Novotel Rockford Palm Cove

... Queensland, Port Douglas was lovely with a sunday market on, even better!<br><br>From there we went to Mossman Gorge, where we all got stripped off and took a dunk in the coldest water yet, it was a good afternoon and we stayed there for about 2 hours.<br><br>That night, friends that we meet in Perth came round for an exchange of tales.<br><br>Cairns is lovely, very tropical, very expensive and i think we will come back one day, with some extra spending money!!<br><br>

... br><br><br>On arrival at the stream and the water fall we encountered a couple of idiot German blokes taking video shots of each other climbing the rocks. Well old enough not to be doing such things (i.e. older than me :O) they spent a lot of time getting in our and another couples way as we tried to take pictures <br><br> <br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br >So look at ...

Winds have picked up a fair bit today. Ended up eventually when there was finally a washing machine free doing the washing and got it hung out. A casual day and later went for a walk down the road exploring a few of the galleries and boutique shops. The kids are enjoying being so close to the beach and being able to go down to walk and play (and swim - even though they weren't meant to). Extending our stay again....hard to beat the view and the rates....and the warmer weather.<br>

... again, but i survived without throwing up. that night i still felt as though i was on a boat!the next day I was checking out, as were a few others in our room. so we decided to have a big night. we had another massive feed in the woolshed, before quite a few drinks there and back at gilligans. after losing at pool to Cat (suspicion of cheating) we headed back up to have some goon on the balcony. was a proper fun night, which ended at about 5ish. I was up at about 6 though to get the Oz ...

... verschillende soorten vissen, de ene kleurrijker dan de andere (waaronder Nemo) die tussen de uitgestrekte (en even kleurrijke) koraalriffen aan het zwemmen zijn; springende dolfijnen en luie schildpadden (de volgende duikbuddy van Wim?). Sorry, we hebben geen onderwaterfoto's kunnen trekken...je zal het zelf moeten ervaren. Foto's van Wim in actie volgen later. :-)

... I crossed the first milestone of global back packing and done my own laundry. Yes - my own laundry!!! I tackled the massive, clunky, coin operated, top loader washing machine and pressed all the right buttons. I timed perfectly my return to the machine and transfer of laundry to the drier which was equally clunky and coin operated. Diving? What a doddle - if I can do laundry, I can do anything!! On my iPod Dirty Laundry - Don Henley

... was quite exciting to be about to experience a cyclone - it was something different at least! It turned out to be a bit of a let down - for me (but not for the inhabitants of Cairns) as Hamish didn't come in to shore - he just hung around in the ocean. It meant that after planning to spend the weekend watching silly movies and chatting, we had to go out and explore the countryside instead. <br><br>I don't think that I have laughed so much for a long time ...

... us who will be travelling on to the Whitsundays from there. We had dinner at a mexican restaurant then headed into some of the pubs who were luring us with cheap drink and great offers ( it was also one of Mick's drinking days, so we were up for it!), we had drinks at the Beach Hut, then some Irish bar where the Scottish barman was a dead ringer for Justin Lee Collins then onto another bar , I forget the name but another backpackery type of place full of people on 18-30 ...

Headed up from Sydney to Cairns on the plane where we picked up a hire car for us to explore the north of Queensland. As I've been driving over here (even though the rules of the road are exactly the same as the UK) i was nominated driver. This was ok as it gave Mum and Dad the chance to have a look at the countryside and ensured we went faster then a snails pace! Headed up from the airport at Cairns to Palm Cove, around 20 minutes north on the coast. As ...