Crown Odyssey
Singapore, Bali, Komodo Island, Darwin, Cairns, Whitsunday Islands, Brisbane and Sydney

To arrive in sultry Singapore, recover with a Singapore Sling at Raffles and then board the Crown Odyssey is always a treat. The lecturing is a challenge but the guests make it worthwhile. Bali always has and always will, despite recent events, have fabulous people and scenic aspects. I will be back there as soon I as I can. Then it was on to Komodo Island where the Komodo Dragons (which I once suggested were just 'big goannas,' because they are the same genus as our Aussie goannas, until I saw them) never fail to impress.

To see the incredible geology of the region and cross 'Wallace's Line' while reading Tim Severin's The Spice Islands Voyage and Alfred Wallace's The Malay Archipelago will always remain special for me. To think that we sail across the junction of the Australian Plate with the Asian Plate and see the floral and faunal changes makes Wallace's work and his effect on Darwin's thinking fall into place.

To get back into Aussie waters and then travel for so long to get around to Sydney reminds one of how big Australia is!

Crown Odyssey

Los Angeles to Hawaii, Kiribati, French Polynesia, American Samoa, Samoa, Fiji, (cyclone Zoe chased us away from Tonga!) New Caledonia and Sydney

The daily lectures kept me busy but I was able to see the great diversity of societies and geological differences that define these areas so well. To see the way each cultural group has changed since European arrivals and the effects of technology is somewhat soul destroying especially when I have always only had the images of these areas as 'paradise'. Guns germs and steel by Jared Diamond makes even more sense when I visit these areas.

Having not been through these areas for a couple of years it was great to be back and capture those special aspects of each place on camera.

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