Cairns

Alex: After our final overnight bus journey we got to a blisteringly hot Cairns but decided not to hit the beach (well, it's actually a man-made lagoon) thinking we would have plenty of time later..ha ha ha. The following day we went out to the reef so I could snorkel and Dean could do a couple of dives. It wasn't quite the glorious weather we had hoped for with a fair bit of cloud and rain. The reef was beautiful but as you are in pretty much open ocean it was a bit too choppy for my liking, the benefits of diving I suppose, you get to go below all that. I found a snorkelling buddy called Leon and we saw loads of fish and reef including a barracuda (they are big) but not much else other than an underwater somersaulting Dean, very rare indeed.

Cairns 01

The following day we went on a rafting trip, as this was our first time we decided to try out the shorter and more serene Baron River. Unfortunately we really enjoyed it and I think we both wished we'd been a bit more hard core - oh well plenty of chance to do it again I suppose. After we had been kitted out in our safety gear we hopped into the inflatable raft with a really nice family from India and our muscle bound guide - it obviously keeps you fit this rafting lark. We made our way through the rapids with an occasional dip in the water for a swim and had a great time and as we ended up completely soaked anyway the rain was not a problem this time.

Cairns 02

Our last activity of the week was a trip to Cairns Tropical Zoo to see all the native animals we had missed so far. We got some really good photos of us feeding kangaroos, me cuddling a koala and Dean warily holding a baby croc (which has since been deleted!). We also caught croc feeding time (you wouldn't like to get in the way of that) and stroked a snake. Lots of fun basically and even the rain didn't damper it. We followed that with a very boozy night in the Woolshed, the travellers equivalent of a student union bar, need I say more...

Our final day and our final chance to top up our tans was once again thwarted by the rain so we didn't do very much at all but did round the trip off with a wonderful meal at a nice restaurant where we got to eat all the things we had been cuddling the previous day (kangaroo, croc and emu, all but the emu are really good).

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