Monday 22nd February 2016

We woke up in the free campsite, had a shower and paid our $2 donation. The drive back down towards Port Douglas was nicer as we could see where we were going and were able to enjoy the view. We headed for a place called Mossman Gorge which is north of Port Douglas and has a large Aboriginal community.

We arrived at the Gorge but you are forced to park in a visitors car park as the road up is controlled by a barrier and the locals are the only ones with a code. This forces you to have to pay $8 for a 5 minute bus ride to the attraction. Very annoyed by this as the rest of Australia lets you see the natural wonders for free but this gorge had more of a commercial feel to it. It was also operated by the Aborigines which made me think that the government had given it to them to allow them to make money as the community complains about not having equal rights, similar to South Africa. Very strange feeling as we had not seen this level of commercial control all the way up the coast.

We reached the gorge and went for a walk around a small forest area which was nice. We found a small stream with a pool which was very appealing to wade in and cool down. We then continued on to the gorge itself which was quite nice, not a very strong current which enabled people to swim. The water was really clear but cold. I didn't bring my swim stuff but Isla did so she went for a swim and said it was amazing. It had loads of fish in which you could see swimming around as it was so clear.

Isla liked this place but I was not convinced, it just felt so manufactured and did not have the same feel as the other sites we had been to in Oz which were free and also more amazing.

After the gorge we travelled back to Port Douglas and had lunch before deciding to visit a waterfall that was found on Maps Me (a gps app that shows you things and your location on google maps, a very useful app). As we arrived at the beginning of the walk it started to rain really heavy. We put our coats on and started walking, not wanting to be deterred. We reached the track and it was an upward climb and went on and on and on and the rain got heavier and heavier. It took us about 1 hour and a half to reach a part of the track that levelled out and thankfully the rain had stopped. We began to enjoy the walk but forgot to check our map and by the time we realised we had walked 20 minutes past the trail to the waterfall. We turned round, determined to see the waterfall. We found the trail but it was overgrown and very jungle like. We walked through having to duck under and climb over branches whilst pushing spikes nettles to the side. Beginning to feel that this was not a good idea as people take special training to survive in jungles and here we are walking in shorts with toms on our feet.

About halfway along this path I found a leech on my leg but it hadn't managed to bite properly, we continued on but then Isla let out a loud shriek. She was screaming about a leech on her leg and asking me to get it off. We managed to flick it off but this one had managed to bite and caused Isla to bleed. This made us forget the waterfall and walk back. Whilst walking again there was a loud shriek, Isla again, this time running towards me yelling to get the leech off. She had two this time and I used a stick to flick them off and may have caused a graze in the process (probably the only time I will get away with causing an injury lol). After I had saved Isla I realised that I had two leeches on my ankle and was now bleeding. We hurried to the main path by which time we had both been joined by further leeches. Isla really was flapping and needed strict instructions yelled at the top of my voice to calm her down and stay still so that I could remove the leeches. Once free of leeches we hurried back down and made the journey back in about 30 minutes. What a nightmare that was.

We decided to drive back to the free campsite as we knew where it was, it had showers and we were looking forwards to washing away the memories of the leeches and having a nice cup of tea.

After a nice shower and tea we were ready for bed. I found the whole thing hilarious but Isla was devastated and wanted to forget the day in a hurry.

Tuesday 23rd February 2016

We woke up to the sound of kuckaboras which was very pleasant, probably my favourite wild sound so far. We headed into Cairns as we needed to book our scuba diving trip. It was raining very heavy again so we decided to visit a laundromat in the morning and visit McDonald's to try out their milkshakes which has become bit of a thing on our travels, trying milkshakes around the world. Definitely more of an artificial flavour then in England.

After we collected our washing we went into the centre of Cairns, we looked at several different tour operators for scuba diving and found two companies that we would be happy to go with. Isla desperately wanted to swim in the lagoon so we went and swam in the rain. The lagoon was not as warm as the one in Airlie but was still enjoyable as you could look out to the ocean. We decided to book a tour with a company called Silver Swift who offered 3 dives for $235 which we thought was a good price and the boat had the best reviews on trip advisor. We wanted to book it with STA travel as they paid for the first dive but the computer was down so we were told to return the next day.

We decided to book into a powered site and found a nice one that had a swimming pool. The staff were very friendly and welcoming. It was still raining heavy so we had dinner in Kylie and went to bed.