Having had such a terrible day yesterday and cancelled our trip, plus a far from good night again, it was with some trepidation that we staggered ashore from the tender boat after a leisurely breakfast. The buffet coffee is renowned for tasting like anything other than coffee, but even a Robert Timms coffee bag tasted terrible. The Coldral and Strepsil diet wasn’t doing my palate any favours, so everything tasted terrible.
From the pleasant pier, where they were offering half hour tours by trike, we wandered up to the main street, about a five minute walk, to find a small settlement that obviously relies on tourism, with a plethora of bars, cafes and souvenir shops, plus the inevitable Target.
It is not a large place so it didn’t take long to walk the length of the main drag and back. We staggered into a cool, pleasant cafe, for a drink, mine being a welcome caffeine boost of Coca-Cola, to find the cheerful proprietor was from Grimsby, a matter of eighty or so miles from Nottingham!
We were ferried back to the ship quite early, by local catamaran, rather than the usual lifeboat. It was only 12:25 when we returned, but at least I survived the morning with collapsing in a dribbling spluttering heap.
We were invited down to Ros and Arnold’s presidential suite for pre-dinner drinks at 5pm.
It was one of my favourites for dinner – French onion soup – which was no doubt good for me, but I couldn’t savour it as normal and was full by the end of it anyway! The appetite has taken a bashing
One of the regular cruise items is the staff show in the theatre and on the Dawn, we were far too late to see it and the telecast on to the MUTS screen and the TV screens was dreadful, the sound quality even worse, so this time, we made sure we were in time.
There are some talented staff members and little Deasy, a popular buffet waitress, really belted out her number with a professionalism that puts some paid entertainers to shame. Lyle singing with ukulele accompaniment was also memorable. As usual, the cruise entertainment staff put on a couple of well received comedic skits. Although we didn’t need to see it on TV, at least they had a camera operator this time, rather than a high set fixed wide angle camera, that only really showed the backs of audience heads, the wings and the proscenium arch of the Dawn!
Knowing that a shortage of caffeine is likely to keep me awake, we called at the atrium for a late coffee (drinking chocolate for Paula) so bed was a more respectable 12:15! A bit nearer our normal be time.
Another land day tomorrow – Airlie Beach. We have never been this far up the east coast of Australia before and Cairns or Port Douglas had been on our ‘to do’ list for some time, so it is all new to us. For the Australians on our table, this is all old hat of course. For them, Airlie Beach represents little more than the last stop before Sydney on this cruise, so they are not exactly jumping up and down with glee, but talk persists of plans for 2013 to maintain the excitement levels.
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