Hello, We are now back in sydney before flying to New Zealand tomorrow. i know, i know! last you heard we were in Cairns, and now we are in sydney. What happened? how did you get there? where did you pass through? Panic not for i shall now tell you the odyssey which brought this wild turn of events to pass...

We got the plane down on monday.

But before that we were meeting Sarah from our Sailing trip in Cairns for a night out. We met her successfully and went for our free Tea at Rhino's , always the same choice of four dishes on the Freeby board, so i went for the bolognese this time which was quite nice. then we went round the night market and Sarah got a tastefull temporary tattoo of a kangaroo on her ankle (she was flying to singapore then home so non Australians would get to see it)

we thought about buying some souveniers but in the end rejected the idea and went to the mad cow bar for another free drink. the facade of the mad cow is that of a huge great mad fresian so we walked in expecting a great night out to be greated by one solitary bar man playing pool against a midget. turns out it was mad in the David Lynch sense. anyway we drank up whilst watching other potential customers drift in take a look around and drift back out silently. Then it was time to move on to the Woolshed which is a bit legendary to all previous CAirns visitors. This would appear to be because all drinks are 2 for 1 till 11. we immediately bumped into Mitsch (he of the comment on our notice board) surrounded by the usual bevy of beautiful ladies. we joined his table and immediately immersed ourselves in teh amusing floor show that consisted of embarrassing 3 couples by getting them to exchange clothes etc etc very fresher week but jennifer and Sarah were insisting that all drinks bought here were money saved and relentlessly traisping to the bar. just when we were thinking this fun could never cease it had to as Sarah had an early flight and we were picking up another camper van for a few days touring the area.

we dragged ourselves out of woolshed just as the wet T shirt competition was about to kick into action and bade sarah bon voyage.

Next morning we picked up our WICKED camper van (they are the cheapest of the cheap twenty quid a day). they are all painted with grafitti like designs and the Wicked Community is funny in that you have to wave at each other if you see another one on the road, we saw many and were saluting up and down the highways for 5 days.

we set off to see cape tribulation which gets a lot of coverage. allteh tours go there and it's much talked about. i was disappointed, just a big beach really and having travelled up Australia i'd seen a few of those already. the trip was worth while thos cos we picked up a hitchhiker and rather than end up dead in the bush or trussed in teh back of the van we were regailed with stories of how he had just spent 3 years on the SApphire fields where you pay 7 pounds to camp and can prospect for sapphires to your hearts content. I was immediately for turning our van round and heading out but alas it was going a bit dark so we parked up at a campsite that doubled as a Kangaroo refuge,

the next morning we headed to POrt Douglas (fancy pants town on the coast) which was very picturesque, through a few other villages and back through cairns and out the other side to Yungaburra where we did some wine tasting that was again very very good, and will be being delivered as soon as we can afford to place and order inc delivery costs to the UK.

we stayed out back of a nice hostel so got a proper kitchen etc. next morning we headed to... erm oh well a few other places basically we saw a wind farm , some lovely waterfalls, a town called herberton where the campsite was run by folks from Selby in yorkshire. then back through Kuranda which is basically a full on souvenier tourist town, nice campsite again before dropping the van back , getting jennifer a haircut and heading to cairns airport. Easy flight to sydney and Alice the darling that she is picked us up again and back to comfort , TV and duvets in Sydney till now.

( Jen) just like to say 2 great things about australia - the Fusion Organics cafe in Cairns where they do lovely wheat/dairy and sugar free cakes like chocolate beetroot which are really nice and don't taste at alllike they don't have anything fun in them... and op shops....entire new wardrobe for less than drinks for 4 in a London pub...

just posting home summer clothes, souveniers and stuff before packing for NZ hoping we can carry all the clothes jennifer has acquired and that we can survive 3 motnhs in one place without itchy feet...

part two of the journey over NZ here we come!