Cape Tribulation and Cairns (The Reef)

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  Cairns, Australia
Sunday, September 24, 2006

Ok, having put the mechanisms in place for the military coup in Thailand, we have fled South East Asia and are now in Australia. It was about 28 degrees c in Brisbane, but as an indication of how hot it was in Asia, I had to put my hoody on - the air con in the airport was bloody cold.

We had a night out in Cairns, I've been told that Cairns isn't very nice and to get out asap, but we think it's quite a nice place - We're slowly adjusting to paying normal prices for things again, but it was a bit of a shock to the system! (Hunt, I have to tell you that they really don't drink Fosters out here at all - it is slightly stronger when you do manage to find it though) We had our first night in an Aussie hostel (the first of many) which was pretty sweet, then we headed off to Cape Tribulation to hunt crocs in place of the late great Steve Irwin (we saw where he died, for the morbid out there) We saw a few, but we didn't get close enough to get really good pics. Cape Trib really is an amazing place - the rainforest runs straight down to a beautiful stretch of white sand - we couldn't go swimming in the sea though, because the horny male crocs were prowling around looking for females. We did a night safari, but sadly didn't see much in the way of wildlife, we did see a bandicoot (I never even knew that was a real animal!), a massive stick insect and...er...that's about it. The tour guide was a proper Aussie Sheila though, and it was an interesting experience - we wanted to see a few crocs and a Casowary (massive Emu like bird) up close but alas, you can't win them all! The next day we did see a flying fox, and we saw a croc eat a massive fish, which was nice. In the afternoon we went to the cleanest watering hole ever, for a little swim and a few look-out points for some pics (I felt like a Japanese tourist!)

After another night out in Cairns, we did the all important Great Barrier Reef scuba dive. I had a slight hangover and threw up about three times, but the Reef was awesome. I really wish we had an underwater camera. We did two dives, one of which was a little disappointing because we didn't have a guide when we really should have, but we saw loads: a Giant Moray Eeel, Stingray, Baramundi cod and many more.

Then I was sick, whilst Pipe snorkelled and saw a turtle and a reef shark, I was green with envy (and from being sick) so I got in and saw myself a reef shark too - no turtle though - gutted. The barrier reef really is an amazing place, we were both really impressed. That's about it for now...next stop: TBC.

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