Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Australia Dancing and Diving

 One day that we were in Cairns, Australia happened to be my birthday. What a treat! 

Cruise Port at Cairns, Australia

On board the ship we have a line-dancing group. They meet and dance every day when we are at sea. They learn new dances, and practice old ones. The teacher is Kathie and she contacted a line-dancing group in Cairns to see if we could have a joint session. 

Here's what happened

Kathie learned when the Cairns line-dancing group meets and where - turns out they dance at Hemmingway's Brewery which just so happens to be right at the cruise ship port! 


Kathie and the Australian dance group leader scheduled that location for a day that the Odyssey would be in port. For more than 2 hours, both Kathie and the Cairns group leader had us all doing line-dances to all sorts of songs. One of them is "Nutbush City Limits" by Tina Turner. I don't quite understand how, but that song is the backdrop for a simple exercise/dance that most everyone in Australia knows how to do. They learn it in grade school - The Nutbush!

The line-dancing group on the Odyssey learned the Nutbush and was prepared to dance it with the Australian dancers while in Cairns. It was GREAT! Then we also learned a couple new (to us) dances and performed them all together. What Fun! I just can't imagine a better way to celebrate my birthday than dancing ... in Australia ... doing an Australian dance ... with a group of Australians. I'm on the other side of the planet from my normal home and I'm having a fantastic time!




Scuba Diving on the Great Barrier Reef

The next day we had booked a full day of diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We dove on the GBR once before in 2019 and, due to bad weather, it wasn't great. We had low expectations therefore and they were definitely exceeded. Our dive buddy friends from the ship, Wayne and Donna,  were also on board for the day and we had a great time. 


Wayne and Donna leading the way with their creative way of transporting their dive gear. 

Lots of life this time


Happy Divers
Going home after a great day of diving!





1 comment:

Jim & Nanc said...

Belated Happy Birthday mate.