Hi, once again this blog is coming to you on the eve of us departing our current location. Lee andI have been in Cairns and the surrounding area's now for about 3 weeks now, and although we have had some amazing times here, it is now sadly time to move on again.

We arrived on August 11th to meet up with our new friend James, who we had met on the Uluru trip. Our first impressions of Cairns were that it was a tropical looking Southend or Blackpool. As you enter the city centre from the highway, you are faced with loads of cheap looking shops, warehouses and fast food joints with big, garish signs above them, all fighting to grab your attention, so needless to say the snob in me didn't warm to this to well. We decided to drive straight to Tourist Info to check out where the nearest campsite to the beach was so we could at least turn our backs on the neon signs in favour of some beautiful blue sea. We were them really suprised and disappointed to find out that Cairns doesn't have its own beach, and like Darwin, has an esplanade. We were starting to think we had been duped into coming to Cairns by fellow travellers who had been raving about the place. So that evening, we thought it best to drive to the nearest campsite to the city centre, as we figured we might as well be within easy distance so we can go and explore the nightlife. We met up with James and a few other guys he had befriended and hit some of the backpacker bars, such as Gilligans, PJ O'Briens and the Woolshed (for those of you who have been to Cairns and know where we're talking about).

Next morning we decided we should get a plan together for any places we might want to check out whilst we were in Cairns, as at this stage, we were not too taken with the place. We decided the best way to get to know the city was to go shopping, and seeing as it was due to be my 30th the day after, we decided to traipse the length and bredth of the shopping mall, which incidently, is pretty identical to Lakeside in layout, and in mix and quality of shops. After about 6 hours of going into every shop about 3 times, we finally found a new top each, and became quite acquainted with Cairns Central. This was also our time for checking out what trips and tours to do whilst in the area, and decided that we should book something a bit special to do on my actual birthday. Lee was quite up for hang gliding or something similar, but I had already decided that I would prefer a trip to a village called Kuranda. I had heard about it before we came out to Australia, as my mum had cut this article out from the Daily Mail about the place, and it looked and sounded so amazing, that I thought we really must try to go to this place whilst we are in Australia at some point. Kuranda is situated just on the outskirts of Cairns, high up in the mountainside, and the big tourist pull, which is the main reason I wanted to go there, is that you catch this original, old fashion train up to the village, which chugs along through the most beautiful rainforest scenery, passing creeks, waterfalls and lush rain forest. Once we arrived we instantly fell in love with the place. It is only a small village which consists of 2 main streets, but all the shops are tasteful and individual, selling anything from clothes, to Aboriginal wares, and the market stalls sell all manner of art and crafty type items that are pretty much all hand made, hand painted, locally made, so again you know you were buying something unique. We didn't actually buy anything from the markets but decided that we would definitely be coming back to this place under our own steam so we could spend more time there. Our first port of call was to go the Koala Zoo at the top of the village, as we were drawn in by the fact that you can pay to hold a koala bear and have your picture taken with it. The zoo itself is tiny but there's more opportunity to handfeed the wallabies, and above all, hold a koala. We all know how cute they look, but I wasn't expecting them to be as heavy as they were. The guy we held was 4 years old, and probably weighed about the same as a 3 year old todler, and although he was cute, I couldn't help but feel it was all really artificial that you were handed this koala out of his cage, woken up just so you could have your picture taken with him. They also have quite a distinct smell about them too, which really clings to your clothes even after washing them, but I'm told it's the eucalyptus they eat that causes this pong. It was a nice experience overall, but I think Lee gained more from it than I did. After our session with the cute and cuddly, we decided that a visit to the Australian Venim Zoo, just along the road a bit was in order to re-address the balance of nature, good and evil.

The 'zoo' is basically a small room with glass boxes of all sorts of nasties in them, all lined up against the wall. A toothless guy with a straggly mullet gave us a quick talk on each of the arachnids and reptiles in each box and how quickly each one could kill you etc. He explained that the purpose of the 'zoo' is that they have an underground lab where they keep the most poisonous and venomous insects, snakes etc, in Australia, so that they can develop anti-venom's, and study the benefits of developing medicines and treatments from the poisons and venims. One interesting thing he did say was that they ship out venim from a taipan (Australia's most deadliest snake) to American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq to use on life threatening wounds. The reason for this is that if you are bitten by the snake as it is, then it can solidify your blood and cause death. But by contrast, the venim has been used on pre-soaked gauzes to apply over gun shot wounds of the soldiers to stop the excessive bleeding. GeniusI thought.

On from the animals and reptiles, we ambled along the village, browsing in the shops and market stalls, and had a lovely birthday lunch in a nice glass of wine in a nice bistro. There are also a few walks you can do around the village that take you through lovley areas of rainforest, and along to Barron Falls, a particularly large and scenic waterfall within the rainforest. We knew we wouldn't have time to do that all that day, so again decided we would do this when we came back another time. The other part of the special journey that day was the journey down from the village. After the beautiful unhurried trip up to the village by train, the journey back down was by Skyrail (cable car), which again provided lots of ooh's and ahh's as you glide over the canopy of the rainforest and get birds eye view of the falls, the approaching coastline in the distance, and a view of Cairns from a great height. It's fair to say that this really was a fantastic day, and certainly a birthday to remember, so Lee my baby when you read this, thank you so much honey.

The evening of my birthday was again spent with James and a few others at various bars and inevitably ended up with us in a club until late, then getting a kebab outside for the cab ride home. Some things never change!

After a days recovery we decided it was time to head up the East coast a little further and start to explore some of the many many beaches and coves on the way up. We set out fairly early and found time to have a look at and take a walk up the parts of the beaches at Machans Beach, Holloway Beach and Palm Cove. We were amazed at how empty they all were. I had been told before that you get beaches in Australia that are literally deserted, but didn't quite believe it until we went to the first couple. Palm Cove was a bit different. When you enter the small resort you know instantly that it is an upmartket, expensive tourist resort with designer boutiques and shops. The beach here was nice, but was quite populated by comparison to the ones we had visited in the morning. We had lunch on the beach and decided to push on further to the small town of Port Douglas. We arrived in Port Douglas just before sunset, so drove straight to a campsite to get settled for the night. After dinner we headed into the main high street to explore what was on offer entertainment wise. To say I pretty much fell in love with this place instantly is the biggest understatement. We soon discovered too, that this was an upmarket place, although it didn't have just designer boutiques. The place is full of tasteful restaurants and shops. We had a couple of drinks in a couple of bars and ended up in a bar near to the marina. We were greated by a guy called Mal, who at first we thought, what a lovely honest and genuine guy. He was asking us loads of questions about our travels etc and seemed to be genuinely interested in where we had been and what we had got planned. He asked us if we had booked a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef yet, and took the opportunity to get his sales pitch in when we said we hadn't yet booked anything. He started to tell us about this great guy he knew, who also happened to be a friend of his, who had this lovely original 1940's yacht that had been restored to full working condition, and that would be the perfect way to see the barrier reef. He gushed about how his friend would 'look after us' if we mentioned that we were now friends of his, and that we should book the trip for the next morning as the weather forecast was saying that the weather was due to change for the worst in the next day or 2, and so we should get in quick before going to the reef became a nightmare. A quick call later and we were booked onto the 'Tallorook', allegedly the greatest yacht there was in Port Douglas, and the only way to sail out to the reef in style.

We arrived at the marina early the next morning, anxious to be there before time so I could go in search of a chemist for some travel sickness pills before our voyage. We went up to the young lads on the boat who were getting it prepared for our trip. I asked where the nearest chemist was as I would need some sea sickness tablets (as I would usually suffer with it if I didn't take anything beforehand). Luckily they said they carried them on board and that I could take one of them there and then, which I of course did. Lee turned down the offer at the time and said that he was usually OK on boats. Half an hour later we boarded the shabby looking yacht and met our fellow sailing passengers. There were about 14 of us in total, which turned out to be a nice number in relation to the size of the boat. We had not set off more than 10 minutes when a young lady ran to the back of the boat to offload her first load of vomit. We were told the trip out to the bit of reef we were headed for would take about 2 hours or so, so the poor girl was in for some real trouble. After an hour or so Lee mentioned that he felt a little woozy, but thought he would be ok after eating the lunch they were to provide us. Thanks to the magic little pill I took before we left, I was feeling fine and was able to relax and enjoy the ride. We finally arrived at our destination, Tounge Reef, and the yacht lowered anchor. I was quite suprised at this stage to discover that we were not at some little island in the middle of the sea, but more at an area of sea, within the sea. Of course the best way to explore the reef is to either scuba dive or to go in with a snorkel. Lee had been coaching me for a few days previously about being brave enough to try snorkelling again, as the last time (and only time I had tried to snorkel) was in Thailand 2 years previously, and I did not have a good experience. I panicked at the first hurdle, and kicked and splashed about making a complete fool of myself, and so vowed to not try again. So the boat had stopped and everyone else leapt straight out, either with their dive gear on, on with snorkel and flippers attached. I eventually crept to the dive platform at the rear of the boat when Lee turned to me and asked if I was alright, as I quite clearly must have looked distressed. With his words, the tears started to flow andI admitted I wasn't feeling brave enough to do battle with the giant waves. He eventually calmed my nerves and persuaded me to get in the water and just try swimming first, which I agreed to do as I am at least, an average swimmer. As we entered the water, the strong current dragged us straight back in the opposite direction raway from the boat and the away from where everyone was diving and snorkelling. This of course panicked me even more and I did a frantic swim back to the dive platform, back to the safety of the boat. Fortunately Lee was understanding of my fears, and helped me back up the steps to the boat and followed just behind me. 'Mikey' the Captain took pitty on my tears and handed me a bucket of fish entrails (absolutely disgusting) so I could sit on the platform and hand feed the giant fish that were now circling the boat. This was a pretty amazing experience as by now a fairly big group of all sorts of brightly coloured fish, some the size of a size 6 shoe, some the size of beach balls were coming to the surface of the water to chomp at the fish giblets. Some of them were so strong that they literally ripped the length of fish gut I had bound tightly round my hand, out and I swear swallowed it whole. By this time, the rest of the group were starting to head back to the boat after their 45 minute dive or snorkel. Lee went out again for a little snorkel whilst I hid myself out of shame at the back of the boat. Everyone said how amazing it was and I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed in myself that I couldn't do it, but we had been told by loads of other people that there was acutally far better diving and snorkelling opportunities in Malaysia and Thailand, and so I have settled myself on giving it another go when we finally go there.

Back on board the boat, lunch was being served. Perhaps not the best choice for those passengers who don't fare well at sea, but a tasty selection for those who weren't feeling so fragile. Lee and I tucked into the bbq meat and fish, and made friends with a guy called Peter from New Zealand. Turns out he was on the trip alone as his wife had preffered to go shopping on her own than spend a day at sea. He very kindly said that we should stop over and see him and his wife if we are passing his way when we go to New Zealand. There was further opportunity for another dive or snorkel after lunch before we departed. The poor girl that was sick from the start of the journey had just surfaced for a drink with us all at lunch and was starting to show signs of recovery. 20 Minutes later the yacht had set sail again, back for the 2 hour journey back to Port Douglas. Lee at this stage said he was feeling better and that he still did not need a travel sickness pill, despite my trying to convince him otherwise. As soon as we set sail, the boat started leaning at almost 45 degrees, bobbing up and down with the now even stronger waves. The poor sick girl once again returned to the sick area of the boat to continue emptying her stomach lining, and everyone else was now starting to look like they were coming out in sympathy with her. We were about three quarters of the way back when the inevitable happened. Lee had been trying to focus on speaking to Peter, but the distant horizon going up and down proved too much, and poor Lee had to run to the 'sick' area of the boat to say goodbye to his lunch. I took him some water and wasn't sure how he would be feeling now he had been sick, but little soldier that he is, he came up with a big smile and said that he felt fine now that it was all out in the open. One thing we were exceptionally lucky to spot whilst we were sailing back, was a single whale in the distance, emerging out of the water and diving straight back down again. It is the right season for the whales to be migrating in these waters at this time, but it still felt special to see it with our own eyes. I did manage to take a quick snap of it whichI will post on the blog very shortly, but it unfortunatley isn't the best shot ever taken. It happened so quickly that I didn't have time to adjust the camera settings to get a good shot.

We spent the next day in Port Douglas once again, and visited the Sunday Market to browse the art and crafty type stalls. The market in this place is remarkable for its unique wares, and has since inspired me to develop my 'arty' side by taking loads of arty type photo's of the many exotic flowers, leaves and trees we keep coming across. I already have loads of ideas for what I want to do with some of the thousands of photo's we have taken when we get home.

The day after we ventured futher up the coast towards Cape Tribulation, which was always going to be the northern most destination of our trip around the east coast. You can go further north towards Cape Cook and beyond but you need a 4 wheel drive to be able to access the many unsealed and often impassable roads. We caught the cable ferry accross the small stretch of water in the Daintree National Park, which strangely enough made me feel motion sick.

On our way to Cape Trib we passed a turn off from the main road, advertising its own made ice creams. We spontaneously decided to give it a try as it said home made. The place is basically a little servery under a shelter, with a few cafe style seats in really gorgeous grounds. There are the most beautiful exotic tropical flowers and bushes all around and you almost feel like you're in a tropical botanical garden. We asked the lady what flavours she had, expecting maybe mango, pineapple and banana for which the region harvests on a large scale. She handed us a little pot with a combination of mango, pineapple, wattle seed and black sapote. We were a little apprehensive to be trying the wattle seed and black sapote, but thought what the hell, when in Rome and all that. She assured us that the wattle seed tasted like cappucino, and that the black sapote tasted like chocolate. This lady was not lying! We both agreed that it was one of the tastiest ice creams we had ever tried, and even ended up fighting to scoop the remnants of the pot. This was one of those little treasures of a spot we happened to come across whilst on our way to somewhere else, and agreed that we should definitely pay this place a visit on our way back through again. The weather this day was muggy but reallly overcast with some of the biggest grey clouds you have ever seen. We arrived at PK's, a backpackers and campsite resort which is located just by the beach at Cape Trib, and had all the amenities that we were craving, i.e a bar. We pondered over what trips to book whilst we were there and settled in for the night. We booked a trip to do sea kayaking and jungle surfing the next day. The weather the next day was even greyer and stormier looking than the previous day, and by now the wind had really picked up and it was raining intermittantly. We headed to our pick up point for the sea kayaking only to be told, unsuprisingly, that it had been cancelled due to the weather. We made the most of the time by doing one of the suggest beach and rainforest walks, which took a good 3 hours to do as there is so much to take in. Cape Trib and the Daintree National Park has the worlds oldest rainforests in, even older than the Amazon, and it is pretty unique as it is an area where rainforest leads straight out to beach. After lunch we were picked up for the jungle surfing. We were driven further up into the mountain's to the base where we were fitted up with the climbing gear. The tour is basically a load of zip lines through the jungle canopy along to various platforms, working your way back down to the bottom of the mountain. The young tour guides provide information on the rainforest at each stage, but as you can imagine, that is not the fun part. At the last stage, they get you to go along the zip line upside down, which when you are travelling at speed high above the canopy, is pretty scary and exilharating. We both left there with a very big smile on our faces.

After more boardwalks at various sights around Cape Trib, we left the next day, via the ice cream place, towards a place called Mossman Gorge, which as the name suggest, is a large gorge within the rainforest. Its situated between Cairns and Cape Trib and was to be our stop off point on our return to Port Douglas. The gorge itself is lovely and there were many creeks that are particularly beautiful. We nearly had a Youtube incident when we were trying to traverse some large boulders in a creek. This asian old man had been persuaded by his young friend to step from one particular boulder, to another stone heading back towards the bank. He took the step but grossly misjudged it and was completely submerged for a moment. He came up pretty much instantly but had water completely running off him. He handed back his camera to his friend, and gave an embarrased laugh to all of the onlookers. Once we knew he was alright it was very funny.

We arrived back in Port Douglas again that afternoon and decided to hire a couple of bikes for 24 hours so we could check the place out from a different angle. There are cycle lanes throughout Port Douglas and we had seen people riding bikes on the beach, so we thought it would be fun to have a go too. You wouldn't think you could ride on sand, but as long as you stick to the wet, compressed sand, it is actually really easy to ride on, and what better place to ride your bike than on Port Douglas' 'Four Mile Beach', which we are a bit sceptical about it being that length, but does go on for a very long distance for sure. By this stage I had fallen in love with Port Douglas so much that I was picking up estate agent booklets at every opportunity to check out house prices etc, but sadly for me, Lee did not share my enthusiasm for the place, and can see it as a tourist town. Lee is not wrong in saying this at all, as the place is so well manicured and designed for the tourist industry, but nonetheless it has the most beautiful streets, beach, shopping area, market, marina, parks etc etc. The weather at this stage was still grey and overcast and I had overheard someone say that the bad weather was due to last until the end of the month. Bad weather asides, it still did not quash my love for this small town. After meeting our friend James a few nights in Port Douglas, we decided to leave there once and for all, and so we departed there Sunday before last, after another quick trip to the Sunday markets. After my gushing about the place at every opportunity, it was Lee's turn to pick a place to stop at on our way back to Cairns. He suggested we go back to Kuranda (place we went to for my birthday) as it was pretty much en route back to Cairns, and we both knew we loved it from our previous trip. We arrived at about 3 in the afternoon, which was not a good time to be arriving in Kuranda. As previously explained, this place truly is a tourist only town, and basically everywhere opens at 9.30am and closes at 3pm, when the trains and skyrail close. It was almost comical that every shop we walked past was pulling their shutters down as we passed it. We managed to come across the only open place in the whole village, which luckily for us turned out to be a bar/restaurant. We headed straight in, and actually found it to be a reallly nice bar. There was a guy playing the didjeridoo and siging and playing other instruments, and the place had enough people in there for a nice atmosphere. We decided to order a few things off the menu as they were all labelled as tasty, homemade gourmet food. A couple of drinks later and we had to leave as the bar was going to shut at 7pm. We made our way back through the village towards the train track, which was to be our suggested route back to the campsite. We spent the next day getting loads of walks in, and worked out that we must have easily walked a total of about 12kms that day, around the village, along the river and down towards Barron Gorge. That evening, last Sunday, we decided to eat at the small restaurant on the campsite. The food was delicious and we were 'entertained' by an old French ex-pat called Jean-Pierre who seemed to take a shine to me. After holding and rubbing my hand for a good 2 or 3 minutes, he suggested we go to a place called Granite Gorge, which is in another area called Mareeba, not too far from Cairns.

Granite Gorge is an area of huge granite boulders that have been standing there for millions of years, and you can hike through them along creeks and hill sides. When we arrived the rather eccentric lady asked us if we like walking, which we of course said yes to. What she failed to mention is that some of the walk routes were only for completely experienced, fit and agile people, and was more rock hopping than hiking. The whole route we took, took a couple of hours or so to complete, and there were more than a few moments when I was a little concerned about the distance between rocks or the height you have to leap, but I can honestly say that although it was the most physicaly challenging thing I have ever done, it was a great feeling afterwards, and we really did get to walk/hop right between some amazing creeks. Photo's to follow.

From Granite Gorge we decided to head inland further away from Cairns to an area called the Atherton Tablelands. The weather at this point was still grey and rainy, although you could not fault the temperature. We were very pleasently suprised to discover the Tablelands area is just like some of the best country scenery you get in England. Green rolling hills, loads of cattle grazing in fields, flowing rivers and creeks, trees and all. The only thing that gave it away that we were not in the UK was the occasional house you passed that bore all the features of a traditional Aussie residance. After a while we arrived at our destination, Lake Tinaroo. The lake goes on as far as the eye can see and stretches out over the horizon into areas farther and wider than the spot we were at. We booked in to a campsite and set about the short walk to the dam area of the lake. It had been raining pretty much all day, but luckily the rain ceased as we got nearer to the dam and lookout area, and the sun shone down on us just before it started to set behind the mountains again. As we stood there, we were overcome by this almighty screeching noise and looked up into the sky to witness literally thousands and of cockatoo's flying towards us overhead, from one side of the mountains to an an area the other side on the mountains. The noise was incredible. I've always thought they were nice birds as people keep them as pets, but believe me, they screech the most ear piercing noise, and when you times that by a few thousand at fairly close range, it's not a pleasent sound. It was pretty cool though to see such a sight.

That evening we decided to have our first Aussie BBQ, and bought a bbq selection pack from the campsite store. Pretty much all campsites we have been to, anda lot of the beaches and parks have communal bbq's that you can use, either for free, or for a small charge. I just can't imagine that would work back home - how long before someone graffiti'ed it or used it to burn someone on or the like?! Anyway, after creating plumes of acrid smoke, we realised you have to use some sort of oil, as they aren't the sort of charcoal barbies we use back home, they are more like hot plates, and us being Aussie bbq virgins thought that they may be non stick as they all look so spotlessly clean. The couple that were sat at the camp kitchen/bbq area near us were quite clearly trying to supress their laughter at our mis-hap, but this did in turn provide an opener to start talking to them and get some tips for having an easy barbie. They were an older couple called Werner and Honey, an ex German and ex Austrian, who have been living in Australia for over 50 years. They turned out to be really friendly and have also invited us to stay with them when we pass by Melbourne.

The day after we left early to take the 2 hour or so drive around the perimeter of Lake Tinaroo, and stopped at a few other lakes and craters that had been recommended to us along the way. We stopped at a small village called Yungaburra on the way back to Cairns where we had a spot of really scrummy lunch, and walked the route famous for its spots where you are most likely to see duck-bill platypus's in Australia. Needless to say, we came away having spotted nothing.

We arrived back in Cairns Thursday just gone, and have basically just spent time chilling out here. The weather has now improved quite a lot and we even spent a day by the man made lagoon along by the esplanade on Friday for a spot of well deserved sun bathing. We went out Friday night, once again with James and Richard for a meal in a really nice restaurant called Wink. We decided to splash out a bit and have the full works with a few nice bottles of wine, as by now we have become quite close to James, and him and Richard were to be leaving Cairns the next day or 2.

Lee and I have spent the last couple of days relaxing in Cairns but will be leaving here probably tomorrow, to start making our way downwards along the East coast.

Photo's to accompany this blog will be posted soon - sorry not enough time to do this blog and upload photo's in this session. TBC...........