I have been in Australia for a week now and I absolutly love it. There is so much to do, the landscape is beautiful and the people are full of energy and warmth. This all helped me immensely when, on arrival last Saturday, after 24 hours of travelling and little sleep, I discovered that all my luggage had gone missing. It was not the best start to my new adventure, especially as I really hadn't packed for that eventuality, so I felt a bit stranded with pretty much nothing on me. I made my way to a hostel and quickly made friends with the girls who worked there and they kindly lent me their clothes and toiletries. I headed straight to a department store, having not washed or slept, to buy some essentials and then worked out what to do. I spent the next day relaxing and booking tours and decided to just get on with my trip, whether my luggage turned up or not. Thankfully, three days later it arrived! I have never been so happy to see my rucksack! I stayed in a hostel called 'Traveller's Oasis' in Cairns and it was a lovely place. I ended up staying until Friday as I liked it so much and met some great people.The hostel have hundreds of day-trips and are very helpful in recommending what to do and see. I booked myelf up until Friday and then decided to travel down the East Coast on the Oz Experience bus. The lady at my hostel thoroughly recommended it, as it helps you organise yourself when you have limited time to get down the coast. I have had one journey with them so far, down to Magnetic Island where I am now, and it seems like a good service. Instead of just spending hours in a bus, they stop at certain sights along the way and tell you a bit about the history of all the places. On Friday we stopped off at a rainforest and crocodile farm, where I held a snake and a baby crocodile!

 While at Travellers Oasis, I met Adam, a guy I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with from Durham! It was such a weird coincidence and neither of us knew the other was travelling and of all the hostels, in all the places. Adam is also getting the Oz Bus so we have travelled together so far but go our separate ways in a few days. It was great to see a familiar face, especially as I was still without luggage at the time, so I had even more donations of essentials! My first trip was on Monday when I went to Cape Tribulation. This was a twelve-hour day, packed full of different sights. Our first stop was to Daintree Mangroves Wildlife Sanctuary where we saw cassowaries, gliders, snakes, and witnessed crocodile feeding. The speed at which the crocodiles shoot out of the still water and snap up their food is startling, and scary! We were told all about the various animals and the infamous cane toads, introduced in 1930 to eat beatles. Unfortuntately a mistake was made, as beatles can fly whereas toads cannot, so no beatles were eaten and the toads multiplied. To add to this, the cane toad is very posionous, killing even crocodiles so it has become a huge problem in Queensland and is now spreading. After visiting the sanctuary, we crossed the Daintree River on a ferry and stopped at Alexandra Range Lookout, which gives a birdseye view of Daintree River and Port Douglas. We had lunch on a beach at Cape Tribulation before walking on the Marrdja Boardwalk to look at trees that haven't changed for millions of years. We made a stop at Daintree Ice Cream Company, which makes tropical icecream such as mango and coconut flavour and only sells it at the place it is made, so of course, we had to sample it! In the afternoon we went on a cruise of the Daintree River where large estuarine crocodiles live! We spotted five altogether, including two baby crocodiles. We did have to be very careful and not get too close as there have been killings in that river. Thankfully, the crocodiles weren't hungry on Monday! We finished the trip by driving through the town of Port Douglas, which is where the rich Australians spend their holidays as it is a luxurious resort. But we all headed to the reality of backpacker Cairns to stay the night. In the evening I went to a traditional Aussie Barbeque, which was organised by my hostel. I sampled crocodile, kangaroo and emu, all surprisingly tasty! We were then treated to a night of didgeridoo-playing by Aboriginals, which was great fun and we all got to have a go.

On Tuesday I went on a sailing tour on a 16.5m schooner and stopped to snorkel at Pinnacle Reef and visited Green Island. The snorkelling was absolutely amazing! We were so close to the reef and could see so many fish so clearly. We even saw a baby shark! The crew were all lovely and we were given lifejackets so I felt confident in the water. After snorkelling we had a delicious lunch on board the boat before heading out to Green Island to explore. The island was beautiful and I found one strip which was completely deserted. We then came back aboard to do more snorkelling before heading back. What I had fogotten, in choosing to sail on a quaint little sailing boat, was how rocky it can become! I did feel a bit sick which is why, when I do the Whitsunday Islands 3-day trip tomorrow, I have decided to sleep on the islands rather than the boat! I met some great people on this trip and befriended two elderly women who seemed to take a shine to me and were very motherly with my sea-sickness!

On Wednesday I headed off for a two-day trip to the Tablelands. The trip was called 'On The Wallaby' and I had a great group. All of us were travelling independently and were around the same age so we had lots of fun. We began by seeing the Cathedral Fig Tree which is 500 years old and massive! While we were there we saw a python unexpectedly and found out that six of the ten most deadly snakes in the world live in North Queensland. After this, we swam at a volcanic crater lake which was beautiful. After a picnic lunch we headed to the famous Millaa Millaa Falls which is the most photographed waterfall in Australia and apparently used in Timotoe adverts! It was VERY cold but I swam under it, which was a great experience. We then went to Mt Hypipamee and Dinner Falls before heading to the hostel for the night. Only two of us stayed over for the two-day tour but we had great fun. Marie was from Switzerland and before our Barbeque dinner we went platypus spotting but unfortunately didn't see any. We then spent the evening in a local pub which was in the middle of nowhere! On Thursday we both went to the Curtain Fig Tree where we saw a tree kangaroo! We were very lucky to see this as it is a nocturnal animal and apparently 90% of Australians will never see one. That made up for not seeing a platypus! We then went on a bike ride through the countryside, finding out even more about the differnet plants, such as the gympye gympye which is the Austalian stinging tree. Unlike our stinging nettle, if this stings you, the pain can last between two months and two years! We then went swimming in the crater lake of Echam before lunch. In the afternoon, we went canoeing in Lake Tinaroo which was wonderful and peaceful. We got to see even more wildlife...after Marie and I had got to grips with steering the canoe! We finished the tour by painting with Aboriginal orchre stones. Lindey, our tour-guide then showed us her pet-snake and we saw her feed it a live mouse! It was horryfying to see the snake wrap itself around its meal and suffocate it, before swallowing it whole! I could barely look!

Friday was spent travelling down to Magnetic Island which has beautiful beaches and is a good place to relax. The hostel I'm staying at, 'Base', is huge and has a good party atmosphere. On Friday night, I ordered what I thought was like a slush-puppy, as I was so hot and thirsty. I drunk it quickly as it was so refreshing but thirty minutes later, I was absolutely out of it! I later found out it had a very high alcohol content and having only eaten a salad, and not having had alcohol for a while, I was embarassingly in bed by 9pm! There are eight people in my dorm and luckily everyone was having early nights. Last night, we had the pleasure of having a great snorer join us, so most of the night was spent trying to move him to stop him making such a noise! I think we got only a few hours sleep! I am about to get the bus to Airlie Beach so have to go. I will write up about my Thai cooking course next time. Sorry for the mammoth entry!

Love Emmaxx