Hi!

I'm in Airlie Beach at the moment (a few hundered kilometers south of Cairns). I joined up with my tour leader a couple of days ago. He is very nice - but he is considerably older than me (he has grandchildren). However, I do have a whole bus to myself, and I don't have to share a room which is quite a luxury. Also if I could be bothered to read my Lonely Planet I'm sure John would make detours to extra places I wanted to visit.

The day before yesterday we travelled down from Cairns to Mission Beach stopping off to look at lots of amazing waterfalls and rainforest. I went swiming under one of the waterfalls - lets just say it was refreshing!

Then yesterday I went white water rafting. It was fantastic! I didn't realise what a dangerous sport it really is until we were on the river and I was how fast the water was and how many rocks there are!! The Tully river is a great place to go white water rafting because there are loads of rapids at level 3 and 4 (5 and 6 are the most dangerous). I am aching today though!! It was hard work. I was literally paddling all day. But it was great fun!!! I might go rafting again in either New Zealand or South America or maybe both if the funds hold out.

Today we spent the day on the bus. I had a lovely lunch in Townsville, and a nice ice cream next to a big mango (in Australia they like to build big versions of things eg big shrimp, big pineapple etc).

One thing I have noticed over the past few days are the fantastic road signs here: "Powernaps save lives" and many other signs that go along the lines of "stay awake or die". These signs are keeping me entertained - I will try and take some pics of them.

Anyway, I'm off snorkelling tomorrow so its another early start so I had best go now.

Love Louise x.