Cairns- Our journey to Cairns was such a mission. We flew out of Perth at half midnight but flew via Melbourne and Brisban which turned the journey into a 12 hour one as each time we had to get off the plane wait about an hour and a half and then get back on and take off again. Amazing what you'll do to get the cheap ticket!

We stayed at a hostel which was pretty central but it was so quiet in the city that it felt as if we were in the middle of nowhere. Sara Didn't fly in until Sunday night as she couldn't get on the same flight. Myself and the boys went for a walk around the city in the afternoon and got collared by two girls who persuaded us to go on a bar crawl on Saturday night. We were so tired but decided it was the only opportunity and couldn't pass by the opportunity as dressing up Mexican!

We met at a bar and were fed then moved on every hour to a different bar. As the evening went on my Ankle became painful to the point where i couldnt actually walk. Turned out that the cut from the tandem bike in Rottnest had become pretty infected. A bouncer at bar 5 out of 6 flagged down a cab for me as he looked at it and said i needed to get to the 24 hour medical centre. Fed up of all these infections - first my hand, now my ankle. Anyway, put on anti biotics and they have made me feel poorly. I dived on the barrier reef which was cool but disappointing compared to other places.

We left Cairns at 7am on Tuesday morning and had a 10 hour Greyhound bus journey to Airlie Beach. Very impressed with the service and the time went quickly (i slept loads). Andy was a day ahead of us as he didn't want to stick in Carins for too long. We met up with him out of the blue again today in Airlie as he has been on a boat trip around the Whitsundays. Turns out he is on our bus to Hervey Bay this evening. We are travelling tonight, having a night in Hervey and then doing a 4by4 trip on Fraser, as is Andy so hopefully we'll be in the same jeeps.

Airlie is a lovely place. Yesterday we went out on a rib type 50ft speedboat around the islands. The boat was called 'Fury' - it had quadroupal 225 hoursepower engines - pretty quick! We snorkelled off the boat and saw turtles and visited Whitehaven beach - one of the top 10 beaches in the world! The sand was so fine, almost pure silica and it squeeked!

We've been staying in a 10 bed dorm. First night we shared with 5 Sweedish guys and last night just a couple from Ireland. We had heard bad things about the hostel but it turned out to be fine. Clean, basic and comfy. We have loved using the kitchen facilities to cook our own tea. Ok, so it's only been beans on toast and pasta but still.

Will update again soon x