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Rabaul Papua New Guinea

 

Before reaching Rabaul everyone on board had to have their temperature taken to check for viruses - none was found. But then, perhaps some were asymptomatic.

 

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At the dockside in Rabaul

 

Those who had booked tours, like us, were told to go to the theatre and wait; and wait; and wait. After a while it was clear that this would run through lunch so I went up to the Lido (self-serve restaurant on deck 9) and hurriedly made sandwiches rushing back in case our group had been called. Back in the theatre we ate them then waited some more. Finally the announcement came.  We couldn't go ashore after all.

Two people had been medivaced from our ship - perhaps we have Covid-19.  We all scoffed at their excessive caution and felt sorry for the locals.

 

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A day in Rabaul.

 

All the locals in their vans and taxis and with goods for sale were sent away from this dangerous incubus (or is it incubator) in their midst. And a couple of people were meeting friends here - bad luck.

And we didn't get to see the Japanese tunnels.  Wendy's dad had fought the Japanese in New Britain during World War 2 (see here) so this had been one of the factors in deciding to take this cruise.

Nor did we get to walk across the volcanic ash (that half buried the town in 1994 and again in 2014). But then it wasn't long ago that we did this on the Big Island in Hawaii (see here). So perhaps we can just imagine we did that.

Like Santorini, the bay upon which the town sits is the flooded caldera of a large volcano and a number of the surrounding hills are volcanic vents that from time to time erupt.  But unlike Hawaii it's all quiet on the western front at the moment.

 

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Rabaul Caldera - top right is the site of the latest eruption

 

After most of a day was gone, with no alternative to disporting ourselves onboard, we left at a leisurely 16 knots.

 

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Travel

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In October 2011 our little group: Sonia, Craig, Wendy and Richard visited Peru. We flew into Lima from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. After a night in Lima we flew to Iquitos.

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Fiction, Recollections & News

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As anyone who has followed my website knows, I'm not a fan of using 'Green Hydrogen' (created by the electrolysis of water - using electricity) to generate electricity. 

I've nothing against hydrogen. It's the most abundant element in the universe. And I'm very fond of water (hydrogen oxide or more pedantically: dihydrogen monoxide). It's just that there is seldom a sensible justification for wasting most of one's electrical energy by converting it to hydrogen and then back to electricity again. 

I've made the argument against the electrolysis (green) route several times since launching this website fifteen years ago; largely to deaf ears.

The exception made in the main article (linked below) is where a generator has a periodic large unusable surpluses in an environment unsuitable for batteries. In the past various solutions have been attempted like heat storage in molten salt. But where there is a plentiful fresh water supply, producing hydrogen for later electricity generation is another option.  Also see: How does electricity work? - Approaches to Electricity Storage

Two of these conditions apply in South Australia that frequently has excess electricity (see the proportion of non-hydro renewables chart below). The State Government, with unspecified encouragement from the Prime Minister and the Commonwealth, has offered A$593m to a private consortium to build a 200MW, 100t hydrogen storage at Whyalla.  Yet, the State already has some very large batteries, with which this facility is unlikely to be able to compete commercially.  Time will tell.

Read more: Australia's Hydrogen Economy

Opinions and Philosophy

Adolf Hitler and me

 

 

 

Today, with good cause, Adolf Hitler is the personification of evil. 

Yet without him my parents may never have married and I certainly would not have been conceived in a hospital where my father was recovering from war injuries. 

Read more: Adolf Hitler and me

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