Learning from our previous misadventures trying to find somewhere to stay in Surfers Paradise, Eloise and I had phoned ahead and booked a motel room for our short stopover in Cairns. I had already booked what I hoped would be a romantic retreat in the rainforest at Cape Tribulation for the next few days, but we were a day early arriving in northern Queensland and the courtesy bus from the rainforest resort wouldn't be arriving to collect us until the next day - s...

As you can imagine, there are a number of competing companies eager to take you out to the Barrier Reef, and the choice you make is ultimately based on how much you wish to pay and whether you are expecting to relax or have a deep sea adventure. I had been eager for some time to go SCUBA diving on the Great Barrier Reef - one of those things people are keen to tell you to do before you die - so I chose a company called Great Adventures which had come highly recom...

I'm glad to report that the rainforest around the Daintree River has not only been given National Park status, but that when somebody proposed that a major coastal road should be ploughed through the area, World Heritage put their foot down and slapped a conservation order on it. Red tape being what it is, however, the foot didn't fall quite quick enough to prevent the coastal road going ahead, at least in part. Today, it is possible to stay at places such as the...

Routing through the options at the tourism desk of the hotel this morning, my eyes fell on an advert for a company based out in the Daintree National Park who specialise in taking people for horseback rides in the rainforest. I really should have learned not to take anything at face value after nearly killing myself yesterday, but this did sound like an opportunity to start the New Year by relaxing and taking in the beautiful scenery of Northern Queensland - afte...

Thumbing through the brochures in the hotel after arriving in Cairns this morning, I decided against all the laws of probability that a fantastic way to end the year (and possibly my life) would be to go White Water Rafting. I'm slightly impetuous like this - Show me a brochure or guide book full of things to do next week and my brain has time to reel in horror and say "Are you Mad?", but present me with the same crazy opportunity and explain that it absolutely m...