G'day folks. We've now been in Oz for 8 days, based between Cairns and Port Douglas, the latter being an exceptional place. We had ourselves some luxurious accommodation in the rainforest near the beach and spent the days strolling round and sorting a few things. We now have mobiles...V: 0416487712, D: 0405920902, and bank accounts and this afternoon we felt part of the community when an elderly aboriginal lady chased us down the street shouting "white meat, give me money" in a croaky voice. This was in Cairns, but back to Port Douglas with Michelle and Colin, our last link to the UK. On Friday 15th all four of us went on a boat trip to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef and had to wear rather fetching blue lycra suits, supposedly to prevent being stung by jellyfish (we saw no jellyfish!). Our first stop was at a reef called "Escape" and our 2nd and 3rd stops were part of the Agincourt Ribbon Reefs and called "Garys Gut", and "Just Magic" (its these two which sit on the very edge of the Continental shelf) and were the better of the three for snorkelling. We recognised Parrot fish, Clown fish (you're all familiar with Nemo), and the bright blue fish which is Doree. Danny also saw a Reef Shark bigger than himself chasing a fish. A brilliant day. Cairns is very humid it's like living in a greenhouse so its completely the wrong time of year to be up here which is why we are flying down to Melbourne on Wednesday 20th, but we plan to return to these parts in about 4-6months time when the weather is better and the Great Barrier Reef will be at its best. During the months of May -September the tropical waters attract Whales who are migrating to mate and give birth.

We drove northwards to Mossman Gorge, and had ourselves a sweaty trek through the rainforest where we were rewarded with a sighting of a Bearded Dragon, okay we didn't actually spot it, some locals pointed it out but the little fella was fab, he happily stayed put while we did the touristy thing and took some pictures. We then found a creek in the rainforest where we had ourselves a swim. The water was very cold which we weren't prepared for as the sea temperature in Port Douglas is around 30 degrees. No crocs in this creek but they were on our minds! Next stop was a boat trip on the Daintree River, crocodile spotting. Now this we were a little dissapointed with. We had been expecting to see lots of big crocs but only saw 2 small crocs about the length of your arm, and they were only about 12months old according to our guide Rick, but at least they were in the wild and not in captivity.

We dropped Michelle and Colin back to the airport on Sunday and on wednesday we fly down to melbourne for the forseeable future. Maybe start work, Australia is very expensive.

Just before we go, thanks to Tom and William for providing the tunes at our party, Rock on Rockitt, we think you're fab! To both Ali and Antonella for their delicious tucker and to everyone for turning up, the party was great. Thankyou to Hannah and Kia...we are having the time of our lives, To mum and Deb...we are constantly packing our bags. We miss everyone so much and greatly appreciate everyone travelling the long distances to be with us on the night, And to the non-socialite who was very sociable - you know who you are, it meant alot to us. Love to everybody.

Ciao for now xx

P.S Check out the Pics and vids!!!