Australia so far.....

We arrived here in Cairns on Friday morning and booked into our backpackers hostel. The hostel is great, being well set up for backpackers and with a good atmosphere. It has communal kitchens and living areas, as well a tour operator there that can organise trips etc. They give us a daily meal ticket so we can go to a pub and get a free dinner-great idea! We have a nice room, without an en suite bathroom! Being in Australia we can't afford our own bathroom anymore, but the communal areas are clean and absolutely fine! We seem to be the oldest people there, although we have not done full survey of ages!! We guess most of the people staying there are on their 1st gap year and not a career break like us oldies!!! Mind you we both look in our twenties, we're told!!

A great thing about the hostel is that we can self cater. One of the first things we did was go to Woolworths (which does food here) and buy some grub. We had cheese, ham and tomato sarnies (bliss!) and have also had cereal for brekkie and endless cups of tea!! It is so much easier (and cheaper) self catering and at least this way we won't forget how to cook (or more like make sarnies and pour cereal into a bowl!!).

We haven't got up to much as yet. We've mainly pottered around Cairns and rested. There is no beach in this bit of Cairns-its a bit further out of the city but it has a lovely sea front where people seem to jog, stroll along or just sit and chill out. Linda is really pleased as it is a perfect place for her to go and jog. They also have a lovely lagoon type swimming pool that is free to use and places were people can have barbecues. It definitely encourages the outdoor lifestyle and relaxed living.

We can not swim in the see around here due to the box jelly fish that are rife at this time of year. They do have 'stinger nets' but we are advised not to swim even in those as these cunning jelly fish can get in them!! It has rained quite a bit since we got here, but its not like rain in England. Its so warm here and the rain is usually short lived, so its not a problem!!

We hope to go to church this evening and then tomorrow we go up to Cape Tribulation over night and take in the sights further north.

Well that all for now folks.

Love Linda and Penny xxx