Hotel Quality Inn Rainbow Southside Cairns

... of the scrub land is open grazing and some times the cattle just wanders out in front of the not so busy traffic. We did pass another sign for the town called Laura but not being sure on fuel and how long it would take we didn't actually get a picture of Laura in Laura. We made it to the town called Mareeba where Mark works but with no phone reception we couldn't call him to meet up so just topped up the tank with more fuel and then headed back to Cairns along the now ...

... smack him, stick your reg in his mouth, etc, and he'd always come back for more. Stupid fish haha.<br><br>Anyways, after Summertime, I spent one day almost entirely on the bus, and another doing random **** like working out and taking a yoga class, which is awesome by the way. Not really a whole bunch to tell about any of that though.<br>Cairns is a pretty nice place, it's way smaller than I envisioned, but I think that's cause no one really spends that much time ...

... W.A and the N.T for some aboriginal art work to bring home, we have seen loads of great work but the prices have been astronomical. We were really chuffed to find someone who was selling their art at reasonable prices and so came away with several pieces to adorn the walls of our new home. We even got a souvenir photo of the artist, he was a friendly guy and most willing for a chat about his art.<br><br>When it was time to go home we jumped on board the Scenic Railway ...

... free hotel for Monday night. I tried talking with Contiki and another hotel person, but a 3rd hotel person got me a room (for the correct night) for free.<br><br> I will describe Australia at the end of this journal, but I&#8217;ll now describe the Contiki part. Once again, I really enjoyed being with Contiki. 99% of the people were great, and I interacted and conversed with people from Australia, Ireland, UK ...

Today the tour began! Woohoo!! It seems like the tour is going to be a blast. The first person I met was Andreas who is from Austria. The people seem interesting, and there are a number of cute girls on the tour. The list of people is like this:<br>Andreas---Austria<br>Connie--E ngland<br>Mark--England<br>Inge--Hollan d<br>Marika--Holland<br>Dominique--Swit zerland<br>Fabiana ...

... Horizont v**abschiedet hatte, gings hinunt** ins tiefe dunkle. Beim Breefing fragte noch eine etwas aufg**egte Am**ikan**in, was ob es nun hi** nur so von Haien wimmle und was man tun sollte um sich gegen eventuelle Angriffe zu schuetzen. Garry meinte dazu nur laessig: "Jo klar wimmelt es hi** nur so von Haien! Es ist Nacht das heisst Jagdzeit und da sie uns** Schiff als int**essant betrachten umkreisen sie es! Falls dich ein Hai int**essant findet wird ...

... that only because everyone you talk to comes out with various horror stories so I've decided that if: · The crocs (salt water or fresh) don't get you then · The sharks will and if they don't then · The spiders will and if they don't get you then · The snakes will · If you survive that then the box jellyfish will · Survived that, well there is still the sting-ray, although this is pretty rare! · If you're still alive then there is always the ...

... until we were called to go back to the ship. So after a quick showes and changing, we were told to board for the journey back to Port Douglas. I wasn't able to look at the photos taken of us snorkelling as I felt so queasy, it was so rough and the ship ws tossing and turning everywhere. I sat with Ann and Peter and eventually Ann and I went on deck where it was ...

... vraiment le coup. Normalement on a le droit à une location d'appreil digital numérique mais pas moi car je n'avais ni passeport ni carte de crédit ni rien ! J'avais évidemment tout laissé dans la safe box de la YHA car je savais que je n'aurais pas pu veiller dessus au milieu de l'eau ! lol !Du coup j'ai eu le droit à un jetable...mais bon... il y a quelques années je n'utilisais que cela....faut dire le digital n'existait pas....nous avons donc fait trois spot ...

... have a chance to scuba dive the reef. I was the old lady of the bunch, meaning that anyone over 50 is considered high risk. After my training, I had the instructor to myself and by my side the whole time I was under water. The younger folks went in groups of 5 with an instructor. I caught up with a sea turtle and even put my hand inside the mouth of a giant blue clam. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. All for now, Ray and Jacqueline