We got to Cairns pretty late in the evening, so by the time we checked in we were fairly tired and hungry. There were some lads in our room who had already started pre-drinking and we knew they weren't going to be a quiet bunch! We decided to go to Ladies Night downstairs at the hostel and got ourselves some free drinks before heading to bed. Unfortunately, as we'd predicted they weren't quiet and decided to have a party in our room at 4am with all their friends. By now we were used to a hostel and people coming in drunk but this was a little too far... Especially as we had to be up at 6.30am.

We had our Tablelands and Waterfalls trip booked the following day. It was raining a lot but we tried to embrace it knowing we would be getting wet in the falls anyway. They were so beautiful to see and it was very cool to actually be in the rainforest. We went to a few different ones including the background waterfall for Peter Andrés 'Mysterious Girl' music video! Had a little sing song on the bus as we approached. It was good as we just had a mini bus so there weren't too many people. We had a few boardwalk tours through the forest and to some beautiful places. We went to a crater which was full of water and said to be around 100m deep. We all threw rocks in to hear the sound it made and some of the bigger ones sounded like explosions due to the echoes. It was such a good day despite the rain. When we got back we had a new girl in our room, Dorris, who was lovely. Danni and I decided to go out so we had a few drinks beforehand with her. We had a good night out but neither of us were feeling particularly drunk. It was quite amusing to watch the state of some people!

The weekend we had to ourselves and it was nice not to have any plans for a change. We had really good weather so we spent most of our time down at the lagoon swimming and sunbathing. We had a few drinks in the evening and it was pretty perfect. After so much travelling and doing things constantly we were so glad to have some time to relax and catch up on sleep!

Monday we began our trip to the rainforest. We booked a night to stay over in the Daintree rainforest which was well worth the money. In the morning we did a few boardwalks checking out the scenery and then had a cruise down the river crocodile searching. We saw three which was very lucky, including a baby one which must have only been about a month and a half the guide said. Apparently hardly any of the hatchlings actually survive to adulthood so to spot one in the wild was a rarity. The others we saw was a grown male called Scarface due to his wounds and a female who was very defensive when the boat came near and showed her teeth as a warning. Very cool to see! Once we got to the accommodation we checked into our room and went for a look around. It was so amazing to stay in a hut surrounded by untouched natural beauty. We decided to go for a walk along the beach which is in itself amazing as it's where two of the world heritage sites meet: The Daintree Rainforest and The Great Barrier Reef! We walked for a few hours, inspected some coconuts before heading back. It gets dark so early and we made it just in time! It was a little scary walking through the hostel grounds at night as you are surrounded by wilderness and there was some eerie sounds, especially for Danni as the frogs were croaking and she has a massive phobia of them! We had a pretty chilled evening chatting with some of the others on our tour before getting some shut eye. The next morning we went on our trip to the Great Barrier Reef which I was super excited for! We had a very bumpy boat ride out to the reef due to the bad weather, felt more like a power boat ride! Two experiences in one! Once we got there, we all got our snorkel equipment together and headed into the water. It was probably one of the best things I have ever done! We visited two different sites and we were the only ones there, so about 15 people in total. One of the bonuses of doing it for the rainforest as you don't have any other companies going out like you do in Cairns where they said you can have 1000 visitors a day! It's so hard to describe how incredible it was. I swam alongside sea turtles, lots of different fish in all sizes and I had a shark cruise less than a metre in front of me! I was a little scared not being entirely sure what to do so I just hovered and waited for it to pass, don't want to aggravate one of those! We were in the water nearly three hours but it didn't feel long enough, could have stayed out there forever! Once we got back to land we had to quickly grab our stuff before joining the last part of our tour. We stopped at some cool places on the way back to Cairns, seeing some more beautiful things. As it was Danni's last night, we freshened up and went out for dinner. Reminiscing on our time together and how quickly it had gone. We've done some incredible things over the few weeks we travelled the coast. Some of the other girls we met along the way had made it to Cairns that day so we met up with them for some drinks! Danni had to be up super early so I didn't envy her after how much we had to drink!

The next few days I spent with Hollie and Lucy and their friends. We spent a lot of time down at the lagoon when the weather was nice and I began my job hunting. I found a position back down in Agnes Water working at a hostel for free accommodation which suited me perfectly. Gave me some time to form a bit more of a plan about what I want to do over the next few months! So after a few lazy days and some crazy nights out, I was back on the bus. Met some lovely people and didn't mind being on my own as much as I thought! On to the next chapter of my year :)