G'day. Well after the joys of sailing out on the Great Barrier Reef I found myself heading north to Cape Tribulation on an overnight trip. Along the way we stopped off at the Daintree River where we went crocodile spotting. Only managed to see a baby one but it was a croc none-the-less and it could still have ripped my arm off. Way back in 1996 the area received 1 metre of rain in 24 hours which swelled the river to sixteen times its normal size and sent crocs all over the local area.

Cape Trib is special as it is the only place on Earth where two World Heritage sites are back-to-back, there's the rainforest and the reef. The rainforest stretches all along the northern part of the coast above Cairns and runs right up to the beach. It's stunningly beautiful. It is known as Cape Trib as it was whilst Cook was sailing past on his tour of the East Coast in 1770 that he ran aground on the reef.

The hostel I was staying at was one of only three in the area and the only one with a bar. I was in a dorm with a group of five lads who were travelling with five chicks. In the afternoon I went off exploring as was told by the receptionist that I should attempt to cross the creek on the beach at low tide as that would be when the croc was further upstream. I kid you not. So, rather hesitantly I went for a walk up to the cape. I was the only person on the beach and the sun was shining. I skipped across the creek just at the right time and walked along the waters edge.

On the cape there is a look-out point where you can view Cape Trib beach, it's a pretty cool view and the look-out was crammed with tourists. I hung back waiting for it to get quiet. I proceeded to set up the tri-pod, do a few catlogue poses and then head back along the deserted boardwalk. Minding my own business I happened to look up and see a snake slithering across the path in front of me. My first thoughts can't be repeated but they were followed by 'Get the camera, get the camera'. By which point the aforementioned reptile had slithered off into the bush. Now, it wasn't huge but fully strecthed out I would say it was about a metre long, and it was a snake, a wild snake, probably one that would kill me or at least give me a nice bite. Hence, as soon as it was out of sight, I went running on to the beach like a little girl. I decided enough was enough and maybe I should head back to the hostel.

There were two possible routes back, one along the road and one along the beach. Now let me put this into persepctive. If you go in the sea you wil be stung by 'stingers', lovely jellyfish to those who are not Antipodean natives. They are common in the waters off the East Coast throughout the summer and you have to wear a stinger suit if you intend to venture into the water safely. So that rules the water out, if you go along the beach then there is a chance you'll become the croc's next meal, if you walk along the paths then there are 15 possible snakes you will encounter all of which are none too friendly to English people and, get this, there's also a Cassowary. 'A what?' I hear you cry. A cassowary, and as the sign says, 'Be Cass-o-wary'. That's right, these bad boy birds are the second largest flightless bird in the world and will come at you looking for food. Some numpty has been feeding it in the Cape Trib area and so it thinks nothing of approaching humans. If you were to see it then you would probably run, which to be fair might be the last thing you'll do as it will come bounding towards you, jump one and a half metres in the air and rip your vital organs out of your chest with one foul-swoop of it's talons. Finally, there is the rainforest itself, that contains such pleasant plants as the 'Wait-a-while' which will stick it's spikes into you, meaning you'll be waiting a while to be rescued then there is my personal favourite, the one that has a name which at this very moment has escaped my rather warm head. I can though remember what it's like, it's a plant that has very fine spikes on it and when you touch it, these tiny little specks of carbon-fibre like material stick themselves into your skin. They itch, they burn and you will cry like a little baby. The pain can last up to six months, as you will think you'll have got rid of them all then you will jump in the shower and the water will bring them all back to the surface and make you weep once again. And to think that early explorers used the leaves of these plants to wipe their backsides........

So, that was Cape Trib, a nice place to visit providing you are wrapped up in bubblewrap and can swim faster that a croc. Other than that then there is not much to say about the place except I walked back to the hostel rather quickly.

I returned to Cairns for one night after being in Cape Trib and checked into the YHA on the Esplanade. There's no beach in Cairns (have I said this before?) and so they built a huge swimming pool/lagoon that everyone can enjoy all day, every day. There are even BBQs you can use for free so you can put another shrimp on the barbee and then dive in to the cool water.

From Cairns I made my way on the Greyhound down to Mission Beach. The guy who picked me up was pretty awesome but that's about it. The place was dead, especially after half two in the afternoon when all four cafes shut simultaneoulsy. The hostel was in the treetops and was mostly open plan; the bedrooms didn't have locks on them, and the place was swarming with flies. The beach was ok but was a good walk from the hostel; it too was dead apart from the lifeguard who had the easiest job in Australia and looked rather brown. I made the mistake of staying there two nights and really, it was a bit of a let down. The only thing that remotely saved it was that it was hot, there was a pool and hammocks and I slept a lot and worked on the tan. Other than that, I wouldn't recommend the place.

I moved on after two days down to Magnetic Island and a hostel that incorporated a wildlife park. This place was far, far better. The dorms were mixed so it meant I was sharing with some pretty cool people. The rooms were en-suite and air conditioned. In my room there was a Dutch lad called Lars and two English chicks called Nicky and Amy. The four of us spent most of the time there together and it was great to have some company after the shambolic time at MB. We spent the first night drinking schooners and playing cards, the second day saw us visit the wildlife park. There was a baby croc that lashed out when it was my turn to hold it, a two-metre snake that I had wrapped around my neck and then the rather sexually-frustrated Koala. Did you know that crocs can distinguish between an animal's tongue lapping at the water and a human entering the water from a distance of 80 metres and that they will remember the daily routine of their prey so to coincide with their feeding time. Scary stuff and yet another reason why entering the water in Australia is just a silly, silly thing to do. As for the sexually frustrated Koala, then he has been trying to chat up a new female Koala for the past week but she has been paired off with another male leaving him to sit there and eat eucalyptus leaves and sleep all day. It's a hard life. The package I was on meant I got chance to hold the aforementioned Koala and have the obligatory cheesy photo taken with it, all the time wary that it might sh.. down the front of me. Koalas take a week to digest their food and think nothing of doing their business in front of tourists.

That afternoon we hired some rather attractive, and small, stingersuits and trekked across the island to a little secluded cove where there was a shipwreck and where the coral reef was easily accessible. The sea was pretty murky as the tide was kicking up lots of sand and my face mask acted like a flask and filled up with water, despite my best efforts. Salty water in one's eyes and in one's mouth was not very nice and I lasted slightly longer than the rest in the sea at about 40 minutes. The rest of the time was spent relaxing on the beautiful beach and trying to get out of the none-too-flattering medium sized stinger suit that barely covered my knees and elbows and would have been of very little use if Mr and Mrs Jellyfish had wanted to come and tickle me.

That evening saw us playing volleyball in the pool, drinking beer, eating pasta and playing cards before falling into bed to listen to the sexually frustrated Koala call out to other females on the island for most of the night.

On Saturday I made my way south yet again, this time to Airlie Beach and the home of the Whitsunday Islands. I was in a dorm with a Scottish lad, Stuart, and a few other randoms. Together with Stuart and his friend James we headed out on the night to sample the delights of Airlie Beach and watch the football before falling into our beds for the excitement of the following day.

That's right, Sunday afternoon saw me board an 83ft Maxi racing yacht called Boomerang, alongside 24 others to sample the delights of the Whitsunday Islands. There are quite a few different boats to choose from but with name like 'Boomerang' I knew that no matter what happened, I would be coming back. There are 74 islands just off the coast at Airlie and they were named by old Captain Cook on, surprisingly, Whit Sunday, the day he discovered them. They are littered with beautiful sandy beaches, little coves home to sections of coral reef and one of the best and most private resorts in the world.

We set sail from the harbour in Airlie mid-afternoon loaded up with fizzy drinks of the intoxicating variety and a crew of four and headed out into the ocean for some sailing fun. We hadn't been out of port for more than an hour when the wind turned and the heavens opened to give us some "Liquid sunshine". We donned some rather attractive yellow sailing macks and smiled bravely as the waves came crashing over the front and the yacht leaned into the ocean and we held on for dear life. The words "I was sick on a pedalo once" sprang to mind as I tried to focus on the horizon that was bobbing up and down.

Eventually the wind and rain died and we put down anchor and went for a swim off the boat. It was such good fun even though we were only in the water for a very short time as it is so salty and blooming freezing. The fact that it is so salty explains why the coral reef flourishes there - it needs salty water to survive. This was followed by some time where we nibbled on snacks and got to know the other people on board. There was a real mix of nationalities and most 'groups' kept themselves-to-themselves. I tried my best to mingle with as many as possible and spent the majority of my time chilling with Toby, or as the pictures will eventually show, Tom Hanks from Castaway or the taller of the two robbers from Home Alone. He was there with his girlfriend Varina.

Now, after living on a diet that focused primarily on pasta and sauce for the past three weeks you can imagine my delight when it was announced that dinner would include steak. Oh baby, I thought I was in Argentina. Being the gentlemen I am, I allowed others to go in front of me and three numpty Koreans who couldn't undertsand a word of English, so god only knows what would have happened to them if we had gone the same was as the Titanic; you can imagine my disappointment/disgust/anger/frustration at realising when I got to get my food that all the steak had gone. The guy behind me told the captain who went ballistic and apologised profusely and insisted that several 'vegetarians' must have felt peckish and turned down the options of veggie lasagne or fish to sample beef. The lad behind me and I shared the two options between us, they were nice but nothing compared to the steak, apparently.

After being rocked to sleep surrounded by wet clothes, we awoke the next morning to clear skies and breakfast on deck. A few bowls of cereal, some honey on bread and I was ready to go. We put up sail and headed to Whitehaven Beach, THE beach in the Whitsundays and the place were NASA paid an extortionate amount of money for sand. The sand here is some of the freshest and purest on Earth (there's a fault line just off the coast) and it makes the best glass in the world. NASA bought a stupid amount of it to make the glass that made up the lens in the Hubble Telescope. On our way to the beach we were all sprawled out across the deck sunning ourselves. I was near the front with Toby, Varina and a fellow traveller, Caroline, just chilling and chatting when we dropped over one wave and hit another smack on, I jumped up just in time to avoid having my shorts flooded, then decided to move behind the girls and put them in the line of fire. Everyone was just getting dry when another roller sent us up and then smacked us back down into a wave which smashed over the front of the boat and sent all four of us flying down the boat and nearly sent several others who had their feet hanging over the sides into the water. We were absolutely drenched but it was so so good. The only way I could best describe it would be to say that, that was proper sailing.

We dropped anchor soon after and made our way onto Whithaven Beach. A few pictures followed before we donned our stinger suits and made our way into the clear blue sea. It was lovely and warm and the sun was sweltering. You can imagine what I'm going to say, red hot sun + James = red hot nose on one's face. Toby and I were just walking through the water when we saw something lurking over to our right. The shape was that of a shark, a relatively big shark, about a metre in length. We both looked at each other in disbelief and began walking towards it (I know, common sense), then common sense really kicked in and we started walking (running like little girls) away from it as it turned and made it's way towards us. Being brave we turned to see if we could see it but it had gone, sadly, but to see a shark in the wild, close to you is an experience well worth having, and living to tell.

We spent the rest of the time on the beach playing football before heading back to the boat for lunch and an afternoon sailing. We dropped anchor after a while and went snorkelling in a little bay. The reef here was as good as the one I snorkelled at in Cairns. It was so clear and array of wildlife was amazing. The fish, well, the fish are just beautiful and in abundance. You name the colour and there was a fish with that colour on it. I also spotted two stingers, one that was about the size of my hand and another that was bloody huge. I made like the Thorpedo and swam quickly away from both. After tasting the water several times more I decided to call it a day and we headed back to the yacht to continue our days sailing. Eventually we dropped anchor and sat down to a quality meal of satay chicken and rice. I feel I should let you know that I made sure that I was in front of the Koreans and I went back three times to polish of the chicken. It was lovely and just about made up for the lack of steak. The night was spent drinking whisky and coke and playing cards. The boat was so warm it was almost unbearable, and some people slept on deck, where it rained.

And boy did it rain; it lashed down on us the next morning as we headed back to Airlie with Captain James sailing us in. Well sailing us in until the whitehorses got too big and the real captain insisted that he should take over. Thank goodness for travel sickness tablets. The whole trip was awesome and although the weather wasn't brilliant all of the time, seeing sharks, the reef again, stingers, a turtle and Whitehaven in the sunshine made the trip well worthwhile.

The afternoon was spent asleep in the hostel whilst also trying to get washing done before we regrouped on the night for some food. The four of us went to Cactus Jacks for 'Chilli Tuesday', and I joined in the 'all you can eat chili for $8'. This was washed down by a cocktail and a few beers before we went on to another bar and met the rest of the sailing crew.

Overall, the week has been one of the best of the whole trip. So many decent people, so many happy days, and endless amounts of memories. Tonight it's an overnight coach to 1770 and then once there I'll decide the plan for Australia Day and maybe Bundaberg to see turtles hatching on the beach.