Thankfully this overnight bus was rather less eventful than the last and I managed to sleep across my two seats in short bursts throughout the night. As I awoke and brushed the sleep from my eyes I pulled back the curtain and was greeted by 6 or 7 kangaroos in the field outside, not a bad way to wake up!

I had a few hours to pass before my parent's flight landed so I had some breakfast looking out over the lagoon and made the most of the fact that it wasn't raining - hooray! After wandering around Cairns for a few hours, backpacks in tow, I caught the bus up to the northern beaches where we were staying and we spent the rest of the day deciding our plan of attack on northern tropical Queensland...

So day one and it was off north towards Daintree national park. But plenty to do on the way...our first stop ws Port Douglas. Now normally the road between Cairns and Port Douglas would be described as one of the most scenic in Australia, but on this particular day I'd have to disagree. As nominated driver (and considering I hadn't been behind a wheel for over four months I'd say that was pretty brave of my M&D!) but anyway the rain came down in torrents and it was hard enough to see the road let alone the supposedly stunning coastline. So we went straight into Port Douglas where the rain had thankfully stopped and went straight up to a lookout point I knew about that gives fantastic views over four mile beach. Then we went back down into town for a coffee and proper aussie pie.

But no time to dawdle, our fun-packed agenda was on a tight schedule, so with a quick stop at the marina on the other side of town we drove up to Mossman Gorge and took a short rainforest walk to the gorge itself. As you might expect in the rainforest it was raining but not too much and we managed to get some great pics. There was also the opportunity to swim in the waterhole there, but after a couple of wettings already no-one was really too keen on self-inflicted wetness!

After lunch it was up to our furthest point north, Daintree national park for a river cruise. It's pretty quiet up here at this time of year once you get outside of Cairns and we were lucky enough to get our own personal cruise as there was no-one else around. Our wildlife experience started in the office of the boat company as a green tree snake had decided to venture in from it's usual home outside and was happily writhing it's way along the desk and up the wall. Then out on the river we saw some baby crocs, a green tree frog, two kingfishers and fruit bats. And on the walk back to the car I saw the biggest leaf ever - it was pretty much as big as me (check out the pics when I get round to uploading them!).

But our day's wildlife wasn't over yet. My M&D had never seen a kangaroo in the wild or up close so we went to a wildlife park where you can get up close and personal...we had our pictures taken with Riley the koala and fed the kangaroos and wallabys - smile please! In fact the excitement was really getting to some people as I had to step in at one stage and break up the squabble between my M&D as they fought over the last of the roo food - parents huh?! (Only kidding!) Then on the way home the weather had cleared so we did get to see the scenic coastal drive and we were also lucky enough to spot some kangaroos out in the wild, so everyone went home happy and dreaming of kangaroos that night...

The next morning started off quite clear so we decided to take the skyrail up to Kuranda. Normally you can go by scenic train one way and skyrail the other but since the really bad weather to hit Cairns last month the train track has to be re-layed so you can't use that at the moment! There are two stops where you can get off the skyrail on the way to Kuranda; the first one is Red Peak station for a short stroll through the rainforest, and of course as you would expect it was duly raining by then, but the skyrail people are well prepared, there on hand with umbrellas for your walk. I'm sure that's not how it's meant to be in a rainforest but it kept us dry anyway!

During the next part of the journey we climbed pretty high and started to enter the clouds which was a bit eerie. As we got off at the next stop, Barron Falls, we weren't too sure what to expect, whether we'd be able to see anything but we got a big surprise. Never having seen big waterfalls before all of us stood there, mouths gaping, as we stared at the most amazing set of falls in front of us. Given the amount of rain there had been up in northern Queensland they really were at their best and the sheer power and speed of the water was unbelieveable.

We carried on to Kuranda and had a stroll around the picturesque village, browsing through the markets and unique arty shops. There's just about enough to do for a few hours there, with a leisurely coffee and a taste of mango wine, so we then made our way back down and headed into Cairns for the afternoon. Being my parent's first visit to the city I took them down to the lagoon and thankfully the sun made an appearance for us. As is also typical of a Sunday afternoon in Cairns there was a live band playing for a few hours which made sure my Dad had an excuse to find a seat in the sun for a while! On the way back we saw some more kangaroos hopping around in the wild, so yet again I had happy parents!

No stopping us now though; the next day was another early start and off to the Atherton tablelands. We had to drive through Kuranda to get there so we decided to take the opportunity to view the Barron Falls from the other side of the river as we'd seen people over there the day before. Another short walk through the rainforest and we reached the viewing platform. Yet again we were all blown away by the intensity of the water, but all agreed it was definitely a better view from the skyrail side the previous day.

The tablelands are renowned for their production of all sorts of crops so as we entered what appeared to be 'coffee land' we popped into one of the plantations for a tour and tasting session. We were taken around the plantation to learn about the processes and it's history on the 'bean machine' - basically a big truck painted to look like a coffee bean, but raised a few smiles! And then we enjoyed our coffee and liquor in the beautiful gardens nearby. We drove on through Mareeba to Atherton, the main town in the tablelands. We stopped here for some lunch and a quick stretch of the legs before it was back on board for our afternoon of waterfalls. By this stage in the trip we'd decided that seeing as it had been raining so much this was obviously the best time to see all the falls, so although we might get a bit damp the views would make it worthwhile...

We drove further south to Dinner Falls and the Crater. As we arrived we were lucky enough to see a casowary bird in the car park. These are a bit like emus, but have a bright blue neck and head which makes them fairly easy even for us tourists to spot! But you have to be pretty careful around them as they can turn nasty and put you I serious trouble, so getting a picture without arousing too much suspiscion was interesting. Oddly enough I was the one entrusted with both cameras to undertake this task - maybe my driving really had become to much for my M&D by this point?!

And our final stop of the day was the waterfall circuit, including the famous Millaa Millaa falls, which are apparently some of the most photographed in Australia. Nothing like the power and size of the Barron Falls these were spectacular in their own unqiue way and you could certainly see why they make such a great picture.

So it was my final day with my parents and someone somewhere thought we deserved a day to remember because we had the most perfect sunny day. Clear blue skies saw us heading straight for the beach to rest and relax after our hectic tour of northern Queensland. We spent the day at Trinity beach, just making the most of the weather, enjoying an ice cream and laughing about our memories of the last ten days...