Cairns and surrounding areas

We arrived in Cairns on Tuesday morning, Catherine (the new member of our touring party) arrived later that day and we slept for most of the day - didnt sleep at all on the flight from Singapore - did we mention that our original flight was with an airline that recently went bust (thats the second time that has happened to me [mf]) !!! so we were transferred to Qantas (fine) but that flight was via Darwin (2 hr stop over !! marvellous).

(Pic: Michelle and Catherine meet Kutie Koalas)

Hired a car the next day - did I mention that it has been rotating from drizzling rain to full downpours since we have arrived. I can see the tan fading as we speak and there was so much work went into that too - so depressing !!

So we headed north to Cape Tribulation, stopping off in Port Douglas for lunch but as it lashed rain all day we couldnt fully appreciate the town which would look stunning when the sun was shining. Sancha did contribute to the local economy though by purchasing several sets of earrings.

We carried on north and crossed the ferry (A$ 16 return for a 3 minute trip !!!) to get to the only road that leads to Cape Tribulation and about 20kms for our destination (through a rain forest) all the cars in front of us came to a stop. It was still lashing rain so we got out to see what the hold up was - the road was completely blocked - a local creek (Coopers Creek) had burst it banks crossing onto the road and was very fast flowing. Even the 4x4's and buses were backing up and turning around. So we had to do likewise but we had plans in Cape Tribulation so we didnt want to turn back. There was only that road into Cape Trib so after trying lots of B&B's etc in the local area - we ended up in a place called Daintree and got their last cabin for the night. All the local B&B's and motels did great business that night as the road was blocked with all the tourists stuck. (Pic: View from our Daintree Cabin)

The B&B lady rang the local ranger for us the next morning to check if the road was passable and it was ok - only 0.2m apparently (wasnt sure what that meant but she was confident a car could get through) - so we headed off on the road again. By the time we got to Coopers Creek - cars were crossing but it still looked a little deep - anyway we got through. We got to Cape Trib - which is nothing more than a village with a pharmacy(run by a yank), little supermarket and accomodation places. Its in the middle of a rain forest and we are staying in a cabin with a corrugated roof (noisy when it rains !!)

(Pic: Coopers Creek @ 0.2m )

We partook of the local craze and did some "jungle surfing" - up on platforms 22 metres above the ground in the trees, with harnesses and helmets and slid from tree to tree on steel cables (the guys running it had pulleys too to yank us along... the views were great but some of it was a little nerve wrecking especially when they stopped you in the middle of a big gorge and you were left hanging !! they got a good laugh out of that.

We took also took a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef - 45 minutes to get out to the reef where we went snorkelling, swimming and diving (SM) for the day and saw lots of coral and loads of different coloured fish ... it was very cool. The sun came out while we were on the reef but the minute we headed back inland the rain and mist came down again.

(Pic: Sancha on the boat back from Mackay Reef off Cape Tribulation)

The plan is at midnight tonight we get an overnight bus down to Airlie beach from where we will head out to the Whitsunday islands - did I mention that its an 11hr trip !!!! (well that still doesnt come close to the 18hr bus trip (from hell) from Laos to Cambodia - 11 hrs is just a walk in the park !)