Cairns

Day 77

Off to Magnetic Island today (so named because CC was having trouble with his compass as he sailed past – turns out it wasn't the island but aussies don't like to change names!)
UV rating is 'Ultra' meaning you can burn in under 8 minutes – that's before the sun cream can kick in! Aaaaah!

We check in to a little hut (I'm not very impressed - $27 a night! I will only be staying the one night then!) and then head off to do the Forts Walk – aparently the best thing to do on this beautiful Island.

It really is fantastic, not only do we see 2 wild Koalas (one of which we spotted because it growled at us!) but the panoramic views from the top of these hills is incomparable – I dont think I have ever seen such beautiful views! Straight out to the sea one way, over rainforest covered undulating hills in the other, interspersed with fantastic boulder rock formations.... the 'forts' themselves were anything but impressive, but the walk was wonderful!

Shaun and Charlie are doing their SSI dive certificate here, so are staying a while, and so here we part ways... until we meet again!

Day 78

Long bus journey to cairns, little entertainment = boring day? No sireee!

Admittedly the bus journey is not overly exciting (although it is our last) but early afternoon we stop at a crocodile farm, and its mad! This guy gets on the bus, says does anyone want to hold a croc, and hands me a 11month old male saltwater crocodile! He then puts it on the floor for a while, before asking me to bring it off the bus! Wow a real life crocodile in my hands!

We then get to have a pic with little mr croc, and hold him like a baby, and play with a python, before going to seeing the big breeding males get fed. Some are pretty well trained, but 'joy boy' ('rescued' in the joy cyclone) is a veritable monster, trying to go for the keeper not the chicken leg and everything!

Then we get to play with some more roos, which is no longer that much of a novelty, but I got to cuddle quite a cute joey, and they are really very soft, if very stupid too! And finally (or so we thought) the keeper gets a dingo out to pet and cuddle and see try to eat a stupid kangaroo (“whats over here? Ooo a Dingo, I know, i'l go have a look”.... stupid roo, it wants to eat you! Really they are the most stupid animals I have ever encountered!).

We get back to reception, sad because the fun is over, and what do we get to see? Baby crocs hatching! It's mad, once a certain amount of time has passed the remaining eggs are either to weak to hatch, or dead, so the keepers were cracking them open like chicken eggs to aid the little guys! Really really mad to see!

(It's a crocodile farm, so instead of letting the breeding pairs do their thing normally, they steal the eggs and incubate them themselves – means 99% success rate as opposed to 40% - this also lets the keepers determine the sex of the baby crocs, as at 31degrees the babies will be female, and at 32 degrees they will all be male, males be preferable as they grow faster, this is a farm we must remember!)

We get to Cairns and check into an awesome hostel before exploring the city centre. We both love it here! I'm so glad we skipped the time we planned to spend on magnetic and in mission beach! Also because we got here early we can leave Oz before we planned and get to NZ early, giving us enough time to explore that wonderful country (i'm only worried it might be a little cold!)

Day 79

We spend the day in Cairns city centre today, changng our flights and booking a trip to cape tribulation, not exciting for you, but we had a good day!

Day 80

Another day shooping, I pick up some souvenirs, I wont bore you with the details!

Day 81

Cape Trib today, traditional tour guide telling bad jokes and playing bad music, but he seems a nice enough chap, and we have a pretty nice journey up there. Today is king tide (the biggest tide of the year) and even though you keep on telling me i'm going to experience a tsunami the weather is perfect and the views are stunning! First stop is at Mosmon gorge, where we paddle in the chilly water and watch our guide feed the evil marsh flies to the fish we can see in the crystal clear water.

Then its off to see some more crocs, in a strange old fashioned sanctuary - pretty cool as they were being fed, but nowhere near as good as the farm! It is mad to see the size difference between males and females though, the girls only reach 5/6 foot, the boys can be up to 5/6 metres!

Our hostel once we get there is nice (too nice, no cheap food!) but TORRENTIAL tropical rain starts to fall as soon as we check in, so we only get a chance to see the beach that evening - once the rain stopped it was only an hour til dark, and with the flood crocs tend to move about and we didn't fancy becoming dinner so we ran off back to our hostel as soon as it was dusk!

Day 82

Off to cape trib beach, which is non existent as its high tide so we walk up to the lookout, oogle a lethal spider which is dangling from one of the trees, and marvel at the beauty where the daintree rainforest world heritage site meets the coral sea world heritage site - apparently this is the only place in the world where two world heritage sites touch!

At lunch time the bus picks us up again, and its back to the daintree river to do a croc spotting cruise (wild croc spotting!). Our skipper tells us lots of info about mangroves, how the daintree national park has the widest variety of any in the world (the most different types on one river bank), how the seeds (or should i say babies - they're not really seeds, but live young: ready made trees with leaves ready to unfurl and everything!) float in a particular way so that they will only embedd where the salinity of the river is correct (this particular tree only survives in the 75% salt water areas). The salinity reduces by 15% every 5km from the sea, so the seeds have quite a small area to aim for!

Of course the aim of the cruise is croc spotting, and although it's not the best time of year (the females are nesting and the big males patroling the nesting areas so there are fewer in the river to be seen) we see two! Admittedly they're only small specimens, one apx 1yr old (cutie pie) and the second around 3 years, but it's amazing to see real wild crocs!

Day 83

City centre again as mark hasn't managed to pick up any souvenirs yet. He gets a.... (surprise for when we get back) but then has a panic that his Ipod has been nicked - after the last three times he's pulled this, only to find he's put it in a 'safe place', i'm sure its back at the hostel. He's adamant it's not, but we go back anyway because it would be stupid not to check...



Yup its on his bed.


Stupid boy!


I am now totally and entirely and fantastically up to date! We have no more tours or anything planned (apart from diving tomorrow) as we are poor :-( poorer than I expected :-( So i will only blogg once more before we go to NZ (just to reassure you all that no tsunami has hit!!!)

Love you all! xxxx