Hi everone! Well Dave has arrived and we are having a really good time!! Met him in Brisbane and flew to Cairns together. The following day we went to Cape Tribulation stopping for a swim in a beautiful river at the bottom of the Mossman Gorge. The experience was ruined somewhat by a crazy Aboriginal man called Norman who was harrassing everyone who cared to listen and grew very excited when Dave gave him a cigarette and proceeded to scream 'that man gave me cigarette' for about an hour!! We then took a boat trip along the Daintree river and saw 1 frog (well I didn't really see it but it was there!) and no crocs! Arrived at Cape Trib in the afternoon and had a swim in the pool and discovered that our lovely en suite room was next to a family with a 2 and a 4 year old who screamed whenever we wanted to snooze. Had a very lazy day the following day on the beach and headed back to Cairns.

On Tuesday we boarded the Rum Runner yacht for our Great Barrier Reef adventure!! Had a hobbit for a captain who insisted on wearing speedos despite his pimply covered bum!!! The boat was supposed to take 12 but there were only 4 of us so we got special treatment and as much of the good food as we could eat!! Had an intro dive which was included and it was cool but a little scary as I found I was concentrating on breathing and not the fishes! We went snorkling and got talked into another scuba dive - this time my mask filled with water which is apparently due to my ridiculously low hairline - although the hobbit captain did mention to Dave that this was my only flaw! Had a very sleepless night (well Dave did, I had a lovely but sweaty sleep) as the boat was so noisy. The following morning we had another dive at 0730 which we were determined to see turtles but think most of the fish were still asleep as we didn't see much but went through loads of beautiful coral caverns and caves! Our last dive was definitely the best as we saw a reef shark and loads of fish including Nemo, a big ass tuna fish and squid! Had a final snorkle and eventually gave up seeing the elusive turtle even though everyone else on the boat had seen the sneaky b*****s! Arrived back at Cairns exhausted and made the most of the 2 happy hours!

This morning we flew to Alice Springs and I'm not really sure what to say about it! We arrived at our hostel, which can only be described as an outdoor prison but without the facilities and free food! To use the air con we have to ask our neighbour to turn his on, so that it comes through the vent in our room! We start our Red Rocket tour tomorrow up to Darwin and think we see Ayres Rock first. May not have much internet access this week being in the dusty outback but will report back on our return. love Julia and Dave xx