We arrived on the outskirts of Bali about 6 this morning, it’s warm & sticky! Headed up to breakfast about 6.30 and it was busy already. Other mornings just after 7 it’s been quite quiet. Everyone wanting to get off the boat. The early birds get to take the tenders before the tour excursions take them over, then anyone else gets them afterwards. Got to the meeting room at 8 and left about 20 past. Waited around on the stairway for the tender to get organised then sat in that for a little while. Got to the shore about 9 and then on to our bus. We must have climbed 1001 steps, maybe a slight exaggeration make it 999, lol. We first visited the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park with great bronze animals on the drive in and enormous statues of Garuda and Wisnu in the centre. Then back through the one and only traffic light and across to Uluwatu to visit the cliff top temple. Then once again through the same traffic light to a tourist shop for a little shopping. The traffic on the roads is amaszing, narrow roads, lots of bikes, and yet it all seems to flow, especially merging into a roundabout, lol. Overtaking, turning, merging anywhere all just seems to get done with minimal haste and lots of patience. We got back into the tender about 2, footsore and weary, but it had been a verhy nice day. As there was a swell it took a while for everyone to get off/on the 2 tenders ahead of us, so lunch was at 3.15. I took Mum back some as she was resting! We will have a long day tomorrow, a 9 hour tour, but have been told that 6 of those will be in the bus!  PS we think the plane was a house, it was in the middle of suburbia!

Once more a full day at sea, and a little more munzee spreadsheet fixed up. You never know, by the time I get home I might be almost up to date, lol.
The sea has become a little more uneven today, there is a swell out there and a few waves breaking so one can see more white out there than yesterday. The rocking motion of the ship is more noticeable especially when walking the corridor. I did actually try taking some photos of the moon last night as it was big and orange coming over the horizon, but it was obviously an optical illusion as both cameras took a small white object, LOL.
Nothing startling to disturb our usual day of doing nothing much. It was formal dining night so we did dress up for dinner and I’ve packed up the bag for the first of our shore tours. So tomorrows blog will hopefully be more interesting than the the last few days.

A full day at sea and I’ve actually managed to update 2 pages of my munzee spreadsheet! Had a walk around the deck after breakfast with a stop off at the mini golf course for Mum to play the 9 holes. I didn’t keep track of how many she did it in for tomorrow morning, but I’ll have to start. LOL. We couldn’t sit out on our balcony this morning as it was way to hot, but it was lovely after lunch. Saw several ore carriers on their way down to Port Hedland, but that was the sum total of sightings of anything except water, not even any clouds. The sea was really flat today, not a white wave crest to be seen except those made by the ship. We are only sitting on 12 knots as we can’t get to Bali too early and still have another full day at sea tomorrow. Have had mostly the same companions at dinner each night, so the talk has been interesting and varied. There have been several art auctions already, and some selling for lots of money. I was telling Mum that I’d overheard someone saying there was one that went for $12000 yesterday, to be told by the other lift occupant, that she was an art dealer and there wasn’t anything worth over $9000 on board the ship. But they seem to have a never ending supply.

The port of Port Hedland had our berth today, amongst the most giganormous ore carriers.  Before the pilot arrived to take us in I counted 15 of them anchored out at sea awaiting their escorts into the harbour. Our guiding tug boats appeared and accompanied us into the harbour and our minute portion of harbour space. This wasn’t a ‘walk off’ port, so shuttle buses had been arranged to ferry those who wanted to go into town. We had breakfast right up front of the restaurant so we had a great view of the harbour, its occupants and the goings on. Only did one tour of the top deck, as even though it only was 7.30 it was quite warm! Very nicely our room faced into the harbour and we had a good view of 3 ore carriers docked on the other side. 2 were obviously full as they were down to their Plimsoll line. The third was being filled and over the day watched it getting lower. It was fascinating watching the 4 tugs pulling and pushing the carriers, slowly cajoling them away from the dock and out into deeper water. We then had these huge ships being pulled past us to either get out to sea or to take their place at the wharf they were allocated. They are generally black at the top and red below and the joining line is it. So the red slowly disappears as the ship fills up and only the black remains in sight. It takes a long time to fill these carriers. One that had been moved into place about 9.30 was still showing most of its red when we left at 5. We had to migrate into our room in the afternoon as the sun was way to hot to sit in. Another nice dinner and then blog writing for me and reading time for Mum.

Day 3 has gone by much like day 2, but no beading. After a better night’s sleep and a not terribly exciting sunrise, we had an early breakfast and then did 2 laps of deck 10, the top deck, equalling half a mile. (4 laps being the full mile). Back to our room for a relaxation session. I sat on the balcony for a bit but it was in the full sun and got too hot. Took our sewing etc up to deck 9, but had lunch instead, then found a table to sit at and sew for a while, but once again it got too noisy so we retreated back to our balcony. Now a quiz question, what is the collective noun for flying fish? Keep reading and I’ll tell you, lol. Whilst enjoying the balcony, no longer in the sun, we watched many glides of flying fish, fascinating little things. Last night’s dinner was one of the formal ones but tonight was back to casual wear.
When sitting out looking at the incredible blue of the water and the flat horizons, one can understand the idea that the world is flat, and all this water, it’s just amazing. How brave were those who ventured out in those early sailing vessels and discovered new countries, taking months to get anywhere over this vast expanse.
As the blood moon eclipse wasn’t visible here I just took a photo of it as it was, lol. The Captain in his 12 noon briefing said that this event last happened in 1964 and that the gang planks would be 3 metres out of position for 7 hours at Broome because of it’s effects on the tides, hence changing us to Port Hedland.

Well not much to write about on day 2. Woke up early after an awful night’s sleep, lol, it will get better I’m sure. Took some sunrise photos. We went to breakfast, the range of food they provide is astounding! Went for a walk on the 10th, top deck and watched Geraldton getting closer. We set anchor quite a way out from the shore and tenders were used to ferry people back and forth. We stayed on the ship, did some sewing, beading, reading, game playing and eating, plus a little more walking. We fled the deck when the dance music started, way too loud, and relaxed in our room. I managed to get the dongle working so did some Internet stuff. The Telstra reception has been quite amazing with at least one bar showing whilst all this way off the coast. Just as we were getting ready to go to dinner I saw something out in the water. A couple of whales were tail waving and splashing around, so we watched them until the ship had gone too far past them. Another lovely dinner, then a wander through the shops, and then time for bed. Forgot to mention yesterday, but the Broome visit has been cancelled, we are going to Port Hedland instead. Something to do with the size of the tides.

Okay, here we go with Day 1.
Got up early, finished packing and washed the floors!!! Helen arrived with Mum and we headed south to Fremantle and Victoria Quay. Getting rid of the luggage was easy, just pass it on to the young man waiting in the doorway and then joined the first of several queues. Queue one getting inside the terminal. Queue 2 waiting outside to get into the building again but on the other side up an ascalator. Queue 3 moving as part of a long snaking queue headed for check in. Queue 4 waiting for someone to be free to check us in. Queue 5 security and baggage scanning, and then the shortest queue of all Customs, who were supposed to be on strike and should have taken the most time. So around 2.5 hours of standing we got to our stateroom on deck 6. As we hadn’t yet had lunch and it was 3 pm, we found our way to the Windjammer, deck 9, which is at the front of the ship and we are almost at the end of it lol, we will walk off the food this way. A small lunch even though the range was enormous, we headed back to see if our luggage had appeared. it had so unpacking ensued. We then had to find our emergency muster under lifeboat 13 on deck 4 for our safety instructions. Had a wander through deck 4 and then sat on our balcony for a bit before heading back to deck 4 and dinner. Lovely 3 course meal and good company at a table of 8. now back in our room with a rocking boat and a single bed, will be interesting to see how we sleep. Will add a couple of photos tomorrow.

Left this morning at 7 and got back at 7! We headed for the local train station at Gowrie and caught the train into Flinders Street Station, which took about half an hour. Had breakfast in the station whilst Maria wandered around. From there we caught a tram down to the Docklands and did lots of wandering around the streets. The Melbourne Star (giant ferris wheel) is located here as well as heaps of shops and restaurants. Lots of virtuals here, untouched by Maria, I had got a lot of them when here in January, but there were lots of new ones and lots of physicals as well. Back along the harbour we had lunch at a lovely bakery and kept going. Finally for a break we caught the city circle tram and rode around in that for an hour or so, capping virtuals as we went. Walked up and down the cbd for a little while and then about 4 we caught the train back to our station and then drove back towards Melbourne and Princes Park to make a start on the boomerang virtual garden. We had to drive through quite a lot of rain, but it had stopped by the time we got to the park. Stopped off for some supper – 2 minute noodles, and then back to the motel to cook and eat them!! Leaving here just before 7 for the airport and the flight home.

We were packed and ready to leave Rosebud at 7.15 and it wasn’t raining!!! With only a couple of detours to get 4 virtual amethysts, newly released munzee type and to fill up with petrol, we got to the airport about 9. Left Helen and Gary checking in their car and we went to check ours out. We found a nicely munzeed park, Edwardes Park, fairly close to the motel and had a lovely walk around the lake. It was cold and overcast, but dry; and it was a popular place, lots of people and dogs out.
We then checked into the motel, room is a little small, but we won’t be here much lol. We headed off to an interesting munzee collection, but discovered an even better one before we got there, so we walked that instead. We stopped for a late lunch, 3.30, at a Red Rooster and then carried on walking. Back at the car, because we were relatively close, we carried on to the emerald garden, where Maria got really cold walking around capping those unreachable from the car. By this time it was dark, so headed back to the motel to recharge electronics and ourselves ready for a big day tomorrow in Melbourne.

Left this morning about 8.15 and only had to walk for a couple of hours and we have finished Rosebud. There were a few we didn’t get because they were missing, but on the whole we have done very well, 1869 munzees capped and about 75 kms walked. But, and isn’t this just typical, it didn’t rain today! Once we got home and got reorganised, Helen and Gary went geocaching and Maria and I had a walk along the beach hunting for shells, as Maria turns them into wind-chimes. Found a few of them already occupied much to Maria’s disgust as they were nice shells!
Stopped off and had a pie on the way home. We then relaxed, played a few games and Maria vacuumed. Kay and Anthony popped in for a chat and Helen and Gary returned with dinner. Helen & Gary and Helen & Maria are playing an online scrabble game. So they are relatively quiet, LOL.
Packing tonight as we have to leave about 7 tomorrow and heading for the airport, Helen & Gary coming home, Maria and I heading off to Melbourne for a bit more munzee hunting. If it’s raining we are going to hop on a free tram and ride around the city capping virtuals, and if it’s fine, going to go out a bit further and walk a street or 2.