Ok, so my first blog from overseas on our travels, and what a few days it has been since we left home!

Thursday 4th March after having sorted all the last mintue bits and pieces, I went and said bye to Laz and the girls.....was so strange knowing that i am not going to see them for so long and so made sure i took a photo of them so i could carry it around the world with me. I left for the airport with mum at around 3.30pm, made a few goodbye phonecalls in the car on the way, and then arrived and met up with dad, Katie and her parents at around 6.15pm in Terminal 3 (we cleared up the mix up of thinking it was terminal 5!).

After we checked in, we said an emotional goodbye to our parents and off we went to departures, wondering what the hell we were doing, and in slight disbelief that we would not be back for another 12 weeks! From departures i had my first technical hitch in that i could not even work out how to switch my i-pod off! stupid i know but thats me for you!lol! We got some food and had a wander around, feeling as though the whole situation was very surreal.

On arriving at our gate for our 6hour 45minute flight to Dubai we were most impressed by the fact that we got freee magazines and newspapers courtesy of emirates.......hello magazine was one of those on offer and therefore this airline company was already in our goodbooks.......no it doesn't take much i know!
After a flight throughout which i pretty much dozed on and off, we were relived to get off and stretch our legs, and get out of what were very uncomfortable seats. By this time it was around 4.30am for us and therefore we were very tired having had no real sleep. With just enough time to get to our gate and have a 15minute rest, in what was a very impressive airport, we then boarded our plane set for a 14hour 15minute journey to Brisbane. At this stage we were both very nervous and apprehensive to be getting on another plane and for such a long time.

It got to arouned the 11hour mark on the flight and i had hit my block, both mentally, emotionally and physically. I was wondering what the hell i was doing and if i could really do this and last for 12 weeks. It was a lot harder than i was expecting. All that was running thorugh my mind was that not only did i have another 3 hours to get through on this flight but i then had to get off at brisbane for us to get on another flight to Cairns! On this flight sitting by us was an Australian man called Dave, he was really supportive and asked how we were doing with the flight and chatted to me for the last hour or so to keep my mind off of the flight. Chatting about where we were going and what our plans were both in Oz and at home, and eventually we landed. Although, to make our moods even better we were greeted in Brisbane by rain............this was most defiantely not what we had signed up and paid for!lol!

We had to collect our luggage at Brisbane and the catch a train over to the domestic terminal building in order to check in for our final flight to Cairns. We were not been very impressed to find we had to pay for the train to the other terminal........yes pay..........and not cheap at that.....$5 at that! Also on our train was a German guy who had been on our flight from Dubai, Jan. he is also going to be travelling the east coast, onmly he was starting in Brisbane where he was meeting a friend and their intention was to buy a car to travel in. Anyway, we switched names so we could keep in touch on facebook, and he is now known between us as our first travelling friend!

When we arrived at the domestic flights terminal we were informed that we still had another hour and a half until we were able to check-in. Feeling so drained and emotional and already incredibly homesick, both off us made very emotional phonecalls home, and pledged that never again would we fly UK to Australia without an overnight stop somewhere, no matter how much cheaper it was. By the time we arrived at Cairns after a 2hour 20minute flight we were so relieved, and even more so when we called our hostel Central Bohemia Cairns, and found that their complementary bus picked us up from right outside.........not only this but the sun was shining........result!!!!!!!

Anyway, that's it for now.......its 11pm here and we have to get up early tomorrow. Next instalment of our adventures to come soon.......and i promise you....for our sakes, not yours..........there is no more travelling involved just yet!!!!!