12 11 12 = 32

Daniel must have been super excited because he woke up at five thirty, which meant that I did too.  He made us eggs and toast for breakfast and we left the house just before seven to drive south.  Unfortunately it was a rainy day.  People in Cairns seem to drive a little slower in the rain; I get it, it's safe, but I know what I'm doing -being from Oregon- and I wanted them to speed up!  We arrived at the Deeral boat launch area just before eight.  We were the first passengers and were interested to find out how many more were going to join us.

I drove right past this shed at first because it was tiny

and I was driving like a maniac to get us there on time!

(A safe maniac) 

The sign says not to swim or you will be eaten by a crocodile.

One thing Australians will agree with you on is their propensity for over indulging the imagination.  The Frankland Islands website said, "Enjoy a relaxing cruise aboard our sleek catamaran."  The vessel was more like a city bus on water.   A scheduled departure time of 8a.m. was delayed almost an hour and forty five minutes.  Apparently the bus bringing tourists from town to the dock broke down.  I suggested we leave without them because I like to be pretentious on my birthday.  Daniel tried to keep me entertained with his cell phone, however, I was more interested in pretending to see crocs in the river.

 Seventy three people arrived at a quarter to ten, and shortly after we set sail.  Daniel and I decided to go up to the top deck to look for scary creatures.  Perhaps due to the cool weather, we didn't see any.  Although it was beautiful.

My "ready for adventure" face.

We kept waiting for these people to yell, "I see one!"

This river had many different canals connecting with the ocean

and I wondered how long it took our captain to memorize

his way around without getting lost.

Perhaps it was naive of me to give no thought of how we would get to the Island of Normanby.  Since the weather was fickle, so too were the huge waves we had to cross in the ocean.  Our boat was tossed and turned side to side, up and down.  Now, I enjoy a roller coaster as much as the next amusement park thrill seeker, however, they usually last less than ninety seconds.  This "dropping of the stomach, we're going to die" feeling lasted forty minutes.  People everywhere were green-faced and losing their tea and biscuits off the side of the ship.  I stayed in my seat, staring as far out toward the horizon as I could see, gripping Daniel's hand for support, and breathing deep, long breaths.  Daniel suggested we go outside for some fresh air and I agreed.  When he stood up though, he was immediately pitched across the aisle and into someone else's seat.  I decided to stay where I was.

Finally we arrived and we were the first group off the boat!  Boarding the smaller boat, another wave rocked us and I fell onto a woman's back.  She didn't even look at me when I said, "Oh!  I'm sorry."  Then one of the young men told me to move and I explained to him, "Yeah, I just fell."  Haha!  It took three smaller boat trips to cart people to the island, and we were both thankful to be of the first back on dry land.  

Daniel took this photo as we made our way from

the seasick ship.

Making our way near the edge of the water we turned to each other and simultaneously admitted, "I could totally puke right now, but I'm not going to."  It made us laugh to have the same thought.  

This is my "thankful to not be throwing up" smile.

It took a bit of time to get everyone else off the boat and onto our island.  Four picnic tables were set up for us to stash our belongings and as I walked to one to unload our bag, an older Danish man said to me, "Oh, these two tables are for Dave's group."  I asked, "Dave's group?"  He told me, "Yes, we have a group of 28."  Luckily Daniel was next to me and said, "Babe, let's sit here." because I was about to explain to the man that 75 people were on board and divided by two does not equal 28.   So, I was a little bit cranky. . . and that's why I have a husband who doesn't let me kick old people.  

The sun came out when it was time to snorkel and we were overly cautious about sunburn.  we decided to lather up in sunscreen and then slip into full body suits.  We saw a lot of pink people on the way back; thankfully we were not a part of this group.  I wish we had thought to have our photo taken in these suits as I know we looked absurd and hilarious.  We did have an underwater camera with us and soon we'll have those photos developed.  Daniel attempted some shots at us; we've no idea how they'll turn out.  

We followed Jack, our nice marine biologist through the demonstration of how to breathe with the mask and spit water out should it get in.  Shortly after, we were in the water, and it was neat.  The group was a bit crowded and since we were beginners there was a lot of bumping into fellow snorkelers.  Smiling and apologizing inside a snorkel mask is a funny happening.  Eventually, I decided to lag far behind the group.  I couldn't hear what Jack was explaining anyway because my head was underwater, and also I just wanted to be alone with my experience.  Turns out, intuitively I was correct in wanting to be away from the group.  Since it was just me floating peacefully, the fish began to come out of their hiding from the coral and I saw many brightly coloured creatures.  Greens and blues and yellows.  I kept pulling my head from the water and searching for Daniel to join me.  He wasn't with the group either, he was floating at his own pace and in his own place.

Eventually I got his attention and waved him over to where I was.  I mumbled through my mask, almost inaudibly, that I was a fish whisperer and he should stick with me!  I had just seen my biggest fish of the day, about a foot in length and pointed for Daniel to look.  When we next put our faces under the water about a hundred tiny two inch long shiny green and yellow fish were swimming under and around us.  We both started laughing excitedly and cooing at the beautiful school.  (That was my favourite part of the day.)

The water was not crystal clear, as I had hoped it would be, because of the rain and rough waves.  A lot of sand was churning under the surface, but we could still see much of the coral reef.  Mostly it was beige in colour, and some parts were neon green or dull red.  One section looked like a huge human brain and as I was examining it, a wave pushed my face within a couple inches of it.  That part scared me.  I did not want to touch or be slammed into anything I was looking at.  

A little less than an hour later we were all being called out of the water for lunch.  Here is another disappointment due to false advertising.  "A gourmet Australian BBQ" was actually potato salad, cole slaw, a bowl of plain lettuce, prawns, bread slices, and fruit.  Daniel and I were at the end of the line, being last out of the water.  The fruit was gone when we reached the tray, and we got the last two slices of white bread.  I have to say that I was again annoyed to see people from the front of the line, finished eating and throwing fruit into the bins that they had not touched because they took so much.

One last disappointment was that because the waves were so big and aggressive, our glass bottom boat tour was canceled.  I was looking forward to actually hearing information about what I'd been looking at while snorkeling.  Instead, we followed Jack around the island to find little ocean critters.

Different kinds and colours of seaweed.

 This is a sea cucumber. He was very slimy and squishy.

If he felt I was threatening, he would have excreted a

white liquid onto my hand which would stick and squeeze,

and take a few days to wash off.

 Daniel, my brave island explorer!

He is holding a Brittle Starfish. That little guy can grow

his legs to a metre in length, and sacrafice them if being

attacked. The legs grow back easily if he is well fed.

He can really latch on too!

This is Jack holding 5 detached legs she found under a rock.

They were still moving, as they are also used as bait

for smaller creatures that the starfish will eat.

Folks can be charged up to 25,000 for taking coral off the island.

It breaks down after years and eventually becomes the sand

and land itself. If people took little souvenirs home, there would

be no more Frankland Islands.

Jack showing us a large Horseshoe Clam.

This one is obviously dead, but we did see many

living clams. When they close themselves quickly

water spurts out and up, which is pretty funny to see.

They are very heavy mollusks!

Pretty shells were everywhere.

 This coral is light blue in colour.

A purple Sea Urchin. It was quite hard to not break the law and steal!
 

 Happy Daniel on a jungle trek.

Did you hear something out there?!?

Flesh coloured shell.

This tree was awesome. I took this while starting to run 

because it suddenly began pouring rain and the

camera was getting wet.

Since it was raining, everyone came out of the water.  Those who didn't join us on the Island tour had been splashing around in the waves.  We had about an hour left on the island, so despite the rain, Daniel and I slipped back into our body suits and went to snorkel again.  It was even harder to see anything this time because the water was so murky with sand.   Finally we found a patch of coral reef and stayed floating above it until they called us back in to leave.  We both decided we love swimming with flippers, you go so much faster!  Although we did both experience foot cramps from using our feet in a new way.  

Last picture taken on the island.

The crew packed up and started carting people away on a small dinghy boat.  We were not excited for the ride back and waited to be the last people to board the ship.  The little dinghy had a glass bottom and we saw a huge barracuda fish swimming right under us.  Just hanging out directly under our boat.  It was exciting to see.  He was at least a metre long!  Daniel said if he'd seen one of those with us while we were snorkeling it would have freaked him out.

When we were back on the catamaran / city bus boat, we decided to stay outside at the back for the return trip.  Just before leaving a huge green turtle popped her head out of the water to say goodbye!

 Isn't she so cute?!

It was a good decision to stay outside on the way back from the Islands.  The weather was better as well, so the waves were not as intense.  We were the second and third persons off the bateau, only because a small boy squeaked in front of us.  Thirty seconds later we were in our vehicle driving back toward home.  

You can tell we're closer to land because the water changes

colour dramatically. I love this photo because of the sun rays.

 Danny enjoying some coffee after a full day.

He also snagged us some fruitcake which was actually good.

Or we were just hungry.

 Daniel took this from the window as I was driving us back.

I had to slow down before we passed it which didn't 

make the car behind me super happy!  Oops!

Daniel wanted to stop downtown for dinner so we found a parking space and walked along the ocean front, where there are tons of small shops and eateries.  We ate at AlaTurka, a Turkish restaurant.  It was fantastically decorated, however the food wasn't terribly impressive.  Our friend, Ozge has cooked us many Turkish meals, and this place did not live up to our authentic past experiences.  We were happy with our day though, and glad to be eating!  

Dining with hookahs!

After our meal we took a short walk over to Esplanade Park.  It is just like Streets Beach in Brisbane, only a little larger.  It sits right on the ocean, and they offer free classes every day of the week!  We want to take a pilates class tomorrow morning at six thirty.  

 At the end of this lighted tree path, is the ocean.

 Here is the swim park; ocean in background.

We were exhausted by the time we got home.  We shared a glass of wine, brushed our teeth and watched a film in bed.  It's called, "Carnage" and I liked it for three reasons.  1. It was only an hour and ten minutes long, which in my opinion, is the only length a film ever needs to be.  2. It was funny in a sad, sick way.  3. It is based on a play, and actually felt like theatre. Daniel and I guessed correctly which characters we'd most likely portray.

We're going to call this a birthday success.