Hello from Down under possums!

Well we arrived a bit bruised and dazed after a really crap flight from Singapore. They forgot to mention that the plane stopped off at Darwin after four hours and we had to dissembark, go through security and sit in a lounge for an hour before resuming another 4 hrs to Cairns, needless to say little sleep was had though we did manage to grap a few hours.

Arrived at cairns airport to rigarous security and immigration screening just in case we were trying to smuggle in wood/ bugs/ animals etc. I declared my wooden hand mirror just in case otherwise it was $1k fine!

The pick up for the hostel wasnt outside, but Steve phoned and they were there in 20mins and we were whisked off to the hostel in central cairns.

Now considering this was the 1st hostel i have ever been in never mind stayed ( and usually dont stay in anything below 4 star) it was "ok". That doesnt mean to say i will be seeking out said hostel again at any time soon (or even Ciarns for that matter) the room was clean and nice enough, though lacked a bit of natural light as it backed onto another house, but sharing a loo, errrrch! particularily as others have travellers poos, no thank you!!! Managed to pull through though Steven will tell you i havent stopped b****ing about it yet.

The location was good though as it was just at the back of the central shopping mall so we spent the first day having a mooch around and getting our bearings and doing a bit of shopping for dinner.

Cairns has a lovely salt water swimming lagoon on the esplanade at the front but otherwise its a bit of a hole, full of hostels, cheap tacky shops and bars with drunk locals, aboriginals and 18 yr old americans falling out of them. If you ever go to Queensland stay in Port Douglas up the coast you can do everything you can do from Cairns and its alot nicer.

After much diliberation and a bit of help from the guy at the hostel we booked two day tours the first to Daintree and cape tribulation and the 2nd to the great barrier reef.

A bus picked us up from the hostel and our first stop was a nature park, which replicates different environments within the locality and then fills them with native inhabitants and you simply walk through the middle on timber walkways. I wasnt much taken with the bird enclosures as they just fly at you (and i was scared in case one poo'd in my hair and i was left stinking for the rest of the day) we saw koalas (cute but mostly asleep) wallabys with baby in pouch (see pic) crocs and kangaroos (which we have now eaten and was a bit bland to be honest) who looked mean. Was quite cool all in all but we only had an hr there so was a little rushed. Next stop was Mossman gorge which is a glacial marraine and is pretty stunning and had a bit of a walk around, we were going to go swimming in one of the swim holes but the fish looked mean and it was a bit green so i didnt go in. Next was a stunning drive through the daintree forest upto the cape where we got to walk on the beach and had a stunning lunch (i'm never going to have chocolate cake that good again!) After lunch it was onto another walk through a mangrove swamp, which wasnt that great and Steve got proper eaten by sand flys so we had to leg it out of there and back to the safety of the bus. Next up daintree river cruise to spot crocs, according to the guide some bumps sticking out the water under a tree was a massive 7fter but couldnt see anything if i was honest.

Cairns may be a hole but god its bloody beautiful scenery around it.