Cairns

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Well we are now in Cairns, well port douglas actually which is a little North of Cairns. We arrived in Cairns on Monday and have had an amazing time so far! We stayed in a hotel our first night and got upgraded to an apartment which was amazing and we got it for really cheap rate of internet! The next day we picked up our new camper van, sacked of wicked campers and was not impressed and went with a company called Backpacker campervans about $100 more expensive but so so much better, room to stand in back, has grill, microwave and 2 hobs and a hand helf shower thing you hang off back door. The height of the ceiling means it is a lot cooler making it easier to sleep which is the main thing!

We picked the van up and drove up to port douglas really nice drive as you have to rain forest on one side and the ocean of the other! Port Douglas is really nice town we stayed just outside it on the edge of the rain forest surrounded by parrots and lizards! In the afternoon we went to a Rainforest Reserve with local animals in it that need homes, saw crocs, lizards, koalas etc really good place fed some kangeroo's and wallabies... if you look at one of the pics you can see the wallaby we are feeding as a little baby hanging out!

We looked through all the local broshures of trips to great barrier reef (apparently best boat ones go from port douglas not carins) but decided as it was mels birthday on the 19th we would do the trip then and in style so we got a Helicopter flight from Cairns airport over the reefs in then lands on a small square of wood floating near one of the reefs, then a little boat comes over and takes you to a big boat... it was amazing the view from the helicoper the spectacular, he took us quite low to the reef and you could see manta rays and turtles. On the boat we took another glass bottom boat out on a tour and then me and mel went in for a little swim by the reef, then Chris went snorkelling for about 25 mins with an instructor which was also spectacular saw giants clams, sea cucumbers and hundreds and hundreds of brightly coloured fish! We then got back in our helicopter and flew over different reefs back to Cairns! In the evening I cooked mel a birthday dinner in the van and had birthday cake with candles and sparkelers!

Today we travelled from cairns back up to port Douglas but this time we drove right up the mountain covered in rain forest which was amazing, we then stopped and Carins zoo and held Koala's and saw some huge crocs!

Tomorrow we are heading further north before then going on our journey south to Melbourne!

Hope everyone is good!

Chris and Mel

xx

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Photos

Massive Croc
Mel looks similar to this when I try get her out of bed in the mornings!

Mel in our Van
Backpacker buy old Britz vans... not got round to painting this one!

Comments

[Richard and Lila]

WOW
The pictures of the Barrier Reef are amazing and so are the animals. However the lack of details and pictures of the camper van are very disappointing. You didn't even tell us it's name. Keep enjoying yourselves.

[Nicky]

Happy Birthday
Hey guys glad you are having a great time and that you now have a van you can fit in Chris! What a way to spend your birthday Mel, hope you had a good day, was going to text but lost your number can you send it to me again? anyway take care guys speak soon xx

[mark fowler]

happy birthday! nice to see you roughing it with helicopter flights and full hight camper vans! pictures look great!