Our two days at sea have been busy ones! Since writing, we’ve had a talent show on board, which included the debut of the HAL Chorale. I enjoyed singing in it, especially since I had sung the music with our Chancel Choir at home! Another of the acts brought back many, many memories as the lady did a clogging solo! Afterward I went up to speak with her. I miss those days of clogging and wish I was still able to do it!
On Thursday morning, we sailed fifteen miles upriver to arrive at the port of Brisbane. Brisbane is currently the third-largest city in Australia, but it is soon likely to surpass Melbourne in population, making it #2. For the first time since leaving L.A., we saw an immense city, complete with skyscrapers.
Our tour in Brisbane took us to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, the world’s first and largest koala sanctuary. There was quite a population of these adorable, sleepy little animals. It seemed like everywhere we looked, there were koalas: there were areas for the mums & babies, the cubby house, the “kindy” (kindergarten), the boys, the bachelor pad, the beautiful brides, and even a retirement home for those koala senior citizens who’d achieved the ripe old age of about ten! Naturally I had to take the opportunity to hold a koala. Sprite sat there looking too sleepy to smile at the camera, but he was cute anyway. The koalas were nestled in trees, and situated themselves so they could sleep without being concerned about falling. It was fascinating to watch them snuggled in among the branches, sometimes leaning against each other, sometimes by themselves, but virtually always sound asleep!
As we proceeded on to Chuck’s personal favorite, the kangaroo sanctuary, several small lizards darted across the path, stopping long enough for us to snap quick pictures. In the kangaroo sanctuary, we were able to stroll among them. They certainly seemed to take visitors in their stride, allowing people to feed, pet and pose with them. They lay in the grass or hopped around, or just sat and looked cute. It’s amazing how long and powerful their back legs are and how short their front legs are, giving them a comical gait when they go down on all fours. One of our friends said her tour guide had told them that when European explorers first visited Australia and were talking with Aborigines, a strange animal hopped by. They asked the Aborigines what the animals were, and the aborigines replied, “I don’t know,” in their language. In Aborigine, “I don’t know” is translated “kangaroo”. I’m not sure how accurate this information is, but it sure makes an interesting story!
We also had a chance to see dingoes, wombats, emus, and kookaburras (I don’t know if they were sitting in an old gum tree, but they sure weren’t laughing). The Tasmanian devil and echidnas were all hiding so we couldn’t get a glimpse of them. We took time to watch a sheep dog demonstration that brought to mind our visit to a sheep dog farm in Wales. This one was more contrived because the dog didn’t have to gather the sheep from high on the mountain, but the owner had a young dog that was just beginning to learn the skill, and you could tell that the dog wanted to be the center of attention. He really cried when another dog was given the task of herding the sheep, and was excited when he got the chance to put the sheep into the pen. What amazingly intelligent animals they are!
So much time was spent at the koala sanctuary that we had little time to see the sights of Brisbane. However, what we saw reminded us of the U.S. It was probably the most similar to an American city of any we’ve seen in our travels outside the U.S. or Canada! The only difference we really saw was that many houses were raised to keep air circulating and to prevent flooding. We also enjoyed seeing the lovely jacaranda trees with their brilliant purple flowers, as well as the flame trees – no leaves, just red flowers. Both of these trees only bloom in the spring, so we were fortunate to see their brilliant colors.
The sail-away from Brisbane was fascinating! The ship backed away from the dock, and then made a 180° turn-around in the river. At one point it was perpendicular to the banks, and we were amazed that it was able to clear! We’d been told that they’d widened and deepened the river to accommodate cruise ships, and witnessing the huge ship pivoting in such a small area was proof positive.
As we head further south, we expect the temperatures to start dropping. So far we’ve been very fortunate to experience wonderfully warm weather in our travels. Once again we find ourselves playing with our clocks! We will set our clocks an hour ahead at 2:00 PM on the sea day (Oct 30) as we sail toward Sydney because while Brisbane opted out of Daylight Savings Time, Sydney observes it. Not only did we think that we were through changing our clocks until we reached New Zealand, but we were surprised to do this in the middle of the day! The cruise director explained that since we’re at sea, we can set them during the day so we don’t have to lose an hour of sleep at night. While we don’t need to know what time it is at home, we like to imagine what’s happening, so we’re once again doing the math, and we’ll be sixteen hours ahead… at least until Sunday when everyone at home changes their clocks back to Standard Time, and we’ll be seventeen hours ahead! As I write this, it’s 7:00 AM Friday, meaning it’s 4:00 PM Thursday at home. Time to start thinking about choir rehearsal this evening… And I can only imagine how much my colleagues would enjoy setting clocks ahead at 2:00 PM on Friday afternoon (especially this Friday afternoon)! Oh, how I don’t miss those Halloween parties!
Barb
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