Well it is that time again.. My second installment.. and what a week it has been!

We headed over to the Wicked Campervan depot to pick up our camper, we had booked to hire it out for 5 days and take it north of Cairns. It was so hot.. I was praying we were going to have air con! When we arrived we found out we had no pick on the van we got so there was good news and bad news.. Good news was that we had air con! Bad news that the van we got had rude pics on the side... All the vans are spray painted and on our van the cartoon pic was rude!.. I took pictures so will add them on here shortly but I was so embarrased driving around in it! I was just so grateful to have air con in the end as I felt like I was going to melt. We headed off to the supermarket to get some essentials and then set off on our "road trip!". Andy said he was happy to drive, so I was happy with that arrangement.

As we drove north of Cairns, we came across my first beach in Oz.. Ellis Beach! We stopped off to take some photos and then a short while later arrived at our first destination, a beautiful place called Port Douglas. We parked the van up at the Dougies camp site and were able to use their facilities. Dougies had such a great feel about the place, very open and friendly. One of the bar men used to live in Cuddington.. Such a small world. I met a guy the other day who used to go to Weaverham high School! Later we had dinner by the beach, in Oz they have bbq facilities which you are able to use.. So we cooked our dinner and then sat by the beach watching the stunning views. It was breathtaking.

Later than night we went to the bar in the hostel and had some drinks with some aussie footballers.. They were telling us about "Mad Monday's!".. Basically if you place football like the aussie rules AFL or VFL then on a Monday they all go out a drink a huge amount.. I think it is just another excuse to have a night out but hey I won't judge.. I was happy to watch them get more worse for wear whilst drinking myself to obviously!

The next morning, we were up early.. I can't describe to you just how stuffy it gets in the van without the air con on.. I was gasping for breath.. Its like camping but much warmer! We then headed over to the beach again to cook our breakfast and spent a couple of hours on the beach relaxing. Later on, we hit the road again and headed for our final destination of Cape Tribulation. What a beautiful place. We again parked up at a camp site, this time PK's and set ourselves up. In the evening, I could hear this noise coming from the bushes.. but it is in the middle of the rainforest so there were lots of strange noises, I tried to ignor it but then out popped this huge possum! It scared the life out of me!

The next day, we were up early as Andy was on the Kayaking and later on in the afternoon, I was doing the horse trek. I was a little aprehensive at first as I haven't riden a horse for a very long time, but I absolutely loved it! My horse was called Wombat and he was v well behaved.. It was exhilarating, we cantered along the beach and through the rainforest for about 3 hours and then stopped off for a swim in the creek. Such a great way to explore around Cape Trib!

A short while afterwards, I was walking from the camper to the toilets and over the last couple of days I had seen lots of frogs and gheckos on the path so didn't really pay much attention, I could hear something to my left so turned casually and OMG it was a snake!!! I absolutely have the biggest phobia of snakes so was quite suprised that I didn't freak out that much.. I mean it was only a thin tree snake about a metre long but still a snake! I even got a picture of it!

That night we had a few drinks with two guys Andy had made friends with earlier, a chap from Canada and the other a German guy. Both had met each other the previous week not knowing each other and decided to travel together! Really nice guys. A French couple joined us later for a drink. It is so strange just how many people you meet when travelling, people from all over the world, all with their own story to tell, all on their own journey. Everyone is just so friendly and Oz is truely captivating as it has so much to offer people of all ages.

Next morning, we were again up early again to make the most of the day. We went off exploring, first of all we did the Dubuji Boardwalk. I felt like a Blue Peter presenter walking through the rainforest! Andy and I looked like budding Steve Irwins looking for discoveries! We came across some strange birds, lots of gheckos.. A couple of huge ones which were so big and fast that we thought they were snakes at first! After another boardwalk we headed to a place called Mossman to check out the Mossman Gorge, again yet another beautiful place. There was a huge creek and waterfall which everyone was swimming in. We walked around the whole thing, we did so much walking! So after a busy morning, we headed back to Port Douglas.

Next day, we were up at 8am, spent the morning in Port Douglas and then headed back to Cairns so we could drop off the van. I had had such a great time up in Port Douglas and Cape Trib in the van doing all the exploring and not being restricted to where we can go and what we can see but I was so happy to get rid of it. There is no way I could have spent any more time in it! Luckily Andy had offered to do all the driving so I was happy to sit back, relax and take in the views the whole way!

After the depot, we then headed off to our new hostel in Cairns called Caravella, so much nicer than the last one, we were even lucky enough to have air con and a fridge in the room!

Ok so tomorrow I am going to dive in the Great Barrier Reef so for all the tales, tune in next week! :)