We found ourselves a really nice Campsite in Cairns and stayed for the two nights. $31 a night so just as well they gave us free internet! We had a little wonder around, checked out the lagoon (there is a beach but it's the worst beach you've ever seen), found a Grill'd, mmmmmm brings us back to our Sydney burger days and generally just chilled out in the sun. It was soooo hot! Cairns is serious backpacker heaven, it's the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and is full of bars offering cheap booze! We were saving the $'s so decided to leave our Reef trip and any crazy nights out until after we'd did some potato, or, at the time we were considering doing some work on the watermelons. That ended up being a waste of time driving the 50 something kilometres to Mareeba, having a so called interview, then nothing coming of it. Note to self; - always deal direct with the farmers and ditch the agencies! Whilst waiting to be 'interviewed' we managed to fit in a trip to the Coffee Works in Mareeba & tasted about a million different types of coffee, tea and chocolate. We felt full, a little bit sick & a bit high on caffeine by the time we left so the day wasn't a total waste of time!

After Cairns we drove the windy rainforest road up to the Atherton Tablelands, aka the Oz highlands. We stopped in by Kuranda, the Village in the Rainforest, a total hippy town selling didgeridoos, candles & Irn Bru! We found a little Scottish shop totally decorated out in tartan, selling tablet, Irn Bru and blasting out bagpipe music. So cool seeing a Scots shop in the middle of the Australian Rainforest! After hanging around in there for a while, feeling all proud to be Scottish, we did the rainforest walk (always keeping my eyes peeled for snakes!) to Barron Falls, they looked pretty amazing even though there hadn't been much rain so can imagine how fantastic they look after a downpour. We then carried on higher up into the Tablelands and spent the night snoozing in the car by Malanda Falls. Saving the dolla!

After waking up at about 6:30am & witnessing a crazy dude swimming in the freezing, dirty falls we carried on our little tour of the Tablelands and headed to Millaa Milla to do the 15km waterfall circuit and visit a dairy. You know how we love our cheese! We hit the first waterfall at about 8am, nice and early so we had the place out ourselves. Yay no busloads of old folk! Spoke to soon though as when we got to the dairy a bus load of old folk, complete with name tags, were already there. We wanted to get in, taste some free cheese, and get out as quickly as possible! On our way out some crazy woman accused of stealing their cheese! She was under the impression that the tasting was for her group only. Mmmm nope, look at the sign above the cheese counter; it clearly says 'Free Tastings'! Silly old fool!

We spent that night, and the following night, camped alongside Lake Tinaroo. The 'No Camping' signs didn't put us off and we had a fab few days enjoying the gorgeous views across the lake and watching the amazing sunsets. Oh yeah sorry again to the scary lady in the actual campsite for stealing a shot of your showers!

Lake Eacham was our next stop, we know it sounds like we're tearing around the country but all the places around the Tablelands are only about 10/15 kilometres apart. We camped up in cute little campsite, complete with bathrooms decorated like your grandmas & a camp kitchen inside an old barn, right inside the National Park. The weather was fantastic so we spent the days sunning ourselves or doing rainforest walks around actual Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine. I honestly kept expecting to see monkeys or elephant trails after doing treks in the Thai rainforests/jungles!

Last stop in the Tablelands was Davies Creek National Park. We spent three nights totally roughing it in this beautiful National Park. There were a few toilets at this one but now showers so for the three days we were there we bathed in the creek. Not only did we take a bath in the creek we swam in it and did our dishes too! There was fresh water coming from the falls 2km's further up so don't worry we weren't swimming amongst any food stuffs! It was so hot so being camped right beside the water was a god send. We felt like proper campers, getting our fire going at night and hanging out with nature. We had a huge monitor lizard that liked to hang out with us but after this idiot, who clearly thought he was Steve Irwin, came and grabbed him off the tree beside us to pose for a pic we never saw him again. Idiot! The following night we saw him diving around trying to catch a little snake. It must have made him feel like a man!

We'd been hanging around waiting for work for a while now so when it looked as though the watermelons had definitely fallen through and the potatoes weren't going to start for a week or so a we made the executive decision to do the Daintree now rather than later. So it was off further up North, with a stop off at a rest stop in Mt Molloy to finally get a (free!) freezing cold shower!

Lots of Love

Chelle & Dean xxx