Indonesia and Western Australia

February 10,

On Feb 1, we entered Indonesia and visited Komodo Island National Park on Rincon Island. We went on a raised boardwalk and saw several Komodo dragons. They seem rather large and slow, but we were told that they can move rather fast if they want. You don’t want to get close to them. They have a venom that has a lot of bacteria in it and keeps wounds from healing. After a couple of days the prey dies and the dragons get a feast.

On Feb 2 we docked on the island of Bali. That first day, Sunday we took a tour around Denpasar the provincial capital of Bali. We visited Hindu temples, the city market, a museum and saw Bali dancers. The island is an enclave of Hinduism in Indonesia (which is predominately Moslem) There are  beautiful temples everywhere and most homes have temples also and they leave offerings of food and gifts out for their gods. The Bali dancers and musicians are amazing artists. That being said, it is very densely populated and motor scooters are everywhere. They weave in and out of traffic and sometimes had 2 adults and 3 children on them. It is truly scary riding on a bus and looking out of the windows. 

Offerings at a temple

On Monday our tour was the Uluwatu Temple on the coast high above the Indian Ocean and it was very nice. There were however, the monkeys! We were warned about the monkeys before we got off the bus - the guide told us to take of hats, necklaces, bracelets and even glasses because the monkeys would steal them. We saw lots of monkeys and even saw some take stuff. They have an employee called the “monkey man” who tries to get stuff back and yells at the monkeys! Our next stop was the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park. There were many beautiful statues of Hindu gods there including one of Vishnu on his bird mount Garuda that is 121 meters!

Vishnu on his bird mount Garuda

After 2 days on Bali we were at sea for 3 days heading back south to Australia. Our first day at sea was rather challenging as there were 2 cyclones in our vicinity but moving away from us. The captain said that the highest waves were about 24 feet. That lasted just a day and seas were back to normal. We went to our art classes and team trivia. We listened to talks by the hotel management, ships captain and chief engineer telling us about how the ship is run and answering questions. They even took us on a virtual tour of the engine rooms - all very interesting. We watched a movie on the pool deck one evening.

On Feb 7, we docked at Freemantle/Perth Western Australia for 2 days. On the first day we took a tour of Freemantle on foot and the Western Australia Maritime Museum. Our guide was very good and pointed out all the historical buildings including the Freemantle Prison which the English convict prisoners had to build themselves. In fact, convicts were responsible for building many of the original buildings in town. We finished our tour at the Maritime Museum and had a very nice visit there including seeing the Australia II sailboat which won the America’s cup race in 1983. 

Freemantle Prison

Freemantle Prison front gate

Western Australia Maritime Museum

The next day we had another interesting tour. We took a bus along the Swan River to Perth (20 km inland). We saw beautiful parks and homes along the river. We drove through downtown Perth with its beautiful glass skyscrapers. We saw neat pedestrian bridges, parks and huge sport complexes. We drove up to Kings Park and Botanic Garden . We saw the state war memorial with its beautiful views of Perth and then walked through the Botanical Garden and saw many native plants of Western Australia. The return to Freemantle was on a boat cruise down the Swan River, so we got to see another view of Perth and the countryside.

Perth

Pedestrian bridge

Giant Boab tree

State War Memorial

Our next port of call was in Busselton, Western Australia. We took a bus tour to Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park. Our first stop was at Ngilgi Cave. It was a beautiful cave with lots of stalactites and stalagmites, and drapes. It had 780 steps up and down. Surprisingly, it was not cold at all in the cave. It was just very humid. The second stop was at Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, a very lovely lighthouse with great views overlooking the ocean. We also saw many wild kangaroos in the fields along the road, which was really cool! Busselton has the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere. It is 1.8 km long. You take a little train to the end of the jetty and then you can visit the underwater observatory. Under the jetty is a natural coral reef and you can see it through the windows of the observatory. It was really neat to see especially with all the Australian herring swimming around. It was a fun day. 

Train to the end of the Busselton Jetty

 

More next time….