Cairns (via Townsville...)

We arrived in Cairns a day later than we planned due to flooding on the rail line. This meant that we had to spend a night in Townsville and we were initially quite upset as we were worried that we might not have time to sort out a snorkelling trip in Cairns and we also did not really know what there was to do in Townsville...
There was a lovely reef conservation centre/aquarium:
And a big red rock which we climbed:
(not as big as THE red rock but it was a good scramble to get up and there were lovely views of Townsville harbour from the top :-)

The next day we finally made it to Cairns, our final destination in Australia and home to 1001 different Great Barrier Reef diving companies. We managed to get some snorkelling booked up for the next day (our final day in Oz!) and it turned out that the delay worked in our favour as instead of snorkelling in mist and rain on Thursday we snorkelled in bright sunshine (with just one brief rain shower!). This meant that we had great views of the fishes and coral all very well lit up and colourful. Unfortunately the photos are on a disposable camera (haven't invested in a waterproof digital camera just yet!!) so we can't let you see what we saw. We saw a few of these though (but this particular one was in Towsnville!!)

Next stop Singapore!