So eventually we had arrived in Australia, how exciting!! Neither of had graced this country with our presence and everybody that we'd ever spoken to about visiting Australia had gushed about it. Forewarned about the stringent entry rules we traversed both immigration and customs with ease. Craig's wooden backgammon set ignited little interest at the border and Gemma had applied for our e-visas whilst she was in the UK so we sailed through the formalities.

Our entry point into Australia was Brisbane airport where we had to catch a connecting flight to Cairns. It was only when we were on this 2 and a half hour flight that the enormity of Australia dawned upon us. Flying from mid-way up the east coast to the (not even extreme) north of the country takes as long as a flight from London to nearly anywhere in Europe. Subsequently we booked Greyhound bus tickets that will eventually take us from Cairns to Sydney; combined this journey will take 48 hours.

Cairns itself is a pleasant enough place with plenty of sun, a lovely promenade and a great lagoon to hang out at (there isn't a beach). What is striking about Cairns and small seaside towns along the Australian coast in general, is that manage to avoid much of the tackiness that afflicts UK seaside towns. We didn't see much of the nightlife as we were both stunned at how expensive Australia is, certainly on a par with Tokyo, if not a little more expensive. Cairns is the end of the road for many travellers making the northerly journey along the east coast of Australia and they party hard. We felt a bit out of the loop as we were just starting our trip here.

The Caravella hostel housed us whilst we were in Cairns, it was a friendly place with a big kitchen, a pool and helpful staff. The Kitchen had taken on a more prominent place in our thinking because the prices in Australia meant that for the first time since we started travelling we'd have to do some cooking.

Our real reason for being in Cairns was to get onto the Great Barrier Reef to do some scuba diving and after two short days in Cairns it was time to go to the dive centre for registration and orientation before setting off for the MV Kangaroo Explorer and three whole days of scuba heaven.