Back in Cairns we again caught up with Graham & Rach, and enjoying several meals together. Graham also down loaded his photo's to disc on our computer. They were also responsible for putting us on to travelpod, as our own site had just corrupted. With the 7 weeks to spare we decided to take the opportunity to plan an Overseas trip and use up our FF points. This proved to be frustrating, but eventually we received some invaluable help from Flight Centre and we were all set to leave 1st Feb 2005.

This meant as soon as the Rooster was better we had to get on the road. With a year away planned and Heathers Mum recently widowed we decided to head south to Adelaide to visit before heading north to resume our trip. This added another dimension, in that we would also have to contend with the impending wet.

Our first stop heading south was Mission Beach, known for its beauty and cassowary's but we were not lucky enough to see any. We next visited Parenella Park, one of those tragic monument stories. The castle was built for his love back in Spain, but in the meantime she had married someone else, so he returned with the younger sister. Things went from bad to worse with floods, death and eventual abandonment. Definitely worth having a look at, it is also credited as having the first hydro electricity system in Australia.