Hey guys,

After settling into Cairns and a crazy first night in the hostel we set off for our tour of Cape Tribulation which is just north of Cairns, its an amzing place as its the only place in the world where 2 world heritage sites meet - the reef and the rainforest. Our tour guide picked us up at 7:30am, and was definately a bit too cheery for that time in the morning! After picking everyone up we set off in the minibus and the first stop was daintree river to look for some crocodiles!! we actually saw one in the water and another in the rushes at the side of the river, although you wouldn't know it from my photos!! my zoom isn't too good and it just looked like a shadow on the water - will upload some of al's when he puts them on as his were much better. After that we headed for the rainforest itself and had a short guided walk. The guide had told us that we would be really lucky to see a cassawarrie (a rainforest bird that can grow to be larger than a human and are quite dangerous), and sure enough, near to the end of the walk one walked right up close to our group. Everyones first reaction of course is to take a photo -so the flashes started to go off which can scare the birds and can be quite dangerous, and by the time I had worked out how to knock the flash off my camera it had walked away - so all I have is a dark blur, really need to get better with the photography!! After that we headed for our hostel which was a cool place right up in the rainforest and went out for a walk to explore the beaches. The beaches were absolutely amazing and pracically deserted, the photos don't really do them justice, the only disappointment being that because it is jellyfish season you caouldn't go in the sea at all.

The next day we decided to leave all the expensive touristy activities and planned a trek of our own using the guide leaflet at reception. We planned to trek 8km into the jungle to find a watering hole and deerted beach. We set off at 11am, just as it was getting v hot and immediately regretted wearing flipflops!!! 2 hours later we found we almost there when we entered a small jungle path and I saw my first australian snake!!! only a baby one mind so I hope to see another one again soon! We found the watering hole, which was stunning, and again practically deserted, had our picnic and went to explore the beach. We found the remains of a dead crayfish on the beach and al climbed a tree to get some coconuts for us to drink from (not great . . . wouldn't recommend it!) and then headed back for our mammoth trek home!