HAPPY DAYS IN CAIRNS

What a way to finish the trip! Thanks Struan, Sue and girls for such a great week up there. We pulled in to Cairns and flopped into Struan's house for a much needed relax after pushing hard for the last couple of weeks. We could have spent a month here and still not seen everything. We caught up on a couple of movies at the cinema, played ping pong and did some clothes shopping- simple things that you can't do in most of the places we've been. We also did some really cool things like the train and Skyrail to Kuranda, Hartley's Crocodile farm and when Struan treated Mum and Dad to a night in Port Douglas, we went to the Cairns night markets.
There were lots of other things we did like crazy rides at the Cairns show and rafting on the Tully River but probably the best was the amazing day on the Outer Barrier Reef- wow, thanks Farmor and Grandpa for treating us- what a day. We saw whales jumping totally out of the water right up close to our boat, swam with Hawks Bill turtles, sharks, sting rays, a moray eel, clams and lots of fish of all types and colours.

Well all good things have to come to an end and now its time to head home and remember what real life is! But we will be thinking about the next great adventure- there's plenty to choose from.....

Finlay and Freya

Lucky Fin was there to save the day!

Maybe white men can't jump but Crocodiles clearly can

Hartley Creek Croc Park

Would you trust this face?

Train to Kuranda

Butterfly Farm in Kuranda

Inside the Skyrail gondola

Rafting on the Tully with Captains Gary and Struan

Top Guns of the Cairns Helicopter Rescue Service

Heading out to the Reef

THE OUTER REEF

CRAZY TIMES from Nhulunbuy to Cairns

Its a long, long way to Nhulunby the song should say! 700km of dirt road known as the Central Arnhem Road to be precise. It all started well and the road was in reasonable condition and we overnighted at Mainoru. Things were ticking over well the next day til we had a call from the Hills on the 2-way to say they had a problem- this was an understatement. They had a major problem! Their trailer had spun around 360 degrees at least once when a suspension spring had broken and flipped the trailer over. Amazingly, Greg held onto the car and they were all ok. But it did mean they had no trailer or boat any more. This took the edge off our time in Nhulunbuy but we did get to see that it is an amzing place. We also happened to be there for Territory Day on the first of July which was a celebration of all things Northern Territory including Fireworks!
We then headed back along the same road and made it to Mataranka where we met the Joyces again and went to Bitter Springs which was so nice that we went back again early the next morning before heading for the Queensland border. We had a great bush camp that night with the best camp oven dinner ever and a few left over fireworks to celebrate Pete's birthday. The next day we made it to Mt Isa where we did an underground mine tour which was really impressive. We got  to see some of the older machinery being used and driven around- not sure I'd want to work underground.
We left the Joyces and headed for Cairns stopping at Undarra on the way to check out the amazing lava tunnels.

This Black-headed Python was one of the few distractions on the long road to Nhulunbuy

Fireworks and fish at Nhulunbuy

The sky above Nhulunbuy on Territory Night

Bitter Springs- early in the morning before the crowds arrive

Under water at Bitter Springs

The tastiest camp oven dinner ever

Sunset near the Qld/NT border

Yum!

Lava Tunnel at Undara