On Thursday 14th September we arrived in Cairns and at our acommadation called Global Palace. We spent the next day exploring and booking activities and tours the first of which being white water rafting. On the Saturday we went rafting for the day on the Tully River. They are grade 4 rapids which are fairly intense and can be dangerous. We found out after we had completed them that at least one person is taken to hospital each month with various broken bones. There were 8 of us in the raft having to paddle when told. We also had to throw ourselves across the other side of the raft and pile in the front or back at times. At one rapid our raft twisted at the bottom and got wedged between a rock and the falling water. We were so stuck that we had to be rescued by another raft and it took 7 people with ropes to pull it away. That bit was rather scary as half of the raft was submerged and if we had have fallen out the water would have washed us down another rapid. Thankfully we managed to stay in the raft for the rest of the journey and the wettest we got was when we were steered under a waterfall. That evening back in cairns it was the end of a month long arts festival. They had a huge carnival with floats going through the town and a huge firework display over the docks. It was a fantasic sight and a bonus as it was some free entertainment. The following day we went on a 3 day 2 night tour to Cape Tribulation. On the way there we did another croc cruise this time on the Daintree River. We only saw two crocs but they were fairly big. One of them had a bottle attached to some line coming out of its mouth. It has swallowed some fishermans bait. One of the other cruise boats managed to get close and hook it with a boat hook to remove it. It could have died if it was left. We arrived in Cape Tribulation and went for a walk to the beach. It is the most beautiful place where the tropical rainforest meets the sea. The beach was white sand and looked fantastic but unfortunately we couldnt swim in it as there had been crocodile sightings. We kept our eyes open for a pair of Casowaries that were often on the beach but unfortunately they were nowhere to be seen. They are huge birds that stand nearly as high a a person and are endangered. That evening we went on a night walk in the rainforest. We were armed with torches and set off in search of creepy crawlies. We saw a huge python, lots of rats and a large lizard on a tree. We also saw a large huntsman spider and bush turkeys roosting in a tree. One of the plants we saw was called bad bad by the Aborigionies. If you touch it it has hundreds of tiny glass like hairs that irritate you so much that it takes days for the intense pain to go. This pain can also reccur during the following year too. Certainly one to steer very clear of. On the monday afternoon we went on a horseride. The ride took us through the rainforest and onto the beach. It was fantastic. The horses were great, Simons was called Tubby as it was a bit chunky but was lovely. We had a couple of canters and photos taken on the beach. Before we headed backto Cairns the following day we went for a walk in the rainforest and ended up seeing a Monitor Lizard in a tree atacking a nest of some sort. It was such a brilliant sight, a wild lizard about a metre and a half long scratching around. On the journey home from cape Tribulation we stopped at Mossman Gorge for a bit. It is a large river with a large swimming hole. It also has a rope bridge over it so we spent some time jumping up and down on it. I think we may have annoyed some other tourists but it was fun. We also stopped for a short time in Port Douglas, a small tourist town. It was a lovely buzzing place with lots of expensive bars and boutiques. Celebrities often go to one of the huge hotels there for a holiday. We just wandered around window shopping as everything was far too expensive for our budget!