Queensland, part 2

Our visit to northern Queensland had a very inauspicious start. It’s all Koji’s fault. By Koji I mean a tropical cyclone that made landfall in the area. As a result — and when it was still an unnamed storm called U12 — the authorities closed the Townsville port to commercial traffic and our stop there was cancelled. We soon heard that our snorkeling day in Cairns (more specifically at the Great Barrier Reef) was postponed from the first to the second day in the area. 

Lots of trivia on the unplanned sea day. I was on the winning team for one competition and earned a coveted purple wooden tulip. 

So the ship meandered its way to Cairns, eventually moving in a holding pattern waiting for the port of Cairns to reopen to commercial traffic. We learned that the snorkeling was cancelled because storms reduce visibility for some time. Instead of arriving in Cairns in the morning, we arrived at 6pm. Bummer as I’d looked forward to snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef again. 

It was hot and raining in Cairns. I was surprised to see people using umbrellas (being a good northwesterner I almost never use such items and I’d have to think about whether I currently own one and if so where it might be). Then again, the two friends I went exploring with and I were all wearing ponchos or raincoats because it was pouring as we got off the ship. Once again I found myself grateful to the people at the train station in Bath, England, last summer as I reused the free poncho they provided. 

We walked for about an hour and the rain stopped but it was very muggy. One of the highlights was seeing bats flying above us as we had in Sydney. Also saw more of the pelicans like we saw on Moreton Island, and some very large ferns growing on the ground and in trees.  

We did some caching and visited the Night Markets which was sort of like a holiday craft show (ie, lots of small booths), though most of the items being sold were mass-produced — some of them lovely, some (to my eye) pure junk. 

For the full day in Cairns, June and I walked several kilometers along the esplanade next to the coast. We saw lots of birds, almost none of which we see at home, and some beautiful tropical plants. It was very hot and muggy — we saw a thermometer that said 31.9 (89F), but that was early in the day —  and we had mixed success with caching. 

The coast is pretty, and it was interesting to see trees growing in the shallow saltwater. 

Here are some of the other interesting trees: a fig tree, a walkway, and an interesting palm tree that’s probably a Bismarck palm. 

Lots of bird of paradise in bloom, in reds and yellows. The white plant with the six “petals” is the appropriately named beach spider lily. The one that looks like a shuttlecock (the flowers had clearly fallen from a nearby tree and there weren’t any still in the tree) appears to be a Barringtonia asiatica, one of who’s common names is fish poison tree.

Here’s a pied oystercatcher — interesting with the large beak, and amusing because we saw other oystercatchers in Norway last summer.

Eventually we returned to the ship — after I bought some citrus sorbet which definitely hit the spot. Several of us took a refreshing dip in the ship’s pool. 

Cairns didn’t treat me well in 2003 — we’d booked an overnight on the reef but were moved to a dive boat that was, well, a dive (combined with severe seasickness) — and it didn’t treat me well again in 2026. Bummer, because I really want to like this coastal community. 

Koji wasn’t quite finished with us after Cairns. The tail end of the storm definitely impacted our ride northwest to Papua New Guinea which is the 2nd largest island in the world, after Greeland. Gale force winds, waves over 4 meters tall. During the worst of the rocking I was ok (having taken an anti-emetic) but then I got a bit cocky and spent too much time on Deck 9 and felt a bit green. I had a less than comfortable three or so hours, though I’m feeling fine again now.   

Tomorrow we dock in Alotau, Papua New Guinea (PNG) which will be my first new country of the trip. If all goes well we’ll get to snorkel at our second of two PNG ports.