Members met on Monday 4th December for an evening of travel with a difference. Our Secretary, Bill Selby, has travelled extensively around the World over the years and his favourite means of transport is by Cruise Ships. These have included Canberra, Aurora and Artemis to name but a few.
Our trip around Australia started in the north in Darwin, continuing in a clockwise direction around the coast to Cairns and down along the Great Barrier Reef. We were able to view part of the reef from a glass bottomed boat and many species of colourful fish and corals were seen.
Brisbane boasts many modern high-rise buildings and some very fine colonial architecture can still be found. Wildlife Parks containing Crocodiles, Kangaroos, Emus, Parrots and Koalas were well worth a visit.
Sailing on down to Sydney the first thing you encounter is the famous Harbour Bridge and the iconic Opera House on the waterfront. Situated behind the Opera House is the botanical gardens with trees, shrubs and exotic flowers from across the southern hemisphere.
Journeying on to Melbourne we climb the Sky Tower for some magnificent views over the city and beyond.
The next leg of our journey took us to Adelaide, the city of churches, here a visit to a wildlife park introduced us to many more species native to the country.
We headed out to sea again for the 3 day crossing of the Great Australian Bight before reaching the old whaling town of Albany. Here many example of the old industry can still be found. Today Australia no longer participates in whaling.
The final part of our voyage was from Perth, the windy city, back down to Freemantle on whose docks we saw some of the famous road trains, the huge lorries and trailers used to convey goods all over this vast country.
Everyone agreed that this had been an educational and sometimes humorous with on-board anecdotes, evening of travel photography from one of our own.