North Queensland

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After Alice Springs we flew to Cairns on the North East coast of Australia. Cairns had a warm tropical climate and fantastic public lagoons (swimming pool). It is a very relaxed destination and often known as the gateway to the east coast for travelers heading south, which is what we are currently doing.

After a few days we boarded the greyhound bus and headed to Mission beach for a night. Close your eyes and think of a tropical beach with sand full of large coral and coconut tress bending over to touch the sand! This small town is beautiful and we had some fun in the beach hostel pool and chilling in the hammocks, but unfortunately due to the very dangerous stingers (jelly fish) we could not enter the sea.

We then made our way to Townsville and caught the ferry to Magnetic Island. We spend two days snorkeling and enjoying the beach that overlooked our hostel. We were both eager to head to our next destination - the Whitsunday islands. So the next day we boarded the greyhound bus for Airlie beach. This was not a fun journey as the air-conditioning was broken and we had to sit in 30 degrees heat for 4.5 hours! But the thought of diving in the reef kept us sane.

From Airlie beach we boarded the Freight train sailing boat for two nights and three days of diving and manning deck. The diving opportunities were fantastic. We spent all of day two in the water. The fish and coral, as you can see from the pictures, were great. At the end of the second day Ivan and I tried scuba diving for the first time; We both really enjoyed it especially seeing a fish bait battle at the bottom of the ocean. We seem to have been really lucky with the groups we join as the crowd on the boat with us were all great craic and we made some new friends. We spent the last night singing as the captain played the guitar while the sun set over the secluded bay we dropped anchor in for the night. Truly a memorable experience!

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Comments

[Nuala Mullin]

I don't want you two to come home... these blogs are an escape from the office. Looks absolutely gorgeous there, I'm so jealous!

[Pauline, Paul and Matthew (exlamation mark)]

Hiyas!! Fotos r great - u's r soo lucky!! Evereything looks so amazing - cant wait to hear all bout it wen u's get back!!. Alls quiet here - ill keep in contact more (promise!) x.

[Peter Edmondson]

Lucky Bas*****
Everything looks absolutely fantastic. I cant believe you are on the Austrian western islands, they say the Aussies think of them as their very own Bora Bora. It must be georgious. By the way, I've head that if you fancy doing a skydive then Australia is the place...