Hey once again from the Land Down Under.

We arrived in Cairns a few days ago and headed to pick up our campervan from Spaceships. Our home for three weeks, he's called Otis and is an attractive bright orange. He's a Toyota seven seater that has been converted with a double bed in the back, some storage space underneath the bed, and a little fridge. He also came with a few portable gas hobs and utensils so that Max can 'cook up a storm' (one of his fav phrases).

Sadly we had a bit of a bummer when we got to Cairns. The locals told us that Cyclone Nathan was on it's way back to Cairns once again so we should desert the area and head down south. One thing we really wanted to do in Oz was a dive on the Great Barrier Reef. Although you can do this a bit further down the coast, the dive spots near Cairns are the heart of the reef and renowned for their beauty. As we only have 3 weeks to travel down the east coast to Sydney, we're also quite limited on time. Therefore it took a bit of deliberation to decide whether to forget our plans to dive in Cairns or delay our trip. After speaking to a few tour sellers and our hostel, we also found that the trips along the coast that we wanted to do are also pretty booked up so we had to try and fit them in. Long story short - it's all planned now. Australia doesn't seem to be as flexible with travel plans as South-East Asia!

In the end, we decided to delay a few days by driving south-west of Cairns through the mountains to see the Atherton Tablelands, a wet tropics world heritage area, and the famous Queensland waterfalls. The drive was beautiful and the freedom feels good. After about two hours we arrived at Lake Tinaroo in the Tablelands. On route, we saw our first Kangaroo warning road sign! Followed shortly by seeing an actual kangaroo. It was approaching nightfall so we found a place to stay for the night called Camp Barrabadeen. It was much fresher in the mountains and there was a slight downpour in the evening. We camped right on the huge lake and even had our own fixed BBQ to use. The wildlife deserves a mention - the varieties of birds in particular was spectacular. The Pelicans are the best.

The next morning after a cup of coffee (water boiled on the hob) and a bowl of cereal, we jumped in the camper and plugged the satnav to take us to the Millaa Millaa Waterfall. We stopped at various scenic places on the way to marvel at the beauty (and for selfies of course). This part of Australia is surprisingly lush with crater hills and dense rainforest - it isn't all red outback across the land.

Can you picture Peter Andre rolling his stomach in his video to Mysterious Girl? And also picture the Herbal Essences 'Rainforest' Shampoo advert of the girl flicking her hair. The waterfall features in both is the Millaa Millaa Fall! And we were fortunate enough to see a tour bus full of people leaving as we pulled in, thus leaving us with the glorious falls largely to ourselves. Due to all the rain, the waterfall was at it's fullest, reaching a height of 18 meters, pouring down with power. The water was quite fresh so at first we were reluctant to swim, especially as no-one else was in the water. Max finally persuaded Steph to stop being such a wuss and we went in. Naturally, Steph had to do the hair flick pose which was good fun... And Max gave it a go too (along with his Peter Andre impression)! The water went quite deep and we swam to the side of the fall, and climbed round up to the rocks behind it. The power of it was sensational but we successfully swam through it to the front. The sun came out and we had a great day.

Searching in our map book for campsites, we found one not too far away that was gold coin donation only - fab! It took about 30 minutes to get there and we were pleased to see we weren't the only ones making use of the free War Memorial Campsite; there were about 7 other campers on site. We're starting to get in a routine with getting out our chairs and table and hobs to cook dinner.

With our campervan also came a small portable DVD player, which decided to break yesterday. Thus this morning we got up bright and early and headed back to Cairns from the Tablelands to get another one from Spaceships. Our first impression of Cairns is that is has a very American feel to it. The roads are wide and the town is built in blocks. We checked back into the hostel NJoy (car park). Cairns doesn't really have a beachfront as the sea comes all the way up to the promenade. Instead, the town has a giant Lagoon Swimming Pool by the sea which features an infinity edge and is free to use, along with free public BBQs to use and live music on a Saturday. Today we enjoyed lazing the day away in the pool listening to the music and smelling the delicious meats being cooked.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow, weather permitting we'll be exploring the Great Barrier Reef. Excited to find some Nemos and Dorys!

Steph and Max x