Cairns and North Queensland

---

Well hello and welcome to my first proper Blog entry.

So we arrived in Cairns bright and early on Monday 16th after a pretty painless flight. I could not believe that I slept for 8 hours as I am a RUBBISH sleeper and was convinced i'd spend the first 13hrs wide awake hating everyone around me who was sleeping soundly. Anyway, arrived and checked into Caravella 149 with 3 double rooms for the price of a 4 bed dorm - bargin!! Over the next two days we explored Cairns in the rain/clouds/occasional sun, and quickly realised there was not much to see. Apart from a pretty lagoon/swimming pool by the sea edge, not much to see. On the Thursday, me, Bekka and Jo went out to the reef for a snorkle/intro dive. The trip started well with the wind in our hair whilst we sat at the front of the boat, but then we had to move into a cabin for a briefing on the dive. Me and Bekka were wetting ourselves because I just could not stand up on the boat and was just falling everywhere, into peoples laps, standing on peoples feet, bags etc. We thought it was hilarious, though no one else seemed to. Finally managed to sit down for the briefing and very quickly began to feel extremely sick. Went very white and had to leave the cabin. Unfortunatly that was me buggered for the rest of the trip as I just felt soooo queasy for the whole day. But I still thoroughly enjoyed the snorkling, and my trial dive was amazing. We only went down about 5 metres, but just being under water and using the breathing apperatus was crazy. We saw loads of beautful coloured fish, a sting ray and lovely coral. It was a fab experience but as I was feeling quite sick and it was so weird breathing under water, I was a little freaked out. We returned to shore (without me vomiting) and I am now re-thinking the learning to dive plan. Hopefully I can have another trial dive somewhere, and if I can manage with sickness pills and a strong will power, I might re-think the diving thing.

On Saturday we left Cairns in our hired 8 seater, automatic people carrier and headed up north. We drove through Port Douglas, but apart from a pretty beach, we didn't think there was much to it, plus we'd heard it was very expensive, so didn't stop. Next we stopped at Mossman Gorge, which as you can see from the pictures, was pretty but we didn't swim as it was quite cold (plus the current looked scarily strong). We next drove on to Daintree River and went to a Croc spotting cruise. Saw a little baby croc who we named Burt. Finally reached our destination - Cape Tribulation were we stayed at a hostel called the Beach House. Basically wooden huts with 5 bed dorms. First night, me, Lou and Katy had a little creatures called a Malamey in our room. Spent several hours trying to get rid of him, whilst Katy and Lou wet themseleves. Finally managed to sleep after Sedrick (as Lou named him) payed us two more visits. Next day we walked along the beach (a beautiful deserted white sandy stretch) and hiked to a watering hole and swam, good exercise but sore legs. We planned to sea kayak in the afternoon, but because the sea was rough it was cancelled. Spent the next day chilling on the beach and by the pool. The jungle was just amazing, it was crazy lying by the pool under a roof of jungle. In the evening, I went on a night walk into the jungle. None of the girls fancied it, so it was me and a 8 other randoms. We didn't see a great deal, though I have included a pic of a cool lizard, but I loved being in the heart of the jungle, in the dark (apart from my touch) and seeing and hearing about all the different creatures.

We next moved on to the Table Lands, a small placed called Yungaburra and stayed in this amazing, homely hostel called On The Wallaby. This was our first experience of a six bed dorm which was quite a squezze, but we managed. That eve we signed up for night canoeing. About 8.30 we headed out with our guide Matty to the lake. Me, Katy and Stacey were put in our canoe and immediatly it was clear that we were completely rubbish. We went round and round in circles (in the pitch black again apart from our torches), off in completely the wrong direction and then into the bank. When we started wildlife spotting, Matty realised that we wern't going to see anything if left to our own divices, so tied our boat to his. This was great, as we saw Tree Kangeroos (including a whole family), possums and differnt types of birds. After a while Matty decided we were going to have a swop around and I ended up in his boat on my own whilst he took over the stearing in our boat. Once on my own I got the hang of it and all was going well until Jo, Bekka and Lou realised their boat was steadily filling up with water. We moored up and Matty suggested we take a look at the wildlife on the bank. At this point we were a little unsure as to what was going to happen and then he came up and told us that we were going to have to 'walk out of there'. He led us up a steep bank, with some of our torches beginning to die, and we started trekking through long grass, with Matty clearly not really knowing where he was going. After a short while we began to realise this was not a good situation and that this could go very wrong (wet, cold, in the middle of know where, ptich black, dying torches and no idea which way back). Suddenly we stumbled on a random Ozzy dude standing in the wet grass with a mullet, no shoes and a dirty face. Flashes of various horror movies kept coming as he led us up this path. But it turned out we were on his land and he had seen our lights and wondered what we were doing. He very kindly lent us a boat and we slowly set off back to the otherside of the lake. Returned to the hostel at 12 midnight, as supposed to 10.30 and Matty gave us free wine and icecream to make up for a near miss. The next day we went on out on mountain bikes (Dad, you would be proud of me!!!) and did an hours ride around Lake Eacham. I was soooo pleased with myself as haven't riden since I was about 13 and was sure I was going to die. But I didn't and even managed to get up some fairly steep hills, AND I can even walk today - check me out!! We then swam in the lake which was pure tropic rainforest water and did some water turtle spotting - they were so cute! In the afternoon we went to Milla Milla falls, which was a pretty waterfall where the Timotei Shampoo Advert is filmed. I drove and it was so weird, but cool, driving through the beautiful countryside. The roads were really clear, so it was very easily. Sheila (the name we gave our moter beast) did very well carrying us and all our heafty backpacks. This was the first time I've driving an automatic and I kept wanting to us my left foot, but I got used to it.

We are now back in Cairns and having dropped Sheila off we have one night here before we head down to Mission Beach early tomorrow morning. We have been told that its quite quiet there, so have only 2 nights booked at the mo, but we shall see. The north has been lovely as its been quiet and very relaxing, but am thinking as we head down the east it may get quite crazy. Looking forward to meeting lots of cool people and working on the tan.

So sorry this has been very long, will get used to writing only the interesting bits I promise.

Until next blog......................

---