So arriving at Alice Springs Airport in good time, we find that our flight has been cancelled!! We're to be put on a later flight direct to Cairns- as opposed to the trip to Yulara (in the opposite direction!) before heading up to Queensland!! Then we are told that flight has been merged with a further later flight, via Yulara!! Even the Thai's weren't this bad!! At the airport Tom managed to slip on some wet floor and give himself whiplash... the moron!!!

Anyway 4 hours later than expected we headed off in a South Westerly direction, stopped in the Red Centre and then finally flew towards Cairns in the North East!!! Arrived in Cairns fairly late to pouring rain, and found a guesthouse for pretty cheap. Crashed out with Tom not feeling great... bit of a wasted travel day given all the delays!!

Next day Tom was really struggling... headache, neckache, sore throat, blurred vision and getting hot and cold! Not to risk it, we headed to the local hospital to get him checked out. He went off to get assessed and the next I knew I went in to see him covered in electrolysis pads, with an IV drip hanging out of his arm!!!! His pulse and blood pressure were sky high!! Eventually it calmed down (probably cos I had arrived!!) and they let him go with no real idea about what was causing the blurred vision!!

Tom went back to bed, so I decided to explore Cairns.... and got absolutely bloody soaked!! I've never been so wet outside of a swimming pool!! With Tom laid-up, I discovered some lads I knew through Matty from Uni were in town. So that evening (avoiding the rain!) I legged it down to town to go out with Sill, Garts and Spaino... a good night in Gilligans was soured by Liverpool smashing Man Utd 3-1!! Then went off to the Woolshed for a bit before returning home to bed!!

Next morning, with Tom not feeling great, we took a walk around the town again- in better weather conditions- before Tom went back to sleep that afternoon. I headed back to a travel company to look at getting our Greyhound passes and some tours booked! After getting our Greyhound passes (from Cairns all the way to Melbourne) we booked the bus for the next morning. However, with flooding further south on the Bruce Highway, the bus wouldn't be running... we were stuck!! The following day we did very little (still pissing with rain!), and while Tom's virus symptoms were abaiting his vision was still not right. I enquired about a train to Townsville but apparently they were out too... we were still stuck!!

Next morning we decided two things... Tom needed to go back and get his blurred vision checked... and we needed to get out of Cairns!!! Flights were crazy money, trains and buses were out of action... so we decided we would rent a car and drive the long way round... adding 10hours to our journey apparently!!

Tom went off to hospital again, where I left him to go hire a car. In the meantime he had gone to a specialist eye doctor who still couldn't work out the problem. At about 3pm we left Cairns and set off on the ridiculous journey to Townsville by car!! I'd have to drive the whole thing, with Tom's vision not improving!!

The journey was..... er... fraught!! All the guidebooks recommend you don't drive in the outback at night, but with towns so far apart we didn't have a lot of choice!! The first incident saw me nearly plough into a whole herd of cattle, the second another set of cows!! Freaked out, we decided to try and stop somewhere for the night, just before I nearly maimed a kangaroo!!! Found a place called The Lynd, but they didn't have anywhere for us to stay, recommending we continue on 60km to a place called Greenvale... so we did... very slowly!!!