well g'day everyone, sorry its been so long since i updated everyone but weve had a pretty full on week so far. so we have arrived in cairns, which is in queensland, and we arrived to rain which lasted 2 days, which was made worse by the fact that you guys were having blistering sunshine. on our first day we just walked around the centre of town, its actually a really nice place. they dont have a beach here so they ahve built a huge swimming pool on the front which is called the lagoon. on monday we went to a place called tjapukai, which was an aboriginal experience. we saw traditional dancing and saw stories through images, learnt about bush medicines and how to prepare poisinouos fruits just in case we are ever stranded in the bush. we alaso learnt to throw a boomerang and get it to return to us. i was better at the this than mike and took great pleasure when the tribesman told him i was a natural, yeah !!!!! we then did some spear throwing, so if you ever run out of food in walsall i would be able to spear any nearby kangaroo's. on tuesday we headed further north and into a place called port douglas, its so pretty its like a quaint little fishing village but without the smell and a lot cleaner. we then headed into cape tribulation, which was so beautiful, you have the beach and the sea on one side and rainforest on the other. we saw a 1.5 m long lizard thing crawling along the beach which was kinda cool. from here we headed into the daintree rainforest, and did a bit of a walk through it. it was such a strange feeling as this is the oldest rainforest in the world and has been there since before the dinosaurs became extinct. we also did a boat ride down the daintree river and saw 4 crocodiles and an amalyst python. got some great snaps of the crocodiles, unfortunately cannot put them on yet as cannot find a compatible program, will keep tryign as have about 200 pics to upload as havnt put any of the ones form kuala lumpur and singapore on yet either. went to the cinema on the evening and saw pirates of the carribean, which is wkd if any of you have had chance. we also went to the cinema last night and saw click, which was quite good. we spent the next day basking in the sun as it had finally arrived. it was so hot but we were loving it. we have bought a didgeroodoo and had it shipped home, but before it goes mike has been learning to play it with a couple of lessons from the shop. the hostel had a bbq that evening so we chilled out here which was cool with games and meeting loads of people. we went diving on the great barrier reef yesterday, which was cool. im quite disappointed with it actually though as it wasnt as good as the diving in thailand. i got very sea sick on the way, which i have never had before, and had to miss my first dive as couldnt stop throwing up, which was lovely. did do the second dive though even thought i wasnt very well, it was cool as it was the first time me and mike had been 'buddies' and hes not half bad. sucks air a bit to quick but he will learn. the only plus point of the barrier reef is that you have more chance of seeing trhe bigger things, we saw a minky whale, a shark and a turtle. the water was freezing, so the dives were much shorter only about 35 mins, but we are still glad we did it. went out for a lovely indian meal last night, as felt we needed to spoil ourselves after a bit of a rough day. not doing alot today, just done our washing, how self sufficient are we. hopeing it might get a bit brighter so we can go and sunbathe, if not we may go to a place called kuranda which is a village at the top of a big huge mountain. anyway i will leave it there, will update you next week it may take a while though as we are heading down south a little to airlie beach to do 3 days sailing on the whitsundays, before going to fraser island to do some 4 wheel driving and camping. hope you are well and enjoying the sun. speak soon love claire xxx p.s adam i know what the comb thing is on your shorts, its for putting wax on surfboards.