It's all about Oranje

Hi everyone,

I never realised how bad and broken this blogged looked through internet explorer. Yet another reason to use firefox! Still.. there isn't much I can do about it at the moment - so I apologise for the months that it's looked awful.

So after surviving the sharks and killer jellyfish at the Whitsundays, we have now arrived in Cairns. We returned our little car today, so now have until Thursday up here before flying back to Sydney. Sophie leaves to go back to the UK on Saturday. I'm going to be back at work sometime after that (for what work there is as they still haven't had any rains out west).

We left Townsville two days ago, and it was a long 4-5 hour drive up to here, though we did stop at the quaint little village of Mission Beach, now rather windswept after the wrath of Cyclone Larry a few months back. It was worse further North at Innisfail where it seemed most of the houses had taken a battering from the winds, with most roofs covered in tarpaulins, and many road signs bent, or simply missing. Cairns is good though. We found a nice studio apartment with a decent rate quite close to the town centre (and by sheer luck one block away from the car rental place).

Two days ago we had quiet day, driving around the sights just outside of Cairns. We went to the crystal cascades, which had a really nice walk and even saw two big monitors (big reptiles) sunning themselves. We also drove up one of the gorges to see some white water rafting in action.

Yesterday we drove up to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree National Park. This huge area of rainforest is renowned for its closeness to the reef, and you can literally follow a stream down the forest (being very very wary of crocs), down onto the beach and see dry and fringing reef at the sea's edge. Saw some sea snakes, lots of blue and yellow tailed fish and other things. Not nearly as impressive as the Whitsunday snorkel, but as far as rock pools go - very cool! While I was exploring to my little hearts content, Sophie did a few hours of horse riding through the jungle and on the beach. Cape Tribulation was famous for being the place where Captain Cook hit the reef and made a hole in his boat, before fixing it later - but there was rather little evidence of him being there at all...

Today I'm going to be busy with my application for uni. Sophie I believe is off to the waterfront lagoon for, whatever you do at waterfront lagoons. Then there are just four days to go before our holiday is over.. :(

Must go I suppose.

Jan.