Wohooooo we have arrived in Cairns today. Its hot, sweaty and wet!!! lol. But its time to get some steaks in us!!!!

Once arriving at our accomodation at City Backpackers and settling in we were straight off to the man made laggon on the sea front that we had heard so much about, and it didn't dissapoint. We were so tired from the overnight flight as it wasn't the most comfortable flight, and although it was overcast we made the mistake of falling asleep on the poolside, ouch!!!!!! The sun here compared to Asia is so much stronger, although Aussie does have the biggest hole in the Ozone layer so that could be something to do with it!!

Anyway after completely frying we hit the super market for some neccesities (economy beans, bread, eggs etc haha) and went back to the kitchen at our accomodation to cook up a storm. It was pleasing that we got a free dinner at 'The Woolshed' everynight, complimentary with our hostel.. and if you wanted you could upgrade your meal for an extra $7 and get a huge steak meal!! It was so good. We had met some really cool people at this hostel, two couples, Ben and Alex and Ben and Alisia, so most nights we all got dinner together and had some drinks.

Due to the torrential flooding and cyclones that had hit the northern east coast we have had alot of rain, so we ended up cutting our 3 day trip into Cape Trib and the Atherton Tablelands down to a one day trip. We rented a car with Ben and Alex cutting costs and it was a really good day. We started with the long a beautiful coastal drive up the Captain Cook Highway and made our way up to Mossman Gorge. We were only here shortly as it tipped it down on us almost instantly, typicval hey!!!! We did manage to see the beautiful river and the biggest spider we have come across yet in the toilets. We were unsure whether it was dangerous or not though!! but we werent going ot find out!!!

Moving on we worked our way up to the Daintree river where we were going to do a Croc Cruise, however due to a crocodile attack with search parties along the river we decided it was best to give it a miss. At a time like that you don't want happy tourists everywhere. So we are going to do a cruise later, on the Prosperine river down near Airlie. So we headed across the ferry and started our drive through Daintree heading to Cape tribulation. Our first stop was at Alexandria Lookout which was gorgeous. It overloooked loads of forestation with a great view of the Daintree River entering the sea. As it was rainy and a little overcast we didnt get the picture perfect postcard pic like that on the brochures lol, nevermind it was still beautiful.

Moving on we were going to do the Canopy Board Walk, however the weather wasnt great and it was a little pricey so we gave it a miss in the end. Instead we did the short Jindalba Botanical Walk, where we saw a shed load of spiders. Alex had to turn back as she has a real Phobia of Spiders but Kate and I carried on and finished what we had started lol!! It just gave you an insight into what the rainforest is like and it had a nice little fresh water stream running through it.

Our next stop was Cow Bay where we all got an ice cream and drink and went down to the beach. There is no swimming on these beaches due to crocodiles and box jellyfish etc!!! But it was nice with a gorgeous breeze, however when you see signs everywhere saying there are crocs around and that your there at your own risk, you do tend to be constantly watching your back hahaha!!!!

Our final stop was to visit Cape Tribulation beach the most popular beach at the far end of the National Park. This beach was huge and had a lovely little stroll along the boardwalk to the headland, which provides magnificent views of where the rainforest meets the reef. Although the weather was very average it was still beautiful but on a perfect day it would look stunning as the sun would light up the water making it a beautiful blue colour and the sand would be dry, light and powdery. Again, it was still very breathtaking though!

After relaxing at the lookout point it was late afternoon so we decided to head back for the long drive home back through cape trib to the ferry crossing. On the way home we saw some more beautiful lookouts along the coast and then got some beers from the supermarket. That night Ben cooked us a slap up pasta dish and we had some beers with them before they had to head out to Brisbane that night as the floods were still blocking the roads through townsville. Many people had decided to do this but its quite costly and Kate and I decided to hold out until the floods had stopped.

We were dubious about whether or not to do a Great Barrier Reef trip because of the way the weather had been. This time of year is not the best time anyway as visibility is only about 10 metres but alot of the sea had been churned up by the bad weather. However we had a very nice day one day and at night we could see the stars so it looked promising that the next day was going to be good as well, so we thought screw it we will do a dive and some snorkelling on the reef!! We are so glad we did as well as the weather was beautiful the next day. The plan was to spend the day out on the reef and then get a late night bus to Airlie Beach as the flooding had gone down but it was meant to rain again hard the next day so we took our chances, which ended up working out well. We're just gutted we had to miss out Magnetic Island and the Yongola Ship Wreck Dive out as we had been looking forward to that for ages and it is meant to be quite spooky.

Anyway the reef trip was amazing, what a brilliant day for it, we had struck lucky at last!! We had a nice BBQ aussie breakfast while sailing to the outer reef on a really big, clean well looked after boat - with sunbathers on the top deck, and a cool aircon cabin at the bottom. Once we arrived at the reef we were straight into the water for our first dive, we were so excited, however we wanted to go deeper. They only took us to about 12 metres. The dive was good, however we didnt see an awful lot but we still loved it. The visibility wasn't to bad but could have been better. We were planning on doing another dive but decided against it and snorkelled for the rest of the day at another location, which turned out to be great and we saw alot of different coral and really big fish. We dived down and stook our hand in an odd huge clam as well, which would shut around our hand!! The marine biologist gave us a brief in the water as to what this clam is etc.. which was pretty cool. The reef really is a weird, living, wonderful existence.. completely different to those that we saw in Asia.

Lunch upon the boat trip was also gorgeous, with Lasagne, Chicken and ham and lots of salad and bread. On the way back home we even got cheese and biscuits and a big glass of wine, which finished the day off nicely. We're really glad we ended up getting a window to do the reef as it is what you come to Cairns for, and it is one of the seven wonders of the world!! We finished the day off with a gorgeous swim in the lagoon, watching the huge bats fly across it at dusk, and then had a meal and beers with Mike before our late night 11 hour journey down to Airlie Beach for our whitsunday Sailing trip that we're so excited for!!!!!

Bye bye for now xxxxx