Waking up early, we made or way down to the wharf to catch the ferry to Fitzroy Island. On the ferry, one of the crew rather humorously acted out the safety instructions - including holding his nose while pretending to jump off the site of the boat if given the disembark command. The views were lovely including a rainbow over the mountains as we boated over.
Shortly after arriving on Fitzroy Island, we embarked on our kayaking tour which turned out to be led by the fun crew member, Malcolm - who was actually an ex-physics teacher. We paddled about halfway around the island, through shark fin bay (which was actually only named for the fin-shaped rock on the shore... but that doesn't make as good of a story).
As we continued to kayak toward the side of the island that faced out onto the open ocean, the waves became large rolling ones, very unlike any of the choppy lake waves that I had paddled on before. At that moment, I discovered that an anneke stomach can even get woozy on a kayak if said kayak is on the ocean.
We made it to our destination - a beach across from an island called Little Fitzroy. The beach looked like it came out of a children's story about a deserted island. The powerful waves carried thousands of pieces of broken coral up onto the beach between red rock boulders. The waves proved a challenge for swimming, however. I made it just three or four meters in from the shore before I discovered that I simply wasn't strong enough to swim in the channel between the beach an Little Fitzroy. Jeremy actually managed to do a bit of swimming, but cut his hand on a rock. However, it makes for a far better story to say that the cuts came from his heroic efforts defending me from a shark in shark fin bay. Feel free to choose your preferred rendition of the tale. (Don't worry mom and Mrs Gretton, both of our cuts are small and we've kept them clean and thoroughly polysporined). While Jeremy braved the waves, I explored the large rocks behind the beach. I found that the pumice quality of the rocks made then quite easy for gripping and allowed me to climb more easily than I expected. There, I found some speedy geckos who dodged under the crevices in the rock. And I felt a bit like a gecko myself.
After about forty minutes, we paddled back to the main beach and retuned or kayaks. We then had three hours to walk a bit around the island and find pretty corals and shells on the beach.
The ferry took us back to Cairns, where we happened to walk by an Aboriginal art festival on our way home. A dance and music troupe was doing an impressive performance, and I purchased a card with printed artwork from a painter selling her work.
It was another early bed as we had to get up at 4:25am for our flight to Sydney the next day. The flight was a particularly beautiful one as we took off through the golden clouds of sunrise. In front of us were two very cute and very excited kids, who I think we're taking their first flight.
When we arrived in Sydney, we caught the train to our hostel and then set out to explore the city more. We started with the national art gallery, which was both free admission and absolutely fantastic. They had a large section of Australian painters in addition to Ruben sculptures, Van Gogh, Picasso, and other well known artists.
Next, we walked to the state library which held a moving exhibit of journals from WWI. The stories of Australian soldiers were powerful and tragic. When we peeked outside again, we saw that the sun was about to set - perfect timing to cross the harbor bridge. So we made the beautiful walk across the bridge, and I took a hundred photos of the lovely 4:45pm light on the opera house.
On the other side of the bridge, we found an Anglican church called "church by the bridge" - a rather fitting name. We attended their evening service, which was so uplifting and challenging. The congregation was also very friendly, and we were invited to go out for dinner with a number of folks from the church. We enjoyed a delicious Thai dinner, and - perhaps for the first time ever - I ate more than Jeremy! I believe this crazy event occurred only because the world is upsidedown in Australia.
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