I am in the north of Queensland now.  After my detour I flew up to Cairns to save some time.  Went from there out to the
tablelands and spent a couple of active days bike riding and hiking in the rainforests and canoeing in the lake.  I was really fortunate to have been on a walk with a dutch bird watcher, because she was so much more observant than me, and patient. We saw loads of wildlife-rare tree kangaroos, musky rat kangaroos and platypus swimming in the creek-they looked so cute and funny!!
Went out to Kuranda too, after looking around an Aboriginal cultural centre with shows and demonstrations-got to throw some spears and a boomerang-neither very successfully! Went up on the cable car above the rainforest, and back on the railway on the cliffs.

Then headed further north to Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation.  From Port Douglas i went out to the Great Barrier Reef and did an introduction scuba dive!! Paniced a bit when I first went under, but once I was coaxed down I really enjoyed it-went right down to the ocean floor, which was pretty shallow 10 metres and swam with the fish all around the beautiful coral.  It was an amazing experience!

Cape tribulation was beautiful too and the hostel was lots of little huts in the rainforest, but also right on the beach-a great place to relax.  Spent another very relaxing day by Roy’s pool and then a night out with him in Cairns-at an open air showing of the Rocky Horror show, which was fun, then headed south.  Unfortunately the weather has turned ugly-at Mission beach it just rained constantly and now on Magnetic Island, although the rain has stopped, there are dark clouds.  I’m just hoping it’ll clear up before i get to Airlie beach for my sailing trip-i am now on a bit of a tight schedule time wise!