The weekend

Its Monday night. We had a great weekend on Darnley Island. The unit where we are living is over the road from the sea. At high tide, sitting in the lounge, all you can see is the ocean. Its really relaxing, and certainly not a sight we are used to seeing at home.At  low tide, the fish trap becomes exposed. This was built hundreds of years ago, before colonisation. At high tide, it is well submerged and as the tide drains out, the rocks trap fish and the families go out and collect dinner. It reminds me of the stone walls built across Scotland to mark out fields and separate land and cattle. Ben was out walking o Friday and watched one of the locals collecting fish from the trap with his dog. The dog would collect the fish from the water with its teeth and drop them on the sand, waiting for his owner to collect them. Ben said the dog knew which was harmful and left those alone....amazing hunting. Speaking of amazing hunting, this is what Rob caught on Friday morning before work! Delicious breakfast.

 Saturday morning we went out reef walking. When the tide goes out, it leaves behind the fish trap, then a sandy, grassy area, followed by increasingly beautiful corals and fish life. Its so interesting to explore and look in rock pools. Once the sea settles down, and the winds die off, the sea is like glass apparently and then it will be like looking in a huge fish tank. The water is so warm, you can walk in it for hours. We came across a Heap of starfish....?not sure what the collective noun is??? Anyway, we collected up a heap of them and looked at all the different colours and shapes. They really are beautiful.

You can see behind the kids, where the sea turns deep blue. This is where the big gutters are and apparently where the big fish hang out. Rob and Ben are competing to see who will catch the first mackerel. The locals fish off here too as well as heading out in boats. The seas have been quite rough since our arrival but a few people have offered to take us fishing once the seas settle down.

Sunday, and Ben turned 16. Bit of a milestone and what a place to celebrate It was quite surreal and while I know Ben felt separated from his peers, he had some lovely emails and phone calls and heaps of messages on facebook. Continuing with the tradition of making a special cake posed quite problem this year as we were very limited by what we could buy. The local shop here was almost cleaned out by the weekend, the shelves looked like they did in Toowoomba after the floods!! Probably a combination of the other local shop closing recently and all the hungry teenagers home for the 2 weeks school holidays. Anyway, Amy came up with the great idea of making a sea urchin cake. We managed to find a chocolate cake mix and some chocolate sticks and created this....

Ben was suitably impressed and said it tasted a lot better than the last sea urchin he tried! We had a relaxing morning and decided on a drive around to have a look at some of the beaches we had not yet seen. There is talk of a crocodile somewhere on the island but it hasn't been seen for some time. Not wanting to be the first to see it for a while (!) we avoided the mangrove areas and found another interesting spot to walk and collect shells. We also drove to the highest point on the island and looked out at the sea. Its really beautiful having a 360 degree view of the island and surrounding water. I am not sure what the elevation is but you feel like you are on top of the world

One week in, Darnley is feeling like our new home. We had a snorkle out the front of our place on Sunday afternoon and the colours and variety was just amazing. It really is so untouched here and unspoilt. We found Nemo ( clown fish ) a huge moray eel and many many different  corals and fish. A lovely way to end the weekend. I have to finish up with Ben enjoying his birthday lunch. Happy 16th Ben. It may not have been the liveliest birthday, but One you will never forget!!