Crazy, stressful, fun trip to far away Australia

It is 5:30am and I am sitting in the dark gazing out a wonderful bank of windows watching the sun come up over Perth, Australia.  As I sit in the serene quiet of the morning, I find myself wondering if I had gone completely daft about our decision to fly halfway around the world to catch a cruise ship while the world was facing an impending major health crisis.

So, where do I even begin?  Well, I suppose I should start at the beginning.  We, along with our friends Doug and Sue, were scheduled to take a long awaited cruise on the Quantum of the seas from Hong Kong on February 24^th with stops in Japan and the Philippines with a second cruise from Singapore with stops in Malaysia.

Pink and grey Galah

This was to be our first trip to Asia so we planned to spend a few days in Hong Kong before the cruise began and take in the sights.  We had been watching the escalating protests in Hong Kong and became very concerned.  Fortunately, we had made reservations at an airport hotel and came to the conclusion that we would just spend our couple of days resting after a tiring flight and then go right to the ship.  After a few more days of a declining atmosphere in Hong Kong we decided to just fly in and board the ship the same day.

Noisy Magpies

Well, that thought did not last long as a new impediment to our travel plans emerged.  At the end of the previous year, there emerged reports of a virus in China that had the potential of becoming a major problem. The virus spread and towards the end of January the first confirmed case of this virus was announced in the United States.

Mom Kangaroom and baby Joey

While all this was happening, we were getting regular updates from the cruise line with a change of port from Hong Kong to Singapore, policy changes and passport restrictions for anyone coming from mainland China and Hong Kong.  Information about the spreading virus was a constant on all network and cable television channels.  What made this particular time so stressful was the conflicting information that was passed along.  There were so many mixed messages it was hard to think or make informed decisions. So what to do?  Do we cancel or wait and see what happens?

That decision was made for us on February 11^th.  We received a text from the cruise line that, “In light of the current regional travel conditions, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel our Quantum of the Seas February 24^th cruise”.  The announcement was followed on February 24^th that our March 4^th cruise was canceled too.  Disappointing and sad, but to be honest we were actually a little relieved.

Great lunch at Avocadoes Cafe and Bar with Valerie and her son Richard. Lovely place.

Now here comes the crazy part of my story.  We still had cruise going out of Sydney, Australia in mid-March.   We also made plans to visit our friend Valerie while in Australia.  What to do?  After a great deal of thought and conversation, we all decided to go ahead with our plans to fly to Australia

By now, there were many health restrictions in place such as wearing masks, using hand sanitizer often and not gathering in large groups.  Before we left home, I managed to find us some N95 masks and packed those along with our hand sanitizer and prepared to fly to Perth to visit our friend.

The Strand Restaurant. We actually ate here twice during our visit.

After 30 hours of travel with stops in Los Angeles, California and Brisbane, Australia, I am afraid I was a bit useless when we finally arrived.  After greetings all around, I quietly excused myself from the group, retreated to my bed and fell fast asleep and slept peacefully for 12 hours.  Oh, my.

Loved the pizza

 

 

Our plans for this trip were to visit with Valerie for a few days, fly to Bali, Indonesia for a week of rest and relaxation in the sun followed by our cruise.

 

As the days wore on though, it became increasingly apparent that our trip to Bali was not going to happen.  We watched the news each day as this insidious virus made its way around the world causing many countries to issue lock-down orders for their citizens, closing ports to cruise ships and issuing travel alerts for citizens to return to the home countries.  It was all very stressful.

Now let me tell you about the fun part of our trip. While all this sad and stressful news was unfolding, we actually had a great time visiting Valerie.  Valerie was a wonderful host inviting us to stay as her guest until our ship was to leave Sydney.  What was to be a three day visit had now turned into a two week visit.

Our last night in Perth we were so excited as we watched the baby joey come out of its mom’s pouch and hop around the driveway. WOW!

Our time with Valerie was like being at really fun summer camp with all your friends.  Valerie was our camp counselor keeping our spirits high with her boundless energy, taking us out on shopping trips, visiting several very nice restaurants and introducing us to two special people in her life; her son Richard and her friend Richard.  So not to be confused when talking, we had to make sure we prefaced with, “your son Richard or your friend Richard”.  Very funny!

Randy, Richard, Valerie, Sue and Doug.

Valerie’s son Richard visited a few times and came along with us to a couple of restaurants and her friend Richard invited us to lunch at his beautiful home in the hills of Waroona. This trip was fun as we had to take a train to Waroona.  As we rolled along, I was struck by how similar the landscape was to southern California.  Lovely.

 

What made this trip so wonderfully fun was waking up each morning to the sights and sounds of the a small pink and grey cockatoos called galah, very noisy magpies, brown and gold pigeons walking around Val’s driveway while a little creature called a bandicoot scurried from its home around the driveway looking for food.

But what was absolutely the most wonderful sight of all were the almost daily visits from groups of kangaroos. Most consistent with their visits were a mom, dad and a baby joey that hung out of its mom’s pouch.  To say that I was awestruck by this sight is an immense understatement.

We celebrated Val’s birthday our last night in Perth. We had so much fun here.

We eventually received an alert that our cruise had been canceled and we needed to make arrangements to return to the states.  Oh, my.  The trip home was uneventful and surprising.  While on the plane, we were told that we were on the last American Airlines plane out of Australia.  We were so happy to be going home.

Me, finally getting some sleep on the flight from Los Angeles to Orlando. I was so tired. I think there were under 50 people on the plane. I was just glad I was on my way home!

We finally made it home, threw our luggage into the house, quickly ran to the grocery store for supplies and settled in for a two-week self-confinement.

I will always treasure the fond memories we brought back with us of our time in Perth and the deepening friendship forged with our friend Valerie.

Train station at Waroona.

Enjoy,

Mary