4/10/9 Back to Cairns (Sunday) We had a 5.45 am wake up knock at the door and Phil went off to do a sunrise dive. Liz stayed in bed for alittle while longer and then packed the bags and sorted out the bed laundry as we needed to clear the room soon after breakfast. Phils dive had poorer visibility but he still saw a white tipped reef shark. He and his buddy surfaced 100m away from the boat and then had a rope tow back to the Kangaroo Explorer from the tender tha...

2/10/9 Barrier Reef (Friday) We were collected by the Cairns Dive Centre driver and taken to the dive shop in town to sign the usual disclaimer and medical forms. We boarded the Sunkist boat at the marina for a two hour transfer to the Kangaroo explorer where we were staying for the next two nights. The boat was moored at the outer reef on Manta Ray reef. We got a quick tour of the boat and were shown to our very nice double cabin with en suite shower and toilet...

28/9/9 Cairns (monday) We got up nice and early and were collected for our dive course. We got to the dive school and were shown round the building and into the classroom. Ater signing the obligatory forms we had our medical exam. The disclaimer forms we have had to sign in Australia are unbelievable . They all say you have no right to sue even if the company or staff are negligent!!!! A couple of health care assistants checked our breathing, BP, ears and weight...

26/9/9 Cape Tribulation Sat We had a well deserved relaxing break up to Cape Tribulation for the night. We were collected from our hostel early to drive the scenic ocean road towards Cape Tribulation. We were last on the bus so ended up with Phil sitting up the front and Liz tucked right down the back in a chair with no view...perfect!!! We stopped for a breakfast stop at a roadside cafe. We had toastie and egg sandwich there before setting off again. The cafe w...

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 ...