Tried to get Regina to write this section up because it was her favourite place in Australia so far and we saw loads. The drive to Yungaburra from Kuranda was ment to have a few stops on the way, but we just kept going and it was a good thing too because the lady in the hostel gave us a deadly itinary for the few days we would be there. She was very friendly and helpful

First off we drove to Eacham Lake. This is a large volcano crater lake that has been filled with water and perfect for swimming in. There is a nice 3 km track around it and we walked that and got to see our first real snake too. He was small enough, maybe a metre or so long and heading very quickly away from us towards the water, a water python I believe it was. Using every bit of inteligence the two of us could muster we decided to go swimming in the lake after the walk. It was suprisingly warm and since it was a fairly massive lake we figured we wouldnt meet our little python friend again, we didnt. We jumped in off a platform out in the water and splashed around for a bit. I think its something like 80 metres deep so no fear of hitting the bottom. After our swim we drove on to a place called Milla Milla to get some food for lunch and then went down to Milla Milla Falls. The surrounding area of the falls is a bit rough, especially with the branches and leaves and things scattered around from the storms, but its like that everywhere in fairness. The falls however are the most picture perfect waterfalls I have ever seen, I think they are the most photographed waterfalls in Australia. Leading down to the water are palm trees and purple plants that give it the most magically paradisical look imaginable. The picture of Regina swishing her hair back like a model was challenged to me by Tracy from the hostel in Yungaburra, she showed us a photo she had of someone else doing it and told us that it was the picture we had to get. It took me one shot to get it, Regina didnt need much direction in fairnes to her too, very easy to work with!!!! We swam around here for a bit and even got in behind the waterfall. It was amazing sitting under the falls watching the water fall down from above and looking out through it, we could have sat there all day. We didnt though, we had some food and off we went again

Our last stop of the day was a massive crater (not full of water this time) and Dinner Falls. This crater is about 30 metres in diameter and above the slime line is about 50 metres deep, below that is another 80 metres of water/slime which curve around like a horn or something. It was impossible to photograph it showing its depth and sheer cliff but we did our best. At the bottom of the track leading to the crater is Dinner Falls. The name left itself being very disappointing, particularly to me and the waterfall wasnt exactly spectacular either. We saw about three lizards, they looked like frill neck lizards and one of them ran down the path from behind Regina towards me.... on his hind legs, he gave me the fright of my life, this little green fella running down the hill at me. Thanfully I kept my wits about me and got some photos of him sitting in a tree. After that it was back to the hostel for dinner and chilling out for the evening

The next day, we headed off to Barrine Lake, more or less the big sister of Eachum lake with a 5km track around this one. About half way around it, and with the very brave Regnia leading the way around it happened. She was about 5 paces ahead of me and I looked to my right at a tree stump. Sitting on top of it was a 3 metre long snake and I said to it "Your a big fella aint ya", Regina turned on her heels and seeing it did an Olympic back flip somersault about 20 metres backwards whilst simultaneously screaming "Holy S@$%". The snake for its part just lay there and slowly moved off away from the track, and me for mine decided to not move and just looked at it, he wasnt anywhere near me really and I took two photos of him while Regina did her best attempt to scream the thing to death or attack. It did neither and just slithered off a bit while we both walked on. Needless to say the next 2.5 km or so were torcherous for Regina whose nerves are still a little frayed from it. Everytime a leaf landed from a tree she jumped and there were lots of things bigger than trees out there. Lots of little possum type things, bush kangaroo rats or something and there were loads of bush turkeys too. Everyone of them left Regina jumping and backflipping out of her skin and we ended up powerwalking back to the car. That was it for the morning, we went back to the hostel and had lunch and after lunch we attempted to go to some granite gorge thing that has kangaroos or wallabies that you can feed but when we got there we realised you had to pay and we hadnt any money so back we went to the hostel. That night in the hostel we had a barbeque with the gang that was there, they do tours and stay in the hostel and get a barbeque thrown in at night. We had helped out with changing the beds in the morning so got to join the barbeque for free.... sweet!!!

The last morning we headed off to see loads of things on the long way home. We skipped the first few because of the rain. We missed the second one because the first sign had blown down and it was being used by builders as a lunch spot. The last one, which the crazy man from Kuranda had told us was the second highest waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere turned out to be pretty rubbish. You can swim at the bottom and there are some slidding rocks but it was raining and getting heavier so we just got back in the car and came back to Cairns. The waterfall wasnt very big either, not even close to being big

Back in Cairns then for 3 days before heading to Perth which catches us up to now. Its rained heavily all 3 days so we have been confined to our quarters. We went swimming in the hostel pool a couple of times in the rain and went walking into town in the rain too, wow exciting stuff. Off to Perth then......