Amy in Cairns!

On my first day without George (finally got rid of her! Just joking!) I went on the Ocean Free (a small sailing boat) to Green Island. The crew were all really friendly and we got fed mountains of food! In the morning we went snorkelling over the reef which was fantastic. We saw clown fish and parrot fish, and some enormous ugly predatory fish (as well as hundreds of other pretty shoaling fish I didnt recognise!). The highlight of the day was seeing an ancient turtle which just cruised past before diving down to the depths- it was about 1m long.
During lunch we saw some spinner dolphins leaping over waves not far from the boat. After lunch we visited the island, where I had a look at Cassius, a 5.5m long crocodile who used to attack fishing boats. I was glad he was behind bars!!! The snorkelling in the afternoon was even better as the tide was going out and you literally had to hold your arms in otherwise you would touch the coral. On the way home I got a go at steering the boat which was hilarious because I couldn't keep it in a straight line!

I was supposed to be going white water rafting the next day but the river was so swollen it was too dangerous. So I walked all the way to the botanical gardens which was a bit of a mission, and when I got there I was eaten alive by midges! To enter the gardens you had to walk along a wooden boardwalk, whch was just inches above water in the middle of thick jungle. I got a bit freaked out by thoughts of Cassius in the water so ended up running most of the way! I have to say, I took the bus back. In the afternoon I escaped the rain by going to see Bride Wars at the cinema.

On Sunday and Monday I went onto the tablelands with a company called 'On the Wallaby', where I walked in the rainforest and saw giant strangler fig trees, jungle lizards and water lizards, fresh water turtles and plenty of leeches (!). On the first day we visited lots of lakes and waterfalls which we could swim behind. Despite standing for what seemed like hours in the rain, I never got to see a platypus.

The next day we went on a 15km bike ride which was pretty hilly and impossibly hard in the humidity (one guy started shaking and had to lie down). In the afternoon we went canoeing and saw a tree kangaroo, giant butterflies and a kingfisher but no snakes (thank goodness!). The guide brought the hostel dog along for the ride, and halfway through the dog decided he wanted to be on our boat. He ended up practically on my lap- I will upload a pretty funny photo of this when I can! Later we went wine tasting. None of the wines were made from grapes, but other fruit such as passionfruit, pineapple and dragonfruit. They were.....interesting!
Then back to town, driven by an absolutely insane man who had us all singing Grease songs and bus surfing (trying to stay standing as he went around the bends on the mountain road). The bus surfing record was two and a half corners- not very impressive!