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Hi everyone,
We arrived in Cairns just over a week ago and was glad to be out of the cold weather we had in Perth - Danny had to buy a jumper when the temperature dropped below 20 degrees.
Our flight arrived at 4:30am but our hostel wouldn't give us a free transfer until 8:30am. So rather than pay for a taxi to the hostel and be stuck outside until after 7am (the hostels lock their doors at night) we decided to wait for the lift. These were the longest four hours ever - the one time we didn't want our flight to be on time and it arrived early!
Obviously the big highlight of Cairns is the Great Barrier Reef. We decided that this was something we had to do so we book ourselves onto a tour and made sure we hired an underwater camera. On the trip we were booked in for an introductory dive but were disappointed when they told us we weren't allowed to take our camera :(.
Michelle - Having never been scuba diving before I was quite nervous about it. When the boat got to the first diving sight we were told we were in group 4 so had time to go snorkelling first. Even snorkelling in the open sea is quite scary and I was unsure whether id be able to go diving, however, I knew id regret it if I didnt.
When our turn came they put all the weights on us and the gas cannister and told us to get into the water and hold onto the bars under the boat. We had to be able to take the mouth piece out and be able to put it back in. I kept breathing out too much so that I couldn't blow the air out when put back in. After two attempts and having to keep coming up to the surface, I managed to do it (but 1 out of 3 aren't the best odds when trying to breath underwater). Once I`d done it the instructer was keen to go - we had a group of 4 and one girl just swam back. We dove around 7-8 meters down, but I didn't see as much as I could as I was concentrating on equalising my ears and breathing, oh and one eye in my mask was steamed up. It was a really good experience though and when we went snorkelling at the second sight I saw a turtle and there was alot more coral and fish to look at.
On our way back at the end of the day, the captain of the boat said that there was humpback whales swimming around 10 meters away from the boat. Everyone was crowding to see but we had a good view of two large whales and a baby - They were massive and kept coming up and diving back down. It was amazing and was a fantastic end to the day (we have a video but its too large to attatch).
That evening we were invited to a BBQ at a neighbouring hostel. We had Kangaroo, Emu and Crocodile from the Barbie - which weren't the nicest meats to be honest. After eating there was a digeridoo contest but our names weren't drawn out of the hat so we couldn't enter. The host was really funny though, so if you're ever in Cairns make sure you go to the Tropic Days Monday night BBQ.
After a couple more days hanging around Sunny Cairns and topping up our tans we decided it was time to begin our journey towards Sydney. Instead of taking the bus we decided to hire a camper van so that we could go at our own pace. Getting hold of the van wasn't very easy though as Lloyds TSB decided to block my credit card for no good reason and would not let me unlock it as I wasn't the principal cardholderr and wouldn't let my Mum unlock it either!
Since then we have been making our way down the East coast, stopping at Townsville, Arlie Beach, Town of 1770 (where Captain Cook first landed), and we are now in Hervey Bay. In all we have travelled 1800km - about the distance from Manchester to Italy!
Tomorrow we are going on a tour of Fraser Island for 2 days and a night so expect some cool pictures from that soon.
Hope you're all ok x x
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