We spent about 10 days in the vicinity of Darwin, Australia in early February 2025, prior to boarding the Holland America cruise ship Zuiderdam, where I was to give lectures. As with most of my cruise lecturing possibilities, we had the option of flying early to our point of boarding and flying back from our disembarking port at times of our choosing (to within reason). In this manner, we could take “vacations” both before our cruise (in Australia) and after our cruise (in South Africa).