February 25th, 2024
Thursday island was our last stop in Australia. We have had a great time here and sorry top be leaving. There is not much to do on Thursday island and it is a port where we anchor and have top tender in and it is about a 40 minute boat ride. We canceled our included excursion which was going to a local home and having some school children dance for us and then having the ability to buy some of their local crafts. Our plan was to sleep in some and then after the rush take the tender in and walk around a little bit and spend out last 32 Australian dollars. When we got up this was the weather
Overcast with lost of storm clouds.
We made our way into town around 11am and as we said before the water is beautiful but not much to see as there is no reef, just sand bottom. The shorelines that we walked to warned of crocodiles and there were signs in some of the areas telling you that a crocodile had been seen in the vicinity in the last 7 days. We did not see any.
Some sand pipers walking the shore. The water was a beautiful aqua which you could only appreciate when the sun was out.
They had a few locals selling stuff when you got off the tender but nothing we needed. It was drizzling some so umbrellas were needed.
There is one main road in town and not much on it and since it was Sunday almost everything was closed. There was a grocery store and a lot of passengers made their way there but compared to Cairns things were much more expensive since it is an island. Also the grocery store closed at 1pm. We do like to keep chips in the room so to get rid of our Aussie dollars we got a couple of more bags. Also we have very much enjoyed the Australian TimTam cookies. When we were in Melbourne our guide to the Great Ocean Road gave us some as a parting gift and since it is basically 2 shortbread cookies covered with chocolate we found we liked them a lot!
They have different flavored TimTams but chocolate is the original. We may have stocked up on some of these since we assume they won’t be available in Asia.
It was humid walking around town and we did see a few locals swimming but they stay very close to shore and it was mostly kids.
A few of boat pictures
After the rain the sun came out which just made it steamier but then you could really appreciate the water color.
See what we mean about the water color? Hard to see water this beautiful and not want to jump right in.
We have never been to a place with water like this that you did not see tons of swimmers, jet skis and boaters but there really was nothing.
With some sun you could see all the different variations of colors.
We set sail at 5pm and we now have 3 days at sea as we sail to Komodo island to see the Komodo dragons. We are leaving the Great Barrier Reef waters and entering the Arafura Sea.
Our friends Kathy& Michael took an excursion to a neighboring island and got this picture of a Kookaburra which is part of the kingfisher family. We were not lucky enough to see one so I am posting Kathy’s picture because they are beautiful birds.
I think there will be lots of discussion from people over the next 3 days as to whether they are staying or going. That is the most popular question on board right now when you run into someone. We did a count at Mah Jongg this am and we know of 3 people leaving and 1 undecided. I think what would help make up peoples minds is seeing the excursions being offered and the cost of them but Viking said they would not be available for 5 days and that was 2 days ago. Hopefully they will come out before Bali because that is one of the places you can go home from. Some people are also looking for compensation if they stay on but we think Viking did a great job and everyone knew the middle east was a mess when we got on board. We are confident Viking will take care of us as they did on the 21/22 cruise and it will be an adventure and we are going to places we have never been before.
I admire your adventurous spirit and willingness to stay on the cruise to see where it takes you. bonne aventure!