I am suffering the tail-end of a head cold at the moment. When you are a bit crook, you tend to look inwardly and it got me to thinking. Really nothing else has changed in the last two hundred years since the days of Quarantine Stations - we are still spreading communicable diseases on ships!
Conversely to the normal run of things, however, my sore throat began whilst staying at the Sydney Quarantine Station. This facility is perched on land situated offering a stern glare towards Sydney Heads. It is now an accommodation facility. You can drive to it via Manly but our form of transport is direct from our cruise ship at Circular Quay. Our ferry takes us to a narrow, unimposing jetty which must have received many a passenger step ashore before us. In the early days they would have been rowed ashore and if lucky, were not already wrapped in a sheet and prepared for burial. The Quarantine Station served its vital purpose to protect early settlers in Sydney-town from as early as the 1830’s and right up to 1984; warding off horrible diseases like Spanish Influenza, Smallpox and even Bubonic Plague not to mention Typhoid Fever. The original timber rooms have now been redesigned to meet the modern needs of travellers. There is no air-conditioning (did they know something we haven’t realised yet!) but in the January heat, a hard working fan just doesn’t seem to ‘cut it’. The Station is situated atop a hill which receives all the sea breezes, believed good for recuperation from whatever you had brought ashore from your personal transport from the UK. The place is a bit run-down now and it is easy to see why there are bargains to be had in accommodation prices for staying here now.
Regardless of the need for a bit of sprucing up, one of our party mentioned that he wouldn’t like to dig down too far in the soil under existing foundations - many diseases can lie dormant in soil for many years. Washing water might well have been thrown into the soil under buildings. Of course the three cemeteries which existed for the ready burial of those who made it onto Australian shores only to have their life extinguished soon afterwards still exist. Their grave stones have now been removed into the centre’s museum. The spot is a National Park now so it unlikely to be developed further.
Four days ago, I woke up in my comfy bed on board Majestic Princess with a tummy bug. By lunchtime, I knew that I had contracted something from perhaps pushing a button in a lift or holding onto a bannister after someone who had not washed their hands properly had passed by, as this is the usual method of touch transference. Cruise Ships these days try their hardest to remind passengers to be vigilant with hygiene. They now announce regularly that using the hand sanitiser upon entry into any restaurant is not sufficient to kill Novo virus and that hand washing with soap and hot water, is also necessary. They provide basins, soap and towels at entry points at the buffet and post a staff member to stand there to guide reluctant ones towards the basins.
Stephen, being extra conscious of the spread of illnesses as a result of his training, rang the medical facility and was advised, though he had already decided anyway, that I was to stay in my cabin for 24 hours. I really didn’t mind at all, as I was happy to keep to my bed and be waited on! By the end of the quarantine period, not having experienced any other occurrences of my tummy bug, I was free to join the throng. All at once I felt like dancing through the corridors! There’s something so isolating about being isolated. Not that I told anyone that I was recently released!! I think it must have been something I ate rather than a virus, but it got me to thinking about the sense of isolation passengers on the Diamond Princess off Japan have been experiencing due to the Corona Virus. Now I’m sure that there are worse places to be quarantined than a cruise ship without doubt, but realistically, the beautifully appointed pool and bar areas and the lovely restaurants won’t be venues these people can partake of.
Like me, they will have eaten their dinner whilst squatting on a couch with their plates on their laps. My dinner wasn’t that hot either, given that it had been transferred from a kitchen to my door. It is the inside cabin participants that I feel the most sorry for. They must have felt that they were like guinea pigs locked in their cages and just waiting for the invisible illness to float through the air conditioning and to sabotage them in their sleep! And it has done so very effectively with the beginning of this fear on the ship having started with one episode and now over 600 people have been infected. Inside cabins have no natural light source at all and this in itself might have health implications over a longer period than might be usual.
Without doubt though, its the feeling of ‘separation from all other human contact’ which would have a deleterious affect on the self-esteem. In my case, I. was just as happy to sleep away the hours by myself, but if a person is perfectly well, the hours seem long indeed. Yes, we are still spreading illnesses when on board ship - I know it from recent cruises I’ve taken, but I am more than extremely grateful that there is no incidences of Corona virus on board the Majestic Princess which will terminate this cruise in Perth - our stopping off point - rather than proceed onto Penang and Singapore as originally advertised.
Conversely to the normal run of things, however, my sore throat began whilst staying at the Sydney Quarantine Station. This facility is perched on land situated offering a stern glare towards Sydney Heads. It is now an accommodation facility. You can drive to it via Manly but our form of transport is direct from our cruise ship at Circular Quay. Our ferry takes us to a narrow, unimposing jetty which must have received many a passenger step ashore before us. In the early days they would have been rowed ashore and if lucky, were not already wrapped in a sheet and prepared for burial. The Quarantine Station served its vital purpose to protect early settlers in Sydney-town from as early as the 1830’s and right up to 1984; warding off horrible diseases like Spanish Influenza, Smallpox and even Bubonic Plague not to mention Typhoid Fever. The original timber rooms have now been redesigned to meet the modern needs of travellers. There is no air-conditioning (did they know something we haven’t realised yet!) but in the January heat, a hard working fan just doesn’t seem to ‘cut it’. The Station is situated atop a hill which receives all the sea breezes, believed good for recuperation from whatever you had brought ashore from your personal transport from the UK. The place is a bit run-down now and it is easy to see why there are bargains to be had in accommodation prices for staying here now.
Regardless of the need for a bit of sprucing up, one of our party mentioned that he wouldn’t like to dig down too far in the soil under existing foundations - many diseases can lie dormant in soil for many years. Washing water might well have been thrown into the soil under buildings. Of course the three cemeteries which existed for the ready burial of those who made it onto Australian shores only to have their life extinguished soon afterwards still exist. Their grave stones have now been removed into the centre’s museum. The spot is a National Park now so it unlikely to be developed further.
Four days ago, I woke up in my comfy bed on board Majestic Princess with a tummy bug. By lunchtime, I knew that I had contracted something from perhaps pushing a button in a lift or holding onto a bannister after someone who had not washed their hands properly had passed by, as this is the usual method of touch transference. Cruise Ships these days try their hardest to remind passengers to be vigilant with hygiene. They now announce regularly that using the hand sanitiser upon entry into any restaurant is not sufficient to kill Novo virus and that hand washing with soap and hot water, is also necessary. They provide basins, soap and towels at entry points at the buffet and post a staff member to stand there to guide reluctant ones towards the basins.
Stephen, being extra conscious of the spread of illnesses as a result of his training, rang the medical facility and was advised, though he had already decided anyway, that I was to stay in my cabin for 24 hours. I really didn’t mind at all, as I was happy to keep to my bed and be waited on! By the end of the quarantine period, not having experienced any other occurrences of my tummy bug, I was free to join the throng. All at once I felt like dancing through the corridors! There’s something so isolating about being isolated. Not that I told anyone that I was recently released!! I think it must have been something I ate rather than a virus, but it got me to thinking about the sense of isolation passengers on the Diamond Princess off Japan have been experiencing due to the Corona Virus. Now I’m sure that there are worse places to be quarantined than a cruise ship without doubt, but realistically, the beautifully appointed pool and bar areas and the lovely restaurants won’t be venues these people can partake of.
Like me, they will have eaten their dinner whilst squatting on a couch with their plates on their laps. My dinner wasn’t that hot either, given that it had been transferred from a kitchen to my door. It is the inside cabin participants that I feel the most sorry for. They must have felt that they were like guinea pigs locked in their cages and just waiting for the invisible illness to float through the air conditioning and to sabotage them in their sleep! And it has done so very effectively with the beginning of this fear on the ship having started with one episode and now over 600 people have been infected. Inside cabins have no natural light source at all and this in itself might have health implications over a longer period than might be usual.
Without doubt though, its the feeling of ‘separation from all other human contact’ which would have a deleterious affect on the self-esteem. In my case, I. was just as happy to sleep away the hours by myself, but if a person is perfectly well, the hours seem long indeed. Yes, we are still spreading illnesses when on board ship - I know it from recent cruises I’ve taken, but I am more than extremely grateful that there is no incidences of Corona virus on board the Majestic Princess which will terminate this cruise in Perth - our stopping off point - rather than proceed onto Penang and Singapore as originally advertised.