We landed in Cairns on the morning of 23rd May after what can only be described as a true Jetstar experience (for those who don't know, Jetstar are the budget flight company operating around Asia and Oceania, similar to EasyJet in Europe). After a brief stopover in Darwin, where we were told to pick up our bags and re-check in for the next flight, we were on the connecting flight heading for Queensland. I am omitting a rather significant chapter of the Darwin incident, or saga as it should probably be known as, and that is the part where our bags failed to turn up on the conveyor belt. We had been stamped into the country but needed our bags before we could obtain the customs clearance and then board our next flight. However, we, along with 15 others, were told by the Jetstar rep in the terminal that the bags had already been loaded onto the next plane and that we were to move on to the transit lounge. It was here where we met Joe and Jude, a young couple who had met whilst studying in Manchester, although we didn't know this yet as we hadn't really gotten past the pleasantries due to the more pressing issues at hand. After our second flight into Cairns, we exited the plane and attempted to pass through the border control through the internal flight queue (due to the fact that our passport had been stamped in Darwin), but were stopped in our tracks as apparently Darwin hadn't registered us onto the system. One more entry card, a re-stamping on the passport and a good few minutes later we had finally passed through and had now officially entered Australia. Although we approached the baggage claim with trepidation, our bags were thankfully ready and waiting for us and so we said our goodbyes to Joe and Jude (or the J's as I shall now collectively refer to them as) and we were off to experience Western culture for the first time in around 5 months.

After utilising our free airport pick up offered by our hostel, we were soon in our room for a well needed kip, given the fact that we both hadn't slept for the entire night and it was now approaching mid-day. A few hours later however, we were then definitely ready to take on the Western world and headed out into Cairns for a quick pint and to claim our free* evening meal at the social hub that was The Woolshed. It felt rather surreal walking down the promenade just realising that we were finally in Australia after all this time. Upon arrival at The Woolshed, the novelty soon wore off as although the meals were good enough, the crowd was definitely more along the lines of those that we had preferred to avoid on our travels, so after our dinner we headed back to the room with a few beers and decided to call it a night.

The first few days in Australia were spent acclimatising; we got our body clocks back on track, made the necessary enquiries regarding our campervan which was to take us down to Melbourne over a 28 day period and attempted to cut the spending as the cost of living had really smacked us in the face. $10 for a pint or $20 for 6 beers from the bottle shop, almost $3 for a chocolate bar, $5 for a few cherry tomatoes... we definitely needed to take things easy from here on in. Therefore, we took things a lot easier and gave up on The Woolshed after a few more evenings as although the meals were half decent and reasonably priced, we couldn't stomach the crowd and we both really wanted to just cook our own meals for once; a luxury now unknown to us since Mongolia.

So after becoming suitably adjusted, we felt that it was time to move on after 5 days. On our penultimate night in Cairns, we happened to stumble across the J's again, who at this point revealed their ties to Manchester and that they were also embarking on a campervan journey down the coast. We had swapped contact details and arranged to meet up at some point as they had a different itinerary to us for the first few days. The following evening, we bumped into another couple from Manchester, Danny & Claire, who were on a working visa but had found opportunities in Cairns hard to come across. Danny had a guide to solving Rubik's cubes and since I still had the uncompleted one that I picked up in Finland in the room, he quickly taught me the rules on how to crack them.

On Day 201 of travelling we headed out to pick up our transport and accommodation for the following month. We'd opted to go with the 'Spaceship' rental company, whose vans were practically oversized Ford Focus' (although the actual make of the car was a Toyota) which had had a good refurbishing, installing a DVD player, storage space for food and utensils (including a small fridge) and of course our bed. The cooking apparatus could be assembled on the side of the car but meant that you were essentially cooking outdoors. Also, all of the vans had their own names; ours was 'Laika Virgin', referring possibly to the name of the first dog to orbit the Earth. I don't know if there was any other significance to the 'Virgin' part other than the song.

Our first day went swimmingly. The sun was shining (the first time we'd seen it since arriving in the country) and there were numerous amazing views as we navigated through the mountain range near Cairns. Quaint little towns popped up everywhere as we drove on (narrowly missing a snake which slithered across the road at one point), making our way to Lake Eacham with its stunning tranquillity topping the day off nicely. As the daylight hours were dwindling, we took advantage of the books/maps/camp guides given to us by our rental company and found our first camp for the night close to lake. There are countless sites through this part of the country, some are free with very basic facilities, whilst others come at a price but offer the luxury of hot showers and a kitchen area. We had opted for a 'paid' site on our first night, in order to break ourselves in slowly. After cooking a rather hearty chicken and noodle dish on our makeshift kitchen (we wanted to test it out instead of using the camp kitchen), we decided to settle down early, or attempted to, should I say as whilst I was trying to lock the car up so we could wash up, the key had nearly snapped off in the lock and was literally hanging on by a thread. After contacting Spaceships helpline, I was advised to just buy another key and hang onto the receipt. This was all good and well, but we were miles away from the nearest locksmith and somehow had to start the car with what had become an extremely precarious key. To make matters worse, we had found that the advice given to us by the sales rep of 'drive for at least 4 hours and we'll have enough charge to power the fridge for the night and watch a DVD' was in fact very much wrong as the power cut out at the beginning of the DVD, meaning that we were left to play cards by torch-light. As good as the day had been, the first night seemed to be very much a learning curve.

The next morning, we utilised the kitchen facilities to make our bacon and egg sandwiches, as rain had started to fall once again, and set off rather early in the direction of the nearest town with a locksmith, which happened to be a place called Malanda. The owners of the camp site had pretty much pointed us in the right direction and made enquiries with the chap at the only potential company in the town (the imaginatively named Malanda Hardware) to ensure that he could accommodate us. We were told to just head on down but they were unsure as to whether they could fix us up. I'd decided to wrap some sticky tape around the base of the key to add a bit of durability to it (it's hard to describe how close this key was to snapping) and thankfully I managed to get the engine started by holding the key from as far down as possible and turning ever so carefully. In Malanda, they managed to cut a key for us that worked in the lock and ignition, but as it didn't correspond with our old key we were told to head onto a town called Atherton, where there was a proper locksmith who managed to cut the right key for us. It was all a bit of a palaver but we had finally got ourselves sorted by around 11am and so finally planned our route for the day ahead, having now gone completely off-route.

On getting back to the Bruce Highway (which connects Cairns to Brisbane), we stopped off at a 1,000 year old fig tree and then at Millaa Millaa Falls, where I decided to take a dip in the near freezing water; not my best idea but I got to properly test Anne's waterproof camera so it was worth it. After the brief excursion, we continued on to Etty Bay, where we set up camp right next to the beach and rustled up a dinner of Meatballs, Mash & Gravy (a Finnish staple and rapidly becoming one of my favourite meals).

After leaving Etty Bay the following morning, we drove for a few hours before stopping off in Ingham for a quick wifi fix at McDonalds. The J's had messaged to say that they were slightly further down the coast but as we were covering a lot of ground, we were hopeful of catching up to them. The next stop was in Tully, where we could go and see a 30ft golden boot... seriously, this was the main attraction. Sadly however, there were no old women living in there so we just bought a pie from the local bakery and carried on our way. Our map had suggested heading to Murray Falls, which was a national park camp site which offered basic facilities for a token payment of just $5 per person. In order to reach the site, we had to meander through a good few kilometres of dirt-tracks but once there, we happened upon one of our favourite sites of the entire journey. The campsite was situated next to the waterfalls and the surrounding areas were beautiful, however, we were unsure on how to pay for the site though as there didn't seem to be any payment booth. I strolled over to an elderly couple who seemed established and knowledgeable enough and enquired about the payment methods. Her response of "How's your written English?" threw me a bit; had I begun to lose my English identity already? Did I now sound German or something? I should have responded with "Better than your judgement of accents", but I'm not that quick-witted, so I just opted for the more subtle "Ja, gut". Apparently, you have to complete a form and then pop it into an envelope with your money and into a box at the entry point of the site; we did this then went for a walk about before cooking our stir-fry dinner on the car-stove (much to the inquisitive looks from the elderly lady) and playing a few games of cards in the car.

*It wasn't. You had to purchase a drink or pay a few dollars to upgrade to the better meals in the menu hierarchy. Still, it was good value for money though.