…and Mardi Gras trumps Ash Wednesday, at least on Zaandam.  Tuesday was both Lunar New Year and Fat Tuesday.  Holland America makes a big deal out of both.  But how can you make a big deal of each when they are the same day?  Simple, make Mardi Gras to Mercredi Gras and still provide ashes for those who want them.  I saw one woman dancing in a mask and when she took it off, she had ashes on her forehead.

Lunar New Year was mostly a food event. 

Mardi Gras was dancing, masks, beads, and a ship wide bar hop.  The ship was decorated for both.

I don’t normally do bar hops or pub crawls but I do enjoy a glass of wine with dinner.  This Ash Wednesday I abstained.  I usually practice some form of abstinence on Ash Wednesday and throughout Lent but the main reason for today’s wineless dinner is because I’m taking acetaminophen laced with codeine.  Codeine doesn’t work well with wine.  There are folk songs about that.

A few days ago, I was standing talking to a friend with one hand on a railing when the ship shifted. I felt a pull in my hip.  A little later I felt a pop.  I got x-rayed at the sick bay.  The films did not show a break but then again, they didn’t show much at all, so they gave me the codeine laced Tylenol and told me to use a walker while on a moving ship to prevent further pulls. They emailed the film to be reviewed by an expert.  (I’ve stopped taking the codeine, I just don’t like what it does to me, but I want to wait until it is all out of my system before chancing a drink.  The pain doesn’t justify narcotics.)

I had thought I would only need to use the walker dancing on a moving ship but I’m glad I had it with me.  And while I use it on the ship now, I did not use it on yesterday’s port visit to Exmouth, Western Australia.  A cane is easier to deal with on a tender and a bus.  We had planned to go ashore in the morning, take a shuttle into town, walk around and visit the museum, then take a tour in the afternoon.  I made the concession to my sore leg that walking around all morning would be too much, so we slept in and went out for the afternoon tour.  It was hot, and while we waited for the bus HAL staff walked around with spray bottles misting us.

We enjoyed the tour even though it did not take us to the Jurabi (sea) Turtle Centre as advertised, and while we drove by the Harold Holt Naval base we could not go in, as advertised.  But instead, we visited a thirteen tower array of radio antennae broadcasting on Very Low Frequency to American and Commonwealth submarines in the Southern Hemisphere that is part of the base.

Tower Zero is 1,271 feet tall.  When it was built it was the tallest structure in the southern Hemisphere.  The six odd numbered towers are 1,175 feet in height, arranged in a hexagon around tower zero.  The six even numbered towers are also in a hexagon but tighter into tower zero and are 996 feet tall.  Our guide told us that the towers were numbered zero to twelve because superstitious Americans would not want a tower number thirteen.  Looking at the array, it makes sense that the center tower is zero but it’s a good story for the Aussies to tell on the Yanks.

Raytheon Australia operates the facility on behalf of the Royal Australian Navy.  The US withdrew from operation after protests at the site.  One of the protest concerns was that nuclear launch orders could be sent from the facility. 

We also drove by a satellite farm that had twenty-seven large dishes that are tracking space junk.  It is called the Number 1 space surveillance Unit and is operated by the Royal Australian Airforce remotely from a base in South Australia.  But both or guide Alex and driver Derik didn’t believe that for a minute when there are so many more interesting theories floating around town.  They are convinced it is run by the US Space force (and there is a Space Force detachment working with Australia.)  A thirteen tower array and twenty seven satellite dishes is more interesting than a bunch of old sea turtles any day.  Well at least to me.

Others didn’t see it that way.  When we got back to our cabin, we had a message from Shorex with profuse apologies and a credit applied to our account for the missed turtles.  I take that as a double win for me.

When we got back, I also had a message from the medical department.  While the experts did not see any displacement or break in my leg or hip, they could not see the whole thing so they recommend that I go to an ER in Fremantle, the port for Perth, for either an MRI or a CT scan.  So, tomorrow I get to experience yet another country’s medical system and, once again, get to tilt with my travel insurance carriers.  I never have typical tourist experiences.

But back to the tour.  As well as the radio towers and satellite dishes we visited a canyon a little inland,

a beach

and a lighthouse with a wonderful view.

They had had a category two cyclone the week before so things were green.  Most people come here for snorkeling on Ningaloo Reef.  We tried to book a glass bottomed boat tour but the tours still running were full.  There is a labor action going on right now.  Guides, drivers, and photographers are claiming they are being underpaid.  The guide on our bus tour usually works the reef and it was his first day on a bus.  Separate labor actions are going on protesting some of the offshore energy drilling in the area in response to coral bleaching on the reef in 2025.

The highway has two meter sticks in dips to show drivers how much water there is on the road during rainstorms.

On the highway we passed giant termite mounds and signs warning us of Imu and Kangaroo crossing (although we saw neither animal).  One told us not to feed the dingos.  What would I feed them?