I know that circumnavigation is meant to be done all at once. But that's not how it panned out. In early 1973, I was returning to Australia after 4 years of travelling the globe. In those days, boats were the cheap option, so I duly booked a berth on the "Marcini", from where I had found mysef in Capetown, to Sydney. We sailed across the Indian Ocean, and into Fremantle, Western Australia. From there is was a leisurely cruise to Sydney, via Adelaide and Melbourne. I didn't leave Australia again till 2005.
This year, I completed the circle. The ships have changed, and they are no longer the cheap option. Burt in the meantime, I've developed an addiction to cruising. (This is, of course, a subset of Travel Addiction). So this became a good excuse to cruise again.
We sailed out of Syney at sunset. With the sky lighting up behind the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. No matter how many times I do this, I never get sick of it. Two glorious weeks of watching the ocean. North to Brisbane, and then the slow passage through the Whitsunday Islands, while avoiding the Great Barrier Reef. Then around Cape York at the north of Queensland; all in sight of land. The next port was Darwin, where we berthed just beside the roped off pool - which is the only beach which is safe from crocodiles and sharks. (OR SO THEY SAY.....) The heat was oppressive, even to someone who is used to Aussie summers. It felt as if all the oxygen has been evaporated. The thought hit us - why ever did we think February was a good month for this??
From here we veered away from the coast of Australia, and headed to Bali, in the Lesser Sunda islands of Indonesia. There's a separate post on this. (Or will be).
Back on the Western Australian coast, we docked at Port Hedland, a mining port with not a lot of tourist attractions. Unless you were really interested in iron ore and mining. But everywhere has interesting places, and we found one that was fascinating - a place wwhere flat back turtles come in to lay their eggs. Sadly, the season was over, but the organisation that does the research and cares for the turtles was happy to show us around and talk about their work. So interesting, and we came away with an interest in theworld of turtles. Never assume a place is boring.
Our last port was the small town of Geraldton. A town that seems to be devoted to shipwrecks. Excellent museum with artifacts and bits of the "Batavia" , a Dutch ship which sunk off Geraldton in the 1600s - way before Australia was officially "discovered" by Europeans. And a beautiful memorial to the sinking of the HMAS "Sydney" which was sunk by German boats during WW 2. The memorial features a beautiful bronze statue of the Woman who waited. Simple and beautiful.
Finally into Fremantle, and the end of the cruise. And I had completed my circumnavigation. And, I can confirm - Australia, IS an island.
