After what seemed like a lifetime of a bus journey next to the head banging, air drumming child I ended up sitting by all night I arrived in rainy Cairns. Very rainy Cairns!
I got to Gilligans hostel at 7.30am but couldn't check in til 2 but thankfully Katie and Mike had arrived the day before so I put my bags in the luggage room and got in to bed with Katie for a few hours kip.

After a quick walk round the block we found a nice restaurant for lunch and a pint. bellies full we needed another lie down. I watched an episode of made in chelsea, way behind I know, haven't seen it since Thailand! Mike and I then went to the hostels gym. I use the term 'gym' loosely; there was one bike and loads of weights! the hotel inspector was on tv though so I managed to entertain myself for a while!
After the gym the rest of our family were due to arrive so we went downstairs to form a welcoming party for Karen, Shannon and Miranda. Our wait was entertained by hen party members arriving in dribs and drabs looking rather embarrassed in their Disney costumes. kept us amused anyway!
At our hostel we get a free back packer dinner so headed to the bar to eat. we had mash chicken and gravy. can't really complain for free grub!
That night we went out to the club attached to our hostel, also where we had tea. We had a fun night being reunited but called it a day at about 2.30. Karen was in high spirits and decided to have a go at planking herself. much more successful than my attempt!
Being in bed was no different to being in the club, I could here all the songs word for word plus people coming in and out my dorm til about 5.30. perfect excuse for a long lie in!

Mike and Katie left early Sunday morning but I'll see them again in Sydney. Shannon was off diving for the day so it was me Karen and Miranda for the day. we went to market first. there was lots of Thai food stalls which were hard to resist. I gave in to a few mini spring rolls just to keep me going. on the way out Miranda stopped to buy some focaccia bread. the man asked if we were hungry and eat meat...he gave us all a free Mexican pasty as he closing up. lunch done! they were amazing!! we then went for a walk around town, narrowly missing an absolute down pour to fulfil Miranda addiction to McDonalds' 30c ice cream. she told us she once had 3 in one day, turns out she got lucky today as the lady serving gave her a HUGE one. she must have been bored of making them all day so decided to see how tall she could make it!

Afterwards we headed back to Gilligans, calling in at the travel agents next door to ask about car hire. we some how managed to be in there for atleast 2hours. Karen booked her skydive and managed to convince us to go on the snorkelling boat trip on the Great Barrier Reef. it would have been silly not to really seeming as we were here. we also hired a car for Tuesday.
That evening we got together with 3 English girls that Miranda had met on Fraser Island, and found Shannon again. the previous evening we were comparing Thailand stories and all agreed how good the pad Thai was and that we'd make it the next evening.
This quick dish was anything but quick! we blamed it on the lack of decent pans and hobs: it was delicious though so worth the wait!!

The three of us were up early to go on our boat trip. we had tea and muffins on arrival, filled in forms and got our snorkelling equipment. we were going to do the intro dive as it was included but decided against it as all you did was hold on to a rope and breath under the water so not very beneficial to us as we'd dived before. it took about 2 hours to get to our first snorkelling spot. the reef was high up so diving wouldn't have been that much better. the coral was really interesting shapes and textures but not as colourful as you'd imagine on the Great Barrier Reef. it was lots of shades of beige (if that's possible!!) with some blues and purples. the fish were really interesting too...no idea what any of them were though!
At our second snorkelling spot there was a small sand island which is home to 40,000 birds. from here we snorkelled back to the boat seeing some humongous fish, clams and sting ray along the way.
we got back to the harbour at 4.30 then headed to the supermarket to get some picnic bits for our road trip the following day.

The crew invited everyone to Gilligans for drinks that evening, as it was at our hostel bar (and free!) we went along. knowing we had a day of driving ahead of us we thought we ought to take it steady and have an early one. ...I think you know what's coming!
Swanks, Dai, Bostock and Woolley arrived in to Cairns that morning so I left the girls in Gilligans and went to find them. The Harpers were in good spirits and naturally I got roped in with them. After the pub we went to The Woolshed, a bar/club over the road. it was dead! but we stuck it out with a few jugs of gin until it was rammed and table top dancing time. mega error.
I think I got to bed near 3.30.

I messaged the girls in the morning to say I'd do the afternoon shift of driving. the reply was something something along the lines of 'I hope you're joking!' sounds like their night got a bit heavy too!!
We went to pick the car up then had a long breakfast before setting off.

Our first stop was to The Boulders. this was a beautiful lake and river with massive boulders all down it. we drove on to Mamu Rainforst where there is a canopy walkway. It was $20 to walk round so we gave it a miss. plus it was hammering down so we wouldn't have enjoyed it or been able to see anything!
Our next stop was to Millaa Millaa Falls. Still pissing it down we ran from the car to the waterfall to get pictures then ran back again. this waterfall is where Peter Andre's, Mysterious Girl was filmed! we drove to the small town of millaa millaa for a lovely lunch at a cafe-we forgot the picnic bag. doh!
After lunch we went to Lake Eacham, it was stunning and so clear. we really wanted to swim but as it was still chucking down we decided we'd never actually dry! On up to Yungaburra we went to see the Curtain Fig Tree. it was AMAZING and ENORMOUS. it was hard to get it all on camera, especially as it was still raining! Our next stop was to The Cystal Caves at Atherton. we'd been looking forward to this all day. upon arriving in the town we followed the sign posts to the caves, twice, both times ending up in a car park in the middle of town. after much confusion we realised it was actually a 'cave' beneath the shop decked out to look like a cave. I think there was a massive piece of real amythest in there too but for $22 I wasn't very interested...especially as there was s*** loads of it for sale in the shop to see! amongst all the other gems and crystals in the shop there was a whole shelf of gem stones carved in to penis's. I couldn't ask what it was all about as Karen and I had school girl giggles! we tried to make them out to be something else but it wasn't possible!!
We were now in the Tablelands. this is an area of lots of farmland and home produce including wines, coffee, cheeses, distilleries and bananas.
Continuing our phallic them we stopped in at The Humpy Nut World! We got to try lots of nuts before deciding on some sour cream and chive, and honey roasted macadamia's. they were also warm, absolutely delicious!
We were to late to look around both the distillery and the coffee farm so carried on to a town called Kuranda. We'd heard it was a hippy market town; we arrived at approximately 5.01pm and EVERYTHING was shut. not even a pub was open. no people. nothing. it was like an abandoned town. spooky!
We saw a sign though for Barron Falls so went to check it out. We followed a long canopy walkway through the rainforest, the mist was low and made for a beautiful and dramatic scene (and free this time!!). We reached the viewing platform for the waterfall but the mist covered most of it. it was sooooo high, I imagine on a clear day it's utterly stunning-Google it, Barron Falls!
We started to head back to Cairns but couldn't resist the temptation to pay a visit to Yorkeys k*** beach, plus we'd been told that the crocodiles come up on to the beach at night. We got on the road to the beach, it was still raining as it had been all day but this time the heavens really did open. I don't think I've ever seen rain like it, we were crawling along at 20kmph struggling to see a few meters ahead til we saw a sign, ROAD SUBJECT TO FLOODING. we made the mature decision to turn around and head back to Cairns.
We had a yummy tea back at the hostel and were all tucked up by 10pm! I was checking out the following morning and had accepted Woolley and Bostock's invitation to head back to Cairns with them in their camper rather than fly down...

...if you thought this post was eventful, wait til you read the next one!!!!