Sydney - Bangkok - Brussels - Back home - 24 March till 25 March

View from my hotel room at Darling Harbour

23 March 2014 Ayers Rock - Sydney

Next morning we flew back to Sydney around lunch to arrive around 5 p.m. This time I took train and tram as I hadn't booked a transfer.

At the hotel (the same as during my previous three stays in Sydney) I got a room with a lovely view, a free drink and some chocolates.

Went for a steak at the pier. As it was Sunday all Sydney was at and on the water, young and old!

Sydney Opera House

24 March 2014 Sydney - Bangkok - Brussels (arrival on 25 March 2014)

Had to leave the room around 11 a.m., left my bags at the hotel and went for a last small lunch at the water.

Unfortunately my shuttle misjudged time and traffic jams enforced by the thunderstorm going down over Sydney which made me almost miss my plane. I was not very happy!

Now in a very rocky flight from Sydney to Bangkok a Boeing 747. Could - as always - not sleep.

On the contrary to my trip to Sydney almost 6 weeks ago I did not have much time at Bangkok Airport which I think is a horrible airport. It is not clearly indicated were to go, you get the feeling you could have arrived at your gate faster going the opposite direction. And even in the middle of the night they do not managed to cool the building down. Shopping is on my opinion not great and very expensive.

Collapsed finally total groggy into my seat on board of a Triple Seven (same type than the still missing airplane!). Flight of more than eleven hours was very long and as again I could not sleep time did not pass.

In about an hour we hopefully will touch down at Zaventem Airport: End of Voyage!

Ayers Rock - 20 till 23 March 2014

Around 8 a.m. the shuttle took me to the airport and the airplane took off at 10 a.m., due to time change we arrived than at 11.45 a.m. already, after almost 3 hours of flight at Ayers Rock.

William Christie Gosse was the first European man to arrive at Uluru on 19 July 1873 and named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, then Chief Secretary of South Australia.

Uluru was first proclaimed a National Park in March 1958 under the control of the Northern Territory Reserves Board. In October 1985 Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was returned to its original owners, the Anangu, but operates under a joint management system between Anangu and Parks Australia.

As the weather became a bit cooler (only around 39 degrees!) the time of the flies had started. They recommended to buy a fly net to put on your head with or without had. We all look quite ridiculous but otherwise the flies were everywhere: in your nose, your mouth, your ears ...

Booked a flight (only availability) to see the Uluru and Kata Tjuṯa (the Olgas) (Olga was named in 1872 by Ernest Giles, in honour of Queen Olga of Württemberg (born Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas I) wife of King Charles I of Wurttemberg ) in the sunset. Booked a flight with a Cessna after my helicopter experience at Niagara Falls last year.

At 6 p.m. the very young pilot fetched the four of us with a minibus. At the terminal we all had get on a balance with everything, camera, water bottle etc. My country man from Bavaria was the less heavy one, than me (in Brussels total diet, must have eaten to much on the ships) but than the lady went on: 127 kg), than him: 175 kg..

As my country man spoke all the time about a helicopter flight I started to get worried that they made a mistake with my booking. The surprise was than not for me but for him as the pilot directed us to a little Cessna instead to the just starting helicopter behind us.

Uluru

 

 

My country man got the two back seats to enable him to take pictures to the left and right. The couple had to take the two seats in the middle and I had the pleasure to sit next to the pilot. Not too good for picture taking. He looked am my sometimes to see if I was alright but thanks to two seasickness pills and my flight chewing gum I survived. When we touched down night had fallen.

Kata Tjuṯa (the Olgas)

Next morning we were collected by a minibus to see the sunrise. Tried to got to the outlook without the fly-net as I thought at this early hour there are none! But it was not possible.

After the sunrise we were dropped off to either walk around the rock or just to do walk on certain indicated path.

The bus was supposed to collect me around. 10.30 a.m. But as I was earlier at the crossing and the previous bus (9 o'clock) was late I got an earlier lift and was back at the resort still in time for breakfast.

Seadays 16 and 17 March

Two rough sea-days. Packing of the suit case and off we go next morning

End of voyage with the Rapsody of the Seas - 2 days in Sydney - 18 and 19 March 2014

Early in the morning of 18 March I was "sent" off the ship at 7.15 a.m., collected my suitcases and jumped in a cab and arrived at my hotel at Darling Harbour around 7.45 a.m.

Left my bags at the hotel and wandered around the city with a blue sky. During the day temperature rose to 29 degrees.

In the evening I had a lovely dinner at the harbour.

The next day I took the little train to Central Station and slowly walked up to the Town Hall and Queen Victoria Building.

I had booked a table in the restaurant of the Sydney Tower where I met my new friends from the ship, Janet and Fred, from Perth (originally from Scotland). We had a lovely lunch while the restaurant rotated 4 times permitting us a stunning view on Sydney and its surroundings.

Later I took the little train to the other side - as I had a day ticket - but the trip was disappointing as it most of the time was in a tunnel and therefore did not permit the harbour views I had expected. Than I headed to back to Central Station to take a train into town.

Tomorrow morning flight to Ayers Rock.

Nouméa (New Caledonia - Saturday,15 March 2014

The capital city of Nouméa is located near the southeastern tip of the island of Grande Terre. The city was founded by the French in 1853 and has spread over the hilly peninsula round a large natural harbour. In the 1800s nickel and gold was discovered. The mining that followed helped in the early development of Nouméa. During World War II the city served as a vital harbour and Allied base of operations. Today the fast growing city has a population of around 90,000, the entire population of New Caledonia is situated around 250,000 people with an interested mixture of Melanesians and French culture.

It is believed by a number of anthropologists that the South Pacific islands of Melanesia were settled by Africoid people of Papua as far back s 35,000 ears ago. The word "Melanesia" is derived from the Greek language and translates as "black islands or the islands of the blacks".

James Cook became the first European to see and to chart the island of Grande Terre during his 2nd of three voyages of discovery in 1774. Reminded of the jagged, hilly coast of Scotland he named the group of islands New Caledonia, Latin for Scotland.

In the early 1800s the South Pacific whaling industry was rapidly expanding. As European sailors who came ashore in New Caledonia brought diseases against which the indigenous people had neither immunity nor defense the effects were devastating upon the local population.

In 1852, under the rule of Napoleon III, France claimed New Caledonia as a colony. Using the British practice in Australia as its example, most of the first settlers to arrive were French convicts and political prisoners. Free settlers eventually came and began to populate New Caledonia. The French government established the harsh "Code de l'Indigénat" upon the indigenous Melanesians. This code basically legalized the seizure of their land and suppressed any hint of freedom or protection under French law. During the same period, the mid 1800s, and lasting through the turn of the century, the practice of "Black-birding" took place. This was the kidnapping or forced coercion of many Melanesians to worked in the sugarcane fields of Australia's Queensland.

During World War II New Caledonia and the capital of Nouméa became a strategic Allied army and navy base, a prime target of forces of Imperial Japan. Itself slated for invasion, around New Caledonia were fought the battles of Port Moresby, the Kokoda Track and the Milne Bay as well as the Battle of the Coral Sea and the vicious Battle of Guadalcanal ... all of which, costly in lives, ended in Allied victory and helped lead to the eventual defeat of Imperial Japan.

Beginning in the 1980s a large number of the indigenous people of New Caledonia began to seek independence. The process was frustrating and confrontational. However, as of 2014, eligible citizens will have decided through the ballot box whether to remain an "Entité Territoriale" or to become free and independent from over a century and half of French rule.

A bit of Fiji History - the mutiny on the Bounty

The Melanesians and Polynesians have always been superb sailors. There is perhaps one 18th century Captain, an Englishman, who, together with his crew, would have fully understood and appreciated the amazing sailing skills and courage exhibited by Pacific Islanders. His name is Captain William Bligh ..., yes, the Captain Bligh.

Most people have heard the story or seen the movie made about the 1789 mutiny on the HMAV (His Majesty's Armed Vessel) Bounty. The "Mutiny of the Bounty" did take place much the way its has been portrayed and Captain Bligh, together with 18 of his loyal crew were set adrift upon the Pacific in the Bounty's 23 foot open launch. But what Captain Bligh did after being cast overboard is one of the most amazing feasts of seamanship ever recorded in the archives of maritime history.

On April 28, 1789 master's Mate Fletcher Christian and the mutineers of the Bounty abandoned Captain Bligh at sea deep in the South Pacific. Bligh and his men were given a few days of ration of meat, bread, water and rum. No maps, charts or compass were provided. To navigate the vast Pacific the Captain had with him only a sextant and his pocket watch. For all intents and purposes Fletcher Christian and the mutineers of the Bounty had pronounced death sentence upon the Captain and his men.

When the nearby island of Toufa provided unwelcoming, Bligh determined to sail west to Batavia (modern Jakarta, Indonesia) in the Dutch East Indies. Batavia was the closest European controlled port and Bligh new it was his duty as an Officer of the Royal navy to inform the British Admiralty as quickly as possible concerning the mutiny on the Bounty. The sides of their small, overcrowded boat were only a few inches above the waterline. The men were forced to bail night and day. They endured terrible storms and high waves which could swamp their boat at any moment. They suffered the lack of food and water, the terror of circling sharks and the scorching heat of the tropical sun. As they rowed quickly through the Fiji islands they were not able to stop and search for food and water. Despite their rush, Bligh produced extremely precise hand-drawn maps detailing much of Fiji.

The Bounty mutineers who returned and stayed in Tahiti were in due course captured by British Naval Authorities sent from England for the specific purpose of hunting down ever last of them. They were transported, as prisoners in chains and caged in a box, back to the British Islands. Those who survived the voyage stood trial, a few were acquitted while some were pardoned by the King. Three Bounty mutineers were hanged from the yardarms of the battleship HMS Brunswick on 29 October 1792 in Portsmouth.

What became of Captain Bligh and his men? While usually portrayed by Hollywood as an aging, inept and overweight bully, Bligh in fact was a young Lieutenant, a dashing thirty-four years old Royal Navy officer of exceptional intelligence, physically fit, extremely brave and a highly skilled cartographer, astronomer and navigator. On 14 June 1789, after 47 days at sea, Bligh and his men reached Coupang, Timor, and from there on to the Dutch held Batavia and back to England. They had miraculously rowed and sailed a total of nearly, 4000,00 miles across the South Pacific. Maritime history acknowledges this as one of the most remarkable feats of navigation.

More of Fiji

Europe first learn of Fiji's existence in 1943, when the Dutch East India yacht "Heemskercq", commanded by Abel Tasman, and the flute "Zeehaen" blundered across the north eastern reefs and islands. Plagued by storm and escaping wreck on the Nanuku Reef before winning clear scared off other marineers and more than 130 years passed before European vessels again braved the perilous waters of what the Dutch called the Prins Wyllems islands.

The second European navigator to venture into Fiji water was Captain James Cook. He seemed to be reluctant to risk the "Resolution" or "Adventure" here. Voyaging from Tonga to the New Hebrides, Vanuatu, he sighted Vatoa (Turtle Island). Fijians on shore fled when a boat from a ship landed. Cook sailed off to the south-west and saw no further Fijian islands.

A lasting legacy of Cook has been the name Feegee or Fiji, based on the Tonga pronunciation of Fiji "Viti"

In April 1789 Bligh was the first European to appreciate the extent and complexity of the Fiji islands, sailing through the heart of the group from south-west and charting the position of the islands with remarkable accuracy.

In 1797 the London Missionary Society ship "Duff", sailing from Tongo to China, entered Fiji waters and was nearly wrecked on a reef. Captain Wilson noted the position of various islands in Northern Lau and sighted Taveuni and parts of Vanua Levu.

The development of Australia as a colony, led to an increase in shipping in the southwest Pacific and some merchant ships inevitably strayed to Fiji. In 1794 the ship "Arthur" approached from the west and escaped after beating off a canoe attack with gunfire.

Fiji's last visitor in the eighteenth century was the American merchant ship "Ann and Hope" from which Beqa, Vatulele, south west Viti Levu and the Mamanuea's were sighted in 1799.