We arrived back at Thursday Island at about lunchtime. We were in Australia but not officially. First came passport control. The border control people came onboard and everyone took turns going to visit them. A woman in uniform squinted at me, squinted at my passport, nodded her head and I was done. Officially in Australia.
This all took time so it was not until after 3 pm that we could get off the ship. Getting off the ship was all but pointless but we did it anyhow. A short zodiac ride to the pier. A walk along the seafront. There was not much to see and nowhere to go. The highlight of the day was Diane sitting on a statue of a turtle.
In the evening, we sailed to Cape York. This is the most northerly tip of mainland Australia. Apparently, there is a sign to mark the fact. It was only a few hours to get there. We passed one of the other Ponant ships heading in the other direction. We were going to need to be up before 6 am yet again. Diane and I had just settled down for an early night when they dropped anchor. Our cabin is close to sea level at the front of the boat. It sounds and feels, like the anchor drops past our porthole and that the chain locker is under our bed. Bit of a jolt when you are just dropping off to sleep.
At 6 am it was still dark and raining. The sea looked to be running quite high as well. I got up anyhow. Diane had not slept well and was feeling particularly unimpressed. We had breakfast. The landing was delayed. Then it was on again. I joined a shore party in a zodiac. The rain had abated and the swell seemed far less in the cold, hard light of day. It was only a short walk from the landing site to northern point. Quite a few people had already arrived there and were queuing to be photographed with the sign. I managed to grab a photograph between people. Just then Diane bobbed past on a zodiac. She had opted out of the landing and went for a fly-by in a boat instead.
Heading back to the landing site I could see that it was no longer the landing site. They had decided it was too rocky there on a rising tide. Instead, we needed to walk over the top of the hill to a beach. Apparently, there is a saltwater crocodile called Gary that hangs out on this beach. Fortunately, there was no sign of him this morning. Pleasant view from the top of the hill. In the afternoon, we set sail for Lizard Island.
Penultimate night on the ship was gala night. There was a parade of all the officers and crew. Champagne was served and there were dancing girls. Eventually it stopped and we went for dinner. I am missing the Indian food. Ship food, as usual, is bland. Le Soleal is a French ship with a French chef. The bread was terrific and the wine was rather good as well. There was a strong emphasis on fancy fish and meat dishes. This did not impress us at all. Vegetables were mostly boiled and very boring. Surprisingly, to me, the cheese was a very mediocre selection. The omelettes were terrible. I am not sure how they did it but a cheese and onion omelette turned out tasteless and oily. I was really missing my spicy masala omelettes.
We had a morning at Lizard Island. I declined the optional walk. Seemed far too hot to me. Snorkelling was a much better idea. We had a very pleasant hour. Diane saw a big sea snake. These are very poisonous but not particularly dangerous. If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. We both saw some giant clams and many, many different fishes. With that, we were basically done. Back on the ship we handed back our snorkelling gear and then went back to our cabin to pack our bags. We had time to pop up to the bridge. I was pleased to see that they were using the Admiralty Total Tide software for their tidal height predictions. Andy and I wrote this a long time ago. It is nice to know that it is still useful. The evening was quiet and uneventful.
Next morning the ship docked early in Cairnes. We had breakfast and disembarked into Australia. Biosecurity is an important thing here. We were given a lot of information explaining how to avoid bringing in any plant or animal products that could cause problems. We had to fill in a landing card where we declared if we had been on a farm and all sorts of other things. We were briefed on the possibility of bag inspections, shoe cleaning and much questioning. In the event it was a complete anticlimax. The border offices took our declarations, said “welcome to Australia” and that was it.