Cairns, Far North Queensland

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We arrived in Cairns at the beginning of February to start the next leg of our trip, travelling down the east coast towards Sydney or on to Melbourne, still to be decided! The first thing you notice here is how much greener it is than WA and the humidity hits you straight away! on our 1st day we had a look around Cairns which had a good buzz to the city and lots of backpacker pubs offering cheap food and cheaper drink. The next day we did a tour to the rainforest, stopping of at some of the local sights such as the Cathedral Fig tree and the Millaa Millaa falls, both located in the Atherton Tablelands. Bart the tour guide was a bit cracked so it was a fun tour, and we got to learn a bit about the rainforest and the creatures that live there.

Day 3 we went to check out the famous Great Barrier Reef. We put our newly acquired qualfication to use by booking a 3 dive trip at the outer reef. Each dive site had something different which was really good. We also hired an underwater camera, but unfortunately the fish don't tend to pose for a photo so its really hit and miss, but we managed to get a few good ones including a photo of Nemo hiding in the coral and of a small shark. The first dive sight we saw the small shark (plenty big enough for my liking), the second site was diving at the edge of the Continental Shelf, a bit scary as the dive was just moving along the wall where there was a seeemingly endless drop below. A bit off putting looking into the unknown, waiting for a shark to appear!! The 3rd site was called the Nursery because of all the baby fish, thats where a few Nemo's were spotted, as well as thousands of small fish.

The next day we picked up our campervan which was to be home for the next 3 weeks as well as transport for the 4000km trip to Sydney. When we got it we realised how spoilt we were with the Perth camper, this was a lot older, possibly older than ourselves, but it had plenty of character. Once we picked it up we headed up north of Cairns to Cape Tribulation. The road to Cape Tribulation was spectacular as it winds its way through the Daintree rainforest and is one of the few places in the world were rainforest reaches all the way down to the sea. The scenery is absolutely amazing but the humidity is a killer. At night all you could do was sit in the campervan with the sweat literly pouring off and you couldn't go outside because of the insects, it was unreal! On the way back from Cape Tribulation we stopped at Hartleys Croc Zoo. This was really good as you got to see the crocs in there natural habitat rather then in a concrete zoo and you can get pretty close when they are doing the feedings!

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