Australia: Darwin to Sydney
After Bali and Komodo Island we sailed to Darwin, Australia.
This was a 16 day cruise and the shot below shows the various stops.
The trip from Darwin to Cairns (pronounce CANS by the Aussies...go figure..) was three solid days at sea. We're not fussy about sea days as all there is to do is eat and drink. In reality there are lots of things to do - there are usually lecturers and other things to do like hang out at the pool (and eat and drink) or play trivia in the main showroom, or play bridge, or go to the observation bar and eat and drink...but it's not really our cup of tea .
Silversea (the cruise line we were travelling with) had offered an optional excursion to leave the ship in Darwin and then rejoin the ship in Cairns (CANS) five days later. The excursion was to visit Alice Springs in the middle of the continent while the ship was making it's slow progress from Darwin to Cairns (CANS).
We chose this option and I won't say what it cost but when you've already paid for a room and food and liquor on the ship and then you decide to pay even more for a land excursion and pay for more rooms and food and liquor PLUS transportation and guides it makes you question your sanity a wee bit.
As it turns out it was a good choice because the ship ran into stormy and wet weather between Darwin and Cairns and we missed all that. We saw some pretty incredible scenery too.
The list below is all of our stops in Australia and they will be underlined as the pages are completed.
Melbourne and Tasmania were not part of the cruise. When we got to Melbourne we started a second cruise - same ship but a different cabin. I'm just including the stops from that cruise (Melbourne and Tasmania) for simplicity.
Likewise, Perth was not a stop on either cruise. We flew to Perth for a few days after the New Zealand portion of the cruise. I've included it here simply for convenience.
Darwin
Alice Springs
Cairns
Townsville
Airley Beach
Brisbane
Sydney
Melbourne
Tasmania
Perth
And that's it for this part of the trip.