More Australia
7 March 2026
After much searching, we just couldn’t find a must see or must do thing in Brisbane. Linda saved us from a day on ship with nothing to do by discovering the Davies Park Market, which only opens on Saturdays, and we were there on a Saturday. Luckily, Linda took and posted many great photos.
The open air market offers about 200 booths/tents offering herbs and spices and body parts we’d never seen before, farm-fresh produce, plants, clothing and handmade gifts, plus dozens of street food stalls, none of which you’d ever find in northeast Arkansas.
We had grilled chicken on skewers with a Thai peanut sauce, salad and a flat bread, with Thai milk tea. All delicious. True to their British roots, highways in Australia are called carriage ways and city sidewalks are called foot paths.
Two things I’ve noticed in the ship laundry rooms: Firstly, everyone, even I, speak to strangers in the laundry room, mostly because nobody, at first, can figure out how to set the Swedish washers and dryers, so we with prior experience help the newbies as they come aboard at different port stops.
I’ve found just one person in the laundry room I absolutely cannot understand. I’m pretty sure he is from Yorkshire, England. He sounded just like Gerald on the great show Clarkson’s Farm. Gerald is notoriously hard to understand. I’ll post below a link to a You Tube video about Gerald.
Secondly, only Brits and Aussies iron the clothes after they come out of the dryer. The people with American accents, meaning USA and Canadians, just grab their dry clothes and run, happy to be done with another laundry day.
I remarked previously about the zombies aboard, but there are also the worn out and broken down. This refers almost exclusively to old men. The older women still zip around the ship like 20 year olds. But most of the old men can barely walk. Some of them probably wore their bodies out with hard labor, but I’m sure most of them are paying now for the way they treated their bodies during athletics in their teenaged years and early 20’s.
Linda’s comment: We thought Brisbane would just be a bust…..no excursion planned…nothing particularly famous to see …like the opera house in Sydney….turns out, it has some interesting neighborhoods to check out…this open market is in a section called West End and is described as having lots of cafes and shops and a bohemian vibe… this terrific Saturday market was in a place called Davies Park. I’m sure there are other cool places in Brisbane, too, but this area was a fine place to spend an afternoon…temps were supposed to be in the high eighties today, but it became very overcast with a nice breeze….a few showers, too, but all of those missed us so perfect weather for being outside!
Note: there’s a second page, below, of Brisbane images to see…
Note: there’s a second page, above, of Brisbane images to see…
9 March 2016
We’ve been sailing through the Coral Sea for 2 days, headed from Brisbane to “Yorkeys Knob,” Australia. It’s a town of little consequence. I suspect we’re anchoring in Yorkeys Knob because the port fee is cheaper than at the larger towns nearby. The Coral Sea was the location of the first naval action in which opposing fleets neither sighted nor fired upon one another, attacking over the horizon from aircraft carriers instead. The 4-day battle was pretty much a draw, though the US effort stopped Japan from carrying out its plans in the area, a first for World War II.
Once we get ashore at Yorkeys Knob, we’re taking a bus an hour north to Port Douglas. It’s a resort town of just over 3,000 people, but it has some fame. It was visited by President Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson in 1966. In November 1996 President Bill and Hillary Clinton chose the town as their only holiday stop on their historic visit to Australia. When dining at a local restaurant they witnessed a couple’s wedding certificate.
On a return visit on 11 September 2001, the Clintons were again dining at a local restaurant, when they were advised of the 9-11 attacks. They returned to the United States the following day.
On 4 September 2006, television personality and conservationist Steve Irwin died at Batt Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef, off Port Douglas, after a stingray barb pierced his chest during filming of a documentary called The Ocean’s Deadliest. I’ll fill you in on our visit to Port Douglas tomorrow.
10 March 2026
Every day I pass Chairman Mao in the hallway. I call him that because he looks exactly like the young Mao Zedong (also spelled Mao Tse Tung), the long-time ruler of China. He is the room steward for the people down the hall from me, so I pass him several times every day. He’s just as friendly as I am, meaning we both look at the floor and pass without acknowledging each other. He’s probably the only Cunard staffer on the ship who doesn’t smile and say hi every time they pass a guest, whether they really mean it or not! He probably appreciates that I don’t force him to be falsely friendly.
The ship arrived on time at Yorkeys Knob this morning, but they found the sea to be too choppy for old folks to easily step across the gap between QM2 and the ship’s lifeboats/tenders, so we were delayed an hour while they hired some local 3-decker tourist boats to carry us from ship to shore. These boats have bridges with rails that span the gap between ship and tender, so no danger of taking an unintended swim. These local tour boats were nice because, unlike the ship’s boats, these boats are FAST and AIR CONDITIONED!
While we headed toward shore, Linda mentioned that she misses her youth when she would go snorkeling in the ocean. I said I’d pass on that, since we were very near where the stingray killed naturalist Steven Irwin. An Australian woman seated in front of us turned around and said what we really need to watch out for is the blue-ringed octopus, an extremely venomous species of octopus found in tide pools and coral reefs here. Enough said about that! I won’t be going near the water!
Our bus was waiting for us ashore and we immediately began our 90-minute scenic drive to Port Douglas. The whole way, we had a steep mountain/rain forest, with a few waterfalls, on our left and the ocean on our right. Linda and I both spent the whole time looking for snakes and crocodiles. We didn’t see a living thing, other than of the plant variety. The plants are probably also deadly. We made up for lack of animals in Port Douglas, with the wildlife sanctuary.
Port Douglas is a beautiful resort town. Every major hotel chain, as well as lots of independents, have resorts there, one after another for a few miles as you arrive in town. We skipped the town and immediately got an Uber to the wildlife sanctuary, about 10 minutes from downtown, where we indeed saw a sleeping koala, kangaroos, saltwater crocodiles, and lots of exotic birds, lizards, you name it! The preserve was about the size of 3 residential subdivision blocks, so smaller than the Robil addition in Pocahontas and very walkable, except for the 100% humidity and temperature around 90F/32C.
We celebrated surviving the heat by spending about an hour in a pub with good fans blowing our direction, and cold drinks, before boarding the bus back to Yorkeys Knob and QM2. We’re at sea the next 3 days, heading to north-central Australia and the saltwater croc capital of the world, the city of Darwin, population 140,000 humans and even more things that can and will kill a person.
Port Arthur Wildlife Preserve Video
Port Arthur Wildlife Preserve Video 2
Port Arthur Wildlife Preserve Video 3
11 March 2026
We had a minor event this morning at 7:30, as we met our younger Cunard sister ship, the Queen Anne. There were probably 1000 people lining the decks of QM2, watching Anne sail by, and an equal number on Anne, looking at us. Both ships sounded their big horns, which they call whistles, repeatedly. It’s the first time the two ships have ever met on the high seas.
Anne was sailing south as we head north along the Australian coast. Queen Anne is Cunard’s newest ship, launched 2024. She’s about the same dimensions as Queen Mary 2, though a little shorter, a little narrower, and a mere cruise ship, not an ocean liner, so Anne is much more lightly built. For comparison, QM2 weighs 151,000 tons and Queen Anne only 113,000 tons. QM2’s top speed is over 30 knots, while Queen Anne tops out at only 22 knots. Queen Anne is a slab-sided box, lacking QM2’s beautiful lines, but I’ll lay off her now, as she is our little sister!
Passing Queen Anne Video
I’ve made this wonderful discovery in the QM2 buffet. It’s called Soto Ayam, an Indonesian version of chicken soup on steroids! It’s a clear chicken broth brightened by fresh turmeric and herbs and, apparently, some magic ingredients. It is served with a boiled egg, fried shallots, celery leaves, and is hearty enough for a meal.
They have these bowls already made up with rice noodles, and chopped up uncooked things like shallots, garlic, mushrooms and celery leaves. When you order it, they sprinkle on some boiled chicken left from making the broth, half a boiled egg, and some pieces of cooked shrimp, then take it to a big hot pot and ladle on the magic broth of coriander, cumin and a bunch of other stuff, and serve it. It’s delicious.
Like Thai red curry, it’s a complex recipe that takes over an hour to prepare, so I never expect to have it at home, but if I ever see it on a restaurant menu, I know what I’ll be ordering!
The red circle on the map below shows our current position along the Australian coast, nearing New Guinea, where the headhunters killed Michael Rockefeller, son of New York governor Nelson Rockefeller. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rockefeller
13 March 2026
I’ve very much enjoyed listening to the various British and Australian accents I hear every day on the ship. I’ve known of people who, after living a few weeks among people with a different accent, begin to adopt the accent of the locals. I’ve never been one of those people. I’m stuck, for better or worse, with what Arkansas gave me. This morning, as I sat waiting for my first lecture of the day to begin, I listened in on the couple beside me. The wife had a voice exactly like Edith Bunker of “All in the Family,” though with the accent of what I’d call a middle class English housewife.
The husband sounded exactly like long-suffering Richard, Hyacinth’s husband on the British comedy, “Keeping Up Appearances.” When I arrived on the scene, Edith was saying, “I’ve got to give the scones anotha chonce [another chance]. But the scones wuh hod [were hard, with great emphasis on “hod”]. And there wasn’t enough cream and jam!”
Her husband was more concerned with scheduling. “We should be okay if we go to afternoon tea right at 3:30, then we can still eat a late dinner.”
“The scones wuh HOD. And the cream, for all love.”
“So, our tea at 3:30. It’s settled.”
But it wasn’t settled. They went on about scones and tea for another ten minutes. Thankfully, the lecture eventually started, a true relief to hear from the defense lawyer in the case of the Australian mother accused of killing her baby, whom she said was killed by a dingo (a wild Australian dog).
I vaguely remembered hearing of the case, which made international news from 1980 onward, as the case moved through the Australian court system (I learned that they call the prosecution “The Crown”). It was probably the most interesting lecture I’ve ever heard on a cruise ship, and I’ve heard a LOT of lectures. I’m not interested in “chairbiotics,” whatever that is, or blackjack lessons, or afternoon tea, but I do enjoy the talks by well-qualified experts on a variety of subjects.
14 March 2026
Last night we had an interesting time change between the eastern Australian time zone and where we are now: 30 minutes. They had us set our clocks back 30 minutes last night.
Darwin, Australia: Most famous for flying saltwater crocodiles, capable of leaping bodily out of the water for a juicy bite of pretty much anything. Luckily, we’d already seen one, and didn’t find any other must-see on a short half-day visit, so we took the Cunard shuttle bus (they seem to always provide one) from the dock to downtown, browsed a while then ate a great lunch of a “poke bowl.” They pronounce poke “POH-kay.”
Apparently “poke” is the word for the meat or main course. It seems to be of Hawaiian origin. The Bowlins went with chicken bowl, and I had a crab bowl. It’s kind of like going to Subway. Instead of picking a bread, you pick a base of rice or salad, tell them what poke you want on top of it, then start pointing to things you want to add. Mine had a base of rice and the crab meat, then they added shredded carrots, purple onions, sliced beets, tomatoes and soy beans, some guacamole, and fried scallions on top, then drizzled with a tasty sweet salad dressing. It was tastier than it sounds!
Linda hit a few art shops and souvenir shops after lunch, then we realized the sun plus humidity was about to do us in, so it was back to the comfort of the ship for us.
