Hi all,

Sorry its been so long time fliys when your having fun.

We arrived in Cairns very tired after a night flight from Singapore luckily Teresa was there to greet us at the airport we were staying with her and Gaddy for our time in Cairns which was very nice of them.

We got to their house which was massive and had a bedroom each with a double bed luxury after so long sharing with other people and we could unpack safe in the knowledge that our stuff would still be where we had left on our return.

It was raining really heavily when we arrive and Teresa told it was wet season, we hadnt realised when we booked the trip. Our first day was spent trying to stay awake. We had a walk around Cairns and picked up info on somethings we wanted to do during our time there.

The next we had a lazy day just hanging around at Teresa doing washing internet and watching a DVD once we had recharged our batteries we went out for dinner with Teresa, Gaddy and some of their friends. It was really nice to meet other people. The meal was really nice and they filled us in on the wildlife in Australia such as crocs, snakes and spiders not to mention the jellyfish which were in seasons. They have stinger nets in the sea which are safe zones to swim in and the rest of the sea is out of bounds due to jellyfish and crocs!!!!! This is without mentioning the sharks. So far they were not selling it to us.

Our next was again quite quiet we went back into Cairns to arrange our onward travel south to the Whitsunday Islands. We booked a camper to drive from Cairns to Sydney in 2weeks which was going to be tight but we thought we could do it. However it was not ment to be as the weather prevented us leaving by road due to flooding and the closure of the only road south, whic ment to that we would have to fly to Brisbane and drive north. We had time to sort this out.

The next day Teresa and Gaddy took us to Lake Barrine for a cream tea and a boat ride which was really good as we saw loads of snakes not to mention turtles, eels and ducks. We also went to Lake Etcham but it was to cold to swim. Then in the evening we had a good old fashioned Aussie BBQ with "shrimps" on it. I had a frog land on my head which scared the life out of me after all the stories we had been told.

We were up on early on Saturday to get the old style train to Kuranda which is a small hippie town, we had a luxury breakfast and drinks as we were Gold Class. Ash was drinking wine at 10 in the morning she was a bit drunk by the time we got there so had to have water for the rest of the day. We walked around Kuranda for a few hours then headed back down the mountain on the sky rail (cable car) we were half way down when we hadtoget off as there was a storm passing through and they had to stop the sky rail. We were stuck in the middle of the mountain for about an hour before we could come the rest of the way down we thought we might be there for the night at one point!!!!!!!

That night we watched Crocodile Dundee as I had never seen it the whole way through and we thought why not we are in Oz after all. We watch the second one the next night, we know how to live!!

We were up early again the next day to go to Hartleys Crocodile Farm which was really good we got to see them being fed and how they stalk and catch people as well some other Austalian wildlife like koalas, kangeroos and Cassowaries which are really nice to look at but will kill you apparently. We also learnt which snakes to avoid but as neither of us can remember which ones we are just going ot avoid them all!!!!

I the afternoon it stared to rain really heavily no surprise there it had done nothing else since we arrived. I wanted to do a Bungee before we left Cairns so we headed up to the site in the torrential rain and I did it, although it took me a while to jump as it was very high up (50m) but looked at lot more. I got soaked through and was wearing a white top very sensible I know. I tried to get Ash to have a go but she wasnt keen never mind.

The next day we left to fly to Brisbane to pick up our camper van. We were sad to leave Teresa and Gaddy as it was nice to see them and it ment we were back to smelly dorms and hostels again aswell as campsites.