After a brief overnight stop in Cairns, I was picked up by my first WWOOFING host, Bood, and taken to his farm in the heart of the Atherton Tablelands, west of Cairns. This involved going up the Gillies Highway, a 19km road which snakes around and up a hill to the Tablelands. I believe it should be renamed the Willies as that's what it gives you...I wasn't ill-just! WWOOFING you may ask stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms. The idea is that in exchange for a few hours work a day around the farm, you receive accommodation and sustinance for the time you spend there. It's also a great way of seeing real Australian life from the inside out while experiencing a great deal of the surrounding area. Boods place, Ballintagart, was quite literally in the middle of knowhere. Beautiful views all around from the house he designed and built himself. It was also on the edge of the rainforest which we ventured into one day. Mmm, that was fun. After being warned of the animals plants and general topography we could encounter we marched off. The area has recently suffered from a cyclone which came inland around 3 months ago. As such there is visible damage to trees and infrustructure almost everywhere you go. It's also a hot topic with the locals as they all recount their personal experiences and damage suffered as a consequence. Anyway, this meant that we were walking mostly on tree trunks and broken branches, praying not to loose your footing and twist an ankle. There are certain rainforest plants that should be avoided such as Waitawhile, a hanging tendril that wraps itself around you with its spikes and only digs in further if you try and struggle from its grip, hence the name! Then there's the stinging tree. Basically just a glorified stingy nettle that hurts even 6 months-2 years after you get stung! So we eventually made it to the waterfall. At reaching the top we were greeted by a very fetching python, just sunning itself on the rock beside us. I ended up spending around two hours with this fellow as the boys decided to go off into unchartered forest. A little bit later another snake came and joined us. A little black one- nothing to be scared of. However, it turned out that one bite from this guy would have had me dead in 3 minutes. The python however would have had to bite me till I bled to death.... Having survived that, I spent my time at Boods mainly weeding when the weather allowed, reading and meeting his great kids Lulu and Riley and his Aboriginal mates. We went for a drive to the coast one afternoon where we ate chips, drew in the sand and watched a Cassowary wander around the BBQ for scraps. Fascinating birds, just don't get too close as they can deliver a huge deadly kick. After around 10 days with Bood, I moved to another WOOFING farm in another part of the Atherton Tablelands to stay with Sue. Sue had a wonderful home and shared it with 5 very energetic dogs, 3 horses, cattle, sheep, chickens and a pig called Wilbur. Sue enjoyed the most amazing views from all around- it resembled the Welsh rolling countryside apart from the odd exotic tree and bird call. Sue took me to see some amazing trees. The curtain fig, a tree that's mostly roots for the first 50ft before the tree itself actually begins. It's a parasite that eventually kills off its host tree as its hanging roots become strong enough to support it. And here ends my first WOOFING experience. Jo and I hope to do a bit more possibly just south of Brisbane.