My time in Sydney was also enjoyed at Bondi Beach.  Warm and sunny, big and beautiful, very clean sand, gentle playful waves which I believe were due to its shallow shores and well, it was just wonderful!

And it goes without saying there had to be hundreds of beautiful young ladies in their bikinis!  The beach of course was occupied by others as well, no discretion here, but it seemed as though these others were mostly under their beach ⛱, so how could I not notice the young, energetic ones!

Time’s up!  On to Melbourne which took only the day; we arrived late at night.  This would be our last drop of sugar.  Flour was loaded onto our ship, the SS Lakemba and that granted us three days here.

My Melbourne experience?  During this visit I was able to meet up with my cousin/brother who was there studying to be a pharmacist.  He asked me if I could get American cigarettes and so being able to buy these from our ship’s commissary (which was only open while the ship was at sea), I was able to supply a few cartons to him -I bought them for $1 each.

As confusion could set in about what seems like a little back-and-forth, I’ll try to clarify: Melbourne had an allowance of flour to load (also a couple of other factors) and that is why we returned to Sydney for flour instead of taking it on while we there the first time.  There had to be assurance for the Melbourne load first – something like that.

Now to pick up a fresh handful of +passengers, the remaining flour load and make our way back to the Fiji Islands.

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Sad note; this is where I took up smoking myself.  Happy note; I have been a non-smoker now for over 36 years!

+   The same basically applied to not picking up the Sydney passengers till the return trip; why pay to go to Melbourne, to return to Sydney and then onward?  Plus this way it allowed more time if others wanted to join the ship.