Jan 22 Eden

Last stop on the cruise.  Tomorrow we disembark in Sydney and begin the all day (a 48-hour day thanks to the date line) flight back to Florida.  To add further insult, when we get back we won't be able to get back into our condo.  The walkways are being repaved and access to the units is impossible for 3 days.  So we get to go to a motel.  This work had been scheduled for December so I had hoped to avoid it, but it was cleverly scheduled to occur just on our return.

We've had something really cool about this trip I haven't mentioned before.  When we boarded and got to our room the little sign said our room steward was Edmon.  Edmon had been our room steward for the second half of the Around The World cruise in 2016.  Could this be the same guy, on a different ship and a different room?  It was!  He's a great guy, keeps the room neat in spite of our efforts, and it's been a pleasure to have him again.

 Last night on the Bass Strait was a beautiful sunset.  And the sea was calm again.  That strait can have impossible weather at times.  I guess we were lucky.

Another omen for this day, although we had sunshine on the terrace while eating, it was raining over the land.

We've had four previous tender ports canceled due to weather.  There was speculation that this port would suffer similarly.  But the bay was flat and calm, and we motored ashore with no problems.

 Like so many Australian cities, they're really happy to see us, with lots of volunteers. 

In our preparation for the trip we had found the Eden Heritage Walk so we wandered about the town looking at their history.  This flag mast dates back to 1861 and was at the lighthouse, now in the center of the city.

 

 Eden Log Cabin, was a Girl Guides Hall when erected in 1936.

They have several nice beaches with not many inhabitants -- about 3500 according to the local volunteer on the shuttle bus.  And the beaches have some sargasso.

 An ocean front cemetery so the occupants have a great view.

Great Southern Inn, the best in town and the only in town, according to our shuttle volunteer.  I think he was stretching the truth since there are several others in town.  Eden is located almost exactly halfway between Sydney and Melbourne by road, about 500km to each from here, so it makes a good place to split up the drive.

The Killer Whale Museum.  Whaling and timber were the big industries earlier in Eden, now it's tourism.  A killer whale named Old Tom was a town favorite since he'd help herd the whales into the bay, making it easier for the locals to harpoon.  Old Tom was fed some of the less attractive parts as a reward for his services.  Old Tom's skeleton is in the museum.

A depiction of the perils of whaling done in tile outside the museum.

 It's a compact town, easy to walk around in a couple of hours.  They're working on a wharf for the town (now scheduled 2019) so it won't be a tender port much longer.