After our marathon journey we came into an area called The Tablelands and the scenery changed from the typical Outback monotony to err... Wales! Loadsa rolling green hills and black and white cows - very surreal. In between these Welsh bits was wonderful waterfalls and our first view of the Pacific in quite awhile. We've got quite attached to it having been looking at it since Mexico.

We moved a bit more North and came to Cape Tribulation where the rainforest meets the ocean and spent a wonderful few days despite all sorts of wierd critters trying to scare us and the humidity trying to glue us together at night. As usual that wonderful cure-all substance called alcohol saved us from both! Kept bumping into a nice Irish couple who seemed to have the same problems and solutions as ourselves.

We went Jungle Surfing which is where you hang yourself from wire ropes and slide through the jungle, a few times we went slowly as a couple, a few more separately as fast as possible and the last time was of course upside down as fast as possible - absolutely stunning!!

One of the guides showed us a neat trick with the 15mm long green ants where you pick it up and lick its arse and get treated to ascorbic acid in return - sort of like licking a very strong lime. These little fellas had been annoying us for days and we thought "Excellent - they're all over our camp!" They seemed to know what awaited them when we got back and never bothered us again.

Went south towards a town called Kuranda. Most go up the scenic railway but we chose the scenic (apparently very dangerous) road - far more fun. We got to the top with a badly overheating well thrashed van with cooked brakes and silly smiles on our faces (possibly just mine) and wandered into town from the campsite along the railtracks. The town itself was hyper-touristy and we decided to wait until the last train had left and see if its local charming side came out as Lonely Planet suggested it might. At 3.30pm the last train left and at 3.31pm the WHOLE town shut up shop - very funny!

Wandered back down the tracks to our campsite and heard a shout from the toilet block which was all of 5 metres away and discovered a 6 foot Taipan in the showers. I would have given it a go putting it into a pillowcase myself if it wasn't for the fact that the Croc Dundee lookalike gnarly Aussie hardmen looked bloody terrified themselves. This is apparently the 3rd deadliest snake in the world but unfortunately all of the local snake rehabilitation blokes must have been in the bar after selling crap to tourists because it was sadly the safest thing to whack it over the head which was a bit of a shame - even dedicated snake-fearing Kym came over all Buddhist like!