Hey there everyone, thanks for you r emails. We've been having such an a amazing time up here in Cairns. The weather has been a bit tempremental but then I suppose thats what happens in tropical places. Yesterday we went on a day trip to a place called Cape Tribulation. Its further north of Cairns, up past the Daintree River. We stopped for a boat trip on the Daintree on our way and saw a real life wild crocodile swimming along near the bank. It was quite scary but really exciting at the same time. The one we saw is called Scarface and he's the dominant male on that stretch of the river. He's 4.5 metres long and weighs a lot (I can't remember how much he said). We were really lucky to see the croc cos they don't normally come out at this time of the year or in the rain (it had been raining). It was so amazing going along the river with the rainforest everywhere around us.

A bit further on our route we went for a walk through the rainforest and saw some really weird trees, well lots of weird trees. I saw my first Australian spider, which thank GOd wasn't the bird eating kind (they're the size of your hand!), and got a glimpse of a couple of Cassawaries (probably spelt wrong) which are big birds a bit like emus but black with really brightly coloured heads. They're very rare so we were really lucky to spot them. I covered myself in my super strong insect repellent, especially my feet, cos I didn't want any creepy crawlies walking ove them cos I was wearing flip flops. I didn't get bitten by any bugs luckily - there were loads of yucky insects, and some of them spit something on you that makes your skin dissolve, then they eat it and fly off! How disgusting. Apparently thats what most of the spiders do as well.

We eventually made it to Cape Tribulation which is on the coast with amazing beaches surrounded by the tropical rainforest. The worst thing about the beaches though is you can't go in the sea! There are poisonous jelly fish everywhere - I got some good pictures of a couple that had been washed up - so you just can't risk going in the water. Its such a shame cos the beaches are so beautiful. They look just how you imagine they should be on tropical islands, with palm trees lining the beach and beautiful sand. The water round here is quite murky because of the reef so its not crystally blue, but it will get better as we move down the coast.

Tomorrow we're going diving out on the reef. We're going to do 2 dives, but we don't find out which parts of the reef we're going to until tomorrow as it depends on the weather and tides and stuff. I'm feeling a bit nervous but I know that I'm going to love it. I thought the murky lake that we trained in was fun so this will be like nothing else I've ever done. Hopefully we won't see too many sharks cos I don't want to be to scared. They'll only be 'small' ones cos the really big ones that eat you can't really get into the reef so I don't need to worry too much about that.

On Friday we're heading down to Townsville to go to Magnetic Island where we've booked to stay for 2 nights in the hostel thats in a Koala sanctuary, so there should be koalas in the trees. How cute! I haven't seen one yet, or a kangaroo, although we did see a field full of walabis yesterday on the way back from our trip. After that we're going to head straight down to Airlie Beach to sail round the Whitsunday Islands. From there on we're going to join the Grasshopper bus which is this amazing truck/bus thing that we're going to travel with down to Brisbane, stopping off along the way and visitng Fraser Island in it as well. They've got camping gear in the back, and a barbeque and a cool box (must haves of course) so I'm sure we'll have an amazing time! We're going to try out the camping and see if Emma likes it (you know what she's like with things like that!), and if not we'll just stay in hostels along the way.

We're staying in a 4-bed dorm at the moment with these two really nice girls who come from Reading. We get along really well which I'm so glad about. We spent this afternoon sitting by the pool at the hostel trying to get a tan cos we're the whitest people for miles around, and we haven't had a chance yet to spend any time in the sun. It was a bit cloudy today but still hot - about 33 degrees C I think. I think when we go out on the boat tomorrow its going to be boiling, but don't worry, we've got plenty of sun cream. Luckily our rooms have air con so we leave it on all day and night so we don't have to suffer when we go to bed. We haven't really had the chance to try any authentic Australian cuisine (whatever it might be). As we go down the coast we'll hopefully get a chance to have some nice sea food, and I really want to try shark and crocodile.

I hope you're all well and I'll be in touch soon to let you know the diving went!

Take care,
Charlotte x