We disembark the Viking Orion and head to our Bamurru Plains adventure. We’ve had a good few days at sea.

We’ve had two more dinners at the Chef’s Table and lots of delicious food from the restaurant on board.

This morning is stormy, but it should clear before our flight.

 We are anchored off Thursday Island this Sunday morning. We rode a tender to the island for a short walk around. They must eat a lot of mangoes because the trees are all around. The sea is now a bright turquoise. There are cells of rain around us, but we stayed dry.

 Today I visited the Cairns Aquarium while Norman went snorkeling. The Aquarium is fantastic. I hope Norman got to see so many beautiful things as I did.

A purple fish for Emily

A yellow fish for Kathryn

And many more beautiful creatures 

And some other odd things

The rock at the bottom is a fish!

This ray from below has a ghostly face.

There were also lizards and a few strange insects-

The world’s heaviest cockroach species.

And this creepy six inch long walking stick.

And many more things!

 Another lovely sunset yesterday.

And some beautiful clouds for sunrise this morning.

And Chef’s Table again tonight.

 We toured Brisbane yesterday. Our tour guide was a food blogger so we learned a lot about places to eat but not much else. We did go to 2 high points for views of the city.

Later in the day, we visited the Anglican Cathedral, St. John’s. Construction lasted for over a hundred years and was finished in 2009.

We next visited the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Stephen. St. Stephen’s Chapel is the oldest surviving church building in Brisbane. The Cathedral itself was completed in 1874.

 At sea today with nice clouds for the sunset.

Then, dinner at the Chef’s Table 

 We spent our first night on the Viking Orion last night. Today we are docked at Newcastle. We had the chance to visit the Blackbutt Nature Reserve where was saw more interesting animals.

 Before leaving Sydney, we visited the Roman Catholic Cathedral, St. Anne of the Cross. The sandstone building took over a hundred years to complete.

The Anglican Cathedral, St. Andrew, is the oldest cathedral in Australia. 

Sydney is a lovely city with a nice mix of old and new buildings.

Our hotel, The Intercontinental, is a reuse of the first purposely built government building in Sydney. The Treasury Building boasts to first elevator in Australia (and it still works). The first three floors demonstrate the architecture of the original building. The tower of upper floors was discretely added in matching sandstone.