It took 30 mins to get to the ferry terminal which was a mission to find! If you ever need to get to Fleet Terminal for reef tours folks be sure to aim for Shang-Ri-la hotel, park up and it's on the left of the hotels entrance near the jetty. Wish someone gave us those directions.... we stopped two people and they both confused the lives out of us. We checked in and immediately it seems to be a really slick well run operation, lots of staff on hand to help, frie...

So, we wake up today and discover that both of us have been eaten alive!! 10 bites each we obviously made great dartboards in the night. We make tracks for another site today to save the cents! So, we book a 2 night stay at Palm Cove, 20 mins north of Cairns much like port Douglas it's quite a posh tourist area on the beach - looks lovely and quiet but a bit too remote for us -but you can't complain at getting it for a bargain $26 a night. It doesn't have all th...

We decide to stay another night at the campsite as we can't get a booking for the Barrier Reef until Thursday anyway - the weathers been awful - thunder storms and rain so with Wednesday and Thursday looking brighter the trips are getting booked out. We head off in search of Port Douglas, North of Cairns. It's a 90 minute drive and the views are stunning on route, Matt can't get over the roads and how he has less road rage because it's so well signposted and peo...

We haven't slept a wink but we're buzzing with excitement!!! We grab a cab to our rental pickup point to collect our "hippie van" - it's class - her name is Tina and she has a TV, DVD player, kitchen and decent double bed. They include a lot in the package like a full tank of fuel, gas for the stove and towels and bedding. Matt's loving the van, as we are shattered travelling we decide a camp site will work best for tonight so we head for Coconut Resort down th...

We decided to skip our prejudice fix at breakfast today and sleep in a bit, up at 10am packing for check out. The hotels been great agreeing to hold our luggage while we head off exploring Johor Bahru. We get dropped at the city square mall and find it's much like any mall really - all branded clothing and pricey. Walking through we exit to a street opposite and find a couple of second hand shops - we end up spending over an hour in one. Jacq has never been a f...