How A Meat Pie and a few Fish Changed My Life.

I am now in beautiful Port Douglas! And i sort of wish that i came here directly and skipped right over Cairns. Not that Cairns isn't a cool town but Port Douglas is exactly my kind of town, and it's way more beautiful than Cairns. I think anyway. Plus i like the more quiet and laid back atmosphere of Port Douglas because i spent too much money at the pubs in Cairns...... hey it was my birthday......week. I didn't even go half as crazy as most of the backpackers do, i don't even know how they do it especially with how much booze costs and how little money most of them seem to have. But that's Cairns for you.

BUT YESTERDAY I WENT SNORKELING ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. I never thought that i would see something that trumps the night sky at Delmore Downs but seeing the reef just smashed that with a cinderblock and then broke the cinderblock with its fist. Jumping off the boat  for the first time it takes you a second to get the idea of what is going on (keep in mind i'm a good swimmer but i've never snorkeled before). This concept of having your head under the water AND breathing normally just doesn't add up with your instincts. So there is a second of fumbling with the waves and sucking in water and then you get your head under. I didn't take many pictures because truth be told there really isn't a lot to see from above the water. The water is a nice color of blue and you can kind of see that there are rock like things coming up from below, but really it just looks like water with rocks under it. Then you put your head under and the lysergic kaleidoscope mind trip begins. Swimming over the reef really feels like some sort of dream because everything is so alien, crazy colors and huge fish abound in even bigger schools. Really the coral is pretty but the star of the show in my book is the fish. The parrotfish covered in stripes and dot patterns of crazy colors and fish with all sorts of weird protrusions on them are everywhere. My favorite part was this huge school of these little electric blue fish that all seemed somehow linked up. They would all be facing one direction and flowing like a slow cloud then all of a sudden they would all turn in the other direction in perfect synchronicity. I could have watched that for hours. That was definitely one of the most amazing things i have ever seen. No question.

Also i spent today searching for people to go see Mossman Gorge and the Daintree rainforest with me and i stopped into a pie shop for lunch. I may have mentioned pies before but Australia being of british origin features a wide variety of savory pies. But Mocka's Pies in Port Douglas have the best pies i have ever had. The kangaroo pie i ate nearly brought me to tears it was so good. It put me in such a good mood i couldn't stop laughing. To tell the truth i'm not really sure what they put in their pies to make me react this way . . . anyway they are delicious. And it had a little doughy cutout of a kangaroo shape baked right on top! I need to learn how to make them so that i can have meat pies when i go back to the states. Which isn't too long now.....GASP!!!