First of all we must say we have had real problems with web cafes in Oz, hence lack of photos, none of them have been letting them upload them. We went on our boat trip to the barrier reef on Tuesday. Unfortunetly the weather continued to be bad, rain and black clouds. The boat trip out to the reef was very rough, luckily we both had taken travel sickness pills, but most other people were really sick. The staff were running round with sick bags for everyone, even the staff said they had been ill the last few days as it was so choppy. We stopped off at Green Island, which was a tiny island surrounded by reef. Unfortunetly the reef didnt look anything like the picture above as the sea was so rough due to all the rain. However we got out to the pontoon and tried to make the best of it. We went on a submarine ride, which gave us a good intro of the reef, and we got to see lots of different coral. We then went on a guided snorkel tour, only 3 of us braved it, and it was hard work swimming against the waves, but at least the sea was nice and warm. Despite the conditions it was worth it, we got to see lots of beautiful coral, huge boulder shapes, some that looked like blue tree branches, some like sponges. We also got to see a few different types of fish, thankfully no sharks. We got to get up close to a huge parrotfish, Wally, whos very friendly and swims right up to you so you can stroke him. He was funny, really blue with all markings on his face. After we went off and did some more snorkelling on our own, and got to see lots of colourful fish. The boat ride back wasnt as rough so not to many ill people! On Wednesday we got our car and left cairns, but decided to drive north first. We drove up to Port Douglas, which has a four mile beach, however the rain started again so it didnt quite look as nice. The drive took us through lots of tropical rainforest, I see now why its so green! The beaches im sure would look great in the sunshine, golden sand against the green forest. We stopped off at Bowen falls, which was a huge cascading waterfall, at least the rain had made the waterfall very impressive. We also stopped for lunch in the small aboriginal town of Kuranda which was in the middle of the rainforest. It was midafternnon before we started to drive south. We passed miles and miles of suger cane and bananna plantations, and also stopped off at some more beaches along the route. We stayed over in a place called Campbell last night. Today we have driven down to Townsville, which is a very nice town, which looks out to Magnetic island, our next stop tomorrow.