Day 50 - Monday March 4, 2024, Darwin, Australia

Arrival 08:30 Overnight in Port

Four straight sea days and the passengers are anxious to leave the ship.

The Seabourn Sojourn is docked in the Port of Darwin as well as its sister ship, Seabourn Odyssey (capacity on these ships are 450 passengers) at the city's cruise terminal.

Ray our cruise director indicated our arrival would be delayed by an hour. There was only one tour scheduled today as we were not supposed to arrive until March 5 but because the two previous ports of call were cancelled an overnight in Darwin was provided. It is not an overnight per say as all passengers must be back on board by 19:30 when Insignia will leave the Port of Darwin and sail into the harbour and drop anchor for the evening. At 05:00 on Tuesday Insignia's anchors will be raised and we will sail to the cruise terminal for the day.

Darwin is the capital of the Northen Territory. There are six states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania) and the territories include the Northern Territory and Australian State Territory where the capital of Australia, Canberra resides.

The city took its name from the British naturalist Charles Darwin even though he never visited the area. The population of the Northern Territory is roughly 250,000 of which approximately 150,000 live in the greater Darwin area.

The one tour offered today quickly sold out. So, what to do with 400 plus passengers who are anxious to get ashore. Let's provide a shuttle service to downtown which runs on the half hour. It became somewhat chaotic - too many passengers and not enough buses. We waited at least an hour for a shuttle to arrive.

On our way into town the bus operator provided some information on the Port of Darwin. She indicated that there were very few containers at the port as they are dispersed to other areas of the country within 48 hours. The lack of space could be the main reason for this. All goods that arrive to this port must be trucked away. The major Far East car manufacturers deliver their cars to Darwin.

It took 30 minutes to travel to the downtown area close to the shopping areas. Today we stopped at Shenanigans Pub just a block from the shuttle stop with Helen, Leroy, Bev and Glenn for some libations and food. Spicy style croc bites were sampled although I didn't try them, but Janice did. She said they tasted a little like chewy chicken. I had the Big Breakfast - two rations of bacon, two sausages, two eggs, mushrooms, baked beans, sourdough bread and of course HP Sauce. It was mighty fine. We find Australia quite expensive even though their dollar is at par with the CDN dollar - the Americans certainly get a good deal! We paid $7.00 for a diet coke with no free refills!!!

Murals adorn many of the downtown buildings, so after lunch I explored the area while Janice was getting a manicure. It is a lot cheaper than getting one on the ship.

It was then back to the ship to relax.

During the night's performance Insignia left Port of Darwin and sailed into the middle of the harbour to drop its two anchors. It was here where we spent the night.

Day 51 - Tuesday March 5, 2024, Darwin Australia Day Two

Arrival 07:30 All Aboard 15:30 Departure 16:00

It was surprising how quiet it was when the anchors were raised as we were already at the dock when I woke.

I had a ship tour booked on the city's military past with Glenn. The 4-hour tour made a stop at the East Point Military Museum. Here we learned about the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese. The date was February 19,1942 when 242 Japanese aircraft attacked the city and the town's airfields in two separate raids to limit the use by the allied forces. This raid came about 10 weeks after the raid on Pearl Harbour.

The Museum provided an excellent history of the raid through artifacts and a twelve-minute video. Our second stop was to Darwin's Aviation Museum where an actual US B52 bomber can be found in the hanger. Boy what a huge airplane!!

The bombing of Darwin also took a toll on the surrounding buildings and infrastructure at that time as did a cyclone on December 24, 1974.

After the cyclone subsided, 70% of the buildings and 80% of the houses were destroyed. That is why the city looks relatively young. A tragic Christmas Day.

The city has a prospering waterfront with new housing, shops and restaurants being built here. A man-made lake has been built as well because the harbour is inhabited with up to 7K saltwater crocodiles. At Trivia today Ray said there was one swimming past the ship.

Sail away was at 16:00 but very few passengers were on deck. We are leaving the continent of Australia and sailing towards Komodo Island, Indonesia 702 nautical miles away.

Yes, we saw some amazing sites - the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach, the Great Barrier Reef and learned some interesting history regarding Darwin. These are things we will remember about Australia however we are not sure that we would return. Too many critters which stresses me as much as Janice.

We are very excited about the upcoming ports, Komodo Island and Bali which has been on Janice's bucket list for a very long time.