We are coming to an end in Cairns. The last few weeks have flown by with Ian working as a kitchen hand in various hotels around Cairns, having realised that being responsible for nothing more that the cleanliness of plates is quite good for de-stressing yourself. Lindsay continues to work as a waitress cleaning up after dirty tourists! Damm these tourists!

Two major tourist events recently. First was the visit to the Undara lava tubes, where many years ago a volcano erupted sending rivers of lava flowing across the land. The top layers of the lava flow solidified leaving lava flowing underneath wearing away the ground and creating underground tunnels. You can now walk down these tunnels with a guide. The tunnels are cool, its not something we had heard about before, but the $45 cost is worth it. We had to wade through metre high bat pee and water to get a good look! The drive to the tunnels was stunning via the outback, although 4 hours of it - fortunately the compulsary tourist hire car (Hyuindai getz) uses so little petrol!

After a previous night out, Lindsay (full of much bravado and vodka) said ian was too scared to do a scuba diving course, so we promptly booked ourselves on a 4 day course to get qualified and for Ian to prove Lindsay wrong. 2 days in the pool and 2 day trips to the great barrier reef. We had 2 crazy Dutch lads on our course, a couple of Canadians and an Italian who said " I understand about 40% - its ok!" he lost his buddy a few times.

All was going well until we were sitting on the bottom of the ocean practising skills when Ian turned around to check if Lindsay was ok to find her floating up to the surface. More pies to be eaten I think! The next day, Ian did the same! Still, we got the licence and can now dive anywhere in the world by ourselves. Our next dive will be in the North Sea...

We have booked a campervan relocation for a trip to Sydney in 7 days (like driving from the top of Scotland to the south of Italy). Many driver reviver stops will be needed on the way. And no we are not becoming hippies, it has a dvd player and a shower.

Only two months left

xxxx