Thursday Island

Our last stop in Australia. It was a hot, sticky day. The water here is a beautiful turquoise color. I’m sure the photos don’t do it justice. Our tour was at 1:00 PM. We decided to take the tender ashore early and have a look around. We were told all the shops were closed because it’s Sunday. As we got off the tender and were walking up the pier we saw a couple marquees with people selling things. We knew they couldn’t pass up a chance to make some money. I had Australian dollars to use up, so I shopped. A tee shirt for me and some things for the grands. Then it started sprinkling. We found a coffee shop open and had a cold drink and a muffin. I’m still leery of eating non ship food. Cokes and muffins have worked so far.

When it was time to go back to the pier for our tour, it was raining much harder. I had a fold up bag that I used to cover my head as we walked back. On the way we saw two young boys,8 or 9, climbing up a tree branch and falling into the water. They were having the best time. I could only get the splash as they hit the water. We got in a van to take us to the performance. It was only a couple blocks away but it was still raining, so it was much appreciated. We went to a community center. It started off with a prayer, then an explanation of the tribes in the area. There were about 12 young people who performed some native dances for us. It was a nice performance. Of course after the show, they opened a side door and there were a couple tables set up with things to buy. I bought a magnet. Can you guess what it had on it? A turtle, of course. We can use magnets to hang things on the walls so it will be useful.

We walked back to the pier. I still had a few dollars to get rid of so I bought a couple more things. Then it was back to the tender. The heat and humidity had sapped our strength, so we went to the room and crashed for awhile. I went out on deck for sail away. We watched the pilot boat pick up the pilot in some rough waves. He backed off the ship onto the boat and off they went. Those of us watching gave him a round of applause and cheers. He and the mate gave us a wave as they pulled away.
We had dinner with our friends, Ben and Beryl in the restaurant. I had been looking at the Viking app on my phone. I was looking ahead at the schedule and noticed the Taj Mahal trip on our itinerary. We had a very happy dinner thinking we were on the trip. After dinner we went to Guest Services to check on it. Not so, we are on the wait list still. BOO! Maybe in a few days, it will all shake out and we’ll make it.
‘The entertainment tonight was a married couple who sang opera. She is a soprano and practically blew out my eardrums with her high notes. They did some songs we knew and a couple I’d never heard. Good voices. They’ll be back for another show soon.

We set our clocks back an hour again tonight. We’re slowly making up the day we lost one hour at a time.Photos are of our trip today. In the photo of the tree over the water, you can see the splash made by one of the boys who jumped from the tree. The three ladies were sitting at the cafe having a good visit. The girls who were dancing are in late teens. They were very sweet. Another sea day tomorrow.