G'day there!

Darren and Kerry again here all the way from Cairns in Oz. I know we said we were'nt going to up date you all again for a while but we have some free internet time here on a camp site so we thought we would give you a quick update on the last couple of days.

Friday evening we hooked up with everyone from the Whitsunday tour for a couple of drinks and to grab everyone's details so that we can stay in touch. The pub we went to was called Beaches and there was a live band playing who were really good. After a couple of hours of good laughter with everyone we made our excuses and left to get on the road again heading for Townsville.

Saturday morning we drove through a small town called Ayr but only stayed long enough to grab some milk for our cereal before heading further up the coast to Townsville. We arrived just after midday in Townsville and the place looked like a ghost town. Saturday afternoon and barely one shop was open!! The Aussies have it far too easy with the work I tell you! We uploaded some new pics for you guys in an internet cafe and then we spent the afternoon strolling around.

Sunday we got a text from our Danish friends Mads and Maria, whom we met when we were staying in Melbourne. They were in town and wanted to meet up so we went for a drink in a local cafe. They have driven all the way around the West coast and right across the top in only a few months. They even got to work at a crocodile farm getting to help the little crocs hatch from their eggs!! We thought we had cool jobs in the theme parks! We spent the rest of the day trying to figure out whether to do our diving course in Townsville but decided that it was too expensive and that we should head to Cairns. On the way to Ingham we briefly stopped at Jourama Waterfalls, which were pretty impressive.

Monday we drove from a rest stop near Ingham, stopping on the way to do a rainforest walk and spotted a huge Goanna! In the afternoon we drove over our first creek along the road with warnings about Crocs in the water! We stopped off at a national park near the beach front and went for a walk along a mangrove boardwalk where there was lots of warnings about Crocs on the beach. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any however we felt pretty scared walking along knowing that there could be crocs in the creeks we were walking over! In the evening our last visit was down to Mission Beach, which was very pretty and looked a lot like Cape Hillsborough near Mackay.

Today we arrived in Cairns and have booked our diving course for $600, which lasts for 5 days, 3 days of which are spent living out on the reef on a beautiful boat, with our own cabin!! Sweet! The day got even better when we got a text from Mads and Maria stating that they were in Cairns too and that they would be staying in the same caravan park. Tonight we plan to have a good chin wag with them over a glass of goon and then tomorrow we are up early for the first day of our diving course. Will update you all again soon!