Goodbye Australia :-(

Sunday was my last day in Australia. :-( So I got up early, packed, cleaned and dropped by luggage off at storage before heading into town one last time. I went to the markets to get a couple of last things and some more sugar cane juice! :-)
But first right outside my apartments I spent ages just watching a little humming bird. He moved so fast, it took ages to get a photo that wasn't a blur!

Humming bird

The marina was really pretty and has a really cute little train station.

Port Douglas Marina

The weather was a lot better at the markets this week and there were a lot more stalls too.

Markets

 I got some lunch and headed to the beach for the last time. I finally managed to find the time to climb the hill and get a better view of the 4 mile beach.

4 mile beach

Looking out to Crocodile Island

My view over lunch

Sand crab hills

I walked along the sand and water and chilled out, wasting time before my shuttle to the airport. Until I was driven away my mosquitoes. Due to the long wet season, they are everywhere. And come out all times of the day and night. That is the only thing I will NOT miss about Australia. I have been eaten alive!

Last view of the beach

Sydney airport is one of the worse I think. Because no one will give you a straight answer on where to go. I spent ages trying to get to my hotel. 5 people all told me different things! I was wondering around for ages before I just stopped a bus and begged for help. An off-duty air stewardess took pity on me thankfully!
Once I did arrive, the hotel was very nice and I had a great meal. The room is lovely, with some interesting inclusions I haven't seen before.

Bottle opener - every hotel room should have one! 

So you can do business while ... doing your business?

I am just about to head back to the airport for the very long flight back. I am really not looking forward to it. Especially as my bug cream ran out and the bites are driving me mad. (First stop in the airport, the pharmacy.) Still hopefully everything will go smoothly and I will be in my own bed within a few days times. I think. I arrive in San Francisco before I leave Sydney so I am just not thinking about the time and time differences. It gives me a headache. I'll just gorge on movies and sleep and let everything sort itself out! :-)

Agincourt Pontoon

Saturday was the conference excursion out to the Barrier reef. It was the same company I went with the previous Saturday, but this time to the pontoon. There was a very good reason I didn't do this the first time. You are stuck in one place with a large number of people. Plus there are often that many people here so the reef is damaged in parts. Still it was interesting to see the 2 different ways.
I decided to do a dive anyway (my instructor from last time was there but I couldn't get to dive with him). I regret spending the money. It was a LOT more expensive than the last time and frankly rubbish. We had to hold hands for most of it. I hate that! We stopped to see a Nemo and giant clam but that was it. Every time I slowed to look at fish I was pulled forward. The others decided to go for the second dive. I was very glad I did not!

In fact everything was more expensive. You had to pay this time to hire the stinger suits. People thought I was a little strange but one girl hurt her foot on the coral and I think I was a lot warmer than those who didn't. Plus I avoided sunburn so that part was worth the money.

So I was in less than a happy mood. But everyone else seemed to enjoy their dives so maybe I was just spoilt last time.

I took a quick snorkel but couldn't see anything so went for lunch. After, I found the semi-sub and went for the trip around the reef, chatting to a nice woman from New Zealand.

Plate coral

Valley between coral

The best fish were right under the pontoon

 I was in a bit of a better mood after this so decided to give snorkeling another go. (I was there after all.) And I was glad I did. I went out as far as I was allowed and I was completely on my own so there were lots of fish. I was a lot happier! :-)

They change color (blue and green) to communicate

Sargent major fish 

Male parrot fish 

Plate and stag coral

2 blue legs of a starfish (we think)

Free diving - and apparently I am a red head! 

Sturgeon

Sixbar Wrass

 But then something made my day. I was swimming along and turned to look to my left.

Hawksbill turtle

He just sort of looked at me as if to say "coming?" So I spent the next 1/2 hr just following and watching. I had him all to myself - there was no one else even closely nearby. He was beautiful!

Found something tasty

Coming up for air

and back for more food

I did spot someone else (a student form the conference it turned out) and showed him. He was quite happy, though I think I did scare him when I grabbed him as he swam past. :-)

We stayed until the ship blew the horn, which means get back to the ship or we leave without you.

I spent the trip back looking through my photos and talking to a lovely group of grey nomads (retirees who travel the country) from Melbourne. They also showed us the video they had made of our dive. It was ok, but they were expecting people to buy it for $106 for 1 DVD! They were destined for disappointment. I didn't even buy any of the photos they took. One because I couldn't tell which one was me. Put on a mask, regulator and wet suit and everyone pretty much looks the same. And secondly they cost $22 each. I like mine better and I got a lot more of them!

Back at the marina, I said goodbye to people (and organized a dinner meet-up - without phones it's trickier). They all got the coach back to shower and change but I didn't want to miss the sunset. It was the shortest day in the southern hemisphere and the skies were clear. I wondered down to the park near the estuary.

Over the estuary

I also spotted this girl lying on near the water. Right in front of the crocodile warning sign. And they really do mean it here!

Crocodile food!

I ended up at the end park. There were these amazing trees around the far edge.

One tree or multiple?

I found a spot to watch the sun go down behind the mountains. A lot of people had brought blankets and bottles of wine. I wish I had thought of that.

Enjoying wine and the sunset

After the sunset (and I was being eaten alive once again), I headed back to the marina for a quick drink (and to borrow some more bug stray at a restaurant) before meeting some people for a final sea food dinner. (Got to get it in while I can!)

Quiet final drink at the marina

Port Douglas

Sunday was my last free day before the conference :-( But I did get a sleep in. Until 7.30am when my body, the local turkeys and a steam train decided it was time to get up anyway.

Duncan and I headed to the local Sunday market which was fun. They had lots of crafts stalls and some local fruit sellers. I tried sugar cane juice with ginger which was really tasty. (I am going to try to head back on my last morning for more!)

Cycling and making sugar cane juice

And I also got a few more gifts. Everyone is totally sorted for Christmas now. Assuming I don't get greedy and keep it all for myself! There were also a few interesting stalls.

??????

We walked back through town to the 4 mile beach and then along the beach to the house. The beach is very pretty though there are enough warning since about crocodiles and jellyfish to make me a little concerned about taking a dip. I was hoping the weather would improve (which it did later in the week - just in time to leave!)

4 mile beach

The rest of the day was spent working and reading before heading over to register for the conference. I have to do some work this trip after all. Though I don't think we will be eating in the hotel very often (which is a 15min walk from our townhouse). Very expensive!

Tuesday night was the conference dinner, at a restaurant on the estuary and the view was very pretty.

I was a little disappointed that we didn't get any fish though. However there was lots of free Hunter valley wine (delicious and well sampled!). My table were the last to leave (we had the small british contingency) but apparently everyone else went back to the conference hotel and continued while we all went home! So I didn't feel so bad.

Conference dinner by the sea

View form the restaurant - Someone lost their boat!

Wednesday we had the morning off, which was a fantastic idea! (i have had the talk slot the morning

after the conference dinner and no one wants to be there. And as a bonus the weather cleared up 

and was beautiful! I went into town with Duncan and picked up a second suitcase (I have a small limit on the internal flight and brought a few too many Christmas presents). And I found my aboriginal art!

I have been looking for a special piece and promised myself if I found it .... It wasn't cheap but it is

awesome. (I'll put a picture up when I unwrap it). We walked back along the beach. (I really now want to live closer to the beach.)

4 mile beach

Aussie life guards at the ready

Paradise

The rest of the week was work. (Thankfully my talk went ok despite the ones before it saying exactly the opposite to my results - at least it got people talking about my work!) I went into town with people on the evenings and managed to find people who wanted seafood. I finally got to try Moreton Bay Bugs. They are have a lobster tail and a crab head. Most of the meat is in the tail. Of course as a bunch of scientists, we spent a fair bit of time playing with our food and reconstructing the bugs. :-) They were very tasty! But look a bit gross.

Plating with Bay Bugs

Great Barrier Reef!

Saturday was the highlight of my trip. I went diving on the Great Barrier Reef! This is something I have wanted to do since I was little. I spent ages researching which company etc to go with and was glad I did. Some take you out to a platform to dive from and I didn't really like that idea. I went with Quicksilver, who take you out on SilverSonic, a 45m catamaran. And it was quite a small group.

There were only about 50 on the boat (some have a few hundred which I didn't want). There is another reason but I'll get to that in a bit. The trip took about 1.5 hrs and they take you out to the Agincourt reefs which are on the outer reef. They are the only company allowed to dive here so there weren't hundreds of other boats in the area either. I booked to do one dive and 2 snorkels but after the first dive they said there was room if someone wanted to do a second and I jumped at the chance. The first stop (and my first dive) was at the Three Sisters reef, on Agincourt 2. (There are 3 Agincourt sections of the reef.) After the intro session, we got ready and then waited.

A long time. I was desperate to get in and started. But there are only 4 people to each instructor and
they have to take people down in pairs and make sure they were ok with the tests, such as changing regulator, clearly your masks, and equalizing. And some in the group before me had a lot of trouble. (He ended up getting out and getting a refund.) Then it was my turn. You waddle to the back of the boat. (there really is no elegant way of walking in flippers - you either pick you feet up and look like a frog or shuffle and look like a penguin. I went the penguin route.) And then just jump of the back of the boat. Because they weren't sure how good everyone would be, they didn't allow me to take my underwater camera on the first dive.

But the dive was awesome. I swam with 2 reef sharks! And it was so beautiful.

After the dive we went to Phil's reef (named after a guy called Phil!), also in Agincourt 2, and they served lunch. I had been given some great advice the day before by a couple in the rainforest. Get a plate of food, put it somewhere safe, and go snorkeling. Eat when the boat is moving. And because no one else did this, I had the reef to myself.

Pretty colored coral

More coral                                    

Snorkling selfie

Parrot fish and friend

Big fish

Coral valley

Lots of big fish

 It was quite a shallow reef which was great for snorkeling. And there were so many fish. It was even better than I though it would be.

Shallow seas

I decided to keep my stinger suit on while snorkling. Partly just in case (I did not enjoy the sea lice

stings) and it also kept me warmer.

One of the other reasons I chose this company was they have a license that allows them to stop

and swim with Minky whales if they spot them. It is very early in the season so I didn't expect to see any. But as I got back form snorkeling, I heard there was one out the front of the boat. So as soon as I was given the ok (there can only be 16 people in the water at one time) I jump out the back and raced around to the front. You have to hold onto a rope to make sure everyone stays in one place and does't disturb the whale.

I saw a blur in the distance. And then it swam under us and I saw another blur. And then it saw beside us. And it was no blur this time.

He just slowly swam passed. About 8m long, he was a good deal bigger than the estimate of 5-6m I heard on the boat. He was beautiful! And then he was gone. I had pointed the camera and pressed the  button a few times but there was no way I was going to take my eyes off him long enough to check. But thankfully I did get some photos.

After the whale I went back on board to eat even though I could have stayed in the water for another

15mins. I needed some time to relax. :-)

The second dive at our final stop was at Turtle bay, which is Agincourt 3, section D.

Unfortunately I didn't see any turtles. (But I figure with the whale I really can't complain!) As we were getting ready, some mentioned there was a tiger shark but he left before we go in the water. :-(

As we had all been through the intro before (plus 2 were certified), we just want start down. And our instructor, Justin who was awesome, said we would just stay down as long as the air lasted out! And he showed us all sort of beautiful things. And brought some fish food to attract more fish!

Giant fish!

Nemos!!!

Giant clam

Coral and hiding fis 

More fish 

Lion fish

Proof I was there!

Eating the rope

grumpy

Coral from below

I was so conscious of not touching or bumpy into any coral. However our instructor showed us a piece of soft coral we could touch. It was really soft and squishy!

I ended up hiring a waterproof camera for the day and I was very glad I did. We ended up going down about 10-12m which is deeper than I think my little waterproof will cope with. Plus this one had a bigger screen so I could even do some artsy shots.

surface

into the deep

bubbles.

Not so artsy. Scuba selfie

Solo diver

Group ascending

We stayed down about 40 mins. And I didn't want to leave. As we got back to shore, the weather started to cloud over again. We were so lucky with the weather. Apparently it was the best day for a long time and likely for a while as the weather is supposed to deteriorate for the following week.
I also knew diving the barrier reef would be cool but I honestly never expected it to be that amazing. It was better than my wildest dreams!

Happy diver!