And just like that, I only have ten days left in Australia. What happened to the almost two months I had when Filippa left? And why, why, why did I have to fall in love with this country too?

I'm sitting in the kitchen in a camping ground located somewhere outside Kakadu National Park. I'm very itchy and there are heaps of creeps everywhere, all trying to eat me, it feels like. It's about two am and I can't sleep, which seems to be a regular occurrence lately. Cairns was amazing but also incredibly busy, where late nights and early mornings simply had to coexist if I wanted to do all the things I had planned. Why am I in the kitchen, one may wonder. Well, I do have a tent kind of a house, but sleeping there is way too hot. So I sleep in the kitchen, simply because it's the only place with ceiling fans. Also, the risk of me missing breakfast is non existent! Tonight is my last night in here, tomorrow we are visiting Litchfield and then going back to Darwin in the afternoon. I have one full day of exploring more of Darwin, although I think I did a pretty good job in the first two, and then I'm getting on a bus for a lovely trip down to Alice Springs which will cover about 1500 kilometers. Does anyone know how far it is to from the northern to southern tip of Sweden? Random knowledge is a wonderful thing.

Before I got to Darwin I spent about ten days in Cairns. Lovely Cairns, which you hear so much about yet don't really know what to think of beforehand. However, in spite of rain on each day spent there, I figured out pretty quickly that I love it there. Cairns and I were off to a pretty interesting start, as I was miserable in the rain, trying to find my hostel, and when I did find it and went back out to find a supermarket, a random guy drops his pants in front of me. I saw a penis on the street before I had been there an hour. There are a lot of drunk people in Cairns, I should add. Things only went up from there though. I spent the first couple of days sleeping and walking around town, trying to get back into backpacker time, which most certainly does not include getting up before six and go to bed at like ten. I was about to succeed, but then I started my diving course and early mornings were once again a fact.

My first day of diving was horrible and I hated it. I hated it so much that I wanted to quit the course, as you can get a refund if you quit on the first day. For some reason I didn't quit, and a couple of days later I found myself geared up and (not mentally) ready to hop into the water. I was terrified but did my best not to let it show, I mean, I was the only one forcing myself to do this, no one else. Our little group of five, me, Jakob from Sweden, Jason, our instructor and two girls from Norway, all jumped jn and down we went. I was waiting for the feeling of panic to catch up with me, but it just never came. I was too busy trying to take everything in, the corals, fishes and colors.

That day we had two dives and on the second one we saw a turtle! It was so cool and I just couldn't stop smiling. This was actually the case every time I got out of the water, but the first turtle was pretty special. We also saw sharks, heaps of different kinds of fish and yes, I found Nemo! We also got the option of upgrading our certification from open water to adventure diver, which I chose to do. We had the same number of dives, but the groups changed due to this at our night dive the second night. Diving at night is so incredibly cool! I couldn't believe I was doing it as the water was so dark, obviously, but also because of the fact that we saw three sharks swimming around at the back of the boat, where we jump in. I take a stride, and when I open my eyes under water I see a shark no more than three meters away from me! Truly a surreal experience, which only was spookier thanks to the greenish lights from the boat. The rest of the dive went really well and we saw lots of amazing things, including Brian the turtle, who is a smashing 153 years old, and bigger than me! It's a very special feeling floating around in dark water with only a torch as a light source, and when I faced away from the group at one point, and there was absolutely nothing in front of me, I truly felt like I was the only thing alive in the world. That is, until one of the sharks showed up again, and I turned back to hide behind Jason.

Learning how to dive was without a doubt one of the highlights of this trip. It's something that I really wanted to so but also was really scared of doing, just because I used to be so scared of water. As it turns out, diving is something I definitely want to do more of. When or where I don't know but knowing myself it won't be too long before I'm back in the water.

When I returned from the dive trip, a hectic time in Cairns followed. I was out pretty much every night besides the one I spent in Cape Tribulation, and was up early every single morning for a different reason each day. Diving, going up to the Daintree rainforest and Cape Trib, getting up early to see the sunrise on the beach, packing up to leave Cairns. Sleep simply wasn't high on my things to do list, and my first night in Darwin I slept for 12 hours straight. Hello party girl! I reached my limit there, that is for sure.

Out of all the places I've visited in the past few months, Cairns was without a doubt the one which I found hardest to leave, excluding the ones I've stayed in a real home, Adelaide and the cattle station, of course. It really is my kind of town, not too big but still plenty to do there. The closeness to the reef is a huge advantage, but also the general feel of the town is something I really liked. I'll definitely come back to Cairns one day!