CAIRNS

As with Airlie Beach, the recollections of Cairns are somewhat hazy but as the last stop on the East Coast where everyone meets up with the mates they have met along the route it's always gonna be an interesting place. We have allowed ourselves 5 days here, supposedly to get some R&R before tackling the north and the Red centre, yeah right! Other than shopping, we spend our time drinking.

We did manage to get out of Cairns for a day and scarily we decided to get behind the wheel of a car so that we could visit Cape Tribulation, Port Douglas and Daintree Village. We were actually supposed to hire a 'Ute' which Sarah got well giddy about having wanted 'a warrior' for a few years now but unfortunately they obviously don't trust the POMs with utility vehicles - he blamed it on the recent rain and something to do with the back skidding on the wet roads - but given that the sun is baking down we can't help wondering if it's more to do with the fact that we look a bit the worse for wear having had another quality night out with Karen - queen of cider.

On the last night, it's a HUGE one planned with all the usual suspects involved - the Brummy contingent (minus Liam who they seem to have lost on the way up the Coast), Karen, Jay & Amy - all of this lot in one place equals total carnage anyway but then to make matters worse there is a pub crawl suggested, which is one of those dreadful organised things that eventually ends up in games where people have to remove items of clothing - all good backpacking fun. This is all before we even mention the legendary Woolshed with it's 2 for 1 drinks and goldfish racing nights - it's all too much. Suffice to say, Cairns was 'all time' (to quote from the OC) and a fabulously blithering ending to the backpacking exploits of the East Coast. Unfortunately we have to catch our flight on the Saturday, totally in pieces after a massive Friday which saw us get home at 5.45am. It's so bad that we actually try to change our flights for the following night but unsurprisingly we can't, so we have to set off for the airport or lose more dollars than we can afford to; when you read about our flight to Darwin and think about the state we were in you can only imagine our trauma. We got the fear big time!!!