We stopped for lunch in Palm Cove. This was quite a lovely spot with a long strip of beach and a line of palm trees along it. Of course there was only one area netted for safe swimming but I'm sure the many resorts that lined the Esplanade would all have pools in them. I'd always wanted to have a holiday in Port Douglas - never thought it would be staying in a caravan park - but it was still a lovely place. Will definitely go back there when we have an income ag...

We headed out to the Reef on Monday. The day didn't start well when I realised that I had left the camera battery charging in the camper - so there'd be no photos of our trip to the reef. The ride out wasn't great as both David and I felt a bit woozy. First stop was Saxon Reef. David would do one dive here and one at the next stop, Hastings Reef. I was only snorkelling. Hastings reef was much larger and more interesting than Saxon. David's air lasted a bit long...

We had drawn up a long list of things to do in Cairns and pretty much we have been flat out since we got here. The motorbike has been serviced, lots of long over due purchases made (NextG phones & eggshell foam for our mattress) and other things we have been talking about since we hit the road. One thing we always wanted to do was a first aid course. Near the Cairns Holiday Park where we are staying is Queensland Ambulance. They run courses so we have ...

24km west of Mission Beach we passed through Tully, which is the wettest spot in Australia. We think this might have been a bad omen as late afternoon the rain started and it didn't stop all night and morning. We managed to pack up the camper in a rare dry spell and headed out for breakfast to decide our next move. Given the crappy weather we thought it best to head straight to Cairns.

On leaving the Paluma National Park we headed to Lucinda, on the coast, to see the 6km jetty. Wasn't as impressive as we thought it would be. We stopped for lunch at Five Mile Creek, a good rest spot that had a safe swimming area so we had a swim before lunch. Murray Falls was another good campground. We spent two nights here, reading and playing lots of Uno before moving onto Mission Beach. David set up his hammock and slept in that one of the nights. It w...