Arrived Cairns and bang straight into the tropical heat! You know that feeling when you get off the plane and you can feel the heat even though it is the middle of the night and you feel like you are finally on holiday? Well that’s how it felt to be in Cairns and that is the sort of atmosphere here. I really love Cairns – such a great place and so many activities to see and do here. I stayed in a 7star hotel for 2 nights over my birthday with a friend which was amazing. Never stayed in a place quite like it! There is a really nice lagoon by the water front as you can’t swim in the sea here due to crocs, stingers, sharks etc etc! So everyone congregates around this lagoon during the day which is really nice. With tropical heat also comes tropical rain and it rains hard here when it does---three whole days to be precise of monsoon rain. Nothing stops though here as it is so warm you just carry on and dry out within minutes of reaching shelter. Staying at the Reef hostels where some people have been here for weeks and it is so easy to see why people would stay here for a long length of time. It just has this really chilled out vibe and full of backpackers without it being tacky. Being in Cairns I took the opportunity to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately the weather was quite rough so snorkeling turned into survival against the currents and the wave. I still managed to see lots of the reef just a shame the conditions were not a bit better. I went with a friend who dives and I was very jealous that I can’t dive as they got to see a lot more than us mainly as there weren’t having to battle the elements like us snorkelers.

Also recently hired a car and travelled north to Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation. Port Douglas was a another really nice place and the drive there along the coast was very scenic. Cape Tribulation is proper crocodile country and I was very nervous about walking along beaches etc especially where signs say stay away from the water’s edge! This is where the jungle meets the barrier reef and the rainforest was pretty impressive although there are some plants there that can also kill you so it is not safe anywhere! I stayed one night in a cabin in the jungle and was probably the noisiest night I have ever had with all the birds and animals in the jungle. They also have Cassowaries here which are sort of killer emus! Remind me again why I came to Australia?!

The 2nd day I had up north I decided to go Jungle surfing which is essentially moving between trees on ropes attached to a harness. This was so much fun and got some wicked views over the jungle. I am back in Cairns now and tomorrow will be going on a day trip to Kuranda, a small village up in the jungle where you get an old fashioned train up there and then a skyrail back. This will be my last activity in Cairns before I leave Saturday night on and overnight bus to Townsville where I will be jumping on a ferry to get to Magnetic Island. Sounds like it will be pretty much paradise for 2 nights before carrying on my way south. Desperately need to work again so it will be a bit more of a whistle stop tour to Brisbane in order to find a job. Got a bargain of a deal on the greyhound – a hop on hop off pass between Cairns and Sydney one way all for $324. So that’s all my travel sorted just have to compete it in 90 days with will be fine as I have to be in Sydney for 22nd December! Will blog again in a week or so when I have seen a bit more xx