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! :-)

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!

Dreamwalk

On Friday I went for an Aboriginal day. Again I was very lucky and it was only a small group, with 2 other couples. It started at the Jandal art center where the artist, Binna, showed us how the art is created and the differences between old and contemporary aboriginal art. Then we made some of our own.

My artwork!

Outdoor painting (thankfully undercover)

 I brought a couple of prints which I will put photos of up later. I am still looking for the painting I want. Hopefully at the markets on Sunday.
After the gallery, we went to the Mossman Gorge Centre which is only a few years old but a lovely place run by the aboriginals from the rainforest to showcase their culture and history. I got to go on the Dreamwalk tour while the rest of the group went with Darryl, our tour guide. (I sort of wish I had gone with them as it sounds like they had a lot of fun trying bush tucker.)
My tour was ran by Aaron, whose grandmother is from the Kuku Yalanji tribe who live in this area. He has come here from his fathers tribe to learn the ways of his mothers tribe. We started with a smoking ceremony which is basically walking around a specially prepared fire to ask to be allowed into the forest and to be safe there. This area is a special to the Yalanji, full of spirits.

Fire for the smoking ceremony

Red cedar tree

On the walk though the forest, Aaron (who is still waiting for his aboriginal name, which he has to wait for his grandfather to give him) showed up various plants and their uses.

He also showed us aboriginal shelters. The hut is built using "wait a while" canes (from the vine which has spikes and catches anything near it) and palms. The "cave" shelter doesn't look like much (especially a cave) but it does keep the rain off. I can confirm this as it was still raining so we tried it out. 

Hut

Cave shelter

 The mid-point of the walk was at Rex Creek. Normally we would be allowed to swim here but the water level was too high.

Rapids 

Rex creek, looking down towards the river

Aaron showed us the leaves use to make soap which is also a great mosquito repellant, moisturizer
for dry skin and heal wounds. It smells good too! He also showed us a vine which you can use the
bark as a muscle relaxant, like deep heat.

Soap

Making deep heat

 We also got a demonstration on body paint, what they use and what it means.

Different minerals give different colors

And the difference colors represent different ideas. Here drawing his family totem, the cassowary.

Markings

After the walk, we got a cup of billy tea made with the local Daintree tea and damper (kind of like scones/sweet bread). I got the bus back early on my own as I had to met the rest of my tour for lunch. I had Barramundi, which is a local fish and very tasty. Next was a beach hunting trip. We were shown briefly how to use the spear before heading into the mud flats. The mud was quite deep in places and not altogether pleasant at times!

Our guide off the find some mud crabs

This was the minimum mud level

Random mangrove tree in the middle of the mudflats

Frankly there was no way I was ever going to throw the spear at a fish and even come close to hitting it. However I did get 3 mud crabs! And I got first "kill" of the day. The first 2 were pointed out to me by our guides. But the final one I managed to spot and spear on my own. I was very happy!

Victorious hunter!

We also saw other wildlife.

starfish

Puffer fish (super cute and speedy

Sea slug - prettier than the name suggests

Back on the beach (after quite a long walk - I was amazed how far we walked), we went to the house
of the brothers who took us hunting and eat the mud crabs. In the shop, they are $100 a crab. And we feasted on them. Unfortunately there was another group as well and they didn't catch nearly as much as we did (mainly because they had a few kids) so we had to share our haul with them so we didn't get as much as I would like as the crabs were really tasty. I can see why they cost that much! The brothers also had a bunch of sea artifacts they passed around.

200 yr old turtle shell - they used it to feed their family

Saw and sword fish "noses"

Giant clam shells

After eating, we went downstairs and saw their giant clam shells. And I violated an ant. I was given it, told to hold its head and lick its butt. So I did. It tasted of very strong sour lemon and is used as

a cold remedy. Still it's an odd thing to do. :-)

On the way back the weather did clear up a bit and I finally got to see crocodile island which is shaped like a crocodile (it had been pointed out a few times but was until now behind the mist).

Crocodile Island

Blue sky at last!