So we went to reef teach which was done by an eccentric Irish Man called Paddy - he taught us lots of cool things about the reef - like a sea cucumber breathes through its bottom and spits its lungs at you when it feels under attack, the parrotfish sleeps in a snot sleeping bag and then eats it for breakfast and that most fish grow into males but clown fish grow into females! Paddy was really good - seriously all of my lecturers could learn from this guy. Best $13 i have spent here!

This morning we got the $2 bus up to Kuranda (the village on the tablelands) with Joe. We did a three hour walk, met a guy who makes things out of metal wire and saw a tree that grows boomerangs! The train ride down was awesome - it really made you appreciate how much of an achievement it was to build it 100 years ago on a mountain range. We learnt about how they made it, the lives lost doing it and the families that lived up there for months at a time while building it. We also went past waterfalls, and over 100ft gorges (not sure Dad would have liked that even if we were on a train!)

We then had an awful disaster we realised we had lost the duck! However, tracing back the duck photos we realised we last had him at the reef teach so Mel headed back there and thankfully he was there sat next to a cuddly toy shark. Paddy was very sad to let him go - he thought he had been left as a present!

Tomorrow we go to Magentic Island and hire a pink barbie car!

mel and stu x