Had to say goodbye to Kate in KL which was sad after spending so much time together. We headed to KL Sentral train station and then went our seperate ways. I caught the train to the airport, caught a flight to Singapore and then had a 6 hour wait in Singapore airport. My next flight was to Darwin where I waited for a couple of hours before catching my connecting flight to Cairns. It all went so smoothly until I reached Cairns airport and my airport transfer was not there! After nearly 24 hours of travelling and not a lot of sleep I just wanted to get to my hostel, so ended up paying for a taxi. Compared to Asia it felt cold and the weather reminded me of England with a grey sky and rain! I thought Australia was always ment to be sunny!

On my first full day I booked onto a tour called Uncle Brian's. I got picked up by a mini bus by 'Cousin Brad' and we headed out of Cairns. Our first stop was Babinda Creek where we went for a walk through the rainforest and Cousin Brad got us to lick green ant bums, which luckily tasted like citrus (something I never thought I would do). Our next stop was Josephine Falls where we all jumped into the freezing cold water, it was so cold it actually took me a while to be able to catch my breath. A natural rock slide had been created by the water so we all took it in turns to go down the slide, each time throwing ourselves back into the freezing cold water. When I group of us tried to get out the current took us the wrong way but luckily there were some local guys who helped and pulled us towards the rocks. After an eventful bus journey where we had to play games like passing the polo mint around using a matchstick and just our mouths (while a bus is moving this is extremely hard) and doing mexican waves, we stopped at some roadworks where we all got out of the mini bus which had its music turned right up and danced around the construction men! I dont think they quite knew what to make of thw whole situation. After a quick stop for lunch we headed to the waterfalls where Peter Andre filmed Mysterious Girl and lots of hair shampoo adverts have been filmed. The water was even colder here (I did not think it could be possible), but we all got in and swam under the waterfall. Cousin Brad got us all to pretend we were in the hair shampoo advert and got us all flipping our hair back while he took photos. Our next stop was a lake formed in an old volcano, but we were too cold by this stage to get in the water. So we headed off for hot chocolates before heading back to Cairns. We ended up back at Gilligans for some dinner and a few drinks before heading back to the hostel.

My next little adventure was a day out on a boat, snorkling on he Great Barrier Reef. When we got on board the boat we had tea and muffins and then set sail. When we reached our first location we were taken by a glass bottom boat to an island which was a nature reserve, which had lovely fine white sand and the colour of the water was amazing. We then headed into the water to go and explore and look at all the coral and the fishes. After an hour in the water it was time to get out and warm up a little bit, as being winter the water was not that warm! After lunch we headed to the second site which was open water over the outer reef. I saw a white tip reef shark, although a little scary when someone says there is a shark in the water, when I actually had the courage to put my head under I soon realised it was not the type to eat me! The fish here were massive and lots of them had lots of pretty colours! On the way back the sails were put up and we sailed back into Cairns!

I spent a few days relaxing in and around Cairns at the lagoon and Palm Beach enjoying the sunshine. The hostel also had a BBQ night where I got to eat Crocodile, Emu, Kangaroo and Barramundi while the owen tried to teach us how to play the didgeridoo!

My last trip in Cairns was a 2 day trip to Cape Tribulation. Our first stop was a wildlife habitat where I got to hold a Koala and feed Kangaroos and Wallabies and where an Emu kept following me (I think it knew that I had eaten one of its family members the night before). We then headed to the Daintree River and went on a river cruise. We saw lots of crocodiles including some babies up close in their natural environement. We went for a walk in the rainforest and saw some Cassowaries in the wild and ate the juice from a peppermint stick insect (and yes it tasted of peppermint), before I was dropped off at my accomodation for the night. The following morning I had decided to face my fear of horses and go on a trip horse riding on the beach. My horse was called Morgan and luckily he behaved himself and I did not fall off. We set off at a slow pace through the rainforest and ended up on the beach. Once on he beach we cantered a couple of times (while I held on for dear life) and stopped to take pictures before heading back. In the afternoon I was picked up and headed back to Cairns. After a quick hostel change I was shattered and in need of an early night.

My last day in Cairns was spent chilling by the pool, a night out with the girls in my room in Gilligans and the Woolshed, followed by a late night McDonalds (some things always remain the same).