20231126 AAAA Trip - Thursday Island, Australia - If it is Sunday, this must be Thursday

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 71/105 - Thursday Island, Australia

Saturday, Sunday, or Monday? Forget about it! But, if you want an island or islet named for any other day of the week, then the Torres Archipelago of islands in the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea is the place for you!

Located about 22 miles north and west of Cape York Tip, the northernmost point of mainland Australia in the Arafura Sea, Thursday Island is part of the Torres Islands that extend north all the way to the coast of Papua New Guinea. 

We're at the red dot

At only about 1.4 square miles, Thursday Island isn't the largest island, but it is home to just over 2,900 residents.  These residents are Australian citizens, but they have a combined heritage that draws from native Australian aborigines as well as the South Pacific heritage from Papua New Guinea and are known as the Kaurareg people.

On our sail-in today, we had a fly-by from a local helicopter. Helicopter "flight-seeing" was offered as an optional excursion so I don't know if this was one of the helicopters for that.

Here's something you don't see every day, a cruise ship for cows.

Well, that's an odd-looking vessel

Looks like cages

Let's take a closer look...

Yup - cattle and they all have ocean-view cabins!

We heard the familiar sound of a pilot boat.

They came alongside and not one but two pilots came aboard

We continued our sail-in to our anchor point, taking in the sights.

Arlona, checking out the shore

I'm not sure if they were waving or telling us to pull over...

Not sure what kind of fish this is, but we saw several swimming by

Since we cannot dock here, we have to take a 30-minute tender ride into the dock. Our tour today was the included tour, Introduction to Thursday Island. It was a 45-minute cultural presentation.  At only 1.4 square miles, there really isn't much to see on Thursday Island. We dropped anchor at noon.  Our tour was at 4:15 p.m., so we elected to take an earlier tender in and walk around a bit.

A look back at the Orion as we headed into the dock.

A turtle sculpture

One of our tenders at the dock

There was a committee meeting near the water

They were having a hard time reaching consensus

A breakout team was off working on new ideas

This sculpture pays homage to Thursday Island's history with the pearl industry

Suddenly, Arlona realized that there was water here

It was Sunday and exactly no businesses were open. Never mind that we just increased the population by about 35% - nothing was open.  Well, almost nothing.

With our friends, Judy & Dave, offsetting the heat with a cold one

After our hydration break, we continued on, heading over a block and walking back toward town.

This church had a memorial to those who lost their lives in a shipwreck here

Judy said this is called a flame tree

There were several churches on the walk back toward town

ANZAC is the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps

One thing that was open was a vending machine store

They must have had 15 or 16 vending machines selling nearly anything

Arlona was amazed at everything you could buy

Don't play in traffic - OK, noted

We went back down to the dock to wait for our excursion to begin. A bunch of these little guys, skinks, I think, were scurrying around the rocks near the dock.

We walked with the group to the venue for the cultural performance.

Decorations out front

The local flag shows a stylized representation of a classic headpiece

A local elder welcomed us with a traditional welcome to the country

A local artist discussed his art and products (they were for sale – astonishing)

A family came on stage to present traditional dances and songs

This change in headpieces was designed to represent the shark constellation

After the performance, we walked back to the dock for our half-hour tender ride back to the ship.

The sun was starting to set as we arrived back at the ship

When we got to our room, it looked like we would have a nice sunset tonight

We went to the Explorer’s Bar and the sun did not disappoint us

We had a good day, but Thursday Island was a disappointment.  The performance was fine, but there was nothing to see on the island.  Couple that with the fact that we were here on a Sunday when everything was closed and this port was a bust.  Viking needs to rethink this itinerary and adjust in cases like this. Spend another day at sea.  Work out two days in Cairns rather than one.  Make a stop in Papua New Guinea. Something. Anything. But take us to an island where everything is closed and there is nothing to see?  Not a good call.

Tomorrow is another sea day.  On Tuesday, we’ll be in Cairns and are headed to snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef.