Sorry this has been so slow in coming, so here i am in whitsundays, but i should probably fill you in on my travels up to now. I think i got to cairns and thats where i left you. So then i went on a reef and rainforest tour, up to cape trib. We stayed in this hostel called pk's right on the beach, it was amazing, long deserted white sands, day one we did the rainforest, the best bit was probably a short cruise we did down the daintree, we saw two crocs up close only about a couple of meters away, and a green tree snake and a python. The river is lined with mangroves which have a huge host of insects etc. Then day 2 we went on a sail out to the great barrier reef, i felt abit sea sick unfortunatley as it was very choppy but when we got there it was amazing, we dived in and went snorkling, the place was teeming with fish, there are 600 different species of coral and there all amazing colour, bright royal blues and loads of fish to go with them. In particular there were the parrot fish and hugh giant clams about a meter long. Then next back to cairns and we joined oz experience the next morning. Its amazing, its a hop on hop off bus, with some activities included. We had a really great tour guide, sam, alot of fun, he was really into birds where as dan our last guide was into lizzards. Within about 10mins though he took us to a bungee jump sight, i was feeling a little un daring and di a bungee swing, still scary though as you free fall 40mters, it had me screaming! Theres alot of driving involved though our first stop was at a lake where we saw turtles and did some swimming, really wide and cold and then in a waterfall which was even colder, it was the waterfall that they film the timotae shampoo adverts at (with the girl washing her hair in the waterfall) we drove through all the areas that had been distroyed by the cyclone and there are still loads of houses which don't have roofs. We were driving throug all the cane fields on the first day and saw lots of the cane trains and some of the bannana plantations that are just recovering. That night though we stayed somewhere abit weird, it was at mission beach and all the other people on our trip stayed at the beach and we stayed in the middle of the rainforest. We got abit bored and wandered down to the beach (the local one, not misison beach)which was a 2km walk, on the way we heard this really loud rusteling next to us in the bush, it was a large animal, but we couldn't see it, either a cassawary or a kangaroo i think. We joined a family who were having a fire on the beach which was fun and listened to them all playing the guitar. The next day we drove to townsville, and got the ferry to maggie island (magnetic island) where we stayed with all the others in this great place. We went kayaking and then had a party that night, lots of fun, and got to know all the others on our trip, theres one guy we hang out with alot, ross, he's scotish and a teacher working in nz we went on a kangaroo walk and saw 2 kangaroos and a wedge tailed egal and later that day i found a st. andrews cross spider (black and orange with a zigzag web) in the hostel which was cool i find them quite fascinating now. Next stop whitsundays, we were sad coz we left sam there as he drove onto the cattle ranch, so he's a day ahead of us. Whitsundays though, jsut to remind you, is the location of whitesandy beaches, it has that coral reef which is shaped in a heart, its in lots of arieal photos, and it has the whitest beach in the world. Thats where we went snorkling today, saw some big groupers, or thats what i thought they were and the beach was just made of coral, we sailed there on maxi ragamuffin, which holds the sydney to hobart ocean race record and has won it three times, the water was about 24c so not that hot and i got tanned wearing factor 45. Last night we went and listened to some live music in the pub and then i managed to get a great nights sleep my first night that i have slept past 6am! But maybe a little too good as we woke at 8:10 the time we were meant to be leaving, so we ran out of our room and sprinted down the road getting dressed as we went but we still missed the bus and had to get a taxi instead. Tonight we are having an early night as our bus leaves at 7 tomorrow. Anyway, well done if you made it to this point coz i know this is a VERY long one! Ellie xx