Hello Tropics!

After the dive trip, I wandered back up to Cairns to meet up with people in Cairns - my buddy Jon, who's been motoring around the world on a disgustingly expensive yacht for the last year, and in Cairns for 'shore leave' and Krystle, a girl from N.Vancouver I met over the internet who supposed to be traveling the East Coast at the same time I am.

Jon and I had shared a one too many beers bar-touring Cairns before the dive trip- Cairns is like backpacker Vegas. I have no pictures... for good reason. It's dangerous to go bar hopping in this town with photographic evidence. Krystle, another travel mate and I are doing the same rounds... I have got to get my butt out of this town!

When I met up with Krystle, I promptly re-arranged her travel itinerary so she could get around to Uluru when the heat was still bareable - which meant I also talked myself out of a traveling partner for the East Coast. *sigh* Instead, we headed up on a trip up to the far North of Queensland to check out the rainforest at Cape Tribulation.

After cold nights and starry skies in the Outback, in Northern Queensland its been warm, but rainy, windy and overcast, and right now I look like I have chicken pox, I have so many bites from some kind of evil Rainfoest no-see-um. The rainforest here is very primitive - apparently it's the oldest rainforest in the world. There are enormous palms, giants strangler vines, mangroves, melaleuca, and just green, green and more green - it's such a startling contrast from the rest of the country. I had forgotten how nice it is to have water in the air - moisture on my skin. After the aridness of the desert - this is heaven for my webbed feet :-)

Australia spends so much money on tourism advertising, it's no wonder they neglect to mention how many things in this country can kill you. 6 of the world's 10 most venemous snakes, nasty spiders, scorpion fish, stone fish, sharks, crocodiles and yes - a tree. No! you cry - yes I say - and it's not just to scare tourists. Up here they have some god-awful tree called a stinger tree that, when touched, injects silica-like hairs onto your skin, which react with water - and leads to an agnonizing death. I could have lived without this knowledge.

Off to Mission Beach now for a little R&R and liver recovery - whew!