Day 10 Sunday 22nd February
Newmarket caravan park
Brisbane

I left at 8.30am to meet Clodagh (from Bowen) in the city for breakfast. We went to a little café just off Queens street mall and had a good old chat and a chin wag. She left at 11am to go to work and then I headed over to south bank to see the markets. There is a lagoon down there too which was nice. Really hot day too. I got the Sunday papers and and sat by the lagoon and read the papers for a couple of hours. Then headed home…back to the van, I packed up the rest of my stuff and cracked a beer and enjoyed the air conditioning in the van. Mum and dad got back about 4.30-5pm from austraia zoo. They enjoyed it but they were tired and it was an hour on the train which was a bit of a hassle as had to change trains.


 Day 11 Monday 23rd February
Rydges tradewinds hotel
Cairns

We dropped the van back off at Apollo rentals near to the airpot. And got a taxi to the airport. We got there about 11am so had a few hours to wait before we boraded the plane. The flight was about 2 hours from Brisbane to cainrs. We picked up our rental car when we had collected our luggage. We have a nissian 4wd thingy. Big and roomy and thankfully has good air-con. We got to the hotel which overlooks the pool, gardens and has a sea view. Scrubeed up and then went tfor dinner into cairns. Out hotel is only a 2 min from the centre which is handy. We went to kanis for dinner which was nice. We then went to an irish bar for a few drinks afterwards. It was raining when we lft and got absolutely piss wet through by the time we had got back to the hotel. We all looked like we had been in a bath! I don't suppose its called the wet season for no reason!!

 Day 12 Tuesday 24th February
Rydges tradewinds hotel
Cairns

Had breakfast at the hotel, which was an event in itself. The chef was rude and had an attitude to rival an angry lion! we walked into town to book our trips. We are going on a sailing boat tomorrow to the Great Barrier reef and then on Friday me and dad are doing a full day white water rafting.
Once they were booked we jumped into the car and headed into the mountains after dad had his haircut at the local barbers. We had a drive up to kurunda and then had a walk through the rainforest canopy to the baron falls lookout which was spectacular. It was raging and when the sun shone it produced a really good rainbow. The view was amazing and walking through the rainforest canopy was nice. The scenery is stunning up here. Its so tropical with the rainforest and the mountains only a minutes drive from the city centre.


 Day 13 Wednesday 23rd February
Rydges Tradewinds hotel
Cairns

We walked to the finger A of the marina to jump on board the sailing boat 'ocean free'. a 50ft sailing boat with a crew of three. Jason, the skipper, and 2others. We left the harbour with around 23 people on board. We got out to green island about 2 hours later. The sea was pretty calm and the wind was not very strong so we has to use the engine to power us along. We snorkelled for around the reef just off green island for about 1.5hours. The corals were beautiful and the colours were amazing. I saw so many fish and managed to dive down to see them up close. I swam slightly away from the group and managed to see a black tip reef shark about 5ftlong which is about the biggest that they grow. I saw a few sea clams too. We ate lunch and then jumped onto the speedboat which took us to the island. We spent about 2 hours on the island. The sea was perfect just like what you see on the movies. The sand was white, the sky and sea were both turquoise…it was stunning. We caught the speed boat back to the yacht via the seaplane so dad could take a picture. We waited on the boat but they were having problems getting the engine started. Even though it was a sailing boat, because of the coral they have to use the engine until they get out to deeper waters. So after waiting about an hour we got transferred on to their sister boat, 'ocean freedom' which took half the time to return to cairns harbour. It was a really good day. The weather was fantastic, the people were nice and the sea life was amazing. Because its summer, the stingers are here-the jelly fish that can kill you which means that we had to wear the stinger suit. They are similar to wetsuits except thinner and a lot less sexier….even though I am not sure they have are sexy in the first place!! I think that the pictures speak for themselves!!!


 Day 14 Thursday 24th February
Rydges Tradewinds hotel
Cairns

We spent the morning getting accommodation booked for our journey up to cape tribulation. We then were Meeting Margaret and Derek at Yorkie's Nob so we decided to head further north to have a look at palm cove which a stunning little beach only 10 mins further in the car. It was a beautiful place, full of boutique shops and small restaurants. We stayed there an hour on 2 before we went to meet Margaret. Margaret has a few issues about getting a tender over to the port so she wasn't able to get over until nearly 4pm. But we had a good old catch up and a good natter before thy had to jump on the last tender at 5.15pm. It was so good to see them and they both looked very well.





 Day 15 Friday 27th February
Rydges Tradewinds hotel
Cairns

Me and dad got picked up at the crack of dawn 6.30am to go White water rafting on the Tully river which is about 2.5 hours south of cairns near to mission beach. It was one of the best days I have ever been on. I haven't laughed so much in along time and I was struggling to paddle I was laughing that much. We share the raft 'daggs' with Cassandra, Ericka, deuce, jenny and Macca the guide. It was such a good day. We spent 2hours before lunch and the 2 hours after lunch rafting which doesn't sound like a lot but by the end everyone was ready to drop to sleep. It was amazing, the scenery was stunning and the area was just amazing. Dad went at the front to begin with and ended up with his face in water most of the time. We switched round during the day and it was just one of the best days. It was adrenaline rushing, it was a great craic. The people were fantastic, the guide was really good and I haven't laughed so hard for so long ever!!! We got back to the hotel at about 6.30pm so it was a full on and long day but bloody awesome.

 Day 16 Saturday 28th February
The Daintree cape tribulation heritage lodge
Cape tribulation

We spent the day driving up to cape tribulation which is where the rainforest meets the sea in tropical far north Queensland. We stopped at port Douglas on the way up to book some accommodation for the way back down. We stopped in Daintree village for some lunch of wild barra and chips with a beautiful salad. we jumped on a cruise of the Daintree river. We saw a kingfisher, a sea eagle-the largest bird of prey in Australia, the largest butterfly in Australia and dad managed to get a glimpse of a croc as it slid into the water. We got the ferry over the daintree river to head up toward cape tribulation. We had a swim the stunning water hole on the cooper's creek next to the restaurant in the hotel. There are turtles that swim in there too. We found a bit of loose vine so dad was George and me Jane of the jungle swinging from the vine into the pool. The hotel was in stunning location. Surrounded and in the depths of the rainforest. There is no electricity only provided by generators. There is no telephone signal. No TV signal and no internet. I have never been cut off from the rat race for so long!!!


 Day 17 Sunday 1st march
The Daintree cape tribulation heritage lodge
Cape tribulation

We dropped Mum off to go horse riding at 8am in the morning at PK's which is a backpacker resort in cape tribulation. Well cape tribulation itself only consists of that resort, a pharmacy and a small supermarket! Me and dad drove further north towards Emmagen creek. It was all dirt track up to there. We crossed a fjord where a creek went over the road. It didn't look deep but as we found out; it was! Dad panicked…well we both did as it was deeper than we thought and there were signs around the area of recent sightings of the hungry crocs so we turned back a little shaken and fingers crossed that we wouldn't turn into croc dinner when we crossed back over. We luckily we managed to escape and the car was just about in tact!!! We then drive down to cape tribulation look out and a had a wander these stunning beaches. There was no one else on these beaches miles just me and dad. It was stunning. The lush green forest meets the deadly but beautiful ocean. The stingers can get you, if the crocs didn't get there first so it's a def no go in the sea. Not that that matters as there are plenty of freshwater croc free swimming holes around.
We went to mason's swimming hole. A small secluded freshwater hole ear to cape tribulation. There wasn't a vine as like our hotel but a rope so dad went first and then I had about3 goes. On the third I was hesitant to let go of the rope for some reason which meant was heading back towards the bank. So in my quick thinking I let go and hit the shallow rock filled part. My left legs just below the knee bore the brunt of it. So now I have a 2cm across by 1cm long hole and I mean hole in my leg which is about 1cm deep. It hurt like hell. I swore, a lot but didn't cry….somehow. So now I am hobbling and struggling to walk about with a hole in my leg but hey ho. If you do theses things then that's what you expect to happen. I will put a picture up of it!

So we went up to cape tribulation beach house for dinner and on the return we stopped to have a look at the stars as it was a clear night. There was so many. It was stunning. No light pollution except from the glow worms flying about! We could see the milky way galaxy so clearly. We saw about 3 shooting stars. I could have stayed to look at them for hours. Then as we continued on our journey home we saw a 6ft python on the road. I was nominated to go and a take a picture….the hobbling injured was the one to get eaten by the snake first!! So I went to have a look and realised it was a non biting python. We also saw bats and some other creature that flew into the car which I screamed at!!