Australia

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The weather was humid and it looked like there was potential for more rain. The internet was back up and running (it was down the previous night) so after a massive fry up we used the opportunity to catch up on a few bits of admin online. Unfortunately we could only get a signal from the outdoor (but undercover) tv room which was infested with mosquitoes. Despite squashing plenty, we came off worst with a good 10 big red bites each on our legs. Somebody had obviously forgotten to tell them that they don’t like Deet.

Around lunchtime, when we finally felt we’d caught up with things, we drove into the pretty seaside town of Port Douglas and parked up. The golden beach was near empty, and we were just thinking about diving into the netted square of water when it started to rain. Plan B was to do a bit of shopping, and a couple of hours later I left town with a new pair of shorts and a bikini feeling pleased with myself. The rain didn’t want to stop and came down in buckets soaking us through as we dashed between shops.

On our way back to the van we called into the bottle shop to get some wine, and found that you couldn’t actually go inside - you had to order from a hole in the wall and the shop assistant brought it out to you. It felt very strange. For a change it wasn’t a ‘drive through’ bottle shop - most that we’d seen before were in a warehouse with a drive way right through the middle a la McDonalds!

We headed back to our campsite just as we were beginning to get hungry so we weren’t tempted to eat out. Once we were plugged in with the air con working full pelt (what would we do without it!) I cooked dinner while Matt started revising his Padi instruction book so that he was ready to do his first dive as a certified diver.

The internet was still working so we used the rest of the evening to begin our packing and skype home to catch up with family.

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