April 22, 2025
SCARBOROUGH, TOBAGO - Port greeting
After our port talk - it seemed the most interesting thing, in this sleepy fishing village of TOBAGO, was to go to Pigeon Point Beach and get a boat ride out to the Nylon pool ( which is a large shallow area, in the center of the ocean, with transparent turquoise water. Princess Margaret visited on her honeymoon in 1962, and said the transparent water was like Nylons. Locals claim the water and sand rejuvenate women by 10 years and give men, 10 years more in smarts! A lot of people, including me, rubbed the sands all over their bodies. I found the boat tour on Get your Guide We also were able to negotiate a van driver from the port, who took us and picked us up later from the port to the beach docking areas.
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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.