I know, I know it has been far too long since our last blog entry. We've just been moving far too much and packing every minute of every day with sight seeing and great experiences to find time to get online and update the blog... We've also missed so much of South East Asia that we're jumping straight to the Australia blogs (We'll update the rest later but for now you can catch up with where we actually are in the world and not where we were 2 months ago)

And so we flew from Singapore to Australia to begin the next leg of our round the world mooch. When we eventually arrived into Cairns having barely slept a wink on the plane we got checked into our hostel and slept all morning to recover. Cairns is a very small sleepy little town where, according to most people we spoke to, you can either sleep or party!!! We only spent a few days here mainly chilling in the lagoon down by the sea (most towns on the east coast seem to have a swimming pool so you can cool off for free without the risk of getting stung by jellyfish) and drinking with Ben and Gwenno, who we'd met up with in Singapore, in the Woolshed. We left Cairns for Airlie beach and the main reason we'd come to the East coast; to sail the Whitsunday Islands and experience the Great Barrier Reef. Our boat, the SV Whitehaven, didn't have a bar on board which meant we had to stock up on booze before boarding if we wanted any during our trip. We opted for the Bundaberg Rum and a few tins of Victoria Bitters beer, we later found most people had found the cheaper option of Goon which is what the Aussies call cheap boxed wine. It tastes rank and most people mix it with lemonade but it is cheap and gets you quite merry should we say!!! The first day we were on board we stopped in 2 bays for some snorkelling. The view was spectacular, with crystal clear waters and thousands of brightly coloured fish swimming in between other worldly coral formations. We kept saying how close to the real thing they got it on Finding Nemo, with the edges of the coral ending and opening up into vast blue ocean and the numbers of different species all swimming right next to each other. That evening after lots of time spent in the water we settled down on the boat for some drinking games and a night sleeping in the rather cramped quarters of the boat. The following morning we sailed to the Whitsunday Island and got off the boat to explore. We also had some time on Whitehaven beach where we were lucky enough to spot Stingrays and Reef Sharks. Later that day we had the oportunity to explore a few bays by Kayak. It is really hard work getting around with the winds and the current dragging you one way and another but we did get over to some cool little beaches with tons of Parrots and Cockatoos flying about. We were told we could kayak to one of the other beaches for some snorkelling and so me and Heather headed over, soo n realising no one else had bothered to come. We sat on the beach waiting for our snorkels to arrive and noticed two sharks swimming around near to the beach and all the fish leaping out the water trying to escape their powerful jaws. We still dived in for a bit of a snorkell but both of us felt a little bit nervous having just seen these two sharks and so got out pretty soon after to be safe (we were told that sharks will not bother you and that they are scared of humans but I have seen Jaws way too many times to be swimming around with a shark). We had one final chance for some snorkelling before dinner and this time we were taken to a spot where an enormous Great Trevally fish called Elvis lives. I didn't actually see it but Heather managed to find him and his hareem of femlaes too. I did catch a glimpse of another giant Stingray though so I was happy. Once back on the boat our guide explained that Trevallys, and many other types of fish, can change their sex when the dominant male disappears or dies. Apparently this had happened in this area. One day Elvis swam away and a female turned into a male to fill his place when Elvis returned he was quite confused and had to fight with his ex to regain dominancy of his hareem!!! The next day we made our way back to the mainland which concluded our tour. There was a sudden gust of wind which meant for the first time in the 3 days we were able to hoist the sails and sail back into the harbour. That evening back in Airlie Beach we were treated to some jugs of beer as a bit of a leaving party and one final blow out. We ended up drinking with Matty and Nicky, a couple from Essex till the early hours of the morning. We met back up again the following day for some hangover recovery in the lagoon and a wind down before we embarked on a 24 hour bus journey to Alice Springs for our next tour of the Red Centre and Uluru...