Tuesday, January 17th, we continued our trek north and drove to Townsville. We weren't terribly ambitious so it was a fairly short drive before we were ready for a break. Townsville is one of the bigger cities in Northern Queensland and a nice place to find refuge from the rain. It was dry when we arrived so we found ourselves a cheap room in a backpackers by the water, grabbed some take away curry for dinner and headed to see a cheap Tuesday movie at the local cinema to keep ourselves out of the evening thunderstorms.

Continuing north the next morning, we detoured off the main highway into the Paluma Range National Park. We drove high up a winding mountain pass until we reached Little Crystal Creek - our first Australian swimming hole. A couple we met in Noosa told us to look out for the swimming holes in the tropics as their favorite part of traveling in this area (and best way to beat the heat). We were not disappointed! This one was a small fresh water pool at the foot of a thrashing waterfall, with big rocky cliffs and old trees all around. And the waterfall was apparently even more spectacular because of all the recent rain. It did rain while we swam but it didn't matter - we found a great rainy day activity! We also drove over to Big Crystal Creek, another swimming hole further down the creek, but only put our feet in here as we were already nicely cooled off.

We stopped for the night in Mission Beach, a very small town only 130km south of Cairns. We rented a tiny cabin in a holiday park right on the beach. It was a nice afternoon when we arrived - even a bit of blue sky! We tried to swim in the ocean, but the stinger warnings were a bit scary, so we ended up in the pool at the camp (and again, Mark enjoyed the waterslide!). BBQing dinner, we were a bit sad we weren't staying in our tent, but that thought dissolved less than an hour later when the skies opened up, it rained torrentially, and the entire tent area was flooded in no time. We were VERY happy to have our tiny little cabin for the night and slept soundly to the pouring rain outside.

On our way out of town the next morning, we inquired at the i-site for the next swimming holes along the drive to Cairns. We reached their suggestion, Josephine Falls, after about an hour of driving. In the forest of Wooroonooran National Park, we walked a trail about 1km long along a rushing, winding creek. The watering hole was carved deep into the rocks at the base of another great waterfall. And dropping into the swimming hole was a great rounded rock, smoothed out by years of water pressure and perfectly shaped for sliding down. Apparently, many of the swimming holes around this area have "rock slides", but this is the first one we'd encountered.

Jumping into the nice, cool water was such a relief after the humid, sweaty walk. Mark and I are both so impressed by the existence of these public, free swimming holes. First, you have a great walk through the bush or the rainforest, work up a good sweat, while at the same time seeing the local landscape. Then, at the end of the walk, you are rewarded by a nice, cool swim in a natural pool. Amazing!

The rock slides were pretty fun too, although the white water rushing down the rock face is a lot less predictable than your average waterslide. And definitely more jostle-y. I have the bruises to prove it!

We had a nice picnic lunch in the forest before headed back out onto the road. We stopped again, only about a half-hour later at another swim spot called The Boulders, outside the small town of Babinda. Here, the white water parts of the creek were sectioned off and you could only observe them from a lookout point because the pools were all followed by more rushing white water and more waterfalls downstream. Not finding our expected, secluded swimming hole, we moved on and into Cairns.

We arrived in Cairns late afternoon and found a crazy-cheap room at a Nomad's hostel called Serpent. Just unloading our little car made us sweaty so again we threw on our suits and headed to the pool. (As many places in the tropics, the beaches are closed in Cairns during "stinger season" so the pools are the way to go). At the pool, they were just starting an intro diving lesson, so Mark and I joined in - so we could both get in the pool and have more practice for our next dive on Monday.

We met some nice travellers during our lesson and had a little chat with them over dinner in the hostel's bar. This place really knew how to cater to the budget traveller - they had a menu with a $3 dinner option, but if you bought a drink, you got dinner for free! I had the free dinner and Mark upgraded to a $5 cheeseburger and fries.

In the evening, we headed into the central business district (CBD) of Cairns and were pumped to find it open and thriving. So many of the little towns we've stayed in close down at 5 or 6pm so it was great to see all the shops and restaurants still open after 7pm, and even a night market open til 11pm! I loved wandering through the crowded, crafty market...Mark, not so much. But I told him it was good practice for SE Asia!