We landed in Cairns on the 11th of March and it was HOT!! Once in the hostel we went for a walk around. Cairns is a much smaller city, low buildings and right on the sea. The first day we spent organizing our time here which was a brilliant idea. It felt so good to know that the next week was organized.

Our first full day in Cairns was spent in Kurunda, a very nice village in the middle of the rain forest. We got a skyrail up over the rainforest and it was actually raining which was cool. It felt like we were floating endlessly through the clouds. We stopped off at a couple of places, had a short walk through the rainforest under umbrellas and stopped off to see Barron Falls which was bursting at the seams, we were really lucky! Apparently it's normally just a trickle of water but because of the recent cyclone there was lots of water. Once in Kurunda town we tried Australian Damper for breakfast which was amazing, basically a huge english scone with syrup and jam. We then had a walk around the market and different didgeridoo shops learning a slightly different story about how the didgeridoo is made from each one. We went into one shop which was more like a gallery and the woman let us sit there for at least two hours playing the didgeridoos and testing out all the different styles, it was so fun! I ended up buying myself one, it was gorgeous and the woman is able to send it back to the UK for me! Tony was very jealous!hehe We also brought a cool didgerisoo CD which is kind of like aboriginal drum and bass! haha To get back to Cairns we had a trip on the scenic railway which goes through about 15 hand cut tunnels and past waterfalls. It was quite cool but very cramped and very slow! Much preferred the sky rail!

Our second day in Cairns was spent on The Great Barrier Reef. We went out on a gorgeous boat to the reef which was about 60kms off of the coast! We were taken to three different reefs which all had different species of wildlife. We got into our stinger suits, snorkels, masks and flippers and jumped off the boat into a load of fish. It was great! I was pretty nervous at first as it seems like you're jumping into the middle of a deep ocean but once i'd taken a look at the reef i was off! We had Tony's underwater camera which was brilliant, got some really good pictures. We saw Zebra fish, lots of small blue fish and multi-coloured fish, loads of different types of coral obviously, baracuda, a turtle, giant clams, a small sting ray and a family of real Nemo's and Dorrey! It was fantastic, we both really enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately Tony got quite sea sick at one stage and we didn't think he'd be able to swim but a very nice man gave him a tablet for it and he was fine after that. We had a gorgeous buffet for lunch, it was sushi, salad, fruit, curry and rice, chocolate cake..It was a real treat!

Our third day in Cairns we picked up our small 4x4 we had hired for a few days. She is a Daihatsu Terrios who soon became known as Terry to us! We headed up North along the Captain Cook Highway which winds along the coast upto Port douglas. It was very nice and scenic. We stopped at a few lookout points and looked over the famous 4 mile beach. We turned up at a hostel in Port douglas where we will be staying for one night.

Got up early and went for a look around Port Douglas. It was a pretty little town but little is the key word. There wasn't a lot to see so after a visit to the port of Port Douglas we moved onto Mossman gorge. Mossman was lovely, very green! We went on a 4km walk around the park and stopped at the gorgeous green river and had fun climbing over all the rocks. After lunch we headed on upto the Daintree River. On the was we stopped at a couple of beaches and on was completely deserted, it was just us on a picturesque white sanded beach, brilliant. The only set back was a sign warning of a recent sighting of a croc! When we arrived at the Daintree river there was a crocodile cruise just about to leave so we decided to jump on it! We spotted 2 adult females, one small two year old and a tiny tiny baby crocodile! We also saw a kingfisher (Different to English ones!) a river snake, tree frog and loads of crabs and birds of prey. Oh and even a LOGODILE! haha i saw a spikey log and thought it was a crocodile so our guide decided to tease me and called it a logodile! =( hehe Back to Terry and across the river on a chain ferry to carry on our journey to Cape Tribulation. We stayed in a campsite in Cape Trib, in a cabin with a massive spider outside!! She was bigger than the size of your hand stretched outwards!!!

The next morning we woke up early to go horse riding for the morning. This is a trip i'd wanted to do since Sydney and couldn't wait. Tony wasn't so sure until he got up onto his horse and then he was loving it! We were given the two biggest and fastest horses out of the whole group! We rode through rivers, rain forest, down hills, up hills, right along the Cape tribulation beach which was gorgeous, it's where the rain forest is literally falling over onto the beach, very pretty. We got the chance to trot and cantar which was great fun. Our horses kept racing with each other, so funny! We both loved the ride, probably the best thing on the trip so far! Back at the campsite we get into Terry and head onto the 4x4 dust tracks onto Cooktown, our last destination before heading back to Cairns. The 4x4 route was tough, we drove through creeks, along bumpey tracks, into ditches for hours! We drove through one quite deep creek, very scary seeing as we had no snorkel and the water rushed up over the bonnet, luckily we made it out the other side!!! It was great fun but a long drive. We stopped at Black Mountain which was amazing, never sen anything like it. Basically it's a mountain made from millions of small black rocks. There are many aboriginal stories and farmers stories for this area. Whole herds of cattle have gone missing in the rubble! We finally reached tar mac and the Cooktown. We booked into a cute hostel for a couple of nights so that we could have a rest. There is a small wallabe in the garden right outside of our room, very cute. We had a swim in the swimming pool which was well needed!

We finally had a lie in in Cooktown and slept for 13 hours so it was obviously needed! Our first stop was the Captain Cook museum which was great, it had loads of information about the first landing and aboriginal views etc. Really interesting. After this, we drove upto a lookout point where you could see right over Cooktown and the surrounding areas. We had lunch up there on grassy hill as it was named by Cook. Grassy hill was the first place a kangaroo was seen by a european. Back in the town we had a walk along the sea front where cook landed the Endeavor in 1770 and we saw the milabi wall which local aboriginal people decorated with their art telling different stories. We decided to then go for a drive to see Trevethan falls as i wanted to see why it might be called Trevethan but after driving for an hour on a dust track we turned back as it was getting dark. On the way back we bumped into a huge snake! It was a 3m long black headed python so not poisonous but could strangle you to death! I was naturally scared stiff as we didn't know what it was but Tony was crazy enough to go up to it! After the excitement, we headed up to grassy hill again for sunset.

Today we have to head back to Cairns. It took us 4 hours along the inland route (We thought it would be best to go by road rather than dust track again) We saw loads of termite mounds on the way. Once back in Cairns we checked into a gorgeous hostel and got a motel room for less than we have paid for a hostel room before! We were able to watch TV!haha had a lazy evening before bedtime.

The next day we go to Kurunda again and chilled out playing didgeridoo all afternoon in the same place as where i'd previously brought mine. Tony found a gorgeous didgeridoo which he could play really well and brought it after bargaining the price!

Our last day in Cairns we took Terry back to her owners who did a brief check and said everything was fine. We had a lazy day down by the outside swimming lagoon in Cairns. It was very hot so after a while we headed back to hostels shaded pool which was great! Tony cooked a great dinner tonight! Steak cooked in garlic and pepper, yummy!

Cairns has been great, we really loved it!x