Well, the 18th of Sept has come, and Mhairi and I spent a good three hours hidden in behind a petrol station, cleaning and hosing the van down. I’ve tried to put a video up, so if you really want to see what it’s like from the inside (in a conspicuously clean state) it should be here.

It has been such a great 5 weeks (7 for Mhairi) in the van. Go anywhere, do anything.. never pay for accommodation..

I’m looking forward to seeing my friend Domhnall in Perth (we get in at 1am, he arrives back from (passing) hard med exams at 09:30 that morning.. To be honest, I’m slightly nervous about Asia, just the amount of ppl everywhere, having to really consciously look after possessions all the time.. still, it’ll work out.

Oh.. if anyone knows whether there’s a decent crossing into Cambodia from Thailand via land lemme know – my guide seems to suggest land crossings are bad idea, and that it’s better to fly – but I dunno if that’s true.

Here’s a pic from yesterday at Barron Falls – Kuranda

Well, me off back to the van for the last (sniff) drive.

After the Atherton Tablelands it was off to the Daintree Rainforest – about 120km North of Cairns. It was nice there, would have liked to do a crocodile boat tour, but time didn’t allow really..

However, there were more fig trees about (yes, I have a strangler-fig-tree-fixation)

It has mangroves, pretty much as a part of the rainforest. Mangroves are any area which has sea water at ground level? Or something like that. Either way, they send up shoots to the surface (I think the roots get fresh water beneath the surface, and send up shoots to breath. Or something…) Anyway, here’s a picture!

There were also some funny signs (the bird is a cassowary).. the first sign was for a ramp + to be careful of the cassowarys. Some artistic wag.

And another one for a dip.. in the ocean perhaps?

Then today (friday) up earlyish and hiked up to a mountain called the devils thumb looking down over daintree. This pic is not from the top, nor even on the hike, but it is of the daintree coast :)

There are about 1,145,621 different things to scratch and tear at your legs… still, a great hike, would reccommend.. and didn’t see any (live) snakes either. bonus.

Finally.. finished ‘A long walk to freedom’ by Nelson Mandella. Superb book.. I felt so ignorant after reading it.. (well, during my reading of it)

Westish of Cairns is a place called the Atherton Tablelands.. it’s rainforesty, and slightly cooler than the coast (temperature wise). We headed there after leaving the whitsundays (600km or something).

There were lots of nice rainforesty waterfally walks to do. These two waterfalls (silver and nandroya) were purty..

and nandroya

Not sure if I’ve talked about strangler fig trees before. Amazing trees really, start off life the size of a mustard seed (or so) somewhere high up in a tree (deposited there by bird / whatever). They then send roots down, and eventually end up strangling the host tree (takes about 100 years or so) and then go on living for a further 300 years. Anyway, most impressive.

This pic is of the Curtain Fig tree. So called because when the host tree died, it fell onto another tree, and so more roots were sent down by the fig, creating this curtain.

And there was also the cathedral fig tree, another massive strangler fig.

We also did oppostite ends (so we didn’t have to return the same way) of a walk in the Misty Mountains. They weren’t misty, and the views weren’t great.. but still.. good to stretch the legs.

Well, pictures to follow at some point! but just back from the whitsunday islands. It was a fantastic trip, George, Rob, Sally and Laura (all English) and Kirsten (from Vancouver) and Mhairi and I..

3 days and 2 nights of snorkeling and diving and lazing about (eating good food and drinking a little bit). I was slightly naughty in that I probably shouldn’t have been diving, seeing as I have blocked sinuses.. however, I took sudafed which is supposed to clear them (didn’t seem to do too much).. And I still have blocked ears!. Still, I’m sure it’ll clear up soon enough.

The snorkeling was great fun though, we bought an underwater camera, so hopefully some of the pics will come out. I did get a bit of a slagging for wearing a dress, I was at pains to point out that it was actually a sarong.

Well, might manage to get some pics up now.. we’re sitting in an internet cafe in Airlie Beach. I ripped the network cable out of one of the ‘out of order’ pc’s.. plugged it into Mhairis laptop, and hey presto.. free internet connection.. don’t you love it when people don’t know how to secure a network?

Yup.. now there’s a slideshow(the nicely named pics are Mhairis ;)

Up, and snorkelling before brekkie. Excellent visibility, and lovely coral. I think it was my favourite place. Then diving again after breakfast. This time I wasn’t so lucky… I didn’t feel remotely as comfortable down there, plus the visibility wasn’t quite as good. Anyway, at $40 for 40 mins it was still worth going for it (though my ears have only just gone back to normal – a day later!).

That evening we all went out for beer and pizzia. I tried my hand in the pool competition. I got knocked out, in the first round, by the drunkest man I have ever seen play pool!. I reckon (I hope) he was a great player when sober (and just a really good player when drunk!!) hehehe, I still had 4 balls on the table when he finished.

Not the end of the entire world. Quite yet.

Next morning headed north towards Cairns. 6 days left in our van. I’m really going to miss it a lot.. such a comfortable free way of travelling, can’t reccommend it enough. Looking forward to seeing Domhnall in Perth on the 19th. Should be fun, not quite sure what the plan is there. Mhairi has friends from scotland down in Margaret River, but I’m not sure if Domhnall has time off and wants to climb.. sure we’ll see. And then off to Asia. Time is already flying.