We Made It To Cairns!!

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So after Mission Beach we caught our last bus up the East Coast to Cairns... it was raining when we arrived and we haven't seen the sun for longer than an hour for nearly a week!!

Cairns is small for a city but full of tourist tour operators and links to go on tours to the reef, Kuranda and tours upto Cape Tribulation which is in the heart of the tropical rainforest. we stayed in a place called Rosie's backpackers for a few days with Charlotte while Louise and Megan finished their live-aboard dive course (which they absolutely loved!). unfortunately when the weather is crap in Cairns there isn't much to do apart from sitting around the hostel or wandering into town to go on the cheap internet or recieve our free evening meals with food vouchers!

There is a massive lagoon here and lots of lovely cafes to sit outside and watch the world go by...but im sure both of them would be nicer in the sun. The night life here though, is really good and with a million bars designed for backpackers we have had a few good nights out already! (sorry Grandma... promise won't drink when i get home!)

We have managed to do a few dood trips in Cairns already though. We booked to go up to Cape Tribulation...(named by Captin Cook because that was apparently where all of his tribulations started!) it is literally in the heart of the Rainforest and is so beautiful. one our way to Cape Trib, which is about 2-3hours drive from Cairns we stopped off at a wildlife santurary...which my mam would have loved!! it had a tropical birds section where we walked through and saw some of the most amazing birds...massive cassawaries, black neck storks, brightly coloured parrots and gorgeous blue Kookaburras. we also had a close encounter with a python and hand fed wallabies and massive kangaroos (one of which had a joey in its pouch!). fab!

Then we went around the windy roads until we reached the Daintree River, where we were took on a class cruise and Ant spotted the dominant 4.5metre long male crocodile of the area! we also saw tree snakes, rainbow birds and loads of other crocs!

We had a brilliant time in Cape Trib... me Ant and Charlotte stayed in a small hut in PK's Jungle Village... when we got there we went for a walk through the deep rainforest (which is about 140million years old!) and saw some amazing plants and trees! some leaves were bigger than me! on our second day we did a 3 hour walk through the rainforest to Emmagen Creek. Unfortunately the path was too over grown to risk in flip flops as we spotted a Golden Globe spider we then decided to head back! We walked back along the beach where we had to climb over some rocks... saw millions of crabs...was keeping an eye out for the resident crocs that just lye on the beach, but didn't see any. (don't know if thats a good thing or a bad thing?). We then had a fast shuttle back to Carins.

The next day was a sad one as we watched the crap England V Brazil match in our hostel...actually thought we were guna win...but no no we are English we have to let a goal in, in the last minute!
Then we had to say goodbye to Megan and Charlotte as they caught their plane to Hong Kong... bit of a tearful fairwell as we have been travelling with them for over 3 months and we miss them loads already!
After they left Ant, Louise and me got our millions of bags together and walked to our campsite (which nearly killed us)... anyway we got there checked in and the friendly manager started telling us about a boat on the Great Brrier Reef called the Reef Encounter... he said if we paid for a 1 night tour we could register as a 'hostie' and live on the boat for a few more days for free...with free accomodation...amazing free meals...and best of all free dives! so we booked up for early the next morning and went for it!!......

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