24/9/9 Mission Beach to Cairns

We woke up to a misty morning which turned out to be a thick dust cloud which had blown up from storms in Sydney and NSW mixed with smoke from inland fires!! It was the worst storms for 70 years and the dust had travelled 5000kms. The visibility was terrible and we were booked to do a sky dive and land on the beach. The reason to do a sky dive here was to see the amazing views over the barrier reef and the tropical islands too. We were feeling pretty disappointed when we travelled to the sky dive airfield and were tempted to cancel. We would probably lose the money we had paid so decided to jump anyway but miss out on the view. Liz told her tandem that it was her third jump so he decided they would do a somersault exit from the plane. She had to remember sky, floor, sky, floor and then go into the sky diving position...nothing to it !! Phil also did a forward somersault out of the plane then we both had a longer parachute than the others. When we were flying up you could barely see anything except the 1000 m thick layer of brown smog below...you could just about see the blue from the ocean. Once we jumped out of the plane we really enjoyed the ride despite the lack of views, poor Phil thought he'd lost his balls as the harness had pulled so tight. His voice went up a few octaves!!! Once back at Scotties we went to catch our Oz bus for the final leg into Cairns. Keano, on of our previous drivers collected us and drove to Johnstone River crocodile farm. They have 2000 crocs there which are bred until they are 6 years old for meat and skins. They had some older huge ones which we watched being fed. There were two called Gregory and Cardwell. Cardwell had been taken to the farm after he attacked a British backpacker who was fixing an irrigation pump when he pounced. The backpacker did survive but Cardwell had to be caught. They have such huge jaws and they crunched through the pigs legs they were fed with. we also fed some kangaroos and wallabies, saw emus and also dingos. Phil decided to buy a stuffed Crocs head...not sure where thats going to live...maybe the shed!! We then drove the last bit into Cairns and were dropped off at Cairns Beach House ( no where near a beach...Cairns doesn't have one) It has a bar and a pool so we were happy. We went into town to meet the bus passengere and Keano for dinner. We had arranged to meet up with Jonny and Tony for drinks too and it ended up being a great night. Phil won a $50 bar tab in Rhinos where we had tea by making the bars best paper aeroplane. It would have flown for ages except it hit the wall. We drank loads of beers there before Tony bought us shots too. We had lots of shots then went to the Woolshed which is Cairns famous backpacker pub for more drinks and dancing. Phil and Colin were trying to bust some moves on a stage area but it was only about 2 ft high so they were bent double like a pair of muppets!!! Phil can't remember getting back to the hostel so you can imagine how drunk he was!!! Good night though!!

25/9/9 Friday Cairns THE DAY FROM HELL !!!!

We went to town to collect our passports from the Cairns post office but when we arrived they had no record of the parcel arriving there. there was no trace of the postal ref number the indian visa office had given us which meant no parcel had been delivered. We checked on the visa tracking system and the passports had been sent out on 8/9/9 so where were they? We searched the internet to get a phone number so we could establish what the problem was but the only number we could find was constantly engaged. We had a huge problem if our passports were missing as to get new ones would mean getting original birth certificates and bills from home plus a big delay in Australia.We would have to go to Canberra to get the new passports an visas and we would have to cancel our Vietnam trip too !!! Fortunately after a couple of very stressful hours Phil finally got through to a helpful chap who gave him the number for the Brisbane office where we left our passports to be sorted. The passports were there instead of being posted through to Cairns as we had asked. We were so relieved that we knew where they were and arranged to get them sent by courier. Phew!!! We then went off to get packing boxes to send stuff home and looked in some shops when Phil suddenly said "wheres my camera?" He had left it in the internet cafe we were using to try and find a number to find our passports. He pulled off his flip flops and sprinted back there to find it just where it was left...another PHEW!!! What a nightmare and with awful hangovers too!!! We were both exhausted and starving so headed to get some lunch before rushing back to the hostel, packing our boxes and making back to post the stuff before the office closed. We met Sarah and Colin in the Rhino bar where we get a free meal each night . Liz won araffle and had to armwrestle another girl to win a prize. She lost but blamed having to use her non dominant arm!!! We didn't stay long aand headed off for an early night after a bad day.