Cruise Stories

Sneaking Veggies into Dessert

Posted on September 3, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Strawberry Brownie Sundae

I can’t pretend this post is related to cruising, but people like dessert and there’s a great need for gluten-free recipes good enough anyone can eat them. I have several others on this blog as well: coconut-lime muffins, chocolate melting cake, rollable pie crust, and pavlova.

fresh beets

When my daughter last came for a visit, she stopped in for lunch with her dad at Forest Ridge School where her uncle, Chef Ron works. They came home raving about the brownies, so I asked Chef Ron for his recipe. He said it isn’t really his, it’s pastry chef Stacey’s, but he sent it anyway.

8oz beets, diced too big

This isn’t your average school food, but an upscale private school with real chefs. John and Sheri said the lunch there tasted better than most restaurant food. Since a new school year is just starting, now seems like a good time to post this blog.

Beet brownies taste a lot better than they sound. Girls at Forest Ridge who are not on gluten-free diets buy these brownies.

I’ve never actually roasted vegetables before, but I would have eaten these beets fresh from the oven by themselves without the brownies. In fact, since I have a beet left over I’m going to do just that.

I made two separate batches, one following Chef Stacey’s recipe, and one substituting a non-dairy spread for the butter to make lactose free (no dairy) gluten free brownies. There seems to be more of a difference in the texture than the taste

16oz roasted beets, steaming hot

between the batch with butter and the batch without. At least that was what I thought. I used a canola based spread, but any non-dairy spread, vegetable based shortening, or cooking oil would work.

Chef Stacey seems to have substituted beets and applesauce for the water rather than any of the fat from

I love my Black & Decker mini food processor

the original package recipe. The dough was quite thick. I would have taken out some of the fat and left in at least some water, but she’s a chef and I’m not. I will try another batch before I publish this blog though, and go with a bit less fat and some water and see how it turns out.

Even with the addition of beets and applesauce, this is still a dessert, but since people eat dessert anyway, it might as well have some redeeming qualities. Frosting them with a chocolate nut spread such as Nutella or MaraNatha Dark Chocolate Almond Spread saves some calories over actual frosting and adds some nutrition as well. Not to mention tastes good too. Well I thought so, but John says my brownies don’t pass muster. He hates beets and said the ones at the school not only had the texture of normal brownies, they did not taste like beets at all, but he thought mine did.

I wasn’t sure what medium diced meant, not being in the habit of dicing things, so

gluten free, lactose free brownies in the pan

baked brownies

perhaps I diced them too large. Or maybe it is my lack of a kitchen aid mixer, which the recipe specifically calls for. Now I feel like one of those people on the worst cooks show that try to imitate the wonderful-looking food the chef made and end up with crap. Except I don’t think they taste like crap. I’ll have to find more victims, I mean subjects, to test them on.

frosted with dark chocolate almond nut spread

These are very rich and dense brownies, so making two batches at a time probably was not a good plan since I don’t have a large family to feed them to. They don’t really need frosting since they are so rich on their own. They do, however, make great brownie sundaes. I tried both strawberry and chocolate sauce over vanilla ice cream on them. I thought the strawberry tasted best because the lightness of it contrasted well with the richness of the brownie.

My niece, Mel, who hates all vegetables, came over to ride horses. After we got back from the trail, I asked her to try the two types of brownies and see if she could tell the difference between the ones with butter and the ones with the canola spread. I did tell her they were gluten free, but did not mention the beets. She commented that they looked a bit reddish, and said they tasted good, but different than normal brownies. Also slightly different from each other.

brownies ready to eat

She liked them enough to eat a brownie sundae, choosing the butter brownie with double fudge brownie ice cream and chocolate sauce. After she finished eating it, I told her about the beets. She still liked them well enough to take some of the brownies made with canola spread home to share with her mother who can’t have gluten or dairy. She reported back that her mother liked the brownies, so John seems to be the only one not liking them. I should have tried this before Sheri left so there would be a second person who had tasted the originals to give an opinion on them. Too late for that now.

I would never have thought of vanilla as something that would have gluten in it. Both the brownie mix package and the vanilla package mentioned gluten free vanilla though so perhaps some vanilla does have gluten in it.

Chef Stacey’s Beet Brownies

8oz beets, fresh, peeled, and medium diced

Bob’s gluten free brownie mix

1tsp granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp vegetable/canola oil

1/2 cup applesauce

1 oz vegetable/canola oil

1 package Bob’s Gluten-Free Brownie Mix

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Toss beets with sugar and oil. Roast at 375F for 20 minutes or until tender. Take

gluten free vanilla

out and cool completely.

2. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare 9″ x 13″ pan with a light coating of nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper.

3. Once beets have completely cooled, process (blender, food processor, hand blender) with applesauce and 1 oz oil.

4. Place brownie mix in a KitchenAid mixer. Beat in melted butter, egg, vanilla, and beet mixture until combined.

5. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool 2 minutes. Then flip out of pan and cool completely.

chocolate brownie sundae

On the second try I diced the beets much smaller, but still had to add an extra 10 minutes to the roasting time before they seemed soft. (A couple burned in the extra time, but not most of them.)

I added 1/4 cup water and used 1/4 cup canola oil in the blender with the beets and applesauce. It did come out much more like a puree than last time. The dough still seemed quite thick even after adding an additional 1/4 cup water. I cut the butter down to 1/3 cup.

My mixer still had issues with the thickness of the dough. Not only do I not have the kitchen aid mixer called for in the original recipe, but I don’t have any normal beaters either. Mine has a choice of thin wirey beaters or rubber paddles that have just one loop instead of the 2 intersecting loops normal metal beaters have. It did turn out with a normal brownie dough texture this time though.

John said these tasted like the originals, so his issue with the first batch probably mainly involved the texture. I thought these tasted good, but lighter and not as rich as the first batch. I did not frost them as they tasted quite good without it, but for someone inclined to frost their brownies the lighter ones would probably work better.

They did go quite well with the cherry-vanilla ice cream I had in the freezer, topped with half chocolate and half strawberry ice cream sauce.

Chef Ron says the key is definitely having the beets soft enough that they puree without any solid pieces left. The school has a better blender than most people would, so he said it is OK to steam them first so they roast up softer without burning, or even just steam them.

Hannah enjoys a beet brownie at Forest Ridge school

If you like this recipe, feel free to follow me on networked blogs or twitter, “like” My Cruise Stories facebook page, or get an email subscription so you can find my blog again. I have some more excellent gluten free recipes in the works for future blogs including a great gluten-free version of the coconut lime muffins and a gluten-free pie crust you can actually roll out like normal ones. Unlike this recipe which was someone else’s and started with a mix, the others are my own and from scratch.

Posted in recipes | Tagged brownies, chocolate, dessert, food, gluten free, lactose free, recipe | 3 Comments

Comedy Cruise

Posted on August 27, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Comedy Cruise, Sydney Australia

We wanted one last hurrah before the baby was born. I was gigantic. I looked like I’d swallowed a basketball. Plus a football, and maybe a little league team. I was 37 weeks pregnant, and going on a comedy cruise in Sydney with my husband. Maybe going on a cruise when 37 weeks pregnant is not the best of ideas, but everyone says the first baby is always late and never early, and that was the earliest cruise date we could get. The others were all sold out.

As the boat pulled away from the dock, I freaked out a little. What if I went into

any day now

labour (I didn’t know at that stage that labour is not actually like the movies, it’s not bang, your water breaks and 5 minutes later you have a baby. No, it’s not like that at all. Not for the first one anyway)? What if my water broke? Would we have to make the entire boat turn around prematurely just to drop me off? Would I end up having a baby in the bathroom stall all by myself? I decided not to think about it. Well, to try not to think about it.

I felt much better when a group of people were running late, missed the launch entirely and then caught a water taxi to the boat that was already 15 minutes away from the dock. Sure, it cost them $80, more than the cruise itself, but hey, they were on. And then I knew that if something crazy happened, like soiling myself with amniotic fluid, we could just get a water taxi back to shore. Relief sigh.

The comedy was hilarious. We were warmed up with a comedy magician. I can never figure out how they do their tricks, but when they do tricks and comedy at the same time? Gold. Then there was a rather hilarious mangey looking character who I’d just seen a week or so before when I was in the audience of Ready Steady Cook. They liked to keep us entertained in between filming segments, so he was the comedian providing the let’s-keep-the-audience-riled-up-and-cheery comedic relief. Funny, when they introduced him on the cruise, they said “you may have seen him on the Footy Show,” and some other places that I can’t remember because I had baby brain then, and I have it again now, but they certainly didn’t say “you may have seen him making people giggle during ad breaks on the set of Ready Steady Cook.” Nope, that’s far too embarrassing.

A man in the front row attempted to heckle the Ready Steady Cook comedian. But heckler had a mullet. Yeah, you read right, a mullet. I’m sorry, but if you have a mullet, you can’t really heckle anyone. Then he said he was from Rooty Hill, which is in Western Sydney, bogan capital of Australia (Western Sydney, not Rooty Hill specifically). Ready Steady Cook guy spent most of the rest of his set making jokes about bogan Rooty Hill guy. It was hilarious. I was kind of afraid all the laughing might send me into labour, or at the very least, make me wet myself.

The cruise included an entree (for you Americans, that is an appetiser, not the main meal), main (yeah, that is the main meal. The big one. The one after the entree.), and desert. I can’t for the life of me remember what the dinner was, but it was yummy. I know I ate it all. I was hanging out for that desert. I was 37 weeks pregnant after all. They were doing that whole every other person thing. You know, this person gets the delicious chocolate cake with a strawberry on the side and some sort of fudgy squiggle on top of that, the next person gets the strawberry cheesecake, the next person the chocolate cake, and so on.

Since Aaron and I were sitting next to each other, we were going to get one of each and then split them. Only the waiter must have seen my gigantic pregnant belly and didn’t want to make me wait for my cake. Instead, he gave both of us the cheesecake, which happened to be the one that came to our table first. Humph. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just say “um…excuse me Mr. waiter who is trying to be nice and not make a pregnant woman wait for her desert, but I actually wanted the chocolate cake. Take this back now please. Come on, take it back.” No, I couldn’t do that.

I sat there for a bit, flabbergasted at the two plates of cheesecake in front of us, willing one of them to turn into the gooey chocolately delicious mudcake that the guy across from me had in front of him. Nope, it was still cheesecake. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious cheesecake. But I wanted mudcake! Darn it, I was pregnant and I wanted mudcake! The man across from me didn’t touch his mudcake. It just sat there, in front of me, taunting me. I could have reached out and grabbed a bit, that’s how close it was. But I couldn’t. It was torture. Surely guy across from me was going to at least try his mudcake? Then at least I wouldn’t be staring at it, salivating at the very prospect of devouring it. But he totally ignored his delicious looking cake. It just sat there, staring at me for the rest of the trip. I thought about asking him for it, but what if he was planning to eat it at the last minute? Awkward….

He didn’t. He just left it there, untouched. Not offering it to anyone. No, “hey, I’m not going to eat this, anyone want it?” Nope, not at all. The boat pulled up to the dock and he stood up get off. Hmmm….maybe I could just try a little bite…. No, that would have looked extremely dodgy, and everyone was already staring at me for being so out of place with my basketball team belly. Oh how I wanted to eat that cake! Looking back, I should have just asked the waiter for the chocolate cake. Sigh.

FYI, don’t wear a tiny mini skirt on such a cruise. The cruise boats are not that big, so you can lose your footing if walking around from time to time. One 20-ish lady who appeared to be from a hens night (bachelorette party) was going down the stairs in her hi-here’s-my-butt mini skirt, lost her footing, and went bum over head down the last few stairs. Hi-here’s-my-butt mini skirt went all the way up and turned into hi-here’s-my-entire-nether-region skirt. Lucky for her she was wearing briefs. She probably shouldn’t have been wearing those 4 inch heels either. I’m sure that didn’t help.

Thanks Sheri, for writing my first-ever guest blog.

Posted in Australia, Cruise Food, Day Trips, Guest Blogs | Tagged Australia, cartoon, comedy, comedy cruise, cruise, fun, funny, humor, pregnant, Sydney | Leave a comment

Daintree River Cruise

Posted on August 20, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

boarding the riverboat

We stepped out of the 4-wheel drive jungle bus onto the muddy banks of Australia’s Daintree River. Picking our way through the mud and across the makeshift plank path near the water’s edge, we boarded the waiting river boat perched stern end up on the riverbank.

bird on the riverbank

Once the entire busload of people climbed on board (and thus became a boatload of people) the boat left the shore and proceeded down the river. All eyes watched the riverbanks, looking for any sign of the many creatures dwelling there.

bats take flight

Not all bats live in caves, we discovered. Several trees came to life as the colony of sleeping bats left their upside down perches on the branches and took flight, disturbed by the noise of our boat. They must have quite a hard time getting a good day’s sleep as ours was not the only riverboat cruising the Daintree River.

row of frogs on a branch

Farther downstream we found a tree full of frogs. Not little ones like the Pacific tree frogs we see at home. Pretty big for frogs. I didn’t know tree frogs got that big. We learn all sorts of things while traveling.

freshwater crocodile

Here and there along the banks we saw lots of juvenile crocodiles. Even adult fresh water crocs are not as big or fierce as the saltwater crocs. Of course we did not see any of them along the banks of a river.

ferry at the dock on the Daintree River

A small primitive ferry crossed the river on cables. We had crossed the river on that ferry earlier in the day on the jungle bus rainforest tour. Now we passed under the cables.

leaving the riverboat cruise

When the ride ended, the boat docked near a steep bank.

Posted in Australia, Day Trips | Tagged Australia, bats, crocodile, Daintree, photo, River, river cruise, tree frog | 5 Comments

Jungle Bus Rainforest Tour

Posted on August 12, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Jungle Bus

Standing in front of our hotel in Port Douglas waiting for a ride to the Daintree Rainforest tour, we all felt a bit surprised when a giant 4-wheel drive off-road jungle bus pulled up instead of an ordinary tour bus.

“We need this bus where we’re going,” the driver announced.

We climbed aboard and found seats. After picking up a few more passengers at other hotels, the bus headed for the jungle.

real rainforest cafe

At the first stop in the rainforest, we climbed a tall set of stairs to a rustic cafe where we had a little snack and learned a bit about the flora and fauna of the area. Many trees depend on a large flightless bird called a cassowary. The trees grow large seeds that must pass through the digestive system of the cassowary in order to sprout. It has to eat a lot of them as each seed does not provide much nutrition. For anything other than a cassowary, most of the seeds are poison.

we saw quite a variety of bugs

Australia’s ancient rainforests contain many plant species not found anywhere else. Some primitive species remain unchanged from the time of dinosaurs. Many live nowhere else on earth. Less than 1% of Australia’s landmass, the Daintree holds a large percentage of the country’s species of both plants and animals.

the elusive cassowary

Many of Daintree’s visitors see cassowaries only on the speedbump signs. We got lucky and saw one along the road early in our tour.

mmm, lunchtime

The tour stopped sometimes for hikes on trails or for viewpoints. We had a nice barbecue lunch at a shack in the woods. A short trail led to a stream where fish hung out near the shore hoping for handouts.

trail to the beach

beach in the rainforest

At one stop we hiked a sandy trail to a remote beach, uninhabited until our group arrived.

stick bug

Along the way we saw stick bugs in the trees.

we saw some crazy-looking spiders

We saw a tractor harvesting tea leaves at the Daintree tea farm. We stopped there for quite a tasty afternoon tea.

harvest time at the Daintree Tea farm

Near the end of the tour, the bus took us to a trail up a mountain. We crossed a long bridge through the jungle and soon it began to rain. Looking toward the threatening sky, some people had grabbed umbrellas as they left the bus. Those of us that hadn’t ran back, only to get told by the driver we had to don garbage bags over our wet clothes before he would let us back on the bus. Had to protect the seats and keep them dry he said.

on the rainy bridge

The rain stayed locally just in that area, as the bus let us off near a river for the next half of our adventure on a river cruise, not a drop fell from the sky.

more crazy spiders

Australia has a lot of spiders

cassowary

Posted in Australia, Day Trips, Port City Side Trips | Tagged Australia, bus tour, cassowary, jungle bus, photos, rainforest, spiders | 3 Comments

Beware the Ninja Floaters

Posted on August 6, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

snorkeler near the Reef Encounter

What exactly is a ninja floater? I could be talking about the irukandji (aka iracongi)

iraconji jellyfish photo courtesy of jellyfish facts.net

jellyfish. Tiny and transparent, these deadly jellyfish float about unseen in the waters of northern Australia. But they are not the subject of this blog. Perhaps a great white shark? While it is hard to imagine something so large having the stealth of a ninja, if everyone saw them coming nobody would lose life or limb in a shark attack.

Sharks are not the subject either. Ninja floaters weren’t found in the waters outside the boat. Far closer to a home away from home, right in the cabin. In the waters of…….a malfunctioning toilet.

I blame diet soda for random cruiser’s floater problem. I’ve heard it takes over a year for the chemicals in just one can of soda to clear out of a person’s body. Random cruiser drank enough diet soda to kill a person. I’ve also heard that aspartame (artificial sweetner used in diet soda) was an accidental invention by someone researching chemical weapons. Yummy. Death in a can.

Nobody else on the boat had problems with their toilets, so either random cruiser’s had a really weak flush, or the ninja floaters were just too much for it to handle. My vote is on the floaters. Regular toilets have issues with them, a marine toilet didn’t stand a chance.

Random cruiser’s roomate despised using a dirty toilet. They threw toilet paper over the floaters and flushed, hoping the toilet paper would drag them down. Somehow though, the floaters often managed to sneak out from under their paper net. The toilet paper had no trouble going down. Actually nothing else had any trouble going down. In less than a day, the whole bowl was coated with a film making the once clean toilet appear as if it hadn’t been cleaned in months.

If the roommate ever did manage to rid the toilet of the unwanted floaters, by their next visit more would have appeared. No winning against ninja the floaters.

Most ships have a public toilet somewhere, but this one did not. They must have figured it was small enough people could always get to their cabins. So there was, literally, nowhere else for the roommate to go. I really felt sorry for whoever had to clean that room when their cruise ended. I hope they left the maid a really big tip.

Posted in Randoms | Tagged cartoon, comedy, cruise, funny, humor, random | Leave a comment

Diving on the Great Barrier Reef

Posted on July 30, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Coral and Fish

I love snorkeling, and did a lot of it on our Great Barrier Reef cruise on the Reef Encounter. At one stop though, I tried something different. The beginner’s scuba lesson they offered on that cruise. You don’t usually think of lessons as part of a vacation, but there’s all sorts of opportunities to learn new things. Traveling to new places often offers a chance to discover things you never would have thought of on your own.

Diver and Coral

Diving on the Great Barrier Reef sure beats the normal first dive in a swimming pool! We got to the stop where John and I had our dive lesson scheduled and found the water full of tiny jellyfish. Not the deadly sort, but they did sting. Most people opted out of snorkeling at that stop.

“They’re only on the surface,” the dive instructor said. “Once we get under the water it will be fine.”

Chris at the reef

My son Chris usually dove, but since the ship had more stops per day than they allowed dives he had chosen to snorkel at this stop. And since he had a full wetsuit he actually went, jellyfish and all.

John and I had the rented wetsuits from the ship. Mine had short legs and long sleeves. His had short legs and short sleeves. We started down in the water. The instructor told us to use the anchor cable to get under.

Hand over hand, we made our way down the cable. Got a few stings at the surface, but once below the surface, the water was indeed jellyfish-free. We barely got our heads under before John bailed. Got a jellyfish stuck in the sleeve of his wetsuit he said. Had to get out of the suit to avoid constant stinging.

going down the anchor cable through the stinging jellyfish

On down the cable I went, just me and the instructor. Into the undersea world Chris loves so much. The instructor watched all the gadgets that tell air levels and whatever else it is divers need to keep watch on, so I just watched the instructor. And the sea life. Lots of life to see. Not quite as brightly colored as it looks from the surface, but then I didn’t have a light. You can’t touch the coral, but some places have bare rock in between corals and people can hang onto the rocks. At one point the ship’s photographer, Kathy, came by and snapped a couple photos, so I actually got pictures of my one and only dive. I think we only went down about 30 feet or so. The experienced divers probably go farther in places where the water gets deeper.

me diving (holding onto a rock, not the coral)

It’s a quiet peaceful world down there. The dive instructor communicated through pre-arranged hand signals. I followed where he led and stopped to see the things he pointed out. All too soon it seemed, he motioned time to return to the surface. Back through the jellyfish and onto the sting-free safety of the boat. Luckily we did not see jellyfish at any other stop, so I did not miss out on any snorkeling. Chris said he got a couple stings on his face, the only exposed area he had, and not much there with the mask and snorkel. At least we never encountered any of the deadly jellyfish varieties.

purple staghorn coral

My daughter’s husband, Aaron, took a lot of great underwater photos on this trip.

plate coral

Lots of different varieties of coral and fish.

fish & coral

more fish & coral

Giant Clams.

giant clam

Turtles too.

sea turtle

We loved our cruise on the Reef Encounter and I would thoroughly enjoy visiting the Great Barrier Reef again.

Posted in Australia, Great Barrier Reef | Tagged Australia, coral, cruise, family, fun, Great Barrier Reef, nature, scuba diving, travel, tropical fish, underwater photos, vacation | 4 Comments

Snorkling the Great Barrier Reef

Posted on July 23, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

staghorn and other coral

Snorkeling over multicolored corals of many varieties feels somewhat like looking down on a living fireworks display. The Great Barrier Reef certainly lives up to the name great, with many varieties of fish and coral to see. Such a vast reef would take far more time to explore than the average vacationer has, but with a stay on the small cruise ship, Reef Encounter, for a couple nights we got to see several different places.

hard coral

When it came time to hand out the snorkel gear, I asked if they had the sort of snorkel that does not let water in if you dive under. They gave me a look usually reserved for the village idiot. Seriously, I said, such a thing exists, we used them in Hawaii. Perhaps they have them now, as this happened several years ago, but at that time they had not heard of them. Still eying me like a crazy lady, they passed me a normal 2-way snorkel that you have to blow the water out of if you dive under.

Lois & Chris snorkeling

The reef cruise and snorkeling was the highlight of our trip to Cairns. My son, Chris, mainly dove, but he did some snorkeling. My daughter Sheri set up this trip for us, and her husband Aaron came along as well. He brought an underwater camera and took some great photos. Sheri used it some too.

Plate Coral

Some of the types of coral we saw in addition to multitudes of staghorn coral included plate coral, brain coral,

Brain Coral

soft coral

and hard coral.

hard coral with giant clam

Brightly colored fish in a variety of shapes and sizes call the coral home.

fish on the coral reef

One day Sheri found a turtle. Another time we had to swim over a small reef shark to get back to the boat. It posed no threat though, and stayed well below us in the deep spot where the boat anchored.

Sheri pets a turtle

People are not allowed to touch the coral, which keeps it healthy and beautiful.

reef fish

staghorn coral with small fish

Aaron Snorkeling

going snorkeling

Posted in Australia, Great Barrier Reef | Tagged Australia, coral, cruise, fish, fun, Great Barrier Reef, nature, snorkeling, travel, turtle, underwater photos, vacation | 4 Comments

Reef Encounter

Posted on July 16, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

snorkel & dive on Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Reef Encounter

Walking down the dock in Cairns on a sunny Australian morning we found the boat that would take us out to the Great Barrier Reef. Not time to board yet, we waited around on the dock. Two sorts of people began to gather near the ship. Those with just a beach bag, often dressed in swimsuits, and people more like us wearing street clothes and carrying luggage of some variety whether suitcase or backpack. Then some people who worked on the boat started getting things ready for people to get on. Watching them made me wonder what it would be like to work on a cruise ship. Those who would love to work on a cruise ship can find out about tourism programs via online accredited colleges.

Compass Boat - our ride to the reef

Once on board, crewmen stowed the luggage in a rack and sent the beach-bag people upstairs to the open seating on the top deck while the rest remained seated around the tables below. Turns out that the Compass boat did double duty, taking overnight guests and supplies out to the Reef Encounter, which rarely comes in to Port, while also taking day-trippers out to the reef.

After getting underway, we filled out the necessary paperwork while anticipating

On the Glass Bottom Boat (full of luggage)

several days of snorkeling, or in my son’s case, diving on the reef. They explained some of what to expect, including the option of a beginner’s diving lesson for people who would like to give diving a try. Chris said most people have their first dive in a swimming pool, so the Great Barrier Reef certainly seems like a grand improvement on that for a first dive ever.

Finally we met up with the Reef Encounter. While part of the crew got the day trippers in the water for some snorkeling, others loaded all the luggage into a glass-bottomed boat. The luggage hid the glass bottom part so once all the people got in, it just became transportation to transfer us to the other boat. The people just arriving grouped up on some couches for information and instructions while those about to leave had lunch.

Reef Encounter, Great Barrier Reef Australia

going snorkeling

We had our chance for lunch later, after they took note of any dietary needs or preferences anyone might have.

After giving unobstructed rides to the day trippers, the glass-bottomed boat returned for the departing guests. Then we had a chance to dive or snorkel. They offered wet suit rentals for a nominal fee. John and I rented them, Sheri and Aaron did not. Chris had brought his own. The water there is warm, but besides adding buoyancy, the suits would give some protection against jellyfish, should we happen across any. We had seen stinger suits at shops in Cairns, but declined to purchase them.

I signed up for the optional beginner’s dive with an instructor, but that would not take

staghorn coral

place until another day. They encouraged everyone to take the noodle floater things, but that was the only time I did so. I found it more in the way than helpful. Warm salt water is quite buoyant anyway, so it did not take a strong swimmer to stay afloat.

After about half an hour or so they called everyone back on board and the boat got

underway for the next stop. It moves around to different spots on the reef and has about 6 snorkel and dive sessions each day. One is a night dive, no snorkeling. Chris tried that for something different, but said he liked day dives better because he could see a lot more. One of the crew went out on the night dive in his birthday suit, apparently a tradition for their 100th dive as crew. Probably better done at night from all sides, all the better not to see or be seen.

Breakfast came buffet style, other meals served plated. Besides the three daily homestyle meals, they also served a late evening dessert. Between snorkel stops and meals, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for other things, but they did have some board games and books for time fillers if needed.

Aaron snorkeling

If someone had the money and didn’t want to come on the other boat, they have the option of helicopter transport. The boat had a landing pad on the top deck. Also a fancy cabin, and the “topdecker” couple who came in by helicopter stayed up there never to be seen by the rest of us, even at mealtime.

The majority of people stayed just one night, but we stayed two. The other boat comes daily bringing people and supplies, so people can vary the length of their stay to suit their own needs. I love snorkeling, but staying forever was not an option. I recommend snorkel socks (available at dive shops) for anyone planning a voyage that includes multiple snorkel sessions to prevent the fins from rubbing sores onto tender feet.

On the return trip to Cairns, the Compass boat makes a stop for one last chance to dive or snorkel, and also offers the opportunity for boom netting.

boom netting on the Compass boat

Posted in Australia, Great Barrier Reef | Tagged Australia, Cairns, cruise, fun, Great Barrier Reef, nature, photo | 10 Comments

Kuranda Skyrail

Posted on July 9, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Kuranda Skyrail

Dangling high above the rainforest of Australia, we looked down on the green canopy of trees, each one an individual mini ecosystem. Plants growing high in the trees gain access to light not found under the canopy.

above the rainforest

Lianas (vines)grow up the trees from the forest floor while strangler figs start out in the canopy and grow down to the ground, eventually killing their host. Air plants of many varieties, ferns, and fungus grow on the trunk and branches.

rainforest tree

The Kuranda Skyrail cable tram transports visitors high above the trees from near Cairns to Kuranda, with stops along the way to view the rainforest from within. We came up the mountain on the Kuranda Scenic Railway, and took the tram back down.

lots of plants call the treetops home

At the tram stop, we walked on wooden trails through the treetops.

trail through the treetops

We could look up at the same treetops we had just looked down on.

tree top

We saw more than trees on the tram stop trail.

beetle on the railing

Back on the tram, we sometimes passed over giant trees standing high above the rest.

some trees tower over the rest

The ride ended at the bottom of the mountain.

ride over. time to get out

On to our next adventure, a cruise on the Great Barrier Reef!

Posted in Australia, Day Trips, Port City Side Trips | Tagged Australia, Kuranda, nature, photos, rainforest, Skyrail, tram, travel, vacation | 6 Comments

Kuranda Scenic Railway

Posted on July 2, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Kuranda Scenic Railway

When thinking of Australia, the word rainforest does not normally come to mind. Most people associate Australia with kangaroos, the dry deserty outback, beaches, surfing, and metropolitan Sydney. Or perhaps the Great Barrier Reef. We went to Queensland for a cruise on the Great Barrier Reef, but while there we took a couple side trips to the nearby rainforest, which Australia does indeed have.

Aaron waits for the train

At Freshwater station near Cairns we caught the Kuranda Scenic Railway train from a quaint museum-like Station displaying artifacts of the railroad’s history.

Sheri talks to ghosts of the train station's past

The train snaked up the mountain.

Kuranda Scenic Railway

It went through a series of tunnels and past many waterfalls.

Waterfall view from train

Great views of the Cairns area along the way.

view

The ride ended at Kuranda, a town in the rainforest.

Kuranda. Australia

Kuranda presented a variety of places to shop and to eat, a park, and trails for rainforest hikes. Several jewelery stores offered the ever-present Australian opals among their wares.

Australian opal bracelet

A rainforest tree is like a mini-ecosystem. Many other plants live on it.

Aaron jailed in the rainforest tree

After spending some time and money in Kuranda, we headed to the Skyrail tram for the trip back down the mountain.

Posted in Australia, Day Trips, Port City Side Trips | Tagged Australia, fun, Kuranda, Kuranda Scenic Railway, nature, photos, rainforest, train, travel | 5 Comments

Cruise Stories

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Diving on the Great Barrier Reef

Snorkling the Great Barrier Reef

Reef Encounter

Kuranda Skyrail

Kuranda Scenic Railway

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