Australia!!!!

Cairns

Hi Guys!

We have now been in Australia for nearly 2 weeks and we are loving it! It has taken us a while to acclimatise to the temperatures here as it's so hot - when we landed at 5am in Cairns the temperature was already 28 degrees and it was still hitting 34 degrees at 7:30pm! We suffered with just a measley fan in our room the first couple of nights and then had to threaten our hostel that we would leave if they didn't move us to a room with proper air conditioning!

Anyway, Cairns was fantastic and we really loved it! It's a marina town without a beach but the nightlife and locals are great! We settled into Cairns enjoying the outdoor lifestyle - BBQ's on the beach and the big open air lagoon. We spent many evenings in the Woolshed with friends from the hostel (big shout out to Matt Reid!) -lots of beer, free evening meals and lots of fun!

Cairns also proved to be the perfect departure point for numerous trips. Although we didn't have the time or money to go on all of them we decided on day's boat trip to snorkel on the Barrier Reef. Onboard a 40ft sail boat, we headed out to Green Island just 2 hours off the coast.

It's a beautiful tropical island and we were soon swimming with the fish on the reef. The fish were bigger and better than in Koh Tao however the visability was not quite as good. It was only when we were eating lunch on the boat that 3 black tip reef sharks started circling the boat. Although we were aware of their presence, they didn't look too scary from the boat so we jumped back in after lunch. Lucy was lucky enough to end up face to face with one which resulted in her walking on water back to the boat. Russell was able to view them from a greater distance where they seemed less menacing!

All in all Cairns was a great city which really grew on both of us. Initially we were slightly disappointed with the lack of beaches and the fact that there was a 3.6m croc captured from one of the creeks in town! The locals were great though and we made some fab friends.

Magnetic Island.

"Maggie" was our next stop - 5 hours south of Cairns and off the coast of Townsville. We spent two nights here and decided to fill our days wildlife spotting as it's supposed to be one of the best places to see Koalas and Wallabies in their natural habitat. In order to get to these remote places on the island we had to hire a "moke".

As you can see this "Barbie Dream Car" was perfect for Lucy and made her day!

We were lucky enough to see two Koalas although unfortunately we didn't see any of the death adders under the trees below them (there were warnings about these everywhere!). Also saw Rock Wallabies, a Green Tree snake and had our first swim in the sea. Unfortunately we had to swim within the confines of a stinger net as it's jelly fish/stinger season here.

Magnetic Island was a nice stop but we were stuck in a very large hostel with too many people. We made some good friends but it seemed to be a quick stop-off point for most people.

Airlie Beach

A further 5 hours south of Townsville is the beautiful Airlie Beach. It's an awesome setting with the Whitsundays just off shore, parrots in the trees and lovely azure seas. We tried to book up for a boat cruise leaving the day after we arrived however it was full so we have had to wait around until Saturday 18th Feb to get on the boat we want. This also coincides with Russell's birthday! Yay! Russell gets to spend his birthday on the Whitsundays!

Our boat is a racing trimeran and accommodates 20 people. We can't wait! We will be spending 3 days exploring deserted tropical islands, snorkelling on the outer reef and loving every minute of it! For all it's natural beauty we felt Airlie is let down by lots of the 'Brits on tour' who seem to come here to get drunk/high.

Our next stop will be Bundaberg (home of Aussie Rum) so we will be heading off on Monday evening after we arrive back from our cruise.