We left Port Douglas and continued our journey up through the Great Barrier Reef passing the Mouth of the Endeavour river, where James Cook beached his ship for repairs after hitting the reef. Then onto the northern tip of Australia, Cape York, and turning north west into the Torres Strait. Here our Great Barrier Reef pilot, who had given us very interesting information on the islands etc. of the reef, disembarked off Booby Island. The following day was spent sa...

Another two days sailing and we reach Port Douglas where we anchor and get ashore by tender. Again we walkedi through the town looking at the clothing and souvenirs shops and onto 7 mile beach. Everything is expensive or 'Made in China'. "Think we will wait until we reach Hong Kong and later Vietnam". We start to make our way back to the ship, but a little restaurant serving Baramundi and Chips and fresh mud crab and salad proved too tempting and was well wort...

After a day's sailing, we arrive at Brisbane and dock at Fisherman's Island, a 3/4 hour shuttle trip into the centre of town. The weather here is back to sunny and very hot. We went for a walk across the Brisbane River to the South Bank. Here we walked through The Parklands, passing the Wheel of Brisbane (a small version of the London Eye), a wild life sanctuary, and through The Streets Beach to end up at the Queensland Maritime Museum. We then crossed the Goodwi...

It was early dawn, still dark, when we entered the Western Channel, which leads into Sydney Harbour, heading west toward the Harbour Bridge. As we tied up to the west side of Circular Quay the sun started to rise behind the Opera House. Although we have been here before it was still an amazing sight, especially with the back cloth of a brilliant red sky. Shepherds Warning!!! As in Melbourne it was very hot; so we left the ship early and walked around The Roc...

Our first port of call in Australia was at the city of Melbourne, so well placed, at the apex of one of the world's great natural seaports, Port Phillip Bay. The temperature was over 30 degrees Centigrade, so it was good to find the air conditioned Central Complex where we had a strong black coffee and updated our blog. Our feet were tired as we had walked all around the fantastic Queen Victoria Market. It reminded us very much of Granville Island in Vancouve...