June 7, 2024
Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain
Borrowed this map image from a fellow ship blogger - she is actually on a different island, Tenerife, but liked visual. Was glad I was assigned to one group that came to Gran Canaries as I have been to Tenerife before.
Today started with me visiting ship in dry dock and getting access to my luggage to swap out some of my warmer clothing for more beach friendly items. The VVR staff were great and was also able to drop off drugs that need refrigeration with the ship's medical staff. They had all our stored luggage in the coral lounge and even our boxes that were shipped via container back in March were in the room, if you needed items from there. Ship looks better and better every time i see it - lots of video and post show daily progress.
I met up with another passenger at the ship, Delia from Oregon, who is in my same group of 8 going to Las Palmas and we shared an uber to Airport and met up with rest of group. Flight left at 3:30pm and we got to Hotel Neptuno by 10pm. They provided us with a lite dinner and now I am settling in for a week hopefully filled with sunshine and relaxation.
We got up at 6:45am to get to National Park Forts Walk trail in the hope of seeing koalas . Prior walkers mark trails with tree branches pointing in the direction of their sighting and we were luck enough to see 3 markers in our first hour of hiking. It is so stinking hot and humid the success we had made it bearable. The koala population on the island started with 20 brought over in 1930, to escape fur hunters. Today, the island boast 800 to 1000, and they are so cute and drowsy. They need 20 hours of sleep a day! The early morning is when they are the most active.
Just off the coast of Townsville, Australia is a special little island (that used to be part of mainland, hundreds of thousands years ago). The island was formed by molten granite that was pushed to the earth's surface with volcanic force.Over time the volcanic overlay weathered away leaving an extraordinary landscape of rounded domes and boulders, many as big as a house and spectcularly perched. Over Seventy Percent of the center of the Island is a National Park. There is lots of wildlife here too - koalas, rock wallabies, snakes & birds.
This is my third time in CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA and I really enjoy how walkable, clean and charming it is. The waterfront esplanade and lagoon area is a nice walk day or night. We had 2 nights here in the waterfront Shangri La Marina Hotel while waiting for the Ship to arrive and then 2 additional days in Port.