Cape Tribulation, Queensland - Australia

Seeing as we were staying in Cairns we decided to head north and have an overnight stop up in the Daintree and Cape Tribulation, stopping off at Port Douglas on the way.
Port Douglas is a lovely town and a town you would enjoy if you like eating out, the beach and having a few drinks and coffees in one of the many boutique cafes. We were staying at a beach caravan park, which literally was on the beach. As soon as we arrived we dumped everything and head for the beach. The beach was so clean, and was roughly 4 miles in length. As the sun was shining we decided to walk the full 4 miles there and back before having a nice spot of dinner.

The We set out early with our first stop being the Daintree River. It was here we had booked on to a Daintree River Cruise, where we were hoping to see some of the wildlife that the Daintree has to offer. This predominantly consisted of crocodiles.

At 12pm on the dot we boarded our boat and set off down the river. We learnt that the river was named by Captain James Cook, when he stumbled across it back in the 1700’s. The guide was extremely knowledgeable and told us all about the eco system and how it is still recovering after the banning of crocodile hunting in Queensland in the 1980’s. Hunting of the crocodile was so server in Queensland that the species almost made the endangered species list. He explained that the crocodile was mainly hunted for its skin to make leather products. Even though hunting was banned back in the 1980’s, and recovery of crocodile is doing ‘well’ there is still only a small number of crocodiles in the Daintree. Before hunting there were approximately 200- 300 regular crocs in the Daintree. Almost thirty years on after the ban of hunting there is still only 80 regular crocs that live in the Daintree. The tour guide explained that it will take some 50 – 100 years to get it back to the levels pre croc hunting.  We were lucky enough to see three rather large crocodiles while on the tour and visit one female and her nest of baby crocodiles.

Once finished on the river tour it was time to catch a ferry over the Daintree and up to Cape Tribulation. Again the cape was named by Captain Cook. Throughout the afternoon we visited several empty bays. It was amazing; all the bays were so empty it was like having a private beach to ourselves. The waters were absolutely perfect and as you would see in a holiday catalogue. We also took ourselves on some boarded rainforest walks. Later on we decided to head towards the campsite we had booked for the night. Now bare in mind we could have had a lovely beach campsite, Amber had mentioned how she always wanted to stay in the Rainforest, and so without any debate we booked into a lovely campsite nestled into the edge of the rainforest. Once settled in we decided to go for a walk on a not so well maintained pathway into the think of the rainforest. We were hoping that we would see some wildlife, be that a snake, spiders etc. Sure enough we did eventually come across some wildlife. While walking through a narrow path leading the way I heard a stick snap not too far in front. We stopped walking and listened. All of a sudden and out of nowhere a pack of wild pigs came charging at us. Now I bet not many people can say they went for a walk in the rainforest and came across a pack of wild pigs?!?

Cape tribulation really is a very special place of untouched beauty and if ever in Australia it is definitely a spot to be explored.

Great Barrier Reef, Cairns

The day started with an early wake up call from the alarm clocks on the phones. After a quick shower and some breakfast we were on our way walking to the marina where we were to board our catamaran for the day.

We had been lucky enough to find a nice private, family run company, who had recently started a trip for a maximum of 20 people on their private boat out to the Great Barrier Reef. We were greeted with a big smile from a nice English chap and offered a cup of tea while we waited for others to join the boat. 

Soon enough we were all on board and leaving the marina. As we left the marina we were given a short safety briefing before being given a nice talk on the Great Barrier Reef and the wildlife we could expect to see, including dolphin, stingray, reef sharks and turtles but to name a few.

It took about 2.5 hours to get to the reef but once there we were so pleased that we had gone with this company. They took us to a part of the reef away from all the major tourist boats and we literally had the reef to ourselves. The colours in the see were amazing from dark blues to light blues including aqua. 

Soon enough we were in the water and being given a guided snorkel tour of the reef. The guide was so knowledgeable and when he found something interesting he would dive down and pick it up, explain exactly what it was to us then replace it in exactly the same place that he had found it. We learnt so much about the coral and marine life.

After lunch we moved on to another part of the reef. It was here we could expect to see turtles and sting rays. Once in the water it wasn’t long before we came across two turtles. It was incredible to see them gliding through the water. Unfortunately we weren’t able to see any stingrays but we didn’t let this ruin what otherwise was a perfect day.

Before we knew it we were back on board enjoying afternoon cheese and biscuits and a glass of wine while cruising back to cairns. It was a truly magical day and one I’m sure we will remember for a long time to come.

We are in the middle of developing a underwater camera. If we have any good pictures we will uplad them as soon as we have them.

Jump the Reef - Skydive in Cairns

We had booked to do our skydive at midday but at 7:30am were wide awake thinking about it. While thinking we received a phone call asking if we would like to do our dive earlier as they had a cancelation. At the risk of not doing it through thinking too much, we didn’t hesitate and jumped at the chance to get it out of the way. We got up, dressed and had to skip breakfast which was probably the best idea and thirty minutes later we were on the bus on the way to the office.
At 8 o’clock on the dot the bus picked us up and before we knew it we were filling out the paper work signing our lives away. We had promised not to tell our parents when we were going to do our skydive at the risk of stressing them out. So Jonny decided to text Chloe telling her that he was about to jump out of a plane, her response was “great, I won’t be getting any sleep now until I know you are safe back on the ground”. As my sister Gemma was out of the country I decided she wasn’t really an option, I did text Katie but she never looks at her phone, so I decided my safest bet was to text my pregnant best friend which in hindsight may not of been the kindest thing to do as sleeping for her is a challenge as it is.

When we arrived at the airport we met our instructor. We had paid to have the skydive filmed using a wrist camera and as part of the video we had to have a short interview about what lay ahead. As Jonny and I had decided jumping from 10,000 feet was high enough we were the last on the plane and first out. Jonny’s instructor insisted that they jumped before me and my instructor which meant they were next to a see-through door, which was a challenge for Jonny’s vertigo. We had to sit facing the back of the plane so when we took off we were going backwards which was a strange sensation. The views as we got higher became more and more impressive. I was looking out at the little people and thought “wow this is high” only to be told we had only climbed 1000 feet and still had some 9000 to go before we were leaving.  Cairns looked beautiful from the skies; we were able to see just how green the tropics are because the town was dawft by lush rainforest.

Being next to the door it was up to Jonny’s instructor to check our location and to do this he needed to keep leaning out of the plane. As Jonny was attached he had to go with him, hanging out of a door 10,000 feet in the air trying to spot a tiny orange flag on the floor which would have looked like an ant from our height. He did spot it and before we knew it the see-through door had opened and Jonny was gone. It was the strangest and worst feeling seeing him disappear out of a plane door, it made my tummy turn. I didn’t have long to get emotional about it though as it was then my turn and within seconds I had my legs dangling out of the plane.

I soon realised falling towards earth was not something I was too keen on seeing so I closed my eyes tight. I could feel the air rushing over my body and all I could hear is white noise, like the sound when you lean your head out of a window of a fast moving car. I felt my instructor tap me on the shoulder which was the signal to move my arms from across my chest to a skydive position, almost like they were wings. It was at this point I was able to open my eyes; the feeling was incredible, falling so fast and having no control.  I found it really hard to catch my breath with the air blowing in my face and everything flashing past I had to remind myself how to breathe.

When the parachute was pulled everything went calm, the white nose stopped and the world stopped flashing past. The parachute was acting like wings which we could control and it really did feel like we were flying. We were able to look down on the land and forest, just floating around above the earth was the most amazing feeling, and for me the best part of the dive.

As Jonny was the first person to jump he was the first person to land and I was able to watch him land back on the ground safe. He then looked up and waved as I was still flying and getting ready to land. The instructor managed to get us into position and I was told to lift my legs high as he guided us in. We landed quite gracefully compared to Jonny’s bum slide landing which left a few grass stains. We sat together and watched the other daredevils from our flight complete their jump from 14,000 feet. We watched in disbelieve at what we had just achieved.

The crazy thing is that if we were asked to do it again we wouldn’t even need to think about it. Of course we would do it again.

Getting To Cairns

So finally after 5 – 6 months working we are officially back travelling.  We have now been travelling for just over a week and in the first week we have been so busy we just have not found the time to be able to write any blogs. We apologise for this and would like to warn you that there may be a few blogs all coming in a couple of days. This is for several reasons, firstly as we have done so much it would take us forever to write what we have been doing and secondly and most importantly we don’t want to bore you guys to death.


Having decided that we want to travel around Australia in the cheapest possible way we decided to rent our self a Jucy Campervan, which Amber has called Shrek.

Our Journey around Australia will officially start in Cairns. We will then head down the east coast (missing Sydney) to Melbourne. Then we are aiming to go inland and visit Adelaide before venturing into the desert to visit Uluru and Kings Canyon. Once finished in central Oz we will then be ending our journey in Sydney before flying to New Zealand. As we have been working in Brisbane, for the first part of our journey we decided to get to northern Queensland as quickly as possible. 

We picked up our Jucy Campervan and had planned to stay the night in a National Park called Bunya Mountains. Having done some research we planned to stay here and give the campervan its first little test to make sure everything worked ok. Bunya Mountains is about a 3 hour drive (200km) North West of Brisbane. Things took a little longer than planned picking up the campervan so we bundled everything into the back of the van with a blue skied Brisbane and head towards the mountains with intentions of sorting things out once we arrived.

On arrival at Bunya the weather was awful with thick fog and pouring with rain. We tried to sort things out as best we could just so we could get out of the rain and get some sleep. Waking up on Sunday taught us that the fog had not lifted and the rain had not stopped all night. We soon realised that we had accumulated too much rubbish over the 6 months working and a massive clear out was in order. We got rid of clothes, camping equipment, plastic boxes and shoes. Amber is still trying to convince me that getting rid of a pair of heels (even though we’re camping) is a massive sacrifice and I should be grateful. After a couple of hours things were sorted and we were back on the road. With smiles back on our faces we left the mountain, or at least we tried to leave. We found that in the previous night’s storm that the biggest tree had fallen totally blocking the road off the mountain. We ended up having to make a 90 minute diversion.

We had planned on staying at a little village called Dululu. However having driven over 600km, thanks to the detour due to the falling tree it became apparent that this was not going to happen and with the sun setting we searched for a caravan park. An hour later we were in the caravan park planning the following day. We had discovered that working our way up inland Queensland (as scenic as it was) was no good as we were finding ourselves miles from anywhere, with no phone signal. It was for this reason that we decided for the rest of our journey up to Cairns that we would take the coastal roads. This truly was our first lesson at just how big and vast this country is.

A long road to somewhere?

Rising early for another long day of driving we were shocked to find that the fog was obviously following us, as the clear sky the night before had disappeared. Luckily it didn’t last for long. Our destination was the seaside town of Bowen. Arriving before the sun set we decided to take a small drive to Grays Bay, where we were treated to one of the most spectacular sunsets we have both ever seen. ON the way back to the caravan park we were shocked to see a 'Moon Rise' over a local bay. Both events were truly spectacular.

Moon Rise

Tuesday saw the final leg of what seemed an epic journey. Today however we were to drive through some of the most spectacular National Parks. We found a lovely bay to have some lunch and then continued towards Cairns. It was on this leg of the journey that we decided that we were going to push the boat out in Cairns and book ourselves a Skydive. Needless to say that we didn’t tell our parents this was coming up. We arrived in Cairns around 4.30pm and having sat in the campervan for what seemed all week we went for a stroll along the beach and got some dinner.

Easter with Maureen & Graham

This Easter we had a real treat, we were invited to stay with Maureen and Graham on the farm in Biddiddaba.

We arrived Good Friday and after just a few hours we had completely relaxed. The stresses of working hard and the hustle of city living soon seemed like a distant memory. We chilled in the pool, played with the adorable Frank and Bingo (dogs) and we watched the world go by. To Jonny’s delight Glen provided every single sports channel on the TV. To my dismay the Reading FC game was being shown live at midnight. I managed to stay awake for the first 30 seconds and then got woken up every so often by Jonny jumping around and arguing with the ref - Apparently it was a big game?!?

Saturday we headed up Mount Tambourine for morning coffee with a view, as its name suggests; Mount Tambourine is the local mountain with a lovely village. We went to the "Polish Cafe" which serves the most yummy coffees and cakes. Some of the most beautiful birds were flying around the café some of which certainly weren't shy when it came to visiting the tables to steal the sugar.
Later, we carried on up the mountain to Gallery Walk, a little road with unique small shops and cafes. Saturday evening we were treated to another of Maureen’s fantastic dinners with the company of June and Stuart (Glens parents).

 
On Easter Sunday we did the very Ozzy thing and headed to an Easter show. For those of you that don’t know what an East Show is, it’s basically a massive local fair. We went to the tiny town of Roughdowny where they put on a parade and market; we had a bit of an Australian culture lesson. For the rest of Easter Sunday we did the traditional thing of eating plenty of chocolate and relaxing.

When Monday arrived we really didn’t want to leave, the thought of heading back to work in the morning was enough to want to cry!! We had the most fabulous time!!To say we will miss Maureen and Graham when they return to England would be an understatement. They have been our family out here and we have loved and appreciated every moment with them. They have given us the most valuable advice, looked after us and made us feel so welcome. Therefore we would like to say a huge thank you for everything you have done, have a safe flight to London and we look forward to seeing in a September.