OK, it is official, we have been rubbish at doing the blog lately. Infact, I (Lucy) am now writing about Cairns, which we arrived in exactly one month ago, oops.

Anyway, after a quick stop in Darwin we arrived in Cairns, and it was pretty strange to suddenly be in Australia after so long in Asia. Our first day was spent organising trips to do and other exciting things such as getting our hair cut (were too scared to do it at the roadside places in Asia). On Thursday we set off on a boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef, which was a fantastic day out. Our first stop was Michaelmas Cay, where we did some snorkelling in our sexy stinger suits....Officially, being the 1st of May, the stinger season was finished, but I'm not so sure they know this. The snorkelling was really cool, needless to say I soon had no idea where Ben had disappeared to, but all of a sudden he was beckoning me over. He and a few other guys were swimming with an enormous turtle! It was so amazing, just like in Finding Nemo. Very lucky too, as no one else on the boat saw it. After lunch we did more snorkelling at Paradise Reef, which was also very good, but the waves made it pretty hard work.

Next day we set of on "Uncle Brian's" Tour, which had been recommended to us a few times. We weren't quite sure what to expect, as they don't really explain in the brochure what they do, as they like to keep it secret. Our guide, Fin, was great and kept us entertained for the whole 12 hours we were out. It basically involved lots of waterfalls and sights of the Atherton Tablelands, along with plenty of games and singing on the bus and generally behaving like 12 year olds. Was probably the best trip we've done, and anyone we meet who has done it raves about it.

Saturday was a chill-out day in Cairns, which has a pretty cool man-made laguna to sit by and loads of bars to cater for the mass of backpackers there.

Sunday was our trip to Cape Tribulation, and to be honest for me the whole day was a bit of a tribulation. Firstly, as our minibus was doing the pick-ups round Cairns, we had a crash with a taxi...taxi's fault. Luckily no one had more than bruises, and after giving statements to the police we set off again in another minibus. However, I started to feel ill and thanks to a dodgy travellers cheap meal in The Woolshed the night before I spent most of the day being sick/trying to sleep in the minibus while the others went and did the tour. However, Ben assures me it was a pretty good trip!

That night was our first trip on a Greyhound bus, which left at midnight for an eleven hour trip to Airlie Beach. Sounds awful, but we slept pretty well and overnight journeys are always good to save a night's accommodation costs.

Next stop....Whitsundays! x x