Tuesday, February 20, 2018, Cruising the Arafura Sea

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Located north of Australia, the bed of the Arafura Sea holds a key to the earliest human migrations.  Around 18,000 BC, during the Ice Age period known as the Last Glacial Maximum, sea levels were much lower and the floor of these waters, known as the Arafur Shelf, formed a dry land bridge linking Australia and New Guinea.  Entire populations easily walked from continent to continent, exchanging language and customs.  In centuries past, wooden sailboats from Indonesian Makassar sailed these waters in search of trepangs, or sea cucumbers.  Today, it is believed to be named for inhabitants of the Moluccas, who called themselves haraforas, or “children of the mountains.”

We will arrive Darwin tomorrow morning, our final port call in Australia.

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