Airlie Beach

Hi! So... here we are in Airlie Beach, our home for at least the next 2 weeks.

The story since we last spoke. We met up with Chiara (James' italian friend) in the afternoon and just hung around in Cairns. A really nice girl with some pretty funny expressions. They realised that they'd only ever met each other in the southern hemisphere, despite both living in Europe. We camped outside Mike Ball Dive Expeditions on Lake Street in Cairns, a very classy place to stay with public toilets a mere wander away.

We left in the morning and headed up to Kuranda. Most people go up there via a cablecar but we're cheap so we drove there. We wandered around for a little while and had lunch. Betty made a mess all over the carpark so we drove away quickly to avoid embarrassment. Headed down to Mareeba and on my suggestion made our way to the wetlands. The road there was unsealed, and was not all that good for poor old Betty, but we persevered and got there. Well worth it in the end. An absolutely stunning reserve and completely unexpected in the middle of the scrub surrounding it. Lots of birdlife and a crazy little frog.

After we were done there we headed down to Yungaburra. What an odd place. Imagine Haltwhistle in the middle of nowhere and then add some more inbreeding. We parked up at the Bruce Jones Market Place carpark and stayed there for the night. While I was on the phone to mum to find out about her broken collarbone (poor mum) I saw a tree kangaroo climbing about on a telegraph pole. Ace =) We went to the pub and were the only 2 people there. The barman was slowly getting drunk in the corner and at first seemed to resent us for entering. We had one drink and scarpered!

The next morning we headed to Millaa Millaa falls - stunning - and then drove the waterfall circuit around there. James hurt his ankle and it was a bit touch and go for a minute but thankfully it was ok, so no worries. Ruined his chance for a swim though which was a real shame.
We took the decision to head to Undara lava tubes which was a bit of a mission through the tablelands and into the outback. It wasn't helped by the fact that we took the wrong road for 42km.... meaning a backtrack of 42km. Whoops. This wouldn't normally have been a problem except it meant that we ended up driving at dusk. This is when the kangaroos, emus, cattle, wild pigs and other large creatures become active and hang out on the roads. Not something you want to hit, and we'd seen enough roadkill to know that there were a LOT of animals out here. Luckily we saw very little and made it there in one piece.

We were up early in the morning to see the lava tubes which were bigger than any I'd seen in other places. Pretty amazing structures. We had a long drive to Mission Beach (where James spent 5 weeks before I arrived) and camped out there next to the beach. I created a gourmet meal on bangers and mash, widening James' culinary experiences considerably, and we both promptly fell asleep. So much for the big night out!

Another trip to a waterfall followed - Wallaman falls, the highest in Australia. Again, another long drive to get there but it was beautiful. Unfortunately the marsh flies were too much for us and after many expressions of annoyance (such as 'gosh, these flies are annoying') we were forced away. Drove all the way to Ayr and spent a night parked up on the street. We went to the cinema (civilisation!) and watched a pretty stupid film called Step brothers.

Yesterday we made our way down the coast to Airlie, with a stop at a wonderful beach in Bowen on the way. We're living in a little flat next to the centre where James is doing his course. There's only one or two cockroaches =) It's nice to have some space to stretch out. I'm going to be spending a lot of time by the lagoon reading over the next 2 weeks....