Sunday 2nd & Monday 3rd were spent chilling, updating blog, washing, booking flights, walks into the centre, shopping, servicing TufTuf (where the mechanic gave us his truck for the day with no forms, just passed us the keys J !)....and so on before our road trip no. 5 commenced on Tuesday 4th. We headed to Port Douglas which was a very small, posh sophisticated village where not much was happening so we just had lunch, walked up and down the main street and moved on to the Daintree Rainforest. It was a beautiful campsite, right by the river...surrounded by trees. It really felt like we had escaped from the tourist route, into the peaceful countryside. I attempted to cook for the group today, so did the Henrich speciality of tagliatelli with mascaponi, leek and bacon. It was yummy, even though the group would prefer more spices, herbs, salt, pepper...basically everything. They all like everything to go into a dish and say its bland if it doesn't go in - quite hard to please I must admint, but hey they did actually like this dish. We spent the night chilling outside and chatting and booked our crocodile tour for the following day. There were lots of Bandicoots wondering around, not scared to come and say hi. Wierd animals, I haven't seen anything like it before, they are just like big ass rats so not amazingly pleasant.

The morning we were up for a river cruise to see some crocs. Oh boy it was pouring with rain so the first river cruise we weren't so lucky, but we drove on and stopped for the second croc cruise where we ended up seeing loads....big and small and with a very funny guide! I tried recording his commentary as he was hilarious, but I failed in doing so. Sorry. We then moved on to Cape Tribulation, where we set up camp and went to see sunset at one of the viewpoints. Lisa and I ended up chatting all night whilst Brodie went to the local pub across the road to see some sports match and Stefan was sorting his photos. Thursday we did some rainforest walks, went to the beach and ended up turtle spotting on the rocks. I was a professional photographer this very moment, and captured the turtles on Stefan's flippin' heavy camera! Haha. It was fun though, looking out at sea to see where the turtles would appear for air again. We did another trek around a lake, where the water was so blue, and the trees were so impressive. Eventually we arrived in Cooktown and stayed at a really cool campsite with powerful showers, a huge and well equipped kitchen and a reasonable sized pool for me to do my aqua aerobics in the following morning. We spent Friday chilling in Cooktown and all decided as a group that we should stay here for one day to see what this festival was all about and then head back to Cairns the next day. I think it was time for the group to part. In all fairness we had done so well travelling together for over a month and a half, with no break from each other, I think it just got a bit much for the guys to let each others differences pass, and instead it felt like everyone was becoming more and more argumentative with each other, the vibes weren't great and I didn't like it, so had to convince Lisa to get the guys to talk to us and figure things out. We all kinda agreed to disagree that we all liked each other and had lots of fun on the road trip, but everyone mutually agreed that we should stop the road trip now and enjoy what we had experienced together rather than carrying on and making a trip that we may not have wanted to remember. So we decided to all get along over the next two days and we would part in Cairns. I'm glad we all talked, it felt a little better and I didn't feel like the middle man quite as much either which was nice. Problem was I got along with Lisa really well but also with Stefan and Brodie and I had some good banter too, so it wasn't a problem being with any of them. So that day we decided to have a cool BBQ back at the campsite, with a massive burger, bacon, egg...yes the whole shebang with Brodie on the scene. And then we headed to the town (after Stefan decided to chuck me in the pool fully clothed!) to check out the 'festival'. Well, that was hillarous, there really wasn't much going on but a small parade where 4 men in uniform walked into the middle of the road, fired their guns and then a bunch of ladies and children walked up and down with some strange looking outfits on. All a little odd but then a live band came on the scene in the bar so we enjoyed the music and had a little dance. We ended up staying there and chatting to some Aussie guys who were organising the production the following day. They were all in random costumes too. It was a very strange evening, also seeing the Aboriginals around, drinking LOTs....they were all crazy drunk, staggering around. It was definitely an experience, let's just say! Haha. Saturday morning we were packed and set of back to Cairns...said farewell to Lisa and Brodie and checked into Travellers Oasis...ie PARADISE! The hostel was amazing, just what we needed. A really comfy cosy bed, vintage style hostel, really homely and cosy. It felt like a shared house, not a hostel at all and all the people were really friendly too. It was so nice to be in a hostel and relax on a real bed for a change! Having slept on a 1cm thick mat for the past 2 months...it was heaven! Stefan and I ended up chilling in the hostel all night.