Malta

At the airport.

Please accept our apologies for the lack of posts. We both have been extremely busy of late. Amongst other things, Steph has had exams, Andy has had Football commitments and we both have had a party to organise and lots more organising! All will be revealed soon.

For now, as promised we will start to tell you about our trip to Malta.

We went to Malta in late August 2007 with Steph's brother and our friend Claire. We only had a week there, but think we made the most of our short trip.

We had an afternoon flight, so no early mornings which suited us just fine. We decided to pack on the day we were flying out as we thought we had plenty of time. Little did we know! As we rushed to pack, our lift had arrived in the form of Andy's patient mum, we realised we hadn't packed any towels, so another rush to get them! We find that you never get enough towels from the hotel, so we always like to pack our own.

We were flying out from Birmingham, but by the time we were on the road we had plenty of time.

At check-in, we almost thought that Steph may not be allowed to fly as the attendant had to get her passport checked. Steph is coming up to her 10 year expiry and the passport was showing its age and it was a bit dog eared! We waited a nervous 15 minutes! When the attendant arrived back, he just got on with finishing checking us in! We asked him that we gathered the passport was ok? 'No problem' was the reply.

Ok, panicking for nothing! Steph decided to apply for a new passport on our return anyway!

We always like to try and arrive early, so as usual we had a bit of waiting around. We hadn't had lunch so we decided to do that and then a browse around duty free.

The flight was pleasant enough and it wasn't full either. We had a friendly lady sitting with us all, she is a regular to Malta, so we got some tips and advice!

It's All About the Dogs

Bye Bye Australia

Our time in Austraila was immense. We had no hitches and our plans couldn't have gone better. With two months spent there, I think we saw as much as we could in that time. There are many more sights to see and places to visit in Austraila, which hopefully I will get to see again as I would love to return and Andy is very keen to visit for the first time.

In the coming days we will be posting about our recent trip to Malta and a big surprise that happened to me!

Atherton Tablelands

Atherton Tablelands

Atherton Tablelands

The Atherton Tablelands comprises of some wonderful, lakes, craters and rain forests. There is a huge variety of flora and fauna including birds, butterflies, reptiles, plants and ferns each with many different kinds of species. The Atherton Tablelands is made up of thirteen regions.

We decided to hire a car with a couple of friends to explore this area of natural beauty.

I think photos will be able to say more than words.

Green Island

Green Island is 45 minutes from Cairns shore. We opted to go there as part of our snorkeling trip at the Great Barrier Reef. We took a small speed boat there instead of the larger boat we took the initial trip in.

Green Island is a relatively small island surrounded by coral reefs. Apart from being an exclusive resort, Green Island is also a National Park and takes great care in its balance of visitors.

While on the Island, we took the rain forest walk. This consists of trails of boardwalks that wind you around the island's rain forests. You can hire a guide or do it alone.

The beach has gorgeous white sands and warm, clear waters, ideal for snorkeling and swimming. There are water sports available and also an Underwater Observatory.

We enjoyed exploring and relaxing on the Island, a worthwhile excursion from your Great Barrier Reef experience.

The Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef contains the largest collection of coral in the world and is an obvious site of natural beauty. The Reef is also home to 1500 different kinds of fish and 4000 different types of mollusc that live amongst its 400 types of coral. The dugong and green turtle can also be found at the Great Barrier Reef, but are threatened by extinction.

We paid through a cruise trip to go snorkeling at the Reef. We chose a smaller boat and company as to try and avoid too many crowds. It worked as there were no other cruise company's around us when we reached our snorkeling area.

The company supplied our snorkels and wet suits, although wet suits were not needed as the sea was so warm. I had an underwater camera, but the pictures weren't great as the water was quite cloudy. I did manage to see plenty of coral and fish though. Some quite big fish accumulated around the bottom of the boat, so we snorkeled around there for a while.

We were told about the reef sharks, but not to be alarmed by them as they have no teeth! We swam around for ages, but were aware not to swim too far from the boat as the captain had placed some rules before we were allowed into the water.

When we returned to the boat, the captain had his binoculars, staring out into the ocean and then double checked everyone was aboard. I asked him if everything was all right and he said that he thought he had seen a large fin! Our captain thought he had spotted a shark not far from the boat! It turned out to be a very large sea bird on closer inspection! I was quite disappointed as I would have loved to have seen a shark (from the boat though!!).

Cairns, The Lagoon

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but we've been away in Malta, which will be featuring in the blog after Australia.

Cairns has no beach, so they built a man-made Lagoon. There is a sandy area around the Lagoon, boardwalks and an esplanade. The water in the Lagoon is salt water from the sea, which is filtered through to reach safety standards. The area is patrolled by lifeguards and is safe place for all.

We spent the odd day here and there relaxing at the Lagoon. There are plenty of shops, restaurants and cafes surrounding the area.

Cairns

After Townsville we decided our next stop would be Tully for some banana picking. We didn't need any extra money, we just thought that it may be an experience. When we arrived in Tully we found out that its the top place in Australia that experiences the most amount of rainfall. It certainly lived up to its statistic! I don't actually think it stopped raining the whole time we were there! We did try to go banana picking, but after the early mornings and the constant feeling of being damp we decided after a few days to head straight for Cairns. We hadn't actually planned to leave when we did, it was sort of on a whim, but we were very pleased with our decision in the end.

Upon arrival in Cairns, the sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm. We headed straight for the airport to see if they had a list of hostels like Sydney airport did. In the airport we came across this hostel called Utopia and enquired about accommodation and whether we could do some work to enable us to get our accommodation for free. We were in luck, the hostel ran a minibus to ferry guests around and were looking for two drivers, we accepted.

This driving job worked out well for us as we had decided to put the camper van up for sale as soon as we could in Cairns. With free accommodation, we could advertise the van and save our money.

Utopia was a brilliant hostel and we enjoyed our time there immensely. We made a lot of friends and enjoyed trips out. Chantal, the receptionist had two cats, very cute and mischievous! Kept the hostel almost free of pests!

I will post about our trips in and around Cairns in the coming days.