April 8, 2016
Our reward had arrived: Setting sail
“We're going on a cruise today!” Dea had woken up very excited.
“What's the big deal?” I said, “I go on cruises all the time.”
But she had a point. This was no ordinary cruise. This was our reward for all of our efforts in Australia. After cycling all the way to Gold Coast and then pedicabbing non-stop for six months, then getting back to Sydney as well, this was finally our long-awaited chance to relax. And what a chance it was! 24 days we would be at sea as we made our way leisurely through the islands of the south Pacific before sailing north and east to Hawaii and finally to Canada and a whole exciting new continent.
We loaded up our bikes, complete with folded cardboard box each to store our bikes for the voyage. Dea had gone to great lengths to walk from the bus station to Therese's house with hers, and now we had to navigate our way to Circular Quay with them. Most of the way this was fairly easy as Sydney has some pretty decent cycle paths. Only trouble was they don't go all the way to Circular Quay, and we had to push our oversize loads on the busy-people-doing-important-things sidewalks of central Sydney for the final few blocks.
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We completed our task with relative success (I hit a couple of lampposts, but no people, I think) then rounded a corner and suddenly saw in front of us our ship; the MS Noordam. It was a big boat, to be sure, making the ferries in the harbour look like toys. We smiled and laughed. Dea was so excited. She'd never done anything like this before. We admired the sight of our giant cruise ship, which had somehow transcended the Harbour Bridge and Opera House as our personal favourite thing to stare at in wonder in Circular Quay. Several people spoke to us as we were doing so. First a man in a suit, who was on his way to meet his wife to celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary. Apparently he'd met her years ago while he was on a cycle tour. Well, it is a good way to pick up girls. And then a Dutch couple, themselves occasional cycle tourists, who said they were on their way to board the ship, and seemed surprised when we said we were too.
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It was time to head for the boat. We wheeled our heavily laden bikes over towards the luggage area. It had been a struggle getting here with the boxes, but it had been well worth it. “Do we need to take the bikes apart and put them in the boxes?” I asked the luggage people. “Let me check... No, don't worry about putting them in the boxes, we'll take them on like that.,” came the reply. So we threw the boxes away.
It was, however, really rather good that we didn't have to take the bikes apart, and we would have them all ready to go when we stopped at our ports of call. With our luggage taken care of we headed through the terminal building to check-in and I have to say I got a lot fewer strange looks travelling with Dea than I had with Tom. A LOT fewer. And then we walked across the gangplank and were aboard our ship. We walked around and Dea looked a little bit amazed at everything and I started a lot of my sentences with “well on the last cruise...” and we went to our room and found our bikes already in there. It was a tight squeeze but a great room and there was even a complimentary bottle of sparkling wine sitting in an ice bucket. We decided to save that for later and headed for the buffet. I have to say I was a little disappointed. There really wasn't much food on offer. “On my last cruise there was much more food,” I said. But Dea seemed happy enough.
We went outside at the back of the ship and looked around at the view, and what a great view it was. In front of us to our left the Sydney Harbour Bridge stretched out over the water. Swivel our heads to the right, we could see the Opera House. There was music playing. Some people were getting married in the park below us. Dea looked so happy. I was so happy. We were on the ship. We were free. We had nothing to worry about for the next 24 days except whether the food was going to be as good as on my last cruise. We held our arms around each other and everything seemed perfect. Australia was at an end. We had achieved exactly what we wanted to. Dea had passed her thesis with a top grade, and we had earned enough money not only to pay for this cruise, but to fund our two year trip from Canada to Argentina. Everything had gone according to plan. In fact, I had to reflect that on the whole trip since Paris everything had gone remarkably, and quite unexpectedly, according to plan (with the exception of one kilometre between Siberia and Mongolia, of course.) And now, with Australia having gone so well, we had our freedom, and so, so much more ahead of us to look forward to.
The ship was delayed. We were supposed to leave at four, but because of a delay in boarding, and then the busy ferry traffic in the harbour, we had to wait until half six. As it happened, that was a really, really good thing though, because we got to see Sydney by night. As it got dark Dea and I went up to the sports court, where we played basketball and a little match on the five-a-side football pitch (in which both sides were severely depleted.) I lost the football 5-0, but I didn't mind a bit. This was a magical experience. The sports court was almost the highest point on the ship and through the netting we had a 360 degree view of Sydney, with the Opera House and the bridge, and the skyscrapers of downtown as well, all taking on an extra special dimension after dark. It was a special once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Finally the ship blasted its horn and began to move away from the dock. Unfortunately I missed the moment because I was inside getting another dessert, but fortunately cruise ships move pretty slowly out of port, and I didn't miss much. I was back by Dea's side as the ship edged away into the middle of the bay, parallel to the brightly lit and magnificent Harbour Bridge. Then the captain put us in first, and we slid forwards past the glowing Opera House. With the lights of the city behind it and the inky water below us it was an incredible scene. I stared quite mesmorised, and felt humbled and surprised that mankind could have sculpted a scene of such incredible beauty. I stared and stared, and the lights grew smaller and smaller, until I could see them no more, and the Pacific Ocean had us.
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