Hello!

Soooooo - we've reached cairns!!

Its been a bit nuts since the last blog lots of rain, beaches and mozzies! North queensland is tropical rainforest, so we have had great walks through the rainforest, seeing amazing waterfalls and oogling some weird and wonderful sights.

Lots of farms up here grow mangoes, paw paw, bananas, lychee, pineapples plus some we've never heard of before so lots of cheap fruit getting munched!

Lots of driving, its been a god send in the muggy heat as its the only way to keep cool. We've been taking a lot of the tourist route roads - through interesting little villages and some incredible scenery. We bought snorkels and have been doing a bit of snorkelling on any of the beaches that allow you to swim. Lots are closed due to jelly fish and crocs! We're also cheeky and have been sleeping at the beaches - free showers and toilets! Couple of times a little security guard comes along and moans at us - gets a wee scare when he see's the size of kezz in the tiny little van! ha ha! its all part of the fun!

Got to cairns about a week ago and went north for a few days to port douglas and cookstown, real outback stuff up there - seen lots of wild kanagroos and cassiowaries. Pretty awesome stuff! Really nice people as well (if not slightly inbred!)

The best thing though was yesterday, back in cairns and out scuba diving to the great barrier reef. It was quite choppy weather (cyclone ellie had just finished two days before!) so there were lots of sea sick people. Took a few hours to get out, we suited up and off we went. The first dive was through the "labyrinth" reef, corridors of verical wall of coral about 13 metres below the surface. Just incredible sights, so many brightly coloured fish and coral - the visibility was about 6 meters (half what it usually is but still plenty to see). It was really an incredible dive - wont forget it in a hurry!

Got back on the boat for lunch and 2 mantarays swam by - gutted i wasnt in the water to see them but at least we got a glimpse! After lunch kezz and i went diving off on our own along a coral shelf - the top of which was only a meter below the surface, it was brilliant because we could go at our pace and follow the fish we liked! Took lots of photos on our underwater camera thingy ma jig!

Again once we were back on the boat, a turtle swam by - didnt see any in the water. An incredible experience though.

Giving putt putt ding ding back soon - will be sorry to see the damp smelly match box go. We've grown to love her! Looking for a couple of weeks work just now either in sydney or melbourne, we'll fly back down to either city when we've sorted something out.

Thats about it - a damp and soggy pair, we're still on cloud 9 from yesterday!

Chow for now!

X x x x X