Day 32 & 33 ~ Sea Day and Exmouth

One’s destination is never a place, but always a new way of seeing things.
~ Henry Miller

Feb 24^{th ~} Last night we skipped out of dessert and made our way to Deck 11 in the bow of the ship for a stargazing session. This time we arrived early enough to get a coveted pair of headphones so we could listen to the Discovery at Sea commentary. Promptly at 9 PM, the captain turned off as many of the deck lights as he could and the stars popped against a black sky. We were able to see even the faintest of the four stars that make up the Southern Cross. The constellation actually looks like a kite lying on its side. Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to us after our sun, was burning brightly beneath it. We also saw a familiar sight in the southern sky—Orion. But the Hunter was standing on his head, which makes a perverse sort of sense since we’re at the bottom of the world. After thirty minutes of wonder, the ship’s lights came back on and all but the brightest stars faded.

We enjoyed another restful sea day.

Feb 25^{th ~} Exmouth Our final Australian port of call. It’s an odd little place, remote, and lonely. The town of 2000 souls is tucked into a little crook in the northwestern coastline that renders the water smooth as a pond. Before the mid-twentieth century, there were only 40-some fulltime residents in the shire—the light house operator & his family and folks who lived and worked at sheep stations in the area.  As we sailed in to drop anchor in Ningaloo Gulf, just looking at the dusty horizon, unbroken by a rise of any size and hardly any trees, makes me wonder why anyone ever settled in this isolated spot.

The answer is the United States military.

The Pacific Princess resting at anchor

During WWII in a joint operation, the US and Australia Navy and Air Force established a strategic air and submarine base under the code name Potshot. In 1963, as the Cold War heated up, the US came back and asked permission to  build a series of VLF (Very Low Frequency) towers to communicate with our nuclear warhead equipped subs. 2500 military personnel descended  on the area and the town of Exmouth sprang up to support the base. It was called the Harold E. Holt Communications Station, after a former Australian Prime Minister who disappeared mysteriously while swimming in the ocean.

The 13 towers at Harold E. Holt Communication Station are the 2nd tallest man-made structure in the southern hemisphere.

When the US pulled out in 1992, Exmouth turned to eco-tourism and is now a haven for snorkelers and divers who want to frolic with the whale sharks that call these waters home from March to August. Ningaloo boasts a “fringe reef” just a short swim from the shore so, unlike the Great Barrier Reef which requires a long boat ride to reach, it’s very accessible.

My new friend, Elaine and a 4 month old joey. This intrepid lady is making the world cruise on her own and having a ball doing it! She's in a cabin near ours and has been on several excursions with us. I got to hold the baby kangaroo too!

After playing with the joey, we boarded our airconditioned excursion bus.

That thing that looks like a pile of fossilized dinosaur poop is actually a termite mound.

 I have a lot more pictures, but our wifi has decided to go AWOL. I'll try to update  this post later.