Changeover day

72 got off today, 27 are staying on for the next cruise, and I haven’t yet found out how many new passengers have boarded. They are all doing their Abandon Ship drill at the moment, we are excused. In the central image, we are the small navy and white ship in front of the white giant ship behind us.

To leave the staff free to prepare the ship (and do lots of washing), they took us to Richmond and then the Botanical Gardens. Richmond is a beautiful Georgian village. The bridge (top middle) is dated 1823 and is the oldest working bridge in Australia. The other images in the top 2 rows are the Catholic and Protestant churches, the hotel and the village stores. Richmond was a staging post between Hobart amd the penal colony, Port Arthur, and was built with convict labour.

The Botanical Gardens (bottom 3 images) was a delight. Of course it’s mid-summer here and it is immaculately looked after.