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Day 78 - The Wet Tropics, Queensland
We are not still in Melbourne as the title may say! The computer we are on will not let us choose anywhere else! We are actually writing from Airlie Beach on the east coast of Queensland.
Since our last blog we have been very busy and mainly soggy!! From Melbourne we flew to Cairns and stayed there for a few days before we picked up our campervan. Cairns was very humid and we became quite good a dodging in and out of shops to avoid the downpours. We had not realised that we had entered the wet tropics at the beginning of the rainy season! Between the rain showers we got to explore the city. It is very lively and full of travellers, and we enjoyed spending a few days there.
We picked up our campervan and were both pleased to see the imaginative artwork on the side! It has a picture of a female pirate sitting with her treasure with the words "booty call" all across the side. Needless to say we have had some interesting comments. The best one was when we were in a family campsite and a group of children were very excited by the pirate, however it was quite funny watching the parents struggle to explain the writing.
Our first stop was Port Douglas, slightly north of Cairns. John went on a snorkel trip to the barrier reef which was fantastic. There were thousands of colourful fish swimming amongst the coral. Louise stayed on dry land with chocolate sheltering from the rain. From here we left for Cape Tribulation but unfortunately the road to get there was flooded so we reluctantly turned back. The next few days were spent driving back down south through the Atherton Tablelands passing some beautiful waterfalls on the way.
There was a welcome break from the rain once we reached Townsville which is in a "rain shadow". We stayed here for a few days and ventured over to Magnetic Island for a day. We spent the day exploring a few beaches in a "classic moke" basically a forty year old glorified go kart, complete with a choke! The beaches were probably the most beautiful ones we have seen so far with turquoise sea and white sands. Unfortunately there are Box jellyfish along most of the coast, so you can only swim in areas where there are nets. We have been in a few times though, and even swam in the rain yesterday like true brits!
We have been in Airlie beach for the past two days and are booked on a sailing tour of the Whitsunday islands for the weekend. John will get another chance to snorkel the reef and Louise will be a lady of leisure, yacht style! We're both really excited about the trip and hopefully it will be one of our highlights from this part of our trip.
We've got more photos to come, but it is difficult finding public computers that allow you to upload them!
We'll try and update it again soon,
Love John and Louise xxxx
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