Land of Extremes

Drought, heatwaves, floods and fire – we seem to have experienced it all in Australia so far this year, and so it was with great relief that we welcomed the rain the day after my last post.

This is my citrus that I posted last time, with its leaves curled up in the prolonged heat – and here is the transformation the following morning, looking like a completely different tree. There were even a few blades of green grass that popped up during the night.

Before the rain

and after!

So now our tanks are overflowing and it has been raining on and off ever since. Amazingly, the grass, which was brown and so dry that it was painful to walk on barefoot, is lush and green and needing to be cut.

I love the sound of the rain falling on the roof and to have some relief from the heat at last. Blue, cloudless skies are all very well, but for now, my favourite colour is grey!

Northern & Western Australia Explorer

Getting excited – our next cruise starts tomorrow!

images

Ports of call: Brisbane Qld, Cairns Qld, Papua New Guinea, Darwin NT, Kimberley Coast(Scenic cruising), Broome WA, Geraldton WA, Fremantle WA.

We will have a couple of nights in Perth and then will be hiring a car to drive to the Margaret River for a further night.

Returning to Sydney on the Indian Pacific (train) across central Australia and then flying back to Brisbane.

15 Days, 8 ports. Should be fun, hope you will follow along!

Darwin, NT

Darwin Skyline

Our Stateroom

Our dining room wait staff

Had an enjoyable day in Darwin, Sunday 5 March. We went to Parap Markets – most interesting was the array of Asian cuisine available …. very multi-cultural! To our disappointment, apart from a few locally handcrafted items, most were timber or clothing imports. Anyway, it filled in the morning and then we returned to the city centre by shuttle bus where we made a leisurely stroll through the shopping mall.

The weather was in the mid-30’sC, which wasn’t too bad, but the killer was the high humidity which made our last stop at the Monsoon Hotel for a glass of beer a necessity!!!

We were just about to set sail at 5.00pm when a storm came from nowhere. Nil visibility, so that delayed our departure for about an hour. After some heavy rain, out came the sun and we left port just as we were eating dinner.

Food is fantastic, but we are managing to keep ourselves in check. Alex is keeping himself busy with art lessons every day. Not so much for me, but I am happy spending time reading in a deck chair out on deck or doing a bit of cross stitch if I feel like it. Our stateroom is very comfortable and we are sleeping extremely well. Must be the “motion of the ocean”!

After the Rain

Queensland is known as The Sunshine State and it has lived up to its’ name in the last few months with temperatures reaching 40oC and more – and that was just before Summer officially began in December!

So it was wonderful to get lots of rain recently and within about 3 days everything was lovely and green. It’s amazing how quickly the grass (and weeds) have grown and now everyone is mowing their lawns every few days. What a land of contrasts!

Happy to see cattle and horses grazing contentedly in emerald green fields. So pretty. I wish it could look like this all year!