Bay Village Tropical Retreat Cairns

... in Cairns before they all go their separate ways. We got the bus up to Cairns no problem and it was only a short journey so it didn't take long. Once we got off the bus we waited around at the bus stop for Mark Laura's cousin to come pick us up and after a little confusion of where we were he found us and little James his son back through the city to his family home. Waiting to greet us were the rest of the family Claire who is Marks wife, Poppy who is the eldest child and ...

... camped on the edge of the rain forest, we could hear the monkeys, saw the parrots, butterflies, wombat and fresh pineapples growing 2 feet away from our van. Trudy took charge of the cooking and we settled down to pasta and wine before dark. It got dark quickly so we got into our sleeping bags for the night - only to reaslise it was 7.15!! We both slept well, which is good considering Trudy woke me in the ...

... creek and mark down the van down the creek and got it stuck so we had to call out the tow people and by that time it was dark- u aint allowed to drive in the dark but we had to. Anyway, luckily the other group helped us find the campsite otherwise we would have been stuck! It funny once the van was out and workin! 2 Italiens in our group cooked pasta for dinner it was yummy. More drinkin games and sleep. A dingo ate our breakfast so we went without in the mornin. We reached lake ...

... upset that I'd left it behind. We broke up the journey to Cairns by stopping at a Crocodile Farm. We got reduced entry which was cool. We got to hold a little croc and a snake and a cockatoo (so it was slightly a repeat of the sanctuary at Maggy Island so part of me wishes I had saved my money) but then we saw some giant crocs! The croc farm is actually a proper croc farm, as in they kill the crocs for meat and their skin. Which was a bit weird. I guess you had to think of them as ...

... this reminded me of Jubilee Creek near Knysna, a similar river running over rocks etc . A long eleven-hour day but very good. I won't bore you with further details but will upload photos so you can see everything.

The final trip was going with Quicksilver to the Outer Barrier Reef aboard their Silver Motor Boat Wavedancer. Quicksilver takes you to ...

... for the next five weeks. We drove Marilyn to Wonga beach, north of Port Douglas. There, we equipped ourselves at the local supermarket (phone and battery charger, as we don't have electricity) and did our food shopping for the first time in ages. That night, Sean cooked some yummy spaghettis bolognese and we drank two bottles of wine. I was quite drunk when we went to bed. The minivan was a ...

... trying to confidently dance. We did lay off the goon for a few days and instead of lazing around at the lagoon we went and saw one of the great natural wonders of the world - the Great Barrier Reef! Originally I wasn't fussed about diving and Meals was afraid of doing it but we thought this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and so joined my mates in an introductory dive. It was a day trip where we went out on a boat with 60 others to ...

... 12. I asked the driver of the shuttle boat (to the island, from our boat) if i had enough time to go and come back. he said, yes absolutely. So i hop of the shuttle, snorkel around for about 20 mins and then get back to the island just to see the shuttle leaving. I shouted wait for me and he says he'll be right back. So i sit down in the sand and wait for his return. Meanwhile, this island that I am on has a rope about 3m inland, surrounding a BIRD ...

We got up on Sunday to go see the Rainforest that sits just west of Cairns along the Great Dividing Range- the largest mountain system in Australia. We booked a skyrail trip to Kuranda, with a scenic rail trip on the way back. The skyrail was a long gondola trip over the canopy of the rainforest and took about an hour to get to Kuranda. Our travel lady had said that this wasn't that great, but we actually really liked it. It gave great views of the coast ...