Good news, I did make it up to Kuranda. I pooped and had some breakfast and I turned up all right. I'll talk about Kuranda later, I know everyone wants to hear about my trip to the reef first.

So the little bus came and picked us up to take us to the dive shop where we signed in, filled out some forms and had a short briefing. Then it was off to the boat!! We were informed that the skipper would ask us to remove our shoes and we wouldn't be wearing them on the live aboard boat either. So we all took off our shoes and jumped on the Sun-Kist ... shit name for a boat, but never mind. About 2 minutes into the trip it started to get fairly choppy, I sent mum an SMS saying "you'd be so seasick right now!" I think the rest of the trip was karma for that message. It was bumping all over the place and at one stage we nearly went under ... yeah, I was scared. After two horrible hours, we made it out to our live aboard boat the Kangaroo Explorer. This boat was I guess a small catamaran, it looked fairly stable and at our first site it was.

We were ushered around the boat, shown where everything was and told where we could not go when we were wet, then we were fed ... it was gross so I wont go into it. Finally, it was time for our first briefing aboard the boat and then our first trip out into the water. Out snorkelling instructor was a lovely lad by the name of reefie ... not too sure where he was from, but he was cute. I managed to get some nice pictures of him from the sun deck when he was on watch at the back of the boat yesterday morning (thank god I got that big zoom lense with my camera). So he took us through the basics of snorkelling and then made us dress is horrible lycra cat suits (they called them stinger suits, but I didn't even see one jelly fish). So there we are, 6 of us looking like retarded super heroes with our find, masks, snorkels and lycra body suits on. Reefie took us on a guided tour of the reef that we were currently at, it was great. He showed us how to duck dive and then found a giant clam for me to touch, it was awesome. It felt like a sea cucumber. We saw several clams actually, so that was really cool. We didn't see any turtles while we were in the water, but there were two swiming around when we were just taking off from that dive site.

Our next site wasn't as nice as far as snorkelling goes, a lot of the reef looked pretty dead which is a pity, but we still saw a lot of fish. Mostly Parrot fish and it was awesome to hear them eat. When you're under the water if you hold your breath for a couple of seconds and the water is calm, all you can hear is this crackling sound all around you, which is the fish eating. By the time we had reached this site, the seas were quite a bit more rough and just the three of us went out this time, Crystel came out as well, but she turned around because she was feeling ill. There were two japanese girls who went out on the first snorkel with us also, but they spent the entire time being sick. Bit of a waste of money really. So Brooks, Frank and myself had a good old look around this piece of reef and we probably went a bit too far actually considering we were level with another boat nearby, haha. We made it back on time though and no one got angry.

That was the last dive time that we were able to participate in, which kinda sucked, but apparently you can't see much from the surface at night anyway. The guys that went on the night dive saw turtles, sharks and lion fish, the three creatures I wanted to see most ... not including giant clams, SO COOL!!! There was a german girl and a welsh guy who were dive partners, brooks, crystel and shamus from ireland who I spoke to mostly. Poor old shamus, he is a certified diver, but doesn't seem to do well with the boat, he was violently ill and yesterday I found him laid out, asleep on the dive deck cushioned on a dive vest or three.

Then came dinner, again, not remarkable, except for the fact that Brooks, Crystel and myself took ours up to the sun deck and ate up there. It was great!! The food was again sub par though. We had roast pork ... or what was supposed to be roast pork anyway. The vegetables were ok, the sweet corn was bitter though. It was about this time that I discovered I was one of onle 3 aussies aboard ... and the only one who didn't work there. That was fine with me though, I met a lot of awesome people. After dinner, we had jelly and ice cream for desert and one of the dive instructors loaded his bowl so high that each time the boat rocked, it looked like he was going to loose half of it. I'll just take a moment now also to talk about one of the other dive instructors, before becoming an instructor, he was part of puppetry of the penis and apparently there are demonstrations on the boat all the time. Anywho, so we had an argument with the canadians about jelly being called jelly and not jello which was fun. We had a few drinks after that, but most of us were completely fucked because of the long day and the strenuous boat ride, so we went to bed ... now this was rather difficult.

I spent about two hours trying to find the best position to sleep in and I found that the only one that actually worked for me was sleeping on my face, which in turn didn't work very well for me because it was somewhat painful, so I could sleep 10 minutes at a time, then have to roll around for half an hour before I could sleep on my face again. Apparently during the night one of the boys fell out of bed which would have been hilarious to see. It was damn rough out there and I'm surprised more people werent sick.

First dive is at 6, so at 5:30 the instructors come around and knock on everyone's door to wake them up. Apparently this is the best dive time because all the night animals are just finishing and all the day animals are just getting up. We snorklers had decided not to take advantage of this dive time, mostly because we're wooses. I woke up feeling like absolute shit (woke up implies I got some sleep, it wasn't very restful sleep though) and Crystel and I decided to sit around on the deck (I totally just typed dick) and warm up for a while. The boat moved again at about 9 and it was so choppy that we had to get off the sun deck because it was too dangerous. 11 am was our last dive time because after that was lunch, then the new people arrived. So we went out and a couple of the scuba crew that were staying on for another day came out with us to have a look. We touched some more clams, saw a whole bunch more parrot fish and still didn't see any sharks, turtles or lion fish, but never mind.

Despite the bumpy ride, these two days have to go down as two of the best days of my life. There really is nothing like being on the barrier reef, particularly at sunset. Brooks and I were watching it on the sun deck and there were so many colours. Pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, they were all there. I was both glad and sad to be leaving. Glad that I wouldn't be constantly rocking any more and sad that it's quite possible I may never experience something like that again.

At one of the dive sites they were feeding fish off the back of the boat, I got some cool pictures of that and there were constantly fish swimming around the bottom of the hull. On my last trip out when we came back to the boat there were some sort of bass, I think someone said they were red bass under the boat, just swimming about and then one of them turned and looked at my and I almost crapped my pants right there, it was the meanest looking fish I had ever seen and big too. He swam up to me, close enough for me to touch ... I didn't though, I like having 10 fingers. The last site that we were at had MASSIVE parrot fish, I would never have imagined that they would grow to be that big.

Before we left the boat, they took us aside to tell us about a shin dig they were putting on at the wool shed, free beer and pizza, who's gonna turn that down. So when I got back on dry land and had a real shower (we were restricted to 3 minutes on the boat, so I didn't bother), I rocked around the corner to the hog's breath to have some real food. I had a steak with prawns on top, it was awesome. I was still feeling quite dizzy though and found myself imagining the world to be rocking, particularly when I went to the toilet, man that's weird on a ship and when I was getting dressed, I braced myself against a wall to wait for the impending rocking, but it never came. So I got some real food in me and headed to the woolshed. James, Brooks, the german girl and myself all arrived at the same time and went and kicked people off our table. Then waited for promised beers and pizza ... and we waited. They did eventually come and the beer was good, but I didn't have any pizza. Okay I did, I had one tiny slice, but it was pretty good.

Brooks and the german girl left pretty early and James and myself were the last ones standing. We're staying at the same hostel, so we walked back together. This was when I discovered my new german room mates. I got changed and then started feeling sick when I layed down and looked at the pattern on the bottom of the mattress. This was about midnight by this time so I took myself down to sit outside for a while. I eventually started feeling better so I went back to the room to discover the germans had turned off the air con because it was too loud ... fuckin whingers.

I woke up this morning before 6 (I had set my alarm for 7:30) feeling very ill, but as I mentioned, I came good and went off on my trip up the sky rail to Kuranda, it was an amazing trip. The first part I had a Dutch couple who were nice, then we got off at the change over point and had a walk around the board walk and joined the end of a tour. The guide pointed out an invisible cricket which was cool and then we lined up to get back on the sky rail and there was a march fly buzzing around. It landed in this girl's hair who I thought was a bit of a snob and the bug looked a bit scary (at this stage I still didn't know what it was), the cute guy next to me called out to her that she had a march fly in her hair and she didn't hear him so I thought to myself oh, it's a fly, that can't hurt me and I flicked it away. I got a bit of a look at it though and noticed it had a big pointy thing on its face. I asked the boy if they bite ... he said they do ... I pissed my pants. I hate bees and things like that.

So three gondolas later, I arrive in Kuranda and find myself having to walk up a honking great hill. This was fine though as I figured it's easier to walk up when you're not all tired. I needed to finish my gift shopping here and I was having some trouble. I haven't actually bought anything for myself, just for my friends. Aren't I nice? So I had a thought that I would give jordan a picture of myself hugging a koala or feeding a bird or something, because that sounds like something he would do. So I took myself into bird world expecting them to have something setup where you have your picture taken feeding a massive parrot. Apparently this isn't the case. So I walked around, looked at the Cassowaries and came upto the feeding deck to take some photos. I got some pretty good ones. Then this parrot comes and lands on my shoulder, it was cool and green. So I took some photos of it on my shoulder, then on my hand, then on my shoulder again and I tried to get it to stand on my hat, but it wouldn't, it kept trying to bite me and it was strangely warm. So I didn't end up getting that for Jordan, but I found something better.

After the birds, I took myself to lunch and had a warm crocodile salad. It was good ... well the crocodile and the avocado was good, I'm just glad I ordered a side of chips also or else I would have been starving. Crocodile sort of tastes like chicken, but it doesn't feel at all like chicken. It was nice though. After lunch I headed down to the river for a boat ride, I figured I've been on boats 3 days in a row, might as well keep the momentum going. I was the only one on the boat and I had a nice old conversation with the driver. He told me all about how the rainforest was cleared to make way for coffee plants, but then there was a big flood, so everyone just went "fuck that, we're not rebuilding, let's just get the fuck out of here, it's too hot anyway" So off they went and the rainforest is regrowing in that part. It was pretty cool actually. Then he took me to see the resident fresh water crocodiles which I had a little bit of trouble spotting, but saw eventually and we fed some fish and a turtle too. It was a nice calm boat ride, like the one at the croc farm, similar boat and all.

By the time the boat got back, it was time to head home on the scenic train. The view was spectacular, if you ever get the chance, it's well worth a look. It goes around the hills and over looks a HUGE gorge and goes past a few waterfalls and through some tunnels. It has information all along the way, tell you the story of how and why the railway was built and all the different things it has been used for. We were cruising along at one stage and I looked out the window to see a mango tree with a whole bunch of green mangoes. I've never seen them on a tree before so that was awesome.

Today has been a long one, but a good one and I'm glad I started feeling better this morning and didn't pike. I've really liked Cairns and I'm a little sad to be leaving. It'll be nice not to be sweating all the time, but not so nice to have to pee again, never mind though, you can't win them all. Tomorrow I get up at 3 to catch the 6am virgin flight to brisbane, then a QANTAS flight to Sydney and then another QANTAS flight from Sydney to Adelaide. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed again and not have to either climb a ladder or look up at another mattress. I'll post some pictures on Monday providing I make it home =O).

I got off the boat yesterday afternoon and I have not yet found my land legs, I'm meant to go up to Kuranda today, but I'm not sure if I'll make it.

I'm coming home tomorrow.

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