Days 34 - 38

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I have not been keeping up with the diary over the past few days so I really will have to remember what I can. We set of for Cape Tribulation, which is just north of Cairns, on Sunday and it really is cool there. It is another national park but it is rainforest and along the beach you can see where the GBR begins so they say it’s “where rainforest and reef meet”. On the first day we just checked out some of the beaches and then cooked up a BBQ together. It was really scary because we had to walk through rainforest to get to the public BBQs and that was all fine at 4pm but by the time we were walking back to the car it was dark and you could hear all sorts of animal noises and movement as we were walking back down the track! On Monday we went diving and it was absolutely fabulous; we did two different dives and they were both brilliant. We went on a boat with about 40 other people but we were the only divers! Everyone else was just there to snorkel so at first we were a bit freaked out because we have only just got our licences so we were hoping to follow another pair under the water. It worked out even better for us through because the guide on the boat was happy to come with us so it was just us three and the reef! The first dive was all about the reef itself and the coral and the different colour is creates - there wasn’t that much wildlife but the reef itself is enough to look at. The second dive was full of different fish including a family of about 8 barracuda (they were freaky!), a couple of reef sharks and a few ‘nemo’ fish. After the diving there was still some time for snorkelling so we took our gear off and jumped back in. It was a pretty awful day weather wise but the water was still lovely and warm. We are both really appreciative that we can say we have dove the Great Barrier Reef but we are not sure if it is all it is cracked up to be. The coral formations and the colours truly were amazing but we don’t feel there was anything about it that made it particularly better then Exmouth where we got our licence. Andy and another woman on the trip didn’t actually think the colours were as bright as the coral you would see in the Caribbean. It is amazing and of course it is so large but we don’t think it is the best diving we will find. We had a lovely lunch on the boat and then came back to shore at about 4pm where Yassine was waiting for us on the beach ready to go cook dinner. During the day that we were gone he had met a French couple so we all ate together and then headed to the beach where we made a fire, drank and ate toasted marshmallows. We left Cape Trib on the Tuesday morning and headed back south for Cairns. Anna and her friend Russ had decided to rent a camper themselves when we got back to Cairns and their friends that they met in Thailand, Mike, Lara and Alex, have also decided to get a camper. Unfortunately for us everyone else has two months to do what we have 6 weeks to do so they will all travel together but we cant join them. We had a couple more days chilling in Cairns by the lagoon (still haven’t paid for one campsite at this point!) and had a farewell night out with everyone (which included seeing some aboriginal men dressed as women - toooooooo weird!) and then today we set off for a place called Paronella Park. The park is a Spanish castle built in the early 1900s by a Spanish man that travelled to Oz and fell in love with it. Our entrance fee covers a night in the campsite and a night walk so that is what we spent the last hour doing. It was really cool, the guide was telling us all about the different flora and fauna and it ended with us seeing the castle lit up at night which really is beautiful. We also got to feed some eels which were really freaky looking; he was throwing the feed up on a step and they were actually sliding out of the water to get it! We also saw some turtles and fed them too. Our entrance is valid for a year so we are allowed in tomorrow to see what it is like during the day and also we get another guided tour in the light so looking forward to that!

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