I am restarting this entry having almost finished it a moment ago and then losing it all because the computer at my hostel is rubbish - Alice Springs hasn't made the best impression on me so far!! I flew in here today and it felt a little strange getting on a plane after all the long coach journeys, but I'm sure to have plenty of time on the road in the next week as I travel up to Darwin.

I left you last about to go on my Whitsundays sailing trip and I'm pleased to report that I had a great time! We did some snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef which was pretty incredible, as well as visiting the stunning Whitehaven Beach. The boat was very comfortable, if a little windy on deck, and the crew made sure we all enjoyed ourselves. Thanks to the travel sickness meds I took, I didn't feel seasick the whole time, which meant I could enjoy each of the five meals they gave us per day!

I left Airlie Beach after my sailing trip, heading towards Townsville. I didn't stay here but jumped on a ferry to the beautiful Magnetic Island. The hostel we stayed in there was right on the beach and was like a little slice of paradise, albeit one with dorm rooms and cold showers! On our free day there I hired a "topless" (that's the car, not the passengers) barbie car with a couple of other girls in order to explore the island. Admittedly, it only takes about ten minutes to drive from one end to the other, but the buses were hourly so the car made thinks a lot more convenient, and of course, much cooler! We started in Horseshoe Bay at the north of the island where we indulged in a bit of sunbathing, before exploring some of the walks and lookout points, where we spotted koalas and handfed wallabies! I would definitely rate Magnetic Island as one of the best places in Australia, and something of a well-kept secret because none of us had even heard of it, and though cartloads of us backpackers were heading over, it didn't seem overrun with tourists.

I had a long journey from Magnetic Island to Cairns, but it was broken up by a quick trip to a crocodile farm near Innisfail. The crocs there are bred for meat and skin, which gets sold to companies like Guccie and Prada at an extortionate cost, and then the farm continues to make a mint by getting backpackers like us in there to watch the crocs snatch at meat, feed some kangaroos, look at the cassowaries, stroke the dingoes and hold snakes and baby crocs! However, after seeing so many of these creatures in the wild (not the crocodiles, thankfully) across Australia, seeing a kangaroo in a pen and a dingo on a lead didn't seem quite the same.

It was unfortunate that my one full day in Cairns did not feature the tropical weather I was hoping for, but instead consisted of cloud, cloud and more cloud, which typically I managed to get some appalling sunburn through. Alice Springs is a lot colder, the advantage of that being I can cover up any lobster-like areas. It was sad to leave Cairns and some great friends I've made on the East Coast, but time has flown and I'll be home in a month, so hopefully I'll be able to see some of the people I've met again. Until then, hopefully I'll continue to make friends in my remaining time in Australia, Fiji and the U.S.A., where Emily will currently be flying to; I can't wait to see my sister as our travels cross paths!