Hi blog followers,

no, we haven't dropped off the edge of the world, we've just been busy and without access to internet for a while.......there's a lot to say, so we're both doing separate entries, and as I only have 28 mins left on my computer time it'll just be the highlights.

We spent the day on a reef trip from Cairns on a catamaran, sorkelling and being looked after by a great crew. There's no need to dive around there as you see so much anyway - ad as I had/have blocked ears and nose I couldn't have dived anyway. It was a great day, but the one two dasys later was off the scale........

We had an incredible day flying up from Cairns to Lizard Island in a chartered plane, that had just 6 of us and the pilot. The journey was awesome, with the best weather we'd seen in over a week. We saw all sorts of rarely seen sights due to being airborne, and the views of the reefs on the way back was breath taking. Towards the top of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) it was a really quiet National Park island with a small airstrip and a few very unspoilt and lovely beaches. We snorkelled around unspoilt reefs, walked along the sand as we squinted against the glare of the sun off the sand, ate a lovely lunch that had lots of fruit in it and the day went so quickly. Ot wasn't cheap but was a once in a life time experience and one that I'll never forget.....photos to follow when I get more time (when we get to Melbourne in a couple of days).

After Cairns we travelled down to Airlie Beach to head off sailing around the Whitsunday Islands on a tall ship called "Derwent Hunter" a 60 year old timber ship. Don't know the technical terms but it had 4 sails, and the weather allowed us to go for some really long hard sails that apparently were the best sails they'd had in a long time. We had a great crew (only 3 of them) and 18 opf us as guests. I am totally, totally amazed that I didn't feel at all sea sick, even when we sailing hard...... after my horrid dive boat experience in Egypt I was quite worried about it, but all was well - even the second day when most people apparnetly felt ill in the afternoon I was totally well - how amazing - praise God!

We did lots of snorkelling, swam with turtles, saw incredible amounts of fish, superb reefs with amazing drop offs into the abyss. On the first day I snorkell-dived down and picked up a plastic container that was littering the bottom and was given a free glass of wine as a "well-done"..... thanks to my National Geographic dive training - couldn't just leave it there!!

I'm running out of time, but I must tell you about the sand on Tongue Beach, which is on Whitsunday Island, and is the opposite bay to Whitehaven..... these beaches are made up of 98% silica, the purest sand found on a beach anywhere. It was like walking on icing sugar, and the sand never gets hot, even in the midday sun high...it really was paradise island. Penny and I were soooooo pleased that we did it, it was an incredible experience with a great group of people, and I'd recomend it to anyone - again, photos to follow.

Well, we're now at Magnetic Island, just off Townsville. We fly out tomorrow and didn't want to stay in T'ville itself. A girl on our sailing trip recommended XBase as a place to stay, and here we are. The last time I ever take accom'n advice from a 21year old! It's awful. It feel a bit like Butlins, constant pumping music, and whilst at breakfast this morning I reflected that it feels like we're at a giant youth camp, but for the first time have no authority! I so wanted to be on the other side of our 8 bed dorm, telling them to be quiet and go to sleep! The music only ended at 1.30 am and people were drifiting in and out up until 4am, rustling bags, putting the light on and off etc. We both feel like grandmas and are going to try to get moved for tomight to somewhere a bit further away from the bar/disco...... the joys of dorm life.

Anyway, better go before this times out and I lose the entry - if I get time in Melbourne I'll write a bit more about the last few days, but we'll definitely get some photos on Flickr in the next few days....watch this space.

Well cobbers (Kris - it's an Ozzie expression, meaning people, I guess), time to go & try to change our room for tonight - hurrah! Has been an amzing week, and there's more to come with Melbourne, then Sydney, then New Z'd. Bring it on.....

Till next time, and thanks to all of you who let us know you're following us, we really appreciate it.

Lots of love, Linda xxx :-)