was funny to see all the passengers taking free fruit. Of course, we have lots of fruit on board, but these bananas were the best.
The crew takes advantage of these port stops to keep our ship looking good. Today they were touching up the exterior paint.
Meanwhile, the talk of covid-19 dominates, but it is all just rumors and speculation. I think it’s become a popular parlor game. So we’ll carry on as usual, with a tour to the nearby mountain town of Kuranda tomorrow in Cairns. Rain is in the forecast. And that’s about it for the news from the Amsterdam.
CoVid19 is no laughing matter back here in the States. March Madness has been cancelled; NBA games have all been cancelled; Disney World and Disney Land are closed; schools in some areas are closing for two weeks; no large gatherings anywhere; Broadway has gone dark; social distancing is the catch phrase. Rich and I are fortunate in as much as we have plenty to keep us busy here on our 5+ acres with not another soul in sight! Rich makes forays up to Flemington for errands and we are well stocked with all the essentials. For the foreseeable future, it’s a whole new world around here. I’m enjoying just staying home and stitching away. BTW, did you hear about Tom Hanks and his wife?? So it sounds like Australia has cases of this virus.
Dear Jo,
Your blog is a lovely way to have a positive connection to the wider world as many of us are limiting our contacts to mitigate the spread of the virus.
I practice gratitude daily for everything I have. It’s a way to practice fortification instead of fear. And my husband is a calm presence. We are able to laugh together and I know that if we end up home bound for a few weeks, we’ll never run out of subjects to talk about.
My major concern is not for my own well-being, but for the vulnerable people of our communities who may not have the financial means to survive a crisis like this. My church has a food cupboard and I wonder what will happen to it. I cannot be there to help out but I can make a financial contribution to organizations that help the needy. Now is the time to help our neighbors and in doing so, we will feel less impotent and less alone.
My best to you, Jo.