We left Cairns on Sunday and headed in to the rainforest covered mountains of the Atherton Tablelands. It instantly became cooler, which we were very pleased about. We stayed the night just outside Mareeba and woke early the next day. We took the long way round to Atherton and drove around Lake Tinaroo, which is beautiful. The road weaves in and out of grazing land and dense rainforest. We stopped at a small crater lake but couldn't get to it as the track was to...

We went on an Ocean Spirit boat to the Oyster and Upolu reefs. When we got out to the reef we could see lots of jellyfish in the water. This made us a little bit nervous to get in, but we hired stinger suits and were assured by the crew that it was fine. Neither of us had been snorkelling before and it took us a bit of time to get used to the flippers and the mask. After a bit of a snorkel we had a smorgasbord lunch, which was nicer than we had expected. After l...

We arrived in Cairns on Thursday. It is a big city with lots of tourist shops and restaurants. It is also very hot and humid but we can't go in to the sea because of stingers and crocodiles. There are however seven lagoons on the waterfront where you can enjoy a swim. In the evening we got all dressed up and went out for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Ochre, which specialises in modern Australian food. We had a 'taste of Australia' platter for two. It wa...

We finally arrived in Townsville on the east coast. No more long days of driving. Our first stop along the road to Cairns was little crystal creek. It was a very pretty place with a few small waterfalls flowing under a bridge in to swimming pools. The water was a little cold but Sion was very hot and went in to cool down. Rachel wasn't brave enough. The next day we went to Wallaman falls, the tallest free falling waterfall in Australia, 263m high. There had been...