Townsville and Cairns

December 18th - 22nd

Headed to Townsville the next day with the weather noticeably getting sunnier and definitely hotter and more humid as we approached the Tropics. It was so hot when we got to Townsville that we had to sleep with the van doors open for the first time so the mossie net was deployed. Even with the doors open it was very, very hot.

It rained heavily again in the night (thought we'd seen the last of it) and we headed to Cairns via quick stops at Mission Beach and Baily Bay.

Cairns was very humid and full of mossies so not the most pleasant of places to be in a campervan. We chilled out in the centre on the first day and took a packed lunch down to the park by the lagoon. Although we only spent two hours down there before it rained, it was massively overcast and we sat in the shade under a tree we both still got sunburnt, unbelievable.

We went snorkelling off the Great Barrier Reef the next day and spent the day at a couple of stops checking out the amazing coral and fish. We were lucky enough to see a turtle and Sarah managed to spot a small basking shark and we managed to get a few decent photos after hiring an underwater digital camera.

Definitely the best snorkelling we've done on the trip despite the overcast weather.