Our final destination in Australia is upon us and I am FINALLY fully up to date with this blog! Maybe now you can read about things as I'm doing them, rather than weeks after the event!

We arrived in Cairns after a long day of driving which was punctuated by a visit to a crocodile farm. I will freely admit I was very negative about this and entirely unable to understand why they would force us to stop at a farm for 90 mins and pay for the privilege. How wrong I was to not be happy about it! The farm was actually really cool. We finally saw some cassowaries (very dangerous birds!), plus some more dingoes and emus. One of the guides jumped into a pool with an alligator and lifted it out to show us, which shocked each of us in unison! They then proceeded to feed the crocodiles for us, each being given a small amount of wild boar to last them for the next few days. It was so cool to watch the crocodiles move and snapping their jaws open and closed for the meat. We also got to feed kangaroos - so cute! Lovely little creatures, and far gentler than I'd imagined. The little ones didn't even cover me in kangaroo slobber!

Reaching Cairns we were a little surprised at the size. Someone had led us to believe there was only really one street...I'm not sure how this person arrived at such a conclusion!!! Our hostel, the Calypso Inn, was lovely but so so far away from everything. Even a free shuttle bus to the city and the prospect of free airport transfers wasn't enough to entice us to stay, so we swapped over to the lovely Northern Greenhouse, where the beds are big enough for two! Our first night was dinner and drinks at the famous Woolshed, where we are also heading tonight for our last night in Australia, quite a fun bar, but not really my sort of place. Anywhere where a guy with a dodgy mullet struts around on a microphone and makes girls grope each other for prizes does not get my vote. Still, it's cheap and it's only a couple of nights.

The highlight of Cairns was the skydive experience!!! Something I'd talked about and told people I'd do, then booked in New Zealand only to have it called off due to weather. We had planned to do it in Australia at some point, and Cairns being the last stop it made sense to do it here. I don't even know how to begin to describe it...just so much fun! It was far less scary than I had expected, although when my jumping dude was trying to make me do the positions on the ground I was a little daunted! Turns out flinging your arms in the air, bending your knees and keeping your head back is far easier in the air!! We had simply stunning views in the plane on the way up which only improved on jumping out. We were jumping at 14,000ft. Sooz went first and I was so amazed at how quick it all was. One second she was sitting with her feet dangling outside of the plane and the next she was gone! My turn next, and it before I could even think about what I was doing my head was back and I was falling through the sky. Such a surreal experience. My jumping dude had told me in no uncertain terms that I must keep my mouth closed and breathe through my nose, which is why I look so ridiculous in my photos - I was scared to smile normally so I've got major hamster cheeks due to the closed mouth smile! Breathing through your nose for 60 seconds is quite hard when you think about doing it and you're hurtling through the air! At one point I fell straight through the middle of a cloud, which trust me, I never thought I'd be saying! That was pretty strange in itself; I swear I could almost taste the cloud. The 60 seconds of freefall went pretty fast, and soon I was jolted up by the parachute, the straps were loosened (I could breathe again!) and the mask removed from my eyes. 5 minutes to appreciate the view of Cairns, the mountains, the reef...it wasn't long enough. Simply amazing. I hadn't given any thought to how you land after such things and wondered what was going on when the dude told me to lift my knees up. I couldn't bring them up high enough and he grabbed underneath my legs and said 'this is what you do when I say "knees up", if I say walk then walk a few paces'. Knees up I could understand, but walking confused me greatly! It turned out that we had a very smooth, almost graceful landing, going from floating through the air to standing on the ground in a few small movements. I couldn't quite believe it was over. But wow, was it worth it. Would definitely consider doing it again.

After the amazingness of skydiving Cairns didn't have much to offer, but it has been an enjoyable few days of sun 'baking' and souvenir shopping.

So bye bye Australia and all of the awesome people we've met on the way up from lovely Melbourne. Thanks for a wicked 5.5 weeks! 6 weeks and 2 days left for Asia to wow and amaze us, then home for the best Christmas ever :-)