Hello to all! We left Oz behind on Friday and are now in Beijing. (Long delays at Sydney but we are here!) Yesterday we visited the City's sights (Forbidden City, Tiannaman Square and Summer Palace. All very interesting. We also enjoyed local food. Today, another amazing day, we visited the Great Wall and walked along it (cheated a bit as we took the cable car up the mountain). We also visited the Ming Tombs. We are now 'looking forward to' the flight home to...

Monday, we visited Kuranda, going up via the Skyrail (cable car) and coming back via the train. On the way, we stopped and had a guided tour by one of the Rangers, who kept asking if we knew the names of different types of plants, trees etc. We of course did not have a clue. We also saw the Barron Falls which was amazing. At Kuranda, we visited the markets and had lunch, taking time to buy some gifts.... We then returned to Freshwater via the Scenic Railway, ...

Yesterday was the day we went to the Great Barrier Reef, which we timed just right (it is their wet season curently), the weather was perfect! In the morning we experience the reef in a semi-sub where you get to view the reef underwater, despite the poor visability we saw many different fish and corals. In the afternoon, we headed to the Cay for some snokelling and to take a few pictures with an underwater camera.

Today was another amazing day, we went hot air ballooning over the Atherton Tablelands, at Moereba. A highlight was seeing Roos 700 feet below us. We are a bit tired as we had to get up at 3.30 am but are on a high. The trip is nearing its end, and we both don't want it to finish. We have had to buy another bag for the gifts, and we are still overweight on baggage!

We arrived at our final Oz destination yesterday, we are now in Palm Cove, just north of Cairns. After relaxing in our room, we had an excellent meal overlooking the beach. We are planning to visit the Reef, head to Kuranda and we may take a tour into the Rainforest. Marie is also planning to endulge in some spa treatments, and is trying to drag me along (we shall see!) Hope everyone is well