Day 36 - Travel Reconsiderations
Today was devoted to rethinking and researching our overseas travel plans. We received emails from Viking ocean cruises letting us know our 3 week trip from Japan to Vancouver via Alaska has been cancelled due to concerns about the corona virus. Cunard has also cancelled Asian cruises through to May. We were scheduled to sail around Japan on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. Full refunds have been offered.
None of this was surprising given recent events. Cunard has moved some ships from Asia to Australia and New Zealand. After cruising around Australasia the Queen Elizabeth will sail from Sydney to Vancouver. Bookings opened this morning but could only be made by phone. The prices have been slashed so I waited on hold for an hour before giving up and going out for lunch.
Our original lunch date had been cancelled so Anita suggested we try Scratchley's in Newcastle. When I got directions from Google maps I realised we could simply catch the Stockton ferry across the Hunter River. Unfortunately we just missed one ferry and there would have been a long wait for the next one, so we drove there. The map shows we should have planned ahead as Scratchley's is 50m from the Newcastle ferry terminal!
Over lunch we contemplated our overseas travel options while enjoying Scratchley's food and the view across the river back to Stockton.
Hopefully the rest of our overseas trip will not be greatly affected by the spread of corona virus. We are catching a train across Canada, flying to New York then sailing on the Queen Mary to Southampton, England. We will fly to Zurich and travel around Switzerland for a month before returning to Southampton to board the Queen Victoria to cruise around Iceland.
In May 2020 Cunard will relocate the Queen Elizabeth to Alaska for the cruise season in that part of the world. The 25 day cruise from Sydney to Vancouver would allow us to continue with the rest of our plans, even though there will be a lot of sea days and not many places to visit on the way. After waiting on hold for an hour and 20 minutes, I finally got through and was able to make that booking! The rest of our trip can hopefully go ahead as planned, except for a few extra days in Vancouver than we originally booked.
Having solved that problem I went for a 5kms walk following the riverbank in a clockwise direction past the ferry terminal and back across to the seafront. There are a couple of small sandy beaches on the river with silos on the far side. Plenty of recreation facilities have been built in the parkland by the river, including a swimming pool, skate park, exercise equipment and fishing facilities.
A few commercial fishing boats are moored along this part of the river and there is a small marina and a small slipway.
There are lots of signs around the area stating Save Stockton Beach. I agree with the sentiment but wonder how achievable this is after seeing the extent of erosion. There are places where truckloads of rocks have been dumped against the sandbank, but the rocks sink into the sand and are dragged out into the sea creating hazards. These sandbags structures are not attractive but appear to be more effective. The cost of these works will be be in the millions.
None of this was surprising given recent events. Cunard has moved some ships from Asia to Australia and New Zealand. After cruising around Australasia the Queen Elizabeth will sail from Sydney to Vancouver. Bookings opened this morning but could only be made by phone. The prices have been slashed so I waited on hold for an hour before giving up and going out for lunch.
Our original lunch date had been cancelled so Anita suggested we try Scratchley's in Newcastle. When I got directions from Google maps I realised we could simply catch the Stockton ferry across the Hunter River. Unfortunately we just missed one ferry and there would have been a long wait for the next one, so we drove there. The map shows we should have planned ahead as Scratchley's is 50m from the Newcastle ferry terminal!
Over lunch we contemplated our overseas travel options while enjoying Scratchley's food and the view across the river back to Stockton.
Hopefully the rest of our overseas trip will not be greatly affected by the spread of corona virus. We are catching a train across Canada, flying to New York then sailing on the Queen Mary to Southampton, England. We will fly to Zurich and travel around Switzerland for a month before returning to Southampton to board the Queen Victoria to cruise around Iceland.
In May 2020 Cunard will relocate the Queen Elizabeth to Alaska for the cruise season in that part of the world. The 25 day cruise from Sydney to Vancouver would allow us to continue with the rest of our plans, even though there will be a lot of sea days and not many places to visit on the way. After waiting on hold for an hour and 20 minutes, I finally got through and was able to make that booking! The rest of our trip can hopefully go ahead as planned, except for a few extra days in Vancouver than we originally booked.
Having solved that problem I went for a 5kms walk following the riverbank in a clockwise direction past the ferry terminal and back across to the seafront. There are a couple of small sandy beaches on the river with silos on the far side. Plenty of recreation facilities have been built in the parkland by the river, including a swimming pool, skate park, exercise equipment and fishing facilities.
A few commercial fishing boats are moored along this part of the river and there is a small marina and a small slipway.
There are lots of signs around the area stating Save Stockton Beach. I agree with the sentiment but wonder how achievable this is after seeing the extent of erosion. There are places where truckloads of rocks have been dumped against the sandbank, but the rocks sink into the sand and are dragged out into the sea creating hazards. These sandbags structures are not attractive but appear to be more effective. The cost of these works will be be in the millions.
