From Melbourne, we back-tracked somewhat towards Kangaroo Island. After one day at sea, we anchored about half a mile from the shore line. The waters were choppy, leading to delays launching the tenders. My afternoon tour, “Seal Bay Discovery” ran an hour late. This allowed time to look around. Although it was a fringe festival day, I found little to excite, as I suspect, many others did also. However, the coach trip was excellent. Seal Bay was around 110km away and we travelled through dry countryside, the nature of which was described by our tour guide. At Seal Bay, we took a steep lengthy walk down to the beach where sea lions, seals, and various other wildlife were aplenty. We stopped at another spectacular viewing point at Pennington Bay. By this time, the battery on my camera had gone flat, thus leaving just the phone’s camera which is quite impressive.
There followed a further sea day as we returned in the direction of Melbourne where we would dock at 8am this morning. Today’s excursion was to the Puffing Billy Steam Railway, about 30km away in the forested hills. I would have been happier if we had travelled the full distance of 15 miles, instead of just 3 and a bit! This is a superb preserved line. Today, a Garret hauled 16 loaded passenger vehicles. Rather than fly 11,000 miles to do the complete trip, perhaps I should check out the Welsh Highland Line.
We arrived back at the ship at around 2pm. I had fish and chips in the Kings Court on deck 7. I then left the ship for a second time, made my way to the Eureka Tower, 89 floors for stunning views of Melbourne, albeit through protective glass which reflects anything near to it. I did manage a rare photo of QM2, Seven Seas Voyager and Spirit of Tasmania together at the port ofMelbourne, from the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower.
I returned to the ship by taxi, not really feeling like a formal dinner. I had a late lunch as mentioned earlier and will just have something light this evening.
Hopefully this brings my blog journal up to date. Tonight, we set sail for Sydney where we arrive after another day at sea.
All the best, David
David's Cruise 