Allo Allo from the Wet Tropics of North Queensland!

We had a nice train journey up from Magnetic Island on Monday and checked into our hostel in Cairns - very impressed indeed - didn't feel like a hostel atall - lovely room, great bar and superb buffet dinners - $6/$9 with excellent food.

On Tuesday we just mooched about Cairns city and went to the lovely swimming lagoon (we were meant to be going on a day trip to the great barrier reef but cancelled it coz of my very bad sea sickness at the Whitsundays and we had seen a lot of the Barrier reef so got a refund which helped withe cash flow - as it's starting to dwindle fast - aaaargh!!)

Oh and when we were walking along the beach Iain got attacked by a bird on the ear for no reason - he yelped quite a bit!! We are now in true crocodile country so have been on the look out for crocs and saw when in the sea in Cairns - some locals were collecting shells or fish and then a baby croc came out at a bout 1 m long and they shooed it back in with their nets - cool to watch!

On Wednesday we picked up our hire car and drove to Kuranda to do the Skyrail through the Daintree Rainforest - longest cable car in the world at 7.5km long and 90minutes - pretty high and shakey in the wind. We got a tour of some of the rainforest tour with a ranger which was cool and wandered around the village watching local Aboriginal artists and men playing the Digeradoo( spelling not good!!).

We then drove up to Port Douglas (closest down to the Great Barrier Reef) and checked into the Sheraton which is gorgeous (biggest 1 spread of land in the world - has 5 acres of swimming lagoons and is right on 4 mile beach!) Just a fab place after camping and hostelling ( all thanks to Iain's bro Alex again!)

It was quite funny tho as even tho we get discount on food it's still expensive so on Wed night we got a Thai takeaway for 1 person (need to be cheap!) and got our camping plates out and plastic cutlery and ate in the bedroom of the 5* resort - true backpackers!!

Yesterday we chilled around the many lagoons and wandered along the beach and had a sneaky wee cocktail in the bar (50% off of course) and came into town to get a pizza (again 1 pizza to share - very nice tho!)

Today we got up early and drove up to Cape Tribulation - the northest most point in Queensland and the place there are sealed roads - gorgeous windy road through the Rainforest and then a 2min ferry crossing across the river ( after that there is no petrol etc - complete rainforest with a few B & B's. We got picked up at the 1 only shop and were taken deep into the rainforest to do our canopy flying foxes - amazing fun and did the last 1 upside down - saw lots and it was a fab way to see everything.

We then drove back down the coast stopping at the lovely Thornton Beach where you could see a little Island just off shore and then Alexandra Bay lookout and had lunch near Daintree Village at Wonga Beach - only us and 2 others on the whole beach ( had my homemade sandwiches that i prepared on camping places before we left this morning!) We came back to the Sheraton and treated ourselves to High Tea which was a bit naughty (lots of fresh scones & mini cakes!!) Going back for our only meal in the Sheraton tonight since it's our last night - Mediterranean restaurant.

Tomorrow we fly to Darwin in the Northern Territory (arrive at 1am in the morning - so it's be straight to the hostel to our bed) and on Tuesday we begin our trip to no-mans land for 5 days.

Still having a fab time and doing so much - just need to stretch the pennies!!

Bye for now, C & I xxxx