Busselton and Perth

Sorry to be so long in between posts. We had expected to get this last one up early on in the extended stretch of sea days, but we had forgotten to consider that Crystal does its level best to fill every minute of every day, especially when there's nowhere else to go. So without further ado, our last Australian ports of Busselton and Perth.

After leaving Adelaide, we had two more port stops in Australia; one in the small town of Busselton and the final port for the segment at Fremantle, the port for Perth. Both of these ports are on the west coast of Australia, so we were hoping for some calmer seas as we headed north.

Busselton is a relatively small town near the Margaret River wine region. We took a tour out into the country to see something of the area, and of course did come across some vineyards and wineries along the way.

Arriving in Busselton. We had a 30 minute tender ride
in, about 10 minutes of which was riding alongside the pier. 

Margaret River wine country is a half hour outside of
Busselton

One of the wineries in the area

              

We passed through the small town of Cowaramup, best known for the statues of cows along the main street. Here are a few:

Our tour was one of the last to get back, and with a half-hour tender ride between shore and ship, we didn't have any time to check out one of the longest piers in the world - this one stretches over 1.2 miles in length.

The Odyssey Art at Sea exhibition took place around the same time as our departure from Busselton. Here are a few photos of the exhibit along with pictures of Monica's art:

Only a part of the full display

This segment's art classes focused on dyeing silk, with the final project being a silk scarf, either square or oblong. We did a few smaller items to play with various methods including sticking masking material on the silk, stamping with our handmade stamps, and using painted on masking materials. It was great fun!

Monica's final scarf project:

As we had an extra session once the scarves were finished, we had a little watercolour class as well. This is a quick sketch of the Cape Willoughby Light Station on Kangaroo Island.

             

Overnight it was a case of so far, so good, as the seas remained relatively calm. Unfortunately we had to bid farewell to some new friends we had made during the first segment, including Terry and Kerry from Sydney. Terry and Larry had been corresponding on Cruise Critic for quite some time and we finally had the chance to meet on this cruise.

We arrived in Fremantle, the port town for Perth, early in the morning. It was a good thing, too, as the crew were expecting a huge restock here in preparation for the seven-day crossing of the Indian Ocean and the out-of-the-way ports to follow before reaching South Africa.

All of those containers as well as the trucks were
offloaded into the ship's stores.

We kept out of the way, having our breakfast in the suite.

Of  course the ship needed to refuel as well.

            

Our tour today took us by ferry boat from Fremantle to the city centre of Perth, where we would be returning to the ship by bus. We had no idea what any of this would be like, and were quite surprised by the width of the Swan River that connects the two communities. The river may have been navigable by the original discoverers, but there is no shipping there now. In fact, there are a couple of bridges right by the port that block access to the river for anything higher than a two-deck ferry boat.

Being on a rather large river, and with the largest population
in Western Australia in the Perth/Fremantle area, everyone seemed
to have a boat. Our tour guide mentioned that in the 1980s it
was more expensive to buy a slip for a boat than it was to buy
a house! 

This huge sandbar is a great place for windsurfers, fishermen
and apparently even the dolphins that hang out in the river. We did
see one from the ferry.

This high level pedestrian bridge is in the Botanic Gardens,
which is right next to King's Park

The downtown waterfront of Perth. There is lots of new
building going on here

            

The city of Perth is compact, much like downtown Toronto, and it has lots of green space near the Swan River. King's Park is one of the largest urban park areas in the world, actually slightly larger than Stanley Park in Vancouver; it is a beautiful area with great views over the city and river.

The view from King's Park

Driving around - what could be more typically Aussie?

The Perth ANZAC Memorial in the park

Boats, boats and more boats. It's almost as busy as
Sydney harbour but with fewer ferries.

           

The whole area here was settled by freemen, meaning people who were not sent here as convicts, but chose to come to Australia, in the early to mid 1800s. The discovery of gold in the area of Calgoolie, about 600 km from the coast, made it a very popular place for about 50 years while just about anyone could stake his claim and see what he could find. Eventually the gold rush ended, but the gold hasn't run out yet. There is still a very large mine in Calgoolie that produces a good amount of gold every year. In fact Perth, as remote as it is, has become the headquarters for some of the world's biggest gold and ore producers like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. It is a beautiful city and one we'd like to be able to explore further on a future trip to Australia.

Of course, the big event for the day was the sailaway, and the beginning of our stretch of seven days at sea, crossing the Indian Ocean to Port Louis, Mauritius. We were all hoping, again, for a smooth trip - we found out that about 100 people who had booked this segment of the cruise would only be boarding in Mozambique so they could avoid all this sea time. Maybe they got some kind of deal on a 14 night cruise instead of the 21?? But we were looking forward to the experience, one way or the other.

As we pushed away from the wharf

Turning the ship around to head out to sea.

Our last sight of land, and other boats, for a week!

Heading almost directly into the sunset. Our course for the
week is a straight line: 282 degrees, just north
of west.

Smooth Sailing to Albany

The seas were, FINALLY, on our side between Adelaide and Albany. Although there was usually some movement and a few whitecaps, it wasn't enough to keep the usual events from taking place.

Our Odyssey Art at Sea classes took place regularly. The knitting group met in the mornings, but the number of people attending depended on how much the ship was moving on any day. The art classes took place in the afternoons and this segment the project was designing and colouring silk scarves using different methods of dye application. The display for all of these projects is still to come in Busselton.

The chef's team usually creates one big lunchtime buffet near the end of each cruise, and this one was the Viennese Buffet. We usually would walk around, take a few photos, and go eat at the Trident Grill or the Marketplace buffet. But after taking a look at the offerings, Monica decided we would have to take part in the big buffet this time. As many of the culinary and hotel management officers are Austrian, they chose all of the best things from the region. Here are some photos of the display and our lunch plates:

A very small selection of buffet items - Devilled Egg, Shrimp,
sausage, German meatloaf and roasted veggies...

...weisswurst with sauerkraut and roast potatoes, goulasch and
the Mom favourite knackwurst sausage, one more time.

The dessert selection included Marble Cake, Cream Puffs,
'Rote Gruetze' fruit pudding with vanilla sauce, and, in the
back, Larry's favourite Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

That same evening, we had our first reservation at Prego, the Italian restaurant. We did hold back a bit at lunch, knowing what the meals there are like, and we had been doing our best whenever the weather allowed us to walk our laps around the Promenade Deck. So far we'd been able to maintain our goal of 10 miles, or 34 laps around per week. Dinner at Prego was delicious, as usual.

Caprese Salad

Osso Buco, braised veal shank, served with light creamy
polenta

Rack of Lamb with root vegetables

Dessert - Larry's gelato and Monica's Tiramisu

The town of Albany is very interesting. Also discovered in the very early 1800s when captains Flinders for the British and Baudin for the French were sailing around planting their flags everywhere, it is in one of the largest natural harbours in the world. Obviously Flinders got here first, as it is called King George Sound, and the bay where the town is located is Princess Royal Harbour.

We were booked on a tour to the Whaling Station museum and Torndirrup National Park for the afternoon.

A replica of the Brig Amity that brought the first settlers to
Albany. Unlike Sydney, much of South and West Australia was
settled by 'freemen' who chose to come here, rather than convicts.

Since its establishment, much of Albany's commerce was based on the whaling trade. Both within the Sound and in the nearby Southern Ocean they hunted Sperm Whales and Humpback Whales, using the oil for candles, oil lamps, equipment lubrication, and even cosmetics. The bones, skin and cartilage was reduced to a meal used in cattle feed and as fertilizer. The last owners of this whaling station operated it from the 1950s until 1978. Not only was the cost of sending the ships out greater than the revenue from the whales, the Humpback Whales were on the endangered species list and whale hunting was no longer socially acceptable over much of the world. Now the Humpback and Sperm Whale populations worldwide have grown significantly and they are, for the most part, free to swim all the oceans.

There is also a large display of whale skeletons at the museum

The whaling ship Cheynes IV, one of the last ships
used before the company closed

Along with the big ships, people would go whaling from
shore, using these small boats, a manual harpoon and
lots of manpower on the oars

The views on the beach from the station.

There had not been whales here for a very long time, but now there
are some Sperm Whales coming back into the Sound

Our next stop was at Torndirrup National Park, in an area known as 'The Gap'. It shows off the ruggedness of the coastline on the west side of Australia as well as the power of the waves crashing on the shore. Even when we sailed out that evening, it was easy to see the water spraying high up against the rocky islands from quite a distance away.

The Natural Bridge

Yes, Monica was here. And it was windy enough that she needed
the strap on her Tilley hat or it would blow away

Our final stop for the tour was the top of one of the hills behind Albany, known as Mount Clarence. This spot is known not only for the spectacular views over the Sound, but it is also the home of the Memorial to the Desert Mounted forces of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, or ANZAC, which was originally established to help fight in World War I. This particular unit rode across part of the North African desert to fight the Turkish army at Gallipoli, where they took massive casualties. There are ANZAC memorials all over Australia and New Zealand, but this particular one is here in this relatively small town because it was the very last view of Australia for those who did not return. There is a particularly poignant ceremony each ANZAC Day, April 25, where a memorial wreath is placed in the water to remember all those who sailed away and did not return.

Views over a small part of King George Sound

As we sailed out toward Busselton it seemed that we'd be in for some choppy seas again, but the captain assured us that the wind would be following us once we were turned in the right direction and he was right.

The pilot boat leaving us 

Sunset was quite beautiful that evening, and as the captain had predicted, it was even nice enough to be outside of Palm Court to take photos.

We didn't have any particular plans for dinner, so we thought we'd go back to Silk if we could get in. One of the nice things about the changes Crystal has made on Serenity with open seating dining is that there is no structure - you aren't expected in a particular place at a set time unless you've made a reservation there, and most of the time you can get a table without one. This time we even have some photos of our meal:

A selection of appetizers and, below, dim sum

Our main courses. They are served family style geared to
the number of people at the table

Fruit plate dessert