On Mar 8, 2024 we were at sea again heading Northeast in the Banda Sea as we travelled among the islands that make up Indonesia. The Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands. A map of Indonesia is shown below. Australia is to the Southeast; Papua New Guinea is the large island to the East; and, Malaysia is to the North and West.
One of the highlights for today was a celebration of International Women’s Day. Nancy received a rose and card and all of the ladies on the ship were invited to a special cocktail party.
On Mar 7, 2024 we docked at Kupang, West Timor, which is the provincial capital city and port of East Nusa Tenggara province in Southeast Indonesia. It has a long history with both Portuguese and Dutch colonial periods. The city was heavily bombed by the Allies during World War II and many old colonial buildings were either destroyed or left as ruins.
We took an excursion that started out at the Museum of Nusa Tenggara which displayed natural and cultural history of Timor, including complex traditional ikat fabric weaving. In the third picture below we were able to see how local Timorese hunt and spear whales off the coast.
After the museum we went to a rural area where we were able to see a local man climb a palm tree and extract juice from its leaves, which was later cooked and pounded into a mixture that eventually became local brown sugar.
Our next stop was at Lasiana Beach where we were entertained at a traditional house by local dancers and musicians with local instruments.
We then headed back to the port, but first stopped at a textile market where we got the opportunity to see a large selection of locally made items.
On Mar 6, 2024 we anchored in the harbor of Dili, Timor-Leste. Timor is a large, curved island in the Sunda Sea. The island is divided, as it has been for centuries, with the Western half a province of Indonesia and the Eastern side the independent nation of Timor-Leste. In the past, these segments were colonies of the Dutch (West) and the Portuguese (East). After gaining its independence from Portugal in 1975, Timor-Leste was under Indonesian sovereignty from 1976 to 1999. After a popular referendum in 1999, a revolution occured, and the UN kept peace until formal independence was established in 2002. Timor-Leste (East Timor) is one of the youngest countries in the world. The population is approximately 1.3 million people.
We took an excursion in the morning that took us to a Cultural Center where we were greeted by local dancers, and then visited a Resistance Museum that traced the struggles of the Falintil insurgents, and showed examples of indigenous crafts such as textiles, woven mats and pottery.
After that we drove into the hills to visit an old museum honoring the Timorese and Australians that fought together in World War II. From this vantage point we had some good views of the harbor, including one with our ship, the Seabourn Sojourn, and her sister ship, the Seabourn Odyssey, that were in port at the same time.
On our way back to port, we stopped at Teis Market, a local market where we were able to look at many tapestries and woven items, and watch a local lady working on a project.
After leaving Darwin, we headed Northwest on the Timor Sea toward our next port of call, Dili, Timor-Leste, a distance of approximately 390 nautical miles. This meant that we would have another sea day on board. One of the many activties that took place on this day was a deck party during which the various departments on the ship organized games (corn hole, etc.) or provided demonstrations (rope knotting, etc.). Nancy got some help from the Housekeeping staff and learned how to create animals out of bath and hand towels. Our cabin steward, Arnol, helped her learn his technique.
On Mar 3, 2024, we docked at Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Darwin is a town of approximately 250,000 people and is the capital of the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory is a large, sparsely populated area of Australia. It represents 25% of the area of Australia, but has only 5% of the population of the country. Darwin had much activity during World War II, and was heavily bombed by the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. However, because of its distance from Japan, it was never invaded. It served as a staging area for air and sea forces of the Allied countries.
On our first day in the Darwin area, we took an all-day outback excursion that took us to the Litchfield National Park, a park that covers approximately 1,500 square kilometers, and is home to a number of stunning waterfalls and crystal clear pools. Aboriginal people have lived throughout the area for thousands of years.
On our trip to see the waterfalls, we passed wide open areas and could see wallabies running across the fields, many different birds, and various species of trees. We also passed a number of magnetic termite mounds. At a swimming hole we stopped at, we met a friendly lizard along the shore.
On our second day in Darwin we took another excursion that concentrated on sites in the city itself. We visited the Botanical Garden where we saw a large metallic crocodile, and also stopped at a museum which had a number of art exhibitions and an exhibit devoted to Cyclone Tracy which devasted 80% of Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974. In the days after the disaster, most of the population left the city. We also stopped to see a view of the Darwin harbor, which is the largest harbor in Australia (seven times the size of the Sydney Harbour). We ended the evening with our last Australian sunset.
On Feb 29, 2024, we started a three-day cruise, which took us North along the Eastern coast, around Cape York at the Northeast tip of Australia, and then West into the Arafura Sea to Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. The total distance was approximately 1,152 nautical miles.
We spent the three days relaxing after our week in Australia, enjoying a beautiful sunset and storm clouds in the area leading to Papua New Guinea, having another great dinner at The Grill, and enjoying the calm seas.
On Feb 28, 2024, we anchored at Cooktown, a coastal town of approximately 2,500 people, that is located on the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is famous as the site of the first “white” settlement in Australia when Captain James Cook, having struck the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cape Tribulation struggled up the coast and beached the H.M. Barque Endeavor on the shores of the Endeavor River. He and his crew spent 48 days on the shore repairing the barque before he could continue his journey.
We took a cruise excursion up the Endeavor River and heard about the fishing boats that still catch fish on the river as a business. The cruise took us among many mangrove areas bordering the river that are home to large crocodile.
The town of Cooktown is small and has become a popular northern point for those wanting to make the long and difficult trip to the top of Cape York. It has a number of statues of Captain Cook.
On Feb 26, 2024, we docked at Cairns, which is a city of approximately 170,000 people, located in tropical Far North Queensland. It is considered the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Our stay in Cairns will be overnight for two days.
On our first day we decided to explore Cairns on our own. We walked along the Cairns Esplanade, a relatively new development along the oceanfront that incorporates a walking/jogging track, a sandy swimming lagoon, exercise and playground equipment, and shops and restaurants. It is shaded with many large fig trees along the way.
We made our way into the city and stopped at St. Monica’s War Memorial Catholic Cathedral. It was built after World War II and designated a memorial to the fallen soldiers of Australia in 1945. The Cathedral is well known for its stained glass windows which panoramically tell the story of creation around the walls of the cathedral.
We walked back toward the shore and our ship in extremely hot and humid weather and went to a “night market”, which is a common market in Asian countries for local vendors to sell their crafted goods, or items imported from other countries.
On Feb 27, 2024, we took an excursion that included a skyrail rainforest cableway which took us up into the rainforest where there was a walkway along which we could see many different vegetation and some wildlife. Also we were able to view the Barron Falls waterway and surrounding forests.
We then took the cable car up a little further to Kuranda, a small town with many small heritage and original markets, as well as cafes and galleries. We visited a number of the markets and galleries and then went on to the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary, which is the largest flight aviary and exhibit in Australia. Its exhibit allowed us to be surrounded by 1,200 free-flying local rainforest butterflies.
On Feb 25, 2024, we docked at Townsville, Queensland, Australia, a town with a population of approximately 200,000 people. It has over 300 days of sunshine each year and is a year-around tourist center. We took an excursion that took us to a Billabong Sanctuary, which is an eco-certified wildlife park that offers up-close-and-personal encounters with various Australian wildlife, including koala bears, wombats, kangaroos, turtles, snakes and crocodiles. A billabong is a freshwater pond in an Australian plain, similar to an oasis in a desert. It is a congregating spot for any wildlife in the area.
On Feb 24, 2024, we anchored in a harbor off Airlie Beach in Queensland, Australia. Airlie Beach is a resort town on Queensland’s Whitsunday Coast. It is a gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometers (1,430 miles) over an area of approximately 345,000 square kilometers. It is located off the east coast of Queensland in Australia.
We took an excursion from Airlie Beach into the heart of the Australian bush country to the Proserpine River where we hoped to see some Australian wildlife in the plains, and some crocodiles on the river. Unfortunately, it had just rained in the area so much of the wildlife was in the neighboring woodlands, and the crocodiles stayed hidden in the river or out of sight on the banks of the river. We were able to see some Australian birds, and a couple of wombats along the way, and at one point a herd of Brahman cattle that are raised in the area.
World Cruise - 2024 