Trip of a Lifetime Our 10 month journey around the world.

January 6 - 13 (First week in Australia) We started out looking for a Van to purchase with very little luck. It is crazy hot, you can’t swim in the ocean even though the water is 29 deg because you will be stung by jelly fish. There however is a free community pool in Cairns so we have been jumping in to cool off whenever possible. We have walked the entire town a few times looking for van ads but there just wasn’t any in our price range. After a few nights in what Holly has now named Hell ( the Hostel that we are staying in is run by a bunch of young backpackers and they are doing a poor, at best job, of keeping the place tidy or clean. The kitchen is a disaster every morning, Holly won’t even look at the pool area and the room although air conditioned is damp smelling and resemble what you would think of in a minimum security prison.. We couldn’t stand the disappointment of not finding a car yet so we decided that it was time to get out of hell and go out to see the Great Barrier Reef so we booked a 2 day one night cruise with The Vagabond crew. As we were leaving the hostel (aka Hell) we noticed a new poster for a older but cheap van that we immediately called and met them that night.. IT WAS THE ONE! We arranged for it to be dropped off when we returned from the cruise and the next morning we headed out to sea. The crew were very friendly and the boat very nice (a 68 foot steal sailboat). We went out to the part of the reef called Tetford Reef. I decided to do a dive so once we arrive I was in the water floating effortlessly. After we returned to the boat they pulled anchored and we moved on to another spot on the reef to snorkel. With are package we got a dive each so Holly decided that she would try a dive. She did excellent although she thinks it was a bit of a disaster A little nervous at first but once she got her bouyancy under control there might have been about 5 minutes she really liked it out of the 35 minute dive J We all got back on board and had a wonderful dinner. I decided to do a night dive as I had never done one before and that it would be a great experience so down we went with just a dim glow of our lights it was quite spooky. We felt quite calm as the dive instructor were very experienced and confident. We cruised along the reef and I was very surprised to see that a lot of the corals were still out feeding as in my tank at home they all close up once the lights are out. All in all the boat trip was very relaxing, and the reef was amazing. I would say that it had even more life than the reefs of Fiji. We had booked a new hostel for the night we returned as Holly couldn’t stand one more night in hell. We stayed at The Tropical Oasis Backpacker and it was very nice, And only $15 more than the dump we were in before. The pool was clean, the premises kept tidy and our room was clean. Holly was happy. The next evening we booked a campsite near by as we would not get the van until about 7:00. (If they showed back up. Our fingers were crossed). 6:45 and the van arrived YA….!!! We checked it over one more time and we were off to the campground. In the morning we were excited to be on the road and leaving Cairns. We decided to stay at the beach even though you can’t swim but thought it may be cooler as it has hit the high 30’s the last few days (Feels like 45 deg, very humid). We found a nice little site right on the beach and chatted with the locals before heading off to bed. We were headed down the coast to Townsville but we stopped at the tallest single drop water fall in Australia (wallaman waterfall 540m) After lunch on the road again to another falls that the locals told us was a good place and we could even camp there. Joumana waterfall was a 3 tear fall. We arrived there and quickly found out that we could swim.. We really needed to cool off as our vans AC is broken. Ya probably one reason it was cheep… LOL We jumped in wondering if the crocks were going to get us but we were OK. The signs did all say it was safe to swim.. I did spot a small turtle but that was it. We decided as it was early we would continue on to find another campsite and found a great little place for free right at the beach again. Spaghetti for dinner and off to bed to dream off all the crazy animals we may encounter along the way. NO, NO Kangaroo yet. We did see a small cousin of the kangaroo dead on the side of he road but that was it.