Turning our backs on the cannibals of New Guinea, we had two sea days before disembarkation in Darwin in Australia. Finally, we are close to the end of the voyage. Since leaving Valparaiso in Chile, we have covered thousands of miles. We have crossed the whole Pacific Ocean. We have visited some wonderful remote islands and encountered many interesting cultures and communities. We have spent many days at sea staring at an endless blue horizon and now it is just about over.
Time to get down to some serious boat building. There was a competition to build a boat. The vessels would be judged on the last sea day. Philip had constructed a basic hull from some water bottles. I added some superstructure and the propulsion system. Diane created a figure to skipper the ship. Susan made the signage. A proper team effort. We had won the daily trivia contest, a week earlier. Our prize was two electric fans. You can wave the fan in your face to keep cool. I mounted two of these on the boat so that they would push it along. A trial run in the bathtub, a bit of ballast and we were good to go.
We named the boat “Seabourn Only Fans”. A nod to the drive mechanism. On the day, when all the boat names were announced, there was a ripple of amusement. Others were puzzled as to what the joke was. The captain was chief judge and obviously a man of the world. He pointed out that if Seabourn actually named a ship “Only Fans” that it might cause some misunderstandings.
Our rivals were a mixed bunch. They included some very decorative entries and a rocket made of tin cans that must have taken weeks to build. In the crunch, our boat was the only one with propulsion. While the others floated or sank in the swimming pool, ours cheerfully steamed up and down. We won the competition.
Our prize was a small rucksack stuffed with Seabourn merchandise. Three soft toys, more fans, caps and so on. We had to leave most of it. Our lives are based on a 23 kg suitcase. One in, one out. If I had taken the very cute kangaroo with joey then I would have needed to take out two shirts and some socks.
Next morning, we arrived in Darwin. Usually, the ship will kick you off as soon as possible. This time however we had a day in Darwin. We were quite happy to have an extra night onboard and to go on the included tour. As usual, this involved getting up a little earlier than we really wanted and being bundled into a coach. We were taken out to the Territory Wildlife Park. Something between an park, an animal sanctuary and zoo.
Time was a bit limited. I think really, we could have spent an entire day there but we only had a couple of hours. First stop was the aquarium. This was quite well laid out and gloriously air conditioned. Obviously, there were a lot of fish tanks. There was also a tunnel where you could watch the fish from underneath. A few fish I could recognise from our snorkelling trips. I was quite pleased with that. There were a couple of crocodiles in a larger tank. The tank seemed small however for such enormous beasts. I looked the largest crocodile in the eye and thought it seemed bit bored. Not too surprising. Darwin is crocodile central. There are crocs everywhere. Some in parks but most just swimming around hoping for hapless tourists to wander into their grasp. In the centre of the city is an indoor crocodile display. You can pay to go into the “cage of death”. It is not a cage and you will not die, however, it is a plastic tube that allows you to swim next to the live crocodiles. Right next to crocodile tanks is a shop selling crocodile skin handbags and shoes.
Next up was the nocturnal animal display. Another air-conditioned building. This time it was dark inside. Initially I could barely see a thing. Over time a few tanks and cages came into view. We spotted some rodents, some snakes and some tree dwelling animals. Even after ten minutes, it was hard to spot anything. Photography was quite impossible. I tried but the best I could manage was a blurry picture of a mouse.
Rushing on, we came to an open-air place called the “flight deck” to watch a short show about birds. This turned out to be a small amphitheatre where we could all sit in the shade of a high roof. A young and very enthusiastic girl gave a presentation. Essentially, she fed various birds as they appeared and talked to us about them. The birds all knew their roles and were being let out by someone out of sight. It was quite an impressive show and gave me chance to get a few nice photographs.
A stork, some pretty lorikeets and an Australian Bustard were each marched out, fed and sent away. Then came a lovely barn owl which appeared to enjoy the attention flew right over people’s heads several times. An emu appeared which gave the presenter a chance to introduce an emu egg. Possibly not a real one. It was explained to us that these eggs are very tough to crack open. Next came a Black-breasted Buzzard who proceeded to demonstrate how it uses a rock to crack open the egg. Their beaks and talons are not strong enough so they have learned to throw a rock at the egg. One of the few cases of tool use amongst birds. Apparently, some birds have a favourite rock they use. Studies indicate this is an innate, hardwired behaviour. Not a learned skill passed down from parent to chick. They will even attempt to use rocks on egg-shaped objects like balls. This is probably what we witnessed. Finally, a Brahminy Kite swooped into view. It flew over us several times while catching pieces of food thrown into the air by the keeper.
A short walk brought us back to the entrance area. Here we spotted a Blue-tongued Skink and a keeper feeding a Fruit Bat from a bowl of fruit. Back on the bus we got taken to the world-famous Humpty Do Hotel. We could tell it is world famous because a sign on the wall proclaimed as much. The sign did not indicate just what the hotel was famous for.
Our last night on the Seabourn Pursuit was noticeably quiet. Many people had already left. Looking over the balcony I thought I spotted a small shark. It turned out to be a Diamond-scale Mullet. We are done with ships for a while. Time to hole up in Darwin and find our land legs.
