Sorry for the posting delays. We’ve been in and out of internet signal the past few days but there’s quite a bit to report on.
Three days ago we were in Cairns. After arriving in port, we took a bus to the wharf for much smaller boats. We rushed to board the Reef Rocket and then sang and danced at the front of the boat, to all of the other passengers’ dismay, on the way to Green Island, about 45 minutes off the coast of Cairns. When we got there, we took our snorkeling gear and swam out a half hour back off from the island until we saw some beautiful reefs – sea anemones, brain coral, vibrant colors, beautiful, active fish, and then we saw, and followed, a large sea turtle. On the way back to Cairns we sang for the crew and passengers onboard and then had some fine (cheap) Australian beer.
Over the next two days at Sea, we celebrated Harry’s birthday night and then actual birthday. We were back on land yesterday in Darwin. We hopped on the shuttle into the center of town and then did a little shopping in Darwin before taking another bus out to the Crocodylus Zoo and Crocodile Park. They have over 25,000 crocs at the park and they are all almost equally terrifying. We took a tour their where they fed the 40 ft. long Australian Saltwater Crocodiles. What this means is that the entire tour group is standing on a bridge over their cages and then the tour guide ties a piece of meat to a string, and then ties that string to a long wooden pole, and then asks the VGs to lower that piece of meat down into the Crocs’ pens. Then, he wanted us to tease the crocs for a bit (make them earn their food) and lift the meat out just as they would bite down on it. All in all, Simon almost wet his pants… but all made it out unscathed, and dry.
Finally, last night we had our biggest performance thus far. We performed along with the coed singing quartet on board in two shows in the Galaxy Lounge on the ship. We sang Insomniac, Runaround Sue and Remember When it Rained. We also did a duet with the quartet on I Can See Clearly Now and closed with John T. Anderson’s rendition of Sweet Caroline, with a full band behind us. (The bass guitar made me feel completely obsolete).
Today, we have another day at sea on our way to Komodo Island. We’ve all been warned not to shave because of the risk that we’d cut ourselves. The Komodo Dragons get more aggressive when they smell blood… and we wouldn’t want to anger them any more than is necessary… They’re very fast and even their spit is poisonous. Wish us luck!!
-Simon and the VGs.
