It is fantastic to be back in the Sunshine State! Northern Queensland is possibly the most beautiful place I've been to in Australia, and it certainly has the best climate at this time of year. It has been a consistent 27 degress with clear blue skies and very little humidity. Perfect.

I landed in Cairns on Monday afternoon and caught a bus straight up to Port Douglas. I spent the afternoon wandering the pretty little town and the beautiful 4-mile-beach. The next day I finally fulfilled a long-standing dream - scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I was a little worried before I went because so many people visit the reef (approximately 1.6 million every year!) and it is suffering because of this. I had heard Port Douglas was the place to take boats from because it is nearer the outer reefs which are too far from the hordes visiting Cairns and it also has a strictly limited number of visitors allowed. I chose to dive with a long-established dive company called Poseidon who took us out to the Agincourt Reef, an hour and a half north of Port Douglas. They were absolutely fantastic, extremely professional and friendly, and they gave us lots of cake! More inportantly, there were only 2 groups of 5 expreienced divers, each with their own dive master, so we had the reef to ourselves. Fabulous!

We did 3 dives at different sites. The first 2 were standard reef dives where we saw lots of beautiful coral and fish, including little Nemos, plus a turtle and some reef sharks! The thrid dive was a drift dive where we actually drifted along the reef wall which runs along the edge of Australia's continental plate, with nothing between us and South America. Wow. There were much bigger fish on this dive, including Maori wrasse and some comedy unicorn fish. I had an absolutely brilliant day and wish I had more time and money to do more!

The next day I took a small group tour up the coast to Cape Tribulation. Our first stop was at a wildlife park on the edge of Port Douglas. I got to hand-feed some wallabies (so cute!) and see a cassowary, Queensland's famous emu-like bird. We then visited the Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest continuous living rainforest in the world. We had a walk through the forest and a few brave people swam in the (extremely cold) river. We then had lunch on the bank of the Daintree River before going on a river cruise to spot crocodiles. And spot them we did! We saw one 5ft female and a couple of juvenilles. We also saw some snakes. We then continued furhter up Captain Cook Highway, with spectacular views of the coastline, to Cape Tribulation. This is where Captain Cook ran aground on Endeavour Reef in 1770 and he named the headland for where all his troubles began.

I was staying in a beautiful beach house right on Cape Tribulation beach. After walking on the beach while the sun set, I spent the evening playing pool and poker with some friends from the bus. The following morning I went sea kayaking for 3 hours around Cape Tribulation headland. It was a perfect day to be out on the water with clear blue skies and no wind. I could have stayed out there all day! Afterwards our kayaking guide taught us how to husk and open a coconut. That afternoon I went to an exotic fruit farm for a fruit tasting session. It was brilliant! They were all delicious.

Unfortunately I had to leave Cape Tribulation late that afternoon to get the bus back to Cairns. It was a stunningly beautiful place and so peaceful, I could easily have stayed a week or even longer! But for this trip my time was up and I returned to Cairns. I only have one night here before I fly to Sydney. I haven't seen much of the city but it seems mega-touristy and not really my thing, so I'm quite pleased I decided to skip it and spend more time further north.

Next stop: Sydney!