What a difference a shower makes...

OK. I think we've managed to traumatise my sister these past few weeks. What with the accommodation, the weather and the smell I think she'll be glad to leave on Monday (but I will miss her). Let me fill you all in... When I last wrote we were in Airlie Beach in a minging backpackers where we were in a 10-bed dorm and the bed bugs were infamous. The bloke snoring in the corner was driving me to murder and when England lost we just had to escape. So we headed up to Rose Bay where we parked up the Tinks and relaxed for a couple of days (and washed practically every scrap of clothing we owned). Then we dropped Pete off in Townsville (where I stopped off too to have my ears syringed - NICE - although the release of pressure was lovely lovely lovely) and then headed up to Mission Beach. Our camp had a sea view and a resident baby cassowary bird and the stress and tiredness of the previous week fell away. We walked along deserted beaches, drank copious amounts of G&T and felt like we were on holiday. Pete joined us and then we came up here to Cairns... to another reasonably minging backpackers (all part of our super-cheap Fraser/Whitsundays package). Ho-hum. We went on a cable car over the rainforest (class!), had lunch in a nice place called Kuranda in the mountains and then got the train back. That was lovely. Then we packed up the Tinks and headed up to Port Douglas. The next day saw us on a crocodile spotting cruise (we saw 'em, evil-looking things, we also saw loads of "logodiles") and then we wheeled up to our campsite in the lovely Cape Tribulation. Now, put "Cape Tribulation" in google and have a look at the lovely beaches and reef. Our campsite was practically on the beach in this tropical paradise. However I never got to see the beach as as soon as we'd set up camp the heavens opened and it rained solidly all day. And all night. And it was still raining when we woke up (well, we were in a rainforest). We decided that we couldn't play drinking games all day (which is what we'd resorted too the night before) so we packed up and headed south again, hoping to chase some sun. We ended up sitting for 5 hours at a swollen river that was making the road impassable until a local with a 4WD came along and towed us through the 40cm fast-flowing river for $20 (he made a mint that day). Tinks survived and we went in search of lodgings to dry off. We ended up in a nice motel that also operates as a nudist camp (no joke!) although we managed to keep our clothes on. We couldn't afford to stay there 2 nights so we headed south (it was still raining and Tinks - who is carpeted - stank, like a wombat had crawled in and started to decompose). We asked at a billion van parks for a cabin and had no luck. They were minging or super expensive. At the end of our tether (and after tears from both Jane and me) we ended up in a caravan on a site 30km north of here... the woman said it was clean. The cockroaches agreed, they thought it was luxury. We slept with the lights on to discourage the critters from crawling all over us. This morning I discovered the reason why Tinks smelt worse than all our shoes put together - a hole in the footwell of the passenger seat at the front had let in most of the river, so we had to chuck her carpet from the front and the foam that was under said carpet and we aired her and dried her seats and hopefully now we have a sweeter-smelling van (although the wet carpet in the back still smells a bit of wet possum). Ah well. Yesterday I wanted to sack it all in. Now we're checked into a clean hostel in Cairns (our room has no smelly boys, hurrah!), I've had a shower and it's all OK. Jane leaves on Monday. Pete is on his PADI dive course out on the reef on Monday too. So I am going to treat myself and check into a hotel, oh yes, I'm going to blow some cash on lil' ol' me! The last 5 weeks with Jane and Pete have been fab but I need some time not speaking to anyone. And by golly I'm going to get it! To be honest, I think Jane and Pete did well to last so long, seeing as they hardly knew each other before Jane came out here. Well done guys.

So, what next? Still to be decided. Oz has just changed the visa laws, so we can work for 6 months with 1 employer instead of 3. Cool. So we're heading for Melbourne at some point. We just need to decide whether that's sooner or later as Oz isn't floating our boat as much as NZ did. But once we leave Cairns we may get off the commercial backpacker trail of the east coast (and maybe the hostels will get nicer?)

Anyway, I'll try and get some photos on in the next couple of days to go with this update. Ta for the comments on the last entry guys... missing you all loads! xxx