Today, I woke up covered head to toe in massive itchy bites - don't know if they were from mosquitos or bed bugs but they weren't fun! I reckon there were around 100 altogether, the most I've ever had, but we haven't been to Asia yet…

We were up early to finish packing and check out. Our bus to the airport wasn't until 4:30pm, so we had a while to wait around. We spent the morning reading and on the internet, then ventured out at dinner time to collect our CD of photos from our underwater camera yesterday. We also got some lunch while out, but didn't stay outside for long as it was so hot and humid - definitely the hottest it's been while we've been here.

Back at the hostel we uploaded our cool underwater photos to facebook, and then it was time to catch our shuttle bus to the airport. On the short journey we got to see some of the rainforest that surrounds Cairns, there's so much more to see here, but we haven't had the time or the money to explore further - next time!

After a slight setback at check-in (our ticket number didn't seem to be working and the check-in lady had to search her computer for quite a while before she found us!), we had about an hour to wait before our flight to Perth. We flew with Jetstar, who seem to be a bit like easyjet - no free meal (even though it's a 5 hour flight!), no free onboard entertainment - you have to pay $10 to hire iPads with the films and TV programmes on - and no complimentary drinks!

The highlight of the flight was when I looked out of the window and saw Uluru/Ayers Rock below! We decided against visiting it when we booked our round-the-world tickets (we could have included a stop there but it would have added a couple of hundred pound to the price), and I remember joking at the time, asking the travel agent if we could just fly over it on our way to Perth - and we did! It was great to see it, even if it was from a long way up, and as the sun was setting it made the colour of the rock very bold.

We arrived in Perth around 9pm, and were overjoyed to feel a cool breeze when we stepped off the plane - very little humidity here! We caught a taxi to our hostel, where everyone was watching the Australian open men's final, Nadal v Djokovic (Djokovic won).

We checked into our luxurious (by hostel standards) en-suite double room, showered, then fell exhaustedly to sleep!