Best Western Acacia Court Htl Cairns

G'day just a short blog and sorry I didn't do it earlier, we spent most of sunday recovering from the party. Luckily Mark and Laura did most of the cleaning as they went to bed first. After that we all chilled in the pool for a few hours to keep the kids entertained. I had a really sore throat all day which wasn't much fun but luckily neither of us had a hangover. After an afternoon nap we ordered dominos and chilled out with a movie before bed. Short and sweet.<br><br>Gaz &amp; LJ<br>

... to do was sleep off my hangover on the beach but didn't want to let the side down so off the 6 of us went into the jungle.... we got lost before even heading in.... the sign for it was tiny so ended up walking down a dirt track for an hour!<br><br>So off we headed up Mount Sorrow... similar to jungles I'd seen in Asia.... but this was the hardest trek I'd done.... walking uphill - some of it dead steep! - for 3 hours!! It was tough but fun.... we saw a massive lizard ...

... some sign language, I pointed at my eyes, and stuck my hand and half my arm out of the water (like a shark fin) and started moving it about, you know the well known signal for shark when you were a kid, lol, then I waved my camera in the air and repeated the Shark Fin sign. Unfortunately Erika didn&#8217;t have a clue, I&#8217;ll get her tell you her side of the story later. Anyway I was extremely chuffed with myself and really enjoyed the whole experience ...

... mostly hard) and plenty of fish. We did see a fair amount of sharks, although no Hammerheads as we had hoped. We also saw one Manta Ray and a turtle. For me, the top dives were the Shark Feed and another called "Steve's Bommie", which I said they should rename to "Steve's The Bomb" or "World's Best Safety Stop". <br>Steve's Bommie was basically a huge hill/mound of various corals. The fish life here was immense. There were various schools of fish ...

... to a casino (neither of us spent any money) but it was cool to see our first casino inside!<br>2nd June - We set off from Cairns to go to the Whitsundays. On the journey we stopped off at Townsville to buy some food and supplies for our Whistundays couple of days. Then we arrived at Airlie Beach and oh my God, had the best ice cream ever. They mashed up some malteasers and cookie dough and rolled it into the ice cream. So amazing. Then we arrived at Whitsundays ...

... we had to sit on the floor squashed together. As we were walking to the plane Mike told me that on his first jump the main parachute hadnt opened properly so he'd had to use his reserve! I didnt worry too much - whats the chances of it happening twice in a row?!! It took longer then I thought to get up to 14,000 feet but then suddenly it was 11,000 and time to get ready. He tightened up my harness and (the important bit) clipped me to him! I put on my goggles and then the door ...

... disrespectful in my opinion but it goes to show the ignorance of some people... From Uluru, we visited Kings Canyon & hiked around there for a while, before driving back to Alice Springs. I know Uluru is world famous but in all honesty, its just a rock - if you come to Oz & have the option, miss it out & do Kakadu instead! Its far more scenic & less touristy. (Sorry Beth, hope I didn't ruin that for you! :) Sure you'll have a great time!!!)

... to cooler shores further south. The Fear Back at base I extend my stay and notice the brochure for the very same dive course I booked in town. This of course means that I've done the hostel and well, more worryingly, Michelle, out of a commission. Now this is one Great White it may be difficult to avoid. I have to come clean but only do so after booking day tours to occupy myself until the dive course starts to dampen the blow. They are a trekking ...

We arrived in Cairns in the late afternoon to be welcomed by blistery tropical winds and light showers. I knew I was in the tropics as I exited the tiny airport out into the humid air (albeit mild in comparison to most places I&#8217;ve been.) The first order of business was to get set up as Cairns was really a takeoff platform for other nearby destinations and activities rather than a destination in and of itself. We had excursions to book!<br><br>You can imagine Cairns as an old ...

Cairns is just like Darwin but maybe a bit smaller. There seemed to be a few more customs folks and they had a dog checking bags for controlled farm products but everyone is super friendly and just as helpful. After we sorted out our gear and collected a new passport stamp we bought tickets for the shuttle then piled on and rode the few kilometers into town. Our room wasn't ready when arrived since it was early so we wandered around the town looking things over and ...