Dawn Princess World Cruise 2010 - Thursday May 27, 2010

Day 7 Lingi Point to Darwin (8 am to 6 pm)

Today we had our first port stop at Darwin. Bill and I decided not to do any of theorganized tours but to do our own thing. We left the ship shortly after it docked and to our surprise we found there were no queues and that we could just walk off. We walked into the centre of Darwin where we found an optometrist who could fix Bill’s glasses. Next, we took the local bus, which is free for seniors, and went to the museum and art gallery. The museum had fossils from a nearby creek that we were allowed to handle. The shell collection contained giant molluscs, about 20 cm in diameter, and the bird collection had finches of every imaginable colour. The highlight of the museum was the Cyclone Tracey exhibition. Here we saw the effects of the cyclone and heard in a soundproof room the actual sounds heard during the cyclone as recorded on the night by the local priest. We were given a graphic lecture on this cyclone by a scientist who experienced it with his 5 month pregnant wife. This museum is situated on Fannie Bay, and has a most beautiful outlook. I asked our waitress when we had a drink in the café at the museum if there were any crocodiles in the water we could see in front of us. She replied that crocodiles are everywhere in the territory. After doing some shopping at Casuarina and depositing our goodies in our room on the ship, we returned to the foreshore to swim in a crocodile free pool and wave pool set amongst tropical trees and the greenest lawns, not far from where
our ship was berthed. Tonight we watched a theatre production, Rock this Town, with the Dawn Princess singers and dancers. They sang songs from the 50’s 60’s and 70’s. Their costumes were colourful, glittery and extravagant, the singing was good and the dancing was quite acrobatic. (Barbara) Our cruise director is a jolly little Englishman who does his best to encourage the passengers to participate in all the night’s activities after the show. But the number of eighty and ninety year olds going to the night club at 11 pm is quite limited. (Bill)

Docking in Darwin

Fannie Bay Darwin