This is a land of extremes, and thanks to the wonders of aviation, we flew from the deep desert of the Outback to the lush, tropical coast of northern Queensland in only 2 hours. This environment of our latest and almost final stop in Australia is indicative of most of our onward travel, so....steamy it is!

We picked up our rental car at Cairns airport and drove the Captain Cook Highway up to the town of Port Douglas for a 4 night stay. Port Douglas has a bit of laid-back Florida feel to it, and seems like the kind of place one would happily retire to. This area is unique because it is the only place where two World Heritage sites (The Daintree Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef), come together. With the car we could explore as far as Cape Tribulation, and enjoy the short trails along the boardwalks of the forest. We were reminded regularly by Port Douglas locals that there is NO swimming along the coast - the waters are home to crocodiles and deadly jellyfish! Points taken.

But the main reason we are in Queensland is to experience The Reef, even after meeting several naysayers on our travels who told us that the area has been ruined and not to waste our time. Luckily we ignored this and chose to see for ourselves, because we had 2 amazing days exploring. Troy completed 3 dives and Clare snorkelled out at the Agincourt Reef, which is located right at the continental shelf. It was here that Clare saw her first turtle! She swam beside it for a few minutes in the shallow water before it dove off into the depths far, far below, and it was magical. Troy saw a white tipped reef shark and a massive grouper that poses well with scuba divers (although we were too cheap to buy the photo.) We were disappointed Troy had missed the turtle, but we were in luck, because later when snorkelling together up near Cape Tribulation at the Mackay Reef, we saw about 6 or 7 of them! So gentle and beautiful. Also discovered was a bluespotted stingray that was busy burying itself into the sand and coral. A first for Clare! So the reef was a hit, and we will do one more dive later when we get back to Cairns.

We stayed off the croc beaches and instead took an hour long cruise on the Daintree River where we could safely view them from afar. Our guide told us that this is not the best time of year to see them, but we did see a few babies, and eventually a 2.5-3 metre one that luckily stayed far away from the boat. Those beady eyes!! Our last special sighting was the cassowary - an enormous ostrich-like bird that is unique to this part of Australia. Signs warned us to be "cass-o-wary", as they can be quite dangerous, so we didn't get too close. One animal that we did not see, but is apparently around in the creeks and rivers, is the platypus. Notoriously hard to spot, it looks like we will be leaving Australia without glimpsing this one. (We will just have to come back??)