hey! this is actually the 2nd time ive written from Cairns but i dont think the 1st time worked! bummer! so anyways, having an awesome time! its cool to be somwhere a little more normal and take life at a slower pace than the run race adrenalin journely its been til now!! kinda weird trying to train ourselves to take our time a bit more! have loved the journey so far though and oz is no different...our first day here we dumped our stuff and headed straight for town - its quite compact but very pretty. quite modern in places but it keeps the tradition and the setting of a normal, everyday living kinda town. the streets are all wide and the sides are lined with shops - clothing, surfing, food, shopping malls and tourist information everywhere! we headed out on a boat to an island called green island on our 2nd day - wanted to explore the reef and do some snorkelling. such a shame to see the great barrier reef at the start here in cairns, in such a porr state! was gutted but its pretty dead and although there is some amazing water life and beautiful fish, not many surrounds this area anymore and the coral has definately died off! fingers crossed for further down the coast though...the last couple of days has just been crusing. although we did keep it real for team extreme yesterday by doing a canyone swing through the rainforest!!! was awesome...me and maz were tied together and lifted high above the trees...maz had to pull a lead and we plummeted over the tree tops!! aweseome!!  loved it and definately got the adrenalin pumping again! ; ) today is about 28 degrees so weve sat all day in the sun by the beach lagoon - drinking milkshakes and smoothies...yum! thats what travelling is all about...so many aspects to it and that is one of my favourites! ; ) had to say yet another goodbye today though...the bit of travelling i dont like! ; ( great girl in our room the past few days has flown to sydney. new places new people though i guess and its always good to know we can all stay in contact! yay! ; ) so moving down the coast from tomorrow...on the greyhound bus and our first stop is townsville and magnetic island...staying the next 2 nights on a koala santuary and looking for kangaroos and wallabys (hopefully live ones this time as the ones weve seen so far have been roadkill!) nice! ; ) still waiting to see rolf harris...you never know! but i did learn to play the didgeredoo last week...thats one of my new talents since coming away!! might be getting back to london heathrow with one of them under my arm...you'll probably see me busking the streets in bognor getting money for my next trip...; ) better go just now but hope all is great there. saying see ya to cairns tomorrow but looking forward to seeing some more aussies and the wildlife of the coast!!! ; ) take care, georgie x x x