Sunday 22nd March 2015 marked 7 years together for us. What better way to spend it than diving on the Great Barrier Reef? We were up and down to the harbour by 7am ready for our dives. It took two hours to arrive at Moore Reef, our first diving spot. Unfortunately, the dive wasn't as great as we anticipated. As Cyclone Nathan hadn't long passed, the visibility was no more than 5 metres and it had disturbed the sea life. We were definitely spoilt with our dives in Gili T.

The crew served up a spot of lunch and we were on our way to our next dive, Mantaray Bay. We enjoyed it but again, were not overly impressed. After the dives we had a snorkel above the shallow reef, where you could actually see a lot more.

We got back to Cairns at about 4.30pm and decided to get a head start by setting off south down the coast. The drive is very pretty, going through countryside and then along the sea. About two hours later, we arrived at Mission Beach. The campsite we were headed for was completely shut but luckily we found another caravan park just up the road opposite Wongaling Bay.

The next morning we drove 10 minutes to Mission Beach, which is about 13km of white sand with a desert island feel as there are no buildings on the beach front. We have been surprised somewhat that you can't really swim in the sea without stinger suits on as there is a big risk of being stung. At Mission Beach, there was a small stretch of sea that had a square stinger net around it allowing you to swim.

As we've spent a fair amount of time on deserted beaches throughout our travels, we only spent a few hours on Mission Beach. Back on the road again, we did a longer stretch of about 600km with Otis. It was fun spotting other Spaceships to give a little wave to, and we stopped for a selfie by a giant man-made mango.

With an hour stop for lunch, it took us 7 hours to get to Airlie Beach. We plotted up, cooked fajitas for dinner and had a very early night as the power went in the van. When it got dark, there was a visitor to the tree next to our camper. We shined the torch and saw that it was the most gigantic furry bat!

Today we did some boring chores such as laundry (we know you love hearing about our dirty smalls), checked-in for our Whitsunday trip, and went for a swim in the Lagoon. One word to describe the day... hot! Tonight we're going to see what the nightlife is about in Airlie and have a few schooners. As mentioned, we're visiting the Whitsunday Islands tomorrow for a 3 day sailing trip, whoop! We'll report asap but wifi isn't as easy to come by in Australia (crazy right?! Although maybe not the best, wifi is everywhere for free in South-East Asia, including on Giant Ibis buses in Cambodia!).

Steph and Max x