December 12

Sadly, we left Matt on the bus in Mission Beach so he could go for a sky-dive, but Lindsay & I have travelled from Magnetic Island to Cairns, our last destination on this northern journey. Cairns is really nice. It's the biggest city we've seen since Brisbane (but not huge) and it's HOT HOT HOT. Our hostel room is terrible. It's a cramped space, shoved with 8 beds and an air conditioner that blows the cold air outside instead of in.
We decided to rent a car for a few days!! On Monday we went to Crystal Springs and Mossman Gorge. We got to swim for a bit beneath the waterfalls at Crystal springs, it was spectacular! On Tuesday, we took the long journey around the Highlands and stopped off at about 7 different sites. We saw the Cathedral Fig Tree, a massive 500 year old tree that we could walk around as well as part of the way through (it sounds cheesy, but it was actually incredibly impressive). We had a picnic at Crawfords Lookout, at the top of a huge gorge. We went to about 4 different waterfall sites, created by the area's volcanic past which got more and more beautiful as they got higher. We went to Julianna Falls which had a huge flat rock under it, where we could climb up and slide down like a massive water slide. SO fun! Poor Lindsay slipped on a patch of slime and hit her head, but before I could ask her if she was ok, the water rushed in and swept her down the rock-slide. She made it out alive.. with only a small bump. ouch! We hiked around a clear volcanic crater lake & swam with the fish. The most spectacular part of the day was the driving. We took lush scenic routes and off-highway treks around quaint towns. The rolling green mountains and the stark red dirt, lined with cows, goats and wild turkeys were stunning and endless. Fields full of sugarcane and I-dunno-what with farm houses were as far as the eye could see. Australians seem to like putting up signs to watch for every animal you could think of. In one day we saw "Drive carefully" signs under kangaroos, cows, sheep, koalas, cassowaries, tree kangaroos, etc. Definitely something we could never have seen without the car. By the end of the day our senses were overloaded.. too bad we don't have a quiet room to go to sleep