First, a reminder to myself: Never edit and post to the blog at 5:00 a.m. So, apologies for the miscues in the last post. I’ll try to keep my typos, misspellings and convoluted sentences under the civil engineer’s 5% acceptable error rate standard.
A Cruise for the Birds—and Turtles and Fish: Ashmore Reef
Two hundred miles off the northwest coast of Australia is an atoll of low-lying islands and coral reefs that, by shape and condition, would appear to be an artifact of long extinct and eroded volcanic origin. Rather, it is an uplifted shelf. No matter. Ashmore Reef contains several marginally vegetated islands, several purely sand islands, and an extensive complex of coral reefs. Today the reef is a marine park and nature preserve. A large variety of birds nest on the islands or use it as a stopping point on their migrations. Only one cruise ship a day is allowed to visit.
A territory of Australia, Ashmore Reef’s proximity to Indonesia (100 miles) causes it to be a place of people trafficking and asylum seekers. Indonesian fishing boats also dot the area. For us, it was a destination for viewing birds, an occasional turtle and reef fish.
Getting to the reef from the Australian mainland involved ensuring all veranda lights were off and windows covered to prevent birds from crashing into the ship in the night. The next day, a booby did land on the deck just below our veranda, but it visited for just a few minutes before resuming its fight.
We opted out of snorkeling for the day, deciding on a zodiac ride around the reefs. The morning was perfect for both the snorkelers and sea-top viewers.
The zodiac ride was not our first event for the day. Both Frances and I indulged in early morning massages, as good a way to use up our shipboard credits as any. The massages were worth every penny. (Silly us, we went into the ship’s small shop with our credit in mind and saw some attractive tanzanite jewelry. Thinking a few small pieces would be good gifts, I inquired as to the price of a nice-looking broach. “Normally $8,000, but for you $4000,” was the reply. We smiled, bought a tube of sunscreen, and left.)
We were on the first zodiac to depart the ship for the reef area. There is a strict buoy-marked path from where the Pursuit was moored to our destination area. A nearby Australian coast guard ship enforces conformance to the rules of the visit.
We were greeted by boobys, frigate birds and sea turtles in route. While our focus was to be bird viewing, the water was so clear and calm that we spent much of our time watching the coral reefs below. Our guide declared that this morning was the calmest and clearest (in looking down at the reef) she has ever experienced.
After returning to the ship, we had a busy afternoon, including a talk on sea turtles, the standard day’s summary and next day’s plan, a reception, and a dinner with the hotel manager. That humble title is deceiving. He is responsible for all operations involving passengers. Stefan is Austrian, but now lives in Cape Town, South Africa. He works two three-month shifts a year. A odd lifestyle, perhaps, but one with the benefit of six months off each year.
Somewhere in between these activities we visited the bridge. Meanwhile, our perfect weather is morphing into something with a bit more wind and waves. Now I’ll have an excuse for my typos.