This Monday morning was our latest one yet!! We were both so tired from the last few days activities on the boat that we had a lovely lie in. Afterwards the standard get dressed, have breakfast and plan where we were going for the day! Today the plan was to drive up to Townsville. It wasn't too far away and once we got there I ran into the information centre to find out things we could do there. Surprisingly there was quite a bit to do, so we followed the ladies advice and headed down to the waterfront, an area called The Strand. It had a lovely walkway, one side of which was a narrow beach and the other included a range of parks, water parks or sport activities. It was a sunny day so we spent a bit of time lying on the beach admiring the view of magnetic island. I moved the car a couple hours later to further up the strand then walked back to get harry. We then wandered all the way to the other end to see the rock pools they had created for people to swim in. As it got closer to sunset we drove up to a lookout point on castle hill - a funny shaped hill which looked like a big rock. The views from the top were extensive and it was the perfect time to go up just before sunset. As it got darker we headed out of Townsville to one of the northern beaches which was also a free campsite - Saunders Beach. When we got there it was quite busy so we squeezed in behind a caravan. They had really good facilities there, so we made full use of them! We had bought steaks for dinner so used the permanent BBQ there which was nice. After doing some research on Southeast Asia we went to sleep. I got up relatively early in the morning to go for a jog, stretch and do some sprints, harry joined me later on. We met a couple of really playful dogs on the beach, a lassie dog and a little jack russell. After the exercise we had breakfast then left for Paluma - a town recommended by our info lady! It was an hours drive there, then up a really steep, winding road to get to the top where the town of Paluma was situated. We parked up then did a couple of walks to some really good lookouts, where you could see the entire valley out to the sea and quite a bit of the coastline (mchellands lookout and whits lookout). Paluma itself was small with not much to look at so on our way back down we stopped at crystal clear creek, a lovely spot next to a bridge with natural rocks to sit on and a little waterfall behind. The water was freezing so we didn't get in, but enjoyed taking photos and eating lunch there. Afterwards we left for mission beach, it was a two hour drive on which we passed through Tully, but decided it wasn't worth us stopping to look around. As we carried on along the Bruce highway we found a vegetable and fruit stand on the side of the road. We pulled in so I could hop out to have a look. There was a lovely old Aussie man there who helped me choose my pumpkin and sweet potato - recommending the purple sweet potato! We chatted for a bit and he gave me two Pomalow which were meant to be eaten like oranges, I looked forward to eating them that evening. We got to mission beach and were quite unimpressed, there wasn't much to see or do, so we just walked along the beach then set off for the rest stop we were staying in that evening (only 30mins away). We got there just in time to watch the sunset and I still had enough time while it was light to sort my bag out. Next challenge was to make pumpkin soup (a recipe given to me from Katie the host from our Whitsunday trip). Part way through we ran out of gas which was annoying so I'd have to wait until the next night. For pudding I had the Pomalo fruit the veg man had given me earlier in the day, it was delicious, although I ate it as I would an orange it was much nicer and sweeter, I'll be keeping an eye out to buy some in future. After dinner I did a few word search's while harry went to sleep. The plan for the morning was to head up to Cape Tribulation, with a few recommended stops to make on the way. When we woke up we got ready then as we didn't have any gas we had to eat normal cereal, which was quicker so then we got on our way up the coast. We stopped at a place called Innisfail, this was mainly to get gas (which they didn't have) and to use the library to research atherton tablelands. We decided on a new plan for the day and went with it! From Innisfail we drove northwest to Millaa Millaa falls - part of the tablelands, it was the most famous of the waterfalls - as it featured in Peter Andre's mysterious girl video and the herbal essences advert. so that was our aim to create those looks in our photos!! When we got there there were only a couple of people so we needed to get our pictures done ASAP! Harry took his time getting into the icey cold water then swam out to the waterfall for the first photos then attempted to climb behind the waterfall for some more - even though he didn't quite get there! After faffing around because "the stones were too pointy", he eventually came back so that I could get in for some photos. It was freezing, but very refreshing once you got in. We took more photos, then a guy (who looked like captain Jack sparrow from pirates of the Caribbean), showed us a log we could stand on to have more of our body in the photos than just the floating head above the water! Needless to say it wasn't as easy as it looked and the photos are really funny. After we'd dried off it was time to hit the next site on our whistle stop tour of the tablelands national park. Firstly, Josephine Falls, we followed the walking track for 700m to three different level of lookouts, all of which we visited. Next a brisk walk back to the camper so we could dive just down the road to Bambinda Boulders. These were a slightly shorter but steeper walk, again with a couple of different lookouts. This area also incorporated the devils pools, so it looked a lot different to the waterfalls we had previously seen. After yet more photos we were back in the camper on our way up to cairns. We got there later than anticipated so ran out of time to go to jucy to get a few things looked at and pick up a new gas canister. We then looked everywhere to buy one, but none were suitable for our cooker. This was a bad night for food as it meant we had to eat out - harry happily had two double cheeseburgers and chips from macdonalds and I just had a small chips and soft serve. As harry wasn't tired we decided to keep driving north, particularly as we hadn't made it to port Douglas, let alone cape tribulation! When we got to port Douglas we spent ages looking for somewhere to stay as the free campsite we had found before didn't exist anymore. When we eventually found somewhere we fell straight asleep. In the morning we got really early then drove to the car park by the beach. As we wandered out onto the beach the sun was just beginning to rise, so we stood as watched for 10mins. Afterwards we had a quick bite to eat then we for a long ish jog, including an uphill climb to a lovely lookout then back down and along the beach. We stretched, had cold showers and got ready to carry on north. We went on another gas hunt before leaving but were unsuccessful. A kind lady recommended we stop in mossman on the way up at the hardware store, which we did and luckily they had just the right gas canister! We carried on up, stopping for a little bit at Wonga beach to take some funny photos with a palm tree. Final destination was Daintree village, as we decided it cost too much to get up to cape trib on the ferry. Daintree was a really cute village, we met several locals: the first two showed us the tail of a snake they had just found hiding in the rocks, then Lex showed us a crocodile called Rusty who was over the other side of the river - he let us borrow his binoculars to see! We chatted with Lex and he showed us his croc photos. As it got closer to lunch time we decided to head back towards port Douglas. We stopped a couple of times on the way, first back at Wonga beach, where we found the perfect spot to have lunch. As we now had a gas canister it meant I could eventually make my soup, so I put the pumpkin and sweet potato on to boil, when soft enough I drained the veg, adding some of the boiled water to chicken stock cubes. Then I mashed the veg, added salt, pepper and the stock, bought it up to the boil then poured it into a plastic container to let it cool before leaving it in the fridge. While the soup was cooling, we sat in the sun playing card games, enjoying the beautiful scenery. When we were finished we drive to Cooya Beach, which was nothing special! It was only a few minutes from port Douglas though so we were back there pretty soon. We had a look around QT - one of the posh five star hotels. Then headed to the marina to look at the boats. We walked around the mains for quite a while then wondered up to the park. There were a few campers already there so we investigated then drove up there. We sat on a blanket on the grass watching the sunset then planning Asia. We met a few people from other campers and chatted for a bit with a lovely Aussie lady called Linda. We all cooked our food, then went to bed, being sung to sleep by the hippie local group in the park - the one guy had a great voice! On Friday morning we headed out of port Douglas and back down the captain cook highway toward cairns. There are loads of beaches just off the highway so we challenged ourselves to visit as many as we could in a day! We started off at Pebble beach but it was too full of pebbles for us to sit down or jog on! Next beach was a lovely soft sand beach but not overly long so I did a warm up jog then some sprints followed by core exercises... Harry lay on the beach! After an hour or so we moved to turtle beach, followed by holloway beach, wongari beach and little beach. We stopped for an hour at Ellis beach as we thought this was a particularly nice beach. I also had a chance to read up on Southeast Asia, while harry lay on the beach! Next stop was Palm Cove, this was a larger tourist area and the beach was pretty busy. We walked up the pier and stood chatting to three fishermen for a while. One of them had a lovely dog who kept me entertained, her name was also Missy! When we came back of the pier we decided to drive to the next beach to have lunch. I just had a snack as it was a nice enough view from the car park for me to cook my soup! We sat at picnic benches for harry to eat his sandwiches. The next beach offered much better views so I heated up my soup. There were hammocks between palm trees which we lay on for a bit enjoying the view *** the final beach was***. We arrived in cairns where we first found a place to stay for the night and a place to park the camper while we were on our great barrier reef tour the next day. Then we hit the library for some full in research into Southeast Asia. Afterwards we had a quick skyping session with family then went somewhere to cook dinner followed by a drive to our sleeping spot. We had to be up early to get to the boat by 7.15AM! After checking in we hopped on the boat and were met by an array of Danish pastries, fresh fruit, tea and coffee so we dove straight into the food! On the boat we had a safety briefing and harry had his scuba diving briefing then after a journey out to the Great Barrier Reef we were ready and raring to explore! First trip I did was to take the glass bottom boat tour around a section of the reef called the Apollo reef. The guy told us all about the different types of coral found on the reef as we went over it. He also mentioned the different types of fish and sea life we might see out snorkelling. One I'd finished the tour I came back jut in time to see harry, adi and tom in their gear, lined up, ready to go diving. I took some photos of them then grabbed a wetsuit and went snorkelling. First of all I went for a swim around on my own then I decided to join one of the snorkel tours. Our guide George took the three of us around the areas he knew we'd find interesting things, he stopped to show us and explain what everything was. The first find was a sea cucumber, unfortunately for George, as he bought it up to the surface it exploded, covering his hands in a super glue like gunk! Next he found two types of starfish, my favourite was a bright blue one, although it felt really weird! The two highlights of this tour for me were swimming alongside a big turtle and seeing a small shark. We were the only ones from the boat who saw the shark which made it that little bit more special, even though I was very wary of it being there! We saw loads of different types of fish, all of which we were told the names of. The clown fish (nemo) were hidden in the coral so George dove down and encouraged them out for us to see! When we got back to the boat we saw big barracuda fish. We thanked George then hopped back aboard. After putting back wetsuit, flippers and snorkel I dried off on top deck. A few minutes later and just as harry, adi, tom an grace came back lunch was served. We had an amazing spread of cold meats, salmon, prawns, chicken legs, sweet potato salad, rice salad, coleslaw, normal salad and breads. After filling up we left for our second location. Again I decided to go on a snorkel tour and opted for the same guide as he was so good previously! Grace came with me, this time we went out in the boat to a sand island where we put on our flippers and snorkels. We saw lots more fish including all the characters from finding nemo, the clown fish were closer this time as well so we to a better view. George showed us another sea cucumber, but this one didn't explode on him. The highlight of this trip was seeing small stingrays swimming underneath us, grace took lots if photos! In fact it was so interesting when we finished the tour and they said it was our last location, I jumped back in the water and went looking for more! When back in the boat we had teas and coffees, then started to head back to Cairns. The five of us were all chatting the whole way back, we were given more snacks in the form of tons of cheese, biscuits, nut mix and a few bits of cake. When we got back to the marina we all thanked the ocean freedom crew for a really good day. We arranged to meet at Gilligan's bar later for drinks. Harry and I in the meantime attempted to book some flights and accommodation for Thailand but failed. We then gave up and went to pick grace up from her hostel as it was quite far out of town. Tom and adi didn't end up coming for drinks but after a couple of cheap pints of cider and lots of laughs the three of us were ready for food. We went back to Grace's hostel and cooked the free shepards pie and quiche someone had given us a couple of days before. We said goodbye to grace then headed off to where we were staying. In the morning we had a bit of a lie in then headed back to the free parking in cairns. We went to look around the market but nothing really interested us. The rest of the morning was spent booking a few things. After lunch at the camper we found somewhere to stay for the night and went to the lagoon where we spent the afternoon relaxing. Our last morning with the camper involved cleaning it and sorting our bags out before dropping it back at Jucy and getting on the plane back to Sydney. When we arrived in Sydney we got our bags on our backs and walked to the next train station to get a cheaper train to the city centre. We checked into a new hostel which was surprisingly nice considering the price! That evening we planned to go up the Westfield sky tower to the bar to see the view, but by the time we got there it was closed, so we went to another high building with a bar... but that was also closed, so we walked to darling harbour... where all the bars were closing. It was still nice to look around with the lights on the big boats! Tuesday morning was our last day in Sydney, we checked out of Strattons hostel and back into Maze hostel. We then faffed for ages trying to work out the bus to get to manly, it was too complicated so we gave up and got the ferry! We were really happy we got the ferry in the end as the views of the harbour, the harbour bridge and the opera house were amazing. When we got to manly Harry's foot was hurting so he went and booked a doctors appointment. We wondered through the town and along the beach before my flip flop broke and I had to get a nail put in to hold it together. We ate lunch then harry went to the doctors while ant and I lay on the beach waiting for him! When harry eventually returned we went for another walk before getting the ferry back to Sydney. The views in the way back were just as impressive as the way there! We were given massive free bars of wonka chocolate when we got off the ferry, as it was just being introduced in Australia! We got changed in the hostel and went to virgin active gym. I did another new class- hot yoga, which was really intense, while the boys sat in the hot tub for half an hour then went to the bar!! I met them at the bar after getting changed, we had a drink then walked up Pitt St to the Westfield centre. We had to go up to level four then check in at a desk before we were allowed to get the left up to the 360 degree view bar. In the lift our ears popped as we went so high! The views at the top were incredible, we sat down facing the huge rotating windows looking out over the whole if Sydney city. We had a koppenberg pear cider each, ant had beer and we shared bake Camembert. We were up there for over an hour admiring the city (that's how long a full rotation is!) and taking photos, it was a lovely treat from Harry's aunt Lesley to pay for that experience. We had lots to sort out that evening as we were leaving early in the morning. We decided which clothes we didn't need anymore then walked along George street where we found homeless people who were more than delighted with our old clothes. It was the perfect day and evening to end our time in Australia. We went to sleep, got up really early to get the train then walk to the international terminal (which was a bit further than we thought!). Checked in we boarded the plane...next stop Bangkok!