OK, this is really long. It was a bizarre week. At the end of each day Blaise and I were both
too exhausted to write. We will be
better the rest of the trip, writing more frequently.
I wish I could figure an efficient way to add pictures
from our phones without eating much time on the internet. We may add pictures later.
Lots to catch up on.
I think Blaise and I are going to tackle the past few days a bit
differently. I suggested we break things
up into Sunday/Monday and then Tuesday-Thursday but Blaise said the last few
days run together so he’s going to put things down in one big blob. I have to
parse it one day at a time.
Blaise
Says . . .
So before I get to the adventure within the vacation I
must let you know what happened on Sunday, our first “at sea” day, sea days are
always down time that lets you catch up on all the reading that you should be
doing throughout the year but don’t always have time for, I typically bring
some technical books and catch up on the New Features of the current releases
of Oracle, or this year I brought some OpenStack reading that I wanted to catch
up on due to the conversion/focus efforts my company has on-going as a
directional disruptor. But this year
I’ve brought along some management reading to make sure that I’m up on those aspects
of my job as well; I want to make certain that I do some introspective work as
well so I can ensure that my folks are the best they can be by making sure I’m
the best I can be for them. I’m very
fortunate to have a great team that is extremely well trained and very
professional, they pursue the very best from our platform (Call Session Control
Function, or just the CSCF as it’s known in the industry) each and every day.
All in all the
ONLY excitement for the day was with Mr and Mrs Curmudgeon, he walked in to
dinner that night and said, “Wow, you clean up real nice.”, I said thank you
and looked at AJ with a “we don’t know them”, borderline bold/rude I
thought. She shrugged and laughed it
off, I accepted it as a cultural norm and moved on as well. That said, that was the only thing he said
for the duration of the evening!! He
said more to a total stranger than he did to his wife of many, many years, I
felt sad for them. I hope we never run
out of things to say, dumb or not, to each other, what a sad existence…
So when we started this he said/she said blog, I asked
AJ for a couple of things, first no reading each others blogs until you were
complete with your entry and then only to help edit before being uploaded, and
no content editing for language, it’s what you wrote, own it!!! So with that said on I know AJ is writing a dissertation
on what happened so I’ll try and save you eyes and bring it down to something
manageable, so here we go…
Monday morning started out fabulously, we got to the
Celebrity Theatre at 8:20a to get our excursion started. The excursion woman was providing stickers so
that none of the blue hairs would get lost and left as I like to call it but
they do provide the logistical insights so it’s worth listening to. She starts by telling us that koala’s pee when
they get excited so be prepared to have to rinse out your shirt after your
photo shoot as it may be a likely outcome, fine I thought, I STILL get to hold
a koala though, that’s worth it; then she tells us that they transmit chlamydia,
WHAT chlamydia, I’m not up on all the sexually transmitted diseases but I don’t
think I want that, then she says but don’t worry that have these tested and
they are fine, but then ends with “just don’t have sex with them”!! Yes, she said that, I thought, no worries mate
we’re good!! We got to the Australia Zoo
(Steve Irwin’s Zoo for those of you who don’t remember) around 10:30, we were half
way back in the bus and were 3rd and 4th in the line for
getting our pictures taken, a lady and her son (the gay pilot that I still
believe is a flight attendant and not a pilot for AA but I digress) were ahead
of us, the blue hairs showed up almost 30 minutes later, not sure where they
went for so long. Picture taking began
promptly at 11:30 and we were all done within 5 minutes, AJ said hers smelled
but my adorable buddy did not, what an experience, it reminded me of the Big
Bang episode where Penny gave Ami a tiara as a gift, my reaction to the
experience was exactly like hers, giddy as a school girl being asked out on her
very first date!!! What a fantastic,
once in a lifetime experience. But the
day wasn’t to end the same way, we were wrapping up our final pics with the
tigers and snakes, they have 8 of the top 10 deadliest snakes in Australia, we
decided to take one more picture of a baby koala clinging to its mother from
the other side of the enclosure so we could get its face rather than it backside
when AJ tripped over an uneven plank of wood and fell face first into a park
bench there for folks to have a sit and watch the koalas. I was in front of her and heard her yell,
when I spun she had already hit the bench and the scream was being launched, I
didn’t process the scream as I was busy working through the spigot of blood
that was now pouring continuously out of her nose and from all over her
face. The medic was there quickly and
the blood control took a very long time, it looked horrific, she had a huge
gash in her forehead and her nose looked broken, she was bleeding from no less
than 15 different locations around her mouth, nose and forehead. My first thought was should I get my shirt
off and try to control the bleeding or just wait, I waited for the medic. Once the steri strips and wiping occurred I
knew that there were going to be stitches and a broken nose and I was unfortunately
proven right later on in the evening, but we missed our bus and had to ride
back with the crew bus after all the triage work was complete. The zoo did a fantastic job and were
extremely compassionate, I know, I know, all you lawyers are all thinking that
they were only worried about the liability issues but that wasn’t the case,
this was very genuine and compassionate care, and I stand behind that
assessment so keep your paranoia to yourself.
We made it back to the ship and to medical only to find out that they
didn’t have an xray/CT scanner with enough resolution to see if there any
broken bones so we were told that they were calling ambulance and we needed to
go to the emergency room. I had 20
minutes to pack our stateroom so we could be put off the boat, I and 4 of our
closest friends, who I never saw before, packed our entire stateroom in 15
minutes, it was impressive; they even folded and hung the clothes, I just threw
them in the suitcases.
The ambulance
ride was a bit surreal, the bleeding was all controlled so there wasn’t a lot
for them to do so they spent their time taking pictures of the boat as we
pulled away from the dock, yes that’s correct, taking pictures. The boat pulled in the gangway when we hit
the dock and buttoned up as we were being loaded into the ambulance; who knew
what it was going to take to get back on that boat some three days later, but
more in a minute.
We reached the
hospital and were third in line to get a bed, yes to get a bed in the emergency
room, we were in the hallway waiting to get a spot so we could be seen; recall
there are only 25M people in the whole of Australia, and they have a socialized
system of healthcare, is this really expected to work on the scale that we have
in the US, I’m not optimistic. Once I
paid them for being seen, yes you pay before you are seen if you don’t have a national
healthcare number, and they really tried to convince me that I should have one,
they relented after they realized that the funny accent really meant I didn’t
live in Australia. But not before going
through a litany of questions about who/where was my regular doctor and the
like, it was somewhat comical but simultaneously challenging as it really took
a bit to sink in that we don’t have an address, don’t have a cell phone that
worked and are just here on holiday. We
got there and I paid the $800 for the ER visit.
They immediately CT scanned her head and found out that she had two
fractures of the nose, one fracture on the bottom of her sinus cavity on her
left side and her forehead would require stitches. This was all within 30 minutes of being
seen. The staff was phenomenal, the
doctor, Chris looked like Sir Richard Branson without the beard and moustache,
but extremely down to earth and very helpful throughout. Just one side note, there was another doctor
who stopped by initially to take a look and asked us where were from, we said
Texas, his exact comment, a quote, “that’s a red state”, and we didn’t see him
again except in passing between patients; they know so much more about us than
we do about them that it’s shameful.
Over the night the nursing staff took care of AJ’s
lesser wounds and arranged for us to get lodging for the night which closed at
11:30pm so Chris took over to stitch up AJ’s forehead and ramrodded the
paperwork through so that we could prove that she could fly to the next
destination without issue. We finally
were released with a bunch of pain killers and anti-inflammation meds around
10:40pm. We called the taxi and hit the
hotel at 11:20pm, it was the Ibis Budget as nothing else had availability. Now in my defense, I had heard of Ibis in
Europe and they didn’t look that bad from what I had seen, but this was
different, this was the “budget” version of Ibis and boy did they ever mean
budget. It was by far the scariest hotel
that we had ever stayed in, the only comparison would be the mini-rooms that
you stay in if you are internationally traveling through Heathrow (they close
the airport and you must leave unless you stay in this mini-hotel) but it is
very safe, just tiny. This wasn’t even
close to that, this was a bed with our towels rolled up on the end of the bed
and a window just above one side of the bed, that didn’t have a latch that
fully aligned during closure, I gave AJ the “good/safe” side. We ate dinner out of a vending machine that
would have made Padma of Top Chef cry out load, the worst but we had to eat
something!!!
We arose very early to the sounds of children and folk
scurrying around on the second floor, and preparing to leave. The entire parking lot was empty by the time
we got to the airport and make preparations for flying to our next destination,
Airlie Beach. We contacted the stateside
cruisecare folks and were assigned a lady name Miranda to help get us back to
the ship. We were told that yes we were
good to meet up with the ship there day after next as Tuesday was a sea day so
we had all day to get there. Now mind
you we only have Wi-Fi calling as we didn’t turn on the international dialing
before leaving so we have sporadic Wi-Fi calling to the US and no calling
internationally as it didn’t work from Wi-Fi, I will check on that with global
roaming when I get back to the office as well.
So our best means of communication is email back and forth, we got the
email saying all is good so we buy our tickets to Proserpine Australia, and get
ready to enjoy the beach before the ship arrives tomorrow. Just one hitch, 10 minutes before the plane
leaves I get a frantic call from Miranda telling us that the Australian government
will not allow personnel movement at that location and we can’t get back on the
boat there!! She says go to Cairns (pronounced
cans for us foreigners), and not Airlie Beach, too late I tell her the bags are
on the plane and we are getting ready to board we will sync back up upon
arrival to see what to do from Proserpine.
We arrived at Proserpine (there Pseudo City Code is PPP in Sabre) and is
the most quaint place I’ve ever seen, it reminded me of Long Beach’s airport,
no jetway, a quansit hut type building with only a runway, no taxi way, you
taxi on the runway and turn around to take off.
It was great, I loved it!! We
were using their pathetic Wi-Fi to see if Miranda had told us anything at which
time I was interrupted by the cleaning lady that said “You know we close in 20
minutes, are you getting a rental car or a shuttle to go to town?”. You close the airport, I said, she says “Of
course, this is the last flight of the day, we’re done.”, almost as if she’s
wondering where doesn’t an airport close, I thought “DFW!!!, and boy do I wish
I were there right now!!!”. I ran to the
Hertz counter told them the story and said I would return it tomorrow if I
could or I would make arrangements to keep it if needed. In the meantime Miranda let us know that we
could not get back on in Airlie Beach and she was checking with the insurance
company to authorize another flight from Airlie Beach to Cairns. We were off to Airlie Beach and the Best
Western, Mango Resort, it was 2000% better than the Ibis Budget and we felt
safe and had a great dinner and slept contentedly for the first time in two
days.
We got up Wed to find that Miranda had received the
approval to fly us to Cairns so we checked flights and found out that the only flight
from Proserpine was to Brisbane, where we came from, and it was over $600 per
person, we said how far is it? Turns out
it’s 9 hours by car, so that’s what we did, we sent Miranda the email saying we
were going to drive it, we left at 7:16am from the illustrious Best Western and
hit the local Mickey D’s at 7:37am after getting some tea and iced coffee for
the trip. Now recall that they drive on
the wrong side of the road here!!!! And my only experience driving on the left
side was in St. Croix where I had to pull off the road at the first roundabout
so I could observe the traffic and confirm that I knew which way to go. All in all it worked out well and my only
issue seemed to be turning on the windshield wipers at the corners, you see the
blinkers are on the other side, that took some real getting used to but after a
few hours AJ and I had it down and we hit Cairns at 5pm after enjoying a lunch
in a small town called Townsville right on the coast and truly enjoyed the
drive, everything is so lush and vegetation is oh so green. I didn’t expect that, I was expecting a
desert, far from it, it was absolutely stunning and I’m glad we did it that way
and saved the insurance company a bunch of money too.
We checked into the Pullman Reef Casino and Resort and
headed up to our room. Now this was a
room, back on par with the Shangri La in Sydney, a sight for sore eyes,
literally, well AJ’s not mine!! J We had dinner on the wharf at a place called
Dundee’s, yes, Dundee’s where we had to try the Barramundi, incredible. It is the least fishy fish I’ve ever eaten,
and I like fish, too bad we can’t get it in the States. The bed was unbelievable and we dropped off
the rental car at Cairns Airport where the cruise line had told us they would
provide limo service back to the ship, it was far from a limo, it was a van but
the driver was great and we chatted about our adventure at length. He already knew the story, apparently its
made it around the ship and back to corporate.
We made it back to the dock and hit the tender to get us back to the
ship, bags and all, uneventfully. By
1:30pm we were with stateroom, keys and all, bags delivered and up stairs
eating lunch. I looked around at the
clientele on the ship and leaned over to AJ and said, how many of these people
would have been able to overcome the challenges we faced and made it back, I
suspected only a small percentage. But I
never doubted that we’d be back home to #1223 and on our way to Darwin.
Last night we got dressed up and headed down to the
specialty restaurant that AJ booked about 6 months ago and had a beautiful
dinner and enjoyed lamenting about our tale to each other. It was fantastic, overlooking the back of the
ship and watching all the water kick up from the massive assipods doing 20
kts. It made me grateful for the days
and that I have my best friend and wife to share these memories with, I had a
great time and I love her more for being on the journey with me, what a
story. More tomorrow, but I doubt it
will be anything like this, you know it’s a “sea day”…
Ami
Says . . .
Sunday
October 9, 2016 – The Vacation Begins
This was our first full day on the boat. It was a sea day. It was quite relaxing. Blaise I spent most of the day reading. He is reading some management book and I am
reading a book called The Secret Keeper about a woman whose idyllic childhood
was interrupted by seeing her mom stab and kill a man on their front porch with
the family’s designated “birthday cake” knife while her mom was holding the
youngest member of the family in her arms.
Fast forward 40-50 years and the woman, now a famous actress, seeks
answers to her questions surrounding the stabbing while her mom is on her
deathbed. Took me a while to get into
it, but now I have to know how her mom came to know the man she killed.
This was also our second night in the main dining
room. The couple next to us at the table
for four did not show up, but the couple, Blaise has deemed “The Curmudgeons,”
did make an appearance. The man said “hello”
to Blaise as he sat down and the wife nodded to me as we left our table at the
end of our meal. All that was said in
between from them is their food and wine orders to the waiter and sommelier.
Not a word uttered by either of them otherwise. Not a peep. Not a “How is your food dear?” Nothing. I am not convinced they even like each other. No conversation whatsoever. So odd.
I sure hope Blaise and I never get that way. Twenty-four years together and we still find
things to talk about. We don’t have to talk all the time, and we don’t, and we
are OK with that. But we at least care if the other is enjoying his or her
meal.
After dinner, we played some slots at the casino –
lost about $15 between the two of us.
The day the music died. Ok, not really, but thought I’d be dramatic.
We docked in Brisbane (pronounced briz-ben, not
briz-bAne). Today was the day I have been looking forward to for months – the
day I get to hold a koala. The excitement in the air was papable, at least for
me.
Before we left for the zoo, we sat on our balcony
looking out at Brisbane and talking. We could see the airport and Blaise noticed
two airplanes sitting tail to tail, facing opposite directions. This peaked his curiosity so he pulls out the
binoculars for a closer look. It appeared both planes had the words “Mine A Lot”
painted on their sides. He had me look
to confirm what he read and although that is what it appeared to read, I told
him it looked like “Mime A Lot” to me.
Well that was it, we have been cracking stupid mime jokes ever since. That and the picture of a plane full of mimes
and the thought that mimes need a special airplane, makes me laugh.
The bus drive to Australia Zoo, Steve Irwin’s zoo,
took a bit over an hour. We were to drive directly there but halfway, the tour
guide announced we were going to stop so someone could get off but the rest of
us were not to get off. So we stopped at
a truck stop-looking place and one of the couples on the bus got off and we all
just sat there. The woman seemed rather urgent in her strides to the building
while it appeared her male companion, presumably her husband, was simply
playing a supporting role, guiding her with his hand on her back. They were gone about 10 minutes, emerged from
the building, got back on the bus, and we went about our merry way on to the
zoo. I assume she had some urgent
bathroom matter to attend to? Or maybe she needed a coffee break. If it was a bathroom matter, I do feel bad
for her but the whole thing was just odd.
Before we got off the bus, we were given our voucher
for our “Koala Cuddle.” The excitement
mounts. They have various times for this, the first being 11:30. We are about in the middle of the bus, but assessing
our competition, we believe we can be one of the first in line. We wanted to get their first so the koalas
weren’t tired out by the time we got there and so we could enjoy the rest of
the zoo. We were 3 and 4 in line from
those of us on the bus. A mother and her
grown son beat us there probably because they were off the bus before us. The koala cuddle was glorious! I loved every second of it. They are as cute up close and personal as
they are in pictures. All they do is put
their arms around you like you are a tree trunk. The koala Blaise and I held was female, so a
bit smaller. She was soft and a bit
stinky. Blaise said he could not smell
the stink. Sitting here today, I would
not be able to smell the stink either. More on that later.
After that, we shopped at the gift shop and watched
the bird and crocodile show. Crazy men
taunting a crocodile! But we did learn
to stay at least a crocodile’s length away from ANY body of water and NEVER
NEVER go into the water because as soon as you hit the water, they can feel the
vibrations of your movement and then they are off to pay you a visit. We also, walked through an open area with
kangaroos – you could feed them, touch them, and get pictures taken with
them. We chose to merely observe them so
we didn’t get kicked by them. Clearly,
that was not my downfall; merely walking was.
On the way back to the bus, we stopped to look at some
more koalas. Blaise and I moved in to get a better picture. Blaise was ahead of me. It was a circular habitat with a wooden
planked walkway around it with the planks running perpendicular to the flow of
traffic. The front of my sandal got
caught on one of the planks and I tripped, I nearly recovered standing up but
that was not to be. I could not stop the fall and the six feet of my frame fell
face forward, hitting a park bench. I
felt my nose bend in quite an unnatural way.
There was nothing I could do. My right knee hit the ground and my face
hit the park bench, cutting me up in various places on my forehead, nose and
near my eyes. All I could see was blood
everywhere. I then hear “Oh my God, Ami!”
and instantly Blaise was at my side with his hand on my back. At this point, I am in a kneeling position with
my head right over the seat of the bench and I am cupping my hands under my
nose to catch the blood that is poring out.
Yeah, it was awful. I don’t think I have ever heard such worry in
Blaise’s voice before.
They radioed the bus to go back to the ship without
me. Blaise and I both refused an ambulance. All I wanted to do was to go back to the
ship, get bandaged up, and go about my merry way. A medic there cleaned me up as best she
could. They gave me new shorts from
their shop since mine were all bloody along with a stuffed koala, which I realized
yesterday has a bit of blood on it. We rode the bus back with some of the
ship’s crew who were there touring the facilities.
When we got back to the boat and into the medical
area, the doctor refused to do anything.
She kept telling us, I needed to go to the emergency room because she
was concerned I would start bleeding while we were at sea the next day. Blaise and I kept telling her no, no, we want
to stay here. Next thing you know, they have called an ambulance and hustled
Blaise upstairs to pack our things to take with us. Blaise says he was met at the cabin by 4
people who stuffed everything in the suitcases. I guess they were rushing us
out because it was close to 5 PM and the ship was scheduled to leave at 5.
By the time they wheeled me in a wheelchair to the ambulance
gurney, Blaise was at the ambulance with our luggage in tow. He says the paramedics were taking pictures
of the cruise ship because they had never had a call out to a cruise ship. I have no first-hand knowledge of this.
On the ride to the hospital, we learned that the ambulance
service is run and operated by the state, in this case, Queensland. There were three of them, all women, one of
which was interning her last semester of “Uni” (university).
Also on that ride to the hospital, we learned of
something called “Tim Tams” some sort of snacky chocolate “biscuit” thing that
EVERYONE in Australia ALWAYS has in their house. “You can’t live without them,” we were told. They even googled a picture and showed them
to Blaise. I was too busy holding gauze
under my nose to catch the blood. The
fall happened at around 1:45 and my nose was still bleeding. Not sure what time
it was at this point, but apparently we arrived at the hospital at 5:59 PM.
When we got to the hospital, we were the third
ambulance in line for service at the emergency room. We were in a hallway, all 3 gurneys lined up
against the wall, with the respective paramedics next to the gurneys. It appeared, the paramedics, could not leave
the patient until the patient had a bed.
I have no idea how long it took, but it seemed like a long time before I
was wheeled into to a bed in a large room with lots of beds divided by
curtains. The doctors and nurses station
was in the center of the room elevated one step. At one point, before a nurse
or a doctor came to see me, I looked up and saw about 5 nurses just staring at me. It was a bit unnerving, so I said to them “It
must be pretty bad, the way you are looking at me.” One was kind enough to come over and explain,
they were my care team and they were talking about who was going to do what.
I found the staff there to be wonderful. The doctors and the nurses were kind and
helpful. They even helped Blaise find a
hotel for us that night. After a CT
scan, showing 3 fractures – two in the nose and one of the sinus cavity leading
to the nose, and getting stitched up and cleaned up, one of the doctors
provided us a letter releasing me for all travel including flying.
I was quite skeptical of their medical system especially
after being wheeled in and comparing it to the Baylor Plano facilities my
sister was in this summer. It looked like an old run-down government-run
facility only clean. But the staff was
amazing!
Going through this ordeal, we had several people,
paramedics, doctors, and nurses ask about the upcoming presidential election,
Trump vs. Hilary, etc. Everyone knew where Texas was. When one of the doctors who saw me asked
where we were from and I told him Texas, his response was “Oh, a red state.” We were stunned. Until this happened, I
didn’t know Brisbane was in the state of Queensland. Not sure I even knew Queensland was a state
in Australia. Or that Australia even had
states. They were so in tune with news in the United States, it was unreal. And
a bit embarrassing realizing they knew so much about our country and I knew
nothing about theirs.
The longest part of the emergency room visit was
waiting for the CT Scan. As we were waiting, I thought back to the morning when
Blaise and I were sitting on the balcony looking at those airplanes so I told
Blaise they should just go ahead and mime the CT Scan results to me. It sure hurt to laugh right about then but
better to laugh than cry.
So while we were waiting for the emergency room to
discharge me, someone googled hotels near the airport and loaned Blaise a phone
to call and book a room for the night. After
several calls to hotels with no available rooms, we ended up staying at a place
called the “Ibis Budget Hotel.” Right
before Blaise called the Ibis, I asked him if he knew anything about. His
response: “I’ve heard of them. I think they are OK.” Famous last words. I was not really in a position or in the mood
to question further, so I trusted him. Our first clue there was a problem with
the place was when they told Blaise we needed to check in before 11:30 PM
because that is when they close. They
close??? I never heard of such a thing. Beggars can’t be choosers though. We wanted to be near the airport so we could
get on a plane the next day and meet up with the cruise ship in Arlie Beach.
The hotel was far less than stellar. The room was barely big enough to fit the
bed. There was no phone in the room and
it had one of those “wet” bathrooms where the whole thing is tiled with a drain
in the middle. There was a shower
curtain separating the toilet from the “shower’ but water still got
everywhere. The walls were paper thin so
you could hear everything. The headboardless bed was pushed in the corner of
the room so you could not get in the bed from both sides. Blaise made me sleep on the inside of the bed
so if there were any safety issues he could get out fast to “protect” me.
Tuesday
October 11, 2016 – The Way Back?
The next morning, Blaise started the calls to the
Celebrity “Care Team” who was handling everything to assure I received the
proper medical treatment and to assist with any plans to get back on the
boat. Not an easy feat when you don’t
have international phones. If the phones
are connected to Wi-Fi we were supposed to be able to make calls to the U.S. as
if they were local calls; a feature that was spotty at best. Good news for us, it worked at the Ibis, a
hotel chain we will avoid like the plague in the future. Blaise talked to Miranda, with the Care Team
in Florida. She said we needed to send
the letter we obtained he night before from the emergency room releasing me for
travel. She needed to send that to the
doctor on the boat to gain her approval to re-board the ship. We took a picture of the letter, sent it to
Miranda and told her we would head to the airport and contact her once we were
there to see if we were good to buy plane tickets to rejoin the boat which
lands in Arlie Beach the next day. After
a bit of delay because the ship’s doctor was in a “meeting” we received the OK
from Miranda we could head for the boat.
We had already found a flight to Proserpine, the
closest airport to Arlie Beach so we headed to the Virgin Australia counter to
buy our tickets. This was the first of
many explanations of our plight. We had
to show them the letter from the emergency doctor clearing me for travel so
they could send it to their medical department for their approval. Once we got
their OK, the tickets were purchased (around $800 for the both of us), bags
were check, and we headed for the food area to kill some time and eat a
much-needed meal. As we were waiting,
about 30 minutes before we were to board the plane, Miranda called Blaise to
tell him the port authority at Arlie Beach refused to let us on because it was
not designated as an embarkation/debarkation point. Blaise said, look, we just bought tickets and
are about to board the plane and we just reserved a room at a hotel. She said she would try again with the port
authority and then also check with the travel insurance to see if we had
approval to buy another plane ticket from Arlie Beach to Cairns to meet up with
the ship on Thursday instead of Wednesday. We told her we were getting on the plane and
would touch base with her once we made it to Arlie Beach. So that’s what we
did.
On the plane, we decided if we could not get on the
ship at Arlie Beach, we would rent a car and drive to Cairns since it appeared
from our research to get to Cairns from Arlie Beach, we would have to fly back
to Brisbane and then fly to Cairns.
We arrived at the Proserpine airport around 3:30
PM. The place was packed, but we noticed
no tower and ours was the only plane there.
You went down the stairs off the plane right onto the tarmac and into
the “terminal.” We were on a 737 so it
wasn’t a puddle jumper or anything that small. Turns out the people there were
waiting to get on the plane we were on.
Not sure where they were going. As we sat there trying to get our phones
to work on the Wi-Fi after Blaise grabbed our bags from baggage claim, a woman
with a orange reflective vest and asked if our transport was there. We said we
were unsure what we were going to do at that point. She then proceeded to tell us the airport was
closing at 4 because ours was the last plane of the day. Since we could not get
either of our phones to work with the Wi-Fi to call Miranda, Blaise went over
to the Hertz counter and rented a car.
At this point, he was still concerned about my state and didn’t want me
to walk very much so I just sat there with the luggage. A point well taken.
We decided we would get to the hotel, the Best Western
Mango Resort (we ran out of options because everything was booked already), and
try to reach Miranda there. We checked into the hotel. While it might have been a step up from the
Ibis, it was just barely. It won the battle by its size and safety. It was more like a small run down
apartment. Blaise said the bed was good
but he was probably comparing it to the Ibis so I’ll give it to him.
It was there we found out, I think (this part all runs
together), that one of the officer’s on the ship tried to fight that fight for
us with the port authority and lost. We then made the decision to get up the
next day and drive to Cairns which appeared to be an 8 hour trip.
Wednesday
October 12, 2016 – Australian Road Trip
We got up and were on the road by 7:30 after stopping
at the McDonalds for beverages, knowing we were going to stop in a place called
Townsville for lunch. Blaise took the
first leg and we traded at lunch and I drove the last half until we got right
outside of Cairns since I didn’t want to drive in the “city.” I believe I failed to mention they drive on
the left side of the road in Australia.
Blaise adapted quite easily to this but it really messed me up. On the
straight aways I was fine, but turning and merging really messed me up. Not to mention the turn signal being on the
wrong side of the steering wheel so I was constantly turning on the windshield
wipers instead.
Australia uses a bit different, and sometimes more
friendly road signs: Caution is Take
Care; Passing Lane is now Overtake Lane.
Every creek regardless of size or water quantity was identified by a
sign and at times they are creative with their names for creeks. We crossed Breakfast Creek in the morning and
Dinner Creek around 4. We drove through places like Gumlo, Wununga, and
Didgeridoo Lagoon. Their Burger Kings
are called Hungry Jacks. We know this
because the name “Hungry Jacks” on the signs were in between two hamburger buns
and they sold the “Whopper.”
This part of the Australia grows lots of mangos and
even more sugar cane. Railroad tracks would run along side the sugar cane crops
and they would just load up the cars with sugar cane. It appeared to be harvest season for the
sugar cane.
All in all it was a fun little trip. We saw parts of
Australia we would have never seen otherwise.
The terrain shifted from scrubby brush mountains to lush rain forested
mountains the closer we got to Cairns.
We drove to Cairns having no idea where we were
staying but we knew they had a Shangri-La Hotel there and that was our goal
after the last two hotels. We found an Information
Center where a lovely lady spent nearly 30 minutes helping us find a decent
hotel since the Shangri-La was booked up.
We landed at Pullman Reef Hotel Casino and Resort, right next to the
pier area. While at the Information
Center, I checked our e-mail to find an e-mail from Miranda indicating
transportation would meet us at noon the next day at the domestic baggage claim
at the airport to take us to the cruise
ship.
Cairns is a lovely place; a place to catch boats to
the Great Barrier Reef, as is Arlie Beach but Cairns is the larger city. In the
evening we had a leisurely walk on the pier and ate a place called Dundee’s
overlooking the water and had the most amazing fish ever – barramundi! If you ever have chance to try it, you must. Our friends, Frank and Barbara, told us we
had to try this fish while we were down here and it did not disappoint. The bed
at the Pullman was probably the best bed I’ve ever slept on. Maybe because our trek back to the boat was
almost complete.
Thursday
October 13, 2016 – Back on the Boat
At times, it felt as if we would never get on the boat
again. But we did it. Embarking the ship went off without a
hitch. Seems as though everyone on the
ship, at least those that work on it, know our story, even that we drove from
Arlie Beach to Cairns. The doctor called
the room and asked me to come see her the next day so she could check on my
wounds and see if my stitches were ready to come out. The Shore Excursion
manager called and said they were refunding our money for the excursion we
missed in Cairns. Our bags were
delivered to our room almost immediately. We ate lunch and unpacked and then we
relaxed. We had an amazing dinner at the
specialty restaurant, The Tuscan Grille.
The
last few days have been quite an experience. My face is still a mess and I am
sure I get some looks from people. I am
a bit self-conscious about it, but what can I do? Blaise has been incredible
through the whole thing. The past few
days have reinforced how very fortunate I am that we found each other and we have
each through the good times and the bad. We never gave up and had some fun
along the way. Shit happens and life goes on. Glad I have Blaise with me!
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