Hello from OZ! I have been here a week already and am enjoying the brilliant hospitality of family friends Libby and Gerald (they even picked me up from the airport!). At the beginning of the week they showed me the real Australia and they took me north to Cooktown, funny enough the place where Captain Cook first landed. It was great fun as we drove much of the way on dirt roads and Gerald got a chance to really test his 4wd. On the way we stopped at Cape Tribulation and saw a massive lizard (check out photos). The bars up there are weird as well as you leave your change at the bar once you have ordered a drink until you need another one. It made people from Bristol seem normal! After a few days north we made for there farm house at Ravenshoe in the Atherton Tablelands and had a drink at the 'Highest' pub in Queensland. I had great fun here as I got to drive a quad bike around there land and even have a go at hearding there cattle. We also went looking for tree kangaroos but due to the recent cyclone that devastated there rainforest it was always going to be unlikely that we would see any. For one of the evening meals there I even got to enjoy one of the past members of there cattle and it was lovely. Its a pretty spooky place though as Dingoes hang out in the forest and Possums (spelling?) run around in the roof, nice! We are currently at there beachfront house at Mission Beach and it is as nice as it sounds. I can hear the waves as I am writing this. Today we took Geralds boat and went up the river to its mouth where it meets the sea and did some fishing. The river is crawling with both crocs and sharks so struggled to see the funny side when the boat engine backfired! Gerald said he was in control though. On this journey I gained an appreciation for the term Logodile, when a floating log looks like a croc. Although I did not see the real thing I saw plenty of these! It was the sort of river where you wouldn't have been shocked if Mic Dundee jumped out from the forest! We also went to a small island and did some beach fishes and Gerald even caught a fish although he put it back in. We also saw some Cassowary tracks, which is basically a massive birs that can cut you right open. They are not naturally aggressive but have killed people in the past so I can't say I'm not gutted we didn't see one. In the evening we finished the day off with a really nice BBQ. I cannot thank Libby and Gerald enough for showing me around and look forward to spending next week with them as well. See ya later.