Another unexpected report!

Sunday April 21st dawned cloudy and rainy and windy. I stepped out on the balcony at 6:15 and could barely keep my feet. When I stepped out again at 6:30 the windy was noticeably less ferocious. Ken turned on the TV to channel 43 and to our surprise the ship had turned around.

 (For those who don’t know channel 43 tracks the ship, showing longitude and latitude and wind speed and direction etc.)

The wind was blowing a gale and the arrow marking the ship’s position was heading south. The cut the drama and make a long story short Captain Pickford , on the advice of the pilot and the harbor master had turned the ship around and we would not be visiting Adelaide today.

Fortunately Ken was able to reach Kim and let him know that we would not be meeting him as planned.

So much for our visit to Adelaide.

We learned later that the storm was rather ferocious and there was flooding and loss of power. It would not have been a nice day if we had been able to make port.

But now what??

In the afternoon the Captain announced that he had been in touch with Melbourne. Our birth was available and we were going to be able to arrive in Melbourne the day before scheduled and we would have an overnight there.

Our day one in Melbourne began a little after three in the afternoon. We decided not to go into the city. Docking was after three, dinner was at 5:45, It was quite a walk into town and there was not too much that was close to the dock and the cost of taking the shuttle into town was 14.00 AU each. Well spending that much to visit for an hour or so seemed foolhardy so we stayed on board The Dawn.

The city lights were beautiful and we enjoyed the view from our balcony.

Melbourne is pronounced “Mel Bun” by the locals and it is in the state of New South Wales.. For a short time it was the capital city of Australia, and they are quick to tell you that the city was founded by free settlers and not by convicts. It received a real boost by the gold rush of the 1800’s.

With a population of almost 4 million this lively center is home to almost 70% of the state’s population. Myriad ethnic communities are found here and in fact it has the largest Greek community in the world outside of Greece.

Our scheduled shore excursion in Melbourne was a ride on the Puffin Billy steam train and a visit to Warrock Homestead.

We met our tour in the Princess Theatre as usual and when called we proceeded to our waiting bus. The bus was new and modern complete with a washroom. Our guide was Diane and our driver was Don. Diane told us all about the area and its history while we travelled the scenic hour and a half to get to Warrock.

This is a working ranch and there was much to see. There were bottle fed baby lambs waiting for lunch, calfs were waiting as well. We obliged both groups and head all about the operation of the ranch. Next we were able to feed kangaroos who were really not very hungry.

Next we got a tour of the homestead home and we were treated to a wonderful meal. It was enough to feed a real ranch hand and far too much for a tourist but it was so very tasty that most of us ate it all.

They had a great little gift shop and I bought myself a new wallet.

Next we all climbed on board the bus and headed for the train station. We had a wonderful half hour ride on the train. Because there were so many visitors the train had extra cars. The extra cars made it too heavy for the little steam engine so we were pulled by a diesel engine instead. Ken was able to get many pictures of the steam engine so he was pleased.

After the train ride we headed back to the city and we were given a short tour of the CBD. I was so impressed by the architecture. There are many wonderful old buildings as well as lots of new ones. There are many parks and they even have an old tram for tourists to circle the city.

The day was cool but it became sunny and we were able to enjoy the sights and the sounds of the city.

Melbourne has been voted the most livable city in the world and we could see why.