As we had not had enough of each other, a bunch of us from Taka went out on our first night back in Cairns. The Japanese guys were all catching up on the news of the earthquake and tsunami and ensuring that all was fine with their friends and family (which, thankfully it all seemed to be). Things got a little bit messy in the Irish Bar with the pole dancing competition!!! Photographer Nick and Lukas definately did the boys proud! Despite being (slightly) hungov...

On arriving on Taka, my home for the next 5 days, I met the rest of the guests - my roomates Toliver (from California but now living in Tokyo and working as a computer programmer for YouTube) and; Matsuski (a Japanese lady in her 60s, but who could have passed for 40!); my dive buddy Matthew (from Bishops Storkford); Lukas (white Armani suit wearing, slightly crazy guy from Czech); 3 Japanese guys; a Mexican couple (Carl and Fernanda); a French couple; and a coup...

It sure can rain in Tropical Far North Queensland! Linda and I managed to dodge a lot of it walking around Cairns on our arrival from Townsville, but it was still pretty dramatic watching the menacing black clouds roll in from the mountains to the south. We thought that as it was our last night together that we had better check out the sights... which included the Woolshed (it was "Meal or No Meal" quiz night) and the backpacker resort of Giligans. As i...

The first rumours that something was wrong with the roads started when we got back to Airlie and Linda found out that her night bus up to Cairns had been cancelled. My bus up to Townsville at 7am was on schedule, but it terminated in Townsville instead of going on up to Cairns as there was flooding on the road. As a result Townsville got VERY busy! Linda arrived at Foreign Exchange backpackers shortly after me and we caught up with Or and Yuval from Israel who Li...

Still not got used to spending a night on a bus, so arrived in Airlie Beach to blazing hot sunshine rather bleary eyed. I really felt for Hannah and Laura (Canadians) who were heading straight off on their Whitsundays sailing trip! As it was I spent Thursday and Friday lazing about in the lagoon (there's strictly no swimming in the sea in Airlie because of stingers!) and catching up with people from down the road. Saturday dawned another beautiful day as we set ...