Dear All,

We are now half way through our tour on day 60 and for your information we have also topped just over a thousand photos. If anybody wants to see them all, you'd better book a week off work.

Flew to Cairns from Sydney on Wednesday. We did enjoy Sydney and especially Darling Harbour at night. It was a magic place to be. The flight took about 3 hours and we landed in rain. It's the height of their wet season as it's very tropical. It's very hot and humid but as you can imagine, a rain forest is given that name for a reason. IT RAINS!!!!!! The accommodation is fine and our room overlooks the Coral Sea. The swimming pool is surrounded by lush vegetation and so is the jacuzzi. Went to Port Douglas yesterday and up into the rainforest today at Kuranda. The Coral Sea looks a bit muddy at the minute because of the rain.

Had an introduction into the most venomous snakes and spiders in Australia. It was quite scary. Even a millipede can blind you in 3 days if you handle one and then wipe your eyes. No known cure.

This is the area where Steve Irwin was killed. There is absolutely nobody in the sea. With all the notices about box jellyfish, crocs and sharks, would you? Apparently he was dead within 10 minutes. Think we'll stick to the pool.

Going up to Cape Tribulation on Sunday and stay there overnight.

Internet cafes are rare here but we'll try to send some pics when we get a chance. We're about 20 minutes outside of Cairns.

Take care all,

Love,

Paul & Marion

We have abandoned the idea of driving from Cairns to Brisbane. It's 1900 klms and a hard 3 day drive, so we've booked another flight for next Tuesday. We'll head out to Fraser Island from there.