Gi'Day to all the Blokes and Sheilas reading, time for another update however we will try to keep this one short and sweet as there is 1 more to come from the east coast which will include Kakadu National Park and The Great Barrier Reef so we will leave the storytelling to the last! Bet you are glad after the last novel!!!

We left Airlie beach and headed up the coast to Townsville where caught the ferry over to Magnetic Island and took our wheels with us. The island is pretty small and you can drive it in around 30 mins but we have to say it is stunning, there are many many awesome enclosed bays and beaches along with some great hiking as well.

We spent most of time on Magnetic hiking the different trails around the island and taking pics of the stunning scenery, spent a bit of time on the beaches however it did rain a lot while we were there so it was minimal time on the beach or back to rain-bathing again!!!

At dusk you can drive out to the end of the wharf as see the rock wallabies coming out to feed for the night....they are not afraid of you and we had them right up next to us....that may be because we fed them a little bread, although dont think you were supposed to....but you know us anything for a good snap for the memories!!!!!

After Magnetic we headed to Cairns to sell our beloved white mercedes (thats what we liked to call it anyway)....we had some great luck as we fly postered in all the hostels and internet cafes in the morning and we had 7 phonecalls that night to take a look at it and we managed to sell for $250 over what we paid....mega!!!!

Met up with Louise, Jas, Ben, Reece, Tom and James in Cairns again and we all hired cars and headed up to Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas for 5 days. Cape Trib is beautiful, its where the tropical rainforest meets the sea. we spent 2 days in Cape Trib doing a bit of hiking during the day and a night walk as well........the night walk was a bit spooky, you dont really know whats round about you at that time as you only have a torch for light! Seen many different frogs and lizards along with some of my favourites...spiders!!!! Up in the Cape the spiders are pretty huge, even Amanda could not exaggerate the size of these things...have a look at the pics and you will see!!! We also tried to do some croc spotting on the night walk as well but the only thing we could spot was a loggadile....not quite the same as the real thing!!! We also managed to see a Cassowary in the wild. Amanda on her way back from the toilet almost walked right into one! Bearing in mind that they can disembowel a man with one flick of it's razor sharp claw, she got a close up and came out unscathed.... A very rare thing apparently to see them in the wild as they are an endangered species.... We managed to get a few pics aswell without getting too close!

Headed down to Port Douglas after that and again satyed a couple of nights there...had a wander around town which is really beautiful and totally laid back.......however most of the time spent in Port Douglas was at the bar of our hostel...many jugs were drank and there were a few casualities on the 1st night! Tom and James had their kit off as usual and James managed to mess his foot up trying to do some kind of combat roll into the pool......Jas wouldnt go to bed and kept goign back to the bar even though she didnt need anymore...Louise got put to bed by Amanda and James......and we all awaoke the following morning still drunk!!! The next night went much the same and we headed back to Cairns to drop the cars off after that.

Had our last night with everyone on the saturday night, said our farewells, which again was another booze fest but no real casualties....then we headed off for Darwin and Kakadu National Park on the Monday morning.

Next instalment will be Kakadu National Park along with The Great Barrier Reef...so until then we will say goodbye and catch up with you all again real soon.

Luv,

Amanda & Greg xx