Let's face it, I work to get by and to TRAVEL!!! :-} If you see me with a far off look in my face, I am probably taking a mini mental vacation to some far away place (one that I have been to or one that I would like to go to yet). I collect memories, not things, so when an opportunity comes up to collect more memories, I just start packing my bags and making plans... :-}

My favorite traveling partener is Indybear, who you have heard me talk about before. He loves to travel as much as I do and always plans the BEST trips!!! We are best friends and travel well together. Indybear was along with me on this trip as well. We started our plans with five other people, but in the end, only Indy and I actually made it. :-{

Vodka-girl was invited too, and although she couldn't make it, she was nice enough to scan all of the pictures that you will be seeing here today. Thanks Vod!!! --Love ya!!!

I wish we could have taken all of you along with us, maybe next time you will join us??? I hope so!!!

In the mean time, I would be pleased if you would take some time to take a mini mental vacation with me as I share our trip with you here. :-} It won’t cost you a cent!!! (Except what you are paying for your internet service--LOL) It will, however, take some time, so sit back, relax and enjoy!!! :-}

We got off to a late start courtesy of a collasal screw-up by United Airlines, but this isn't the place to bash them and we made the most of our unscheduled day in San Fransisco... I used to love to fly, but let me tell you, that is one loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong flight from California, USA to Australia.

We were tired, but ready to begin our fun when we landed in Cairns (via Sydney). We grabbed our lugage and hailed a cab! Off to pick up our camper van! Wooo Hooo!!!

Cairns is a sweet mid sized town, but our cab driver still managed to get us lost... The first site that he took us to was the land fill. I swear!!! Indy and I were thinking that if we had to be picked up by a crazy cab driver and taken to a land fill to meet our fate, the least he could have done was wait until the end of our trip! LOL

Apparrently it was an honest mistake on the part of the cab driver, because after studying his map, he managed to get us to the correct destination.

We couldn't get our selves checked in and our campervan checked out fast enough. (Here's my credit card, where are the keys? Oh, yes I guess we should take some time for you to show us how everything works...LOL) Having completed the formalities we headed back into town.

Indy was good enough to drive. I wasn’t so sure I was ready to tackle driving on the left hand side of the road just yet, especially in a huge ole campervan with a manual transmition... After all I had only had the one lesson and that was a month before our trip. So with Indy behind the wheel and me coaching --hehehe, we set out to see what kind of trouble we could get into.

Our first stop was a grocery store, we needed supplies. We may love to travel, but we work hard for our livings and we would be cooking our own meals as much as possible. Besides, have you ever been to a grocery store in another country? You can learn a lot about a country by shopping where they shop.

We were pleased to find two large grocery store at the shopping mall. The mall was like any you would find here in the states, though I haven't been to too many with grocery stores inside (and on the second floor no less). The grocery store also seemed very familiar. They had manderine oranges the size of softballs and tomatos were about AU$3.49 EACH --Yikes! (Even in US$’s that is about $2 a piece!) The eggs were not refridgerated and lamb was as common as beef, but other than that, we could have been in any grocery store here in the States. We picked up some produce and desided on stirfry for dinner, found some fresh baked rolls for tomorrows breakfast picked up a few extras like lunch meat and cheese and hauled our goodies up to the check out. We exchanged a few laughs as we tried to figure out the currency and then left the people at the market to wonder about those two strange Americans...

Once back on the road we headed North to the beautiful town of Kuranda. It had started to rain (well, we were in the rain forest...) and the road up the mountain was steep and winding, once again I was glad that Indy was behind the wheel, rather than me.

Even in the rain, though the veiw was incredible!!! I know that there are beautiful places in the US as well, but, WOW!!!

Karanda catered to tourist, both Australian and International, but because we were a bit ahead of prime season, we easily found a site for the night. We set up camp and asked how we could get into town for a look.

We were told to follow a trail through the woods to the train tracks and they would lead us to town. It was early evening, but the town was closed down for the night and we were able to explore and window shop at our leasure. :-} We had already had and early dinner. (Though, it could have been a late breakfast, with the huge time difference and all I am not quite sure... LOL) Still, it was our first night in Australia and we needed an Australian beer to commemorate the occassion!!! Boy, did it taste good!!! We also checked out the menu --hmmmmmm we could have had kangaroo for dinner...maybe another time...LOL

Thanks goodness I had packed my dive flashlights, because the guy who ran the park was quite right when he told us we would need ‘torches’ on the way back. LOL No one around except us and the frogs... They were none to happy to see us, but we enjoyed their song as we wandered back to the camp ground. :-}

It was still early by Austrailia standards (9pm), but we were beat and desided to call it a day. We agreed upon beds (I got the top bunk above the main cab and Indy got to sleep on the dining room table. Hehehe (Can you tell that I am not a camper? LOL) We agreed to switch places half way through the trip though if either bed was terribly uncomfortable. :-} I, for one, was out like a light, but Indy was up by 5am and ready to go!!!

We drove back into Kuranda to do some some shopping. Hey we had to bring back a few suveniers... LOL It was still early however, so we took a drive over to Barron Gorge and Barron Falls. It ws well worth the time!

The town was quite a bit more active in the day time. They must bus the tourist in from Cairns and quite a few come up by train and by sky rail... There were lots and lots of places to shop, from the shops down town to two outdoor markets with any and everything you could imagine. We had fun being tourist and got in our fill of shopping before we hopped a ride on the scenic rail way down the mountain.

Indy had talked me into borrowing a video camera and it came in handy as we road through the mountains. We passes two water falls and through several (15 I think) tunnels cut into the mountain. Along much of the way the beautiful trees, flowers, and bushes were barely an arms length outside of our window. We also got some amazing veiws every tme we came to a clearing of the plains and the valleys down below with the ocean in the distance.

I always wonder when I see sites of such great beauty if the people who live there ever get tired of them? If they get so caught up in their daily lifes, that they take it all for granted? How often do we forget to appreciate a sunset, the colors of the leaves in the fall, the beautiful blanket of snow that covers and quiets the city in winter, or the colors of spring time? I try not to, but I know there are days, when I get so caught up in my everyday life that I forget to notice the beauty around me... Anyways, back to Australia!!! :-}

In any case it was an incredible ride with so much to see and I hated to see it end. Fortunately, it wasn't the end of our journey... We still had to take the sky rail back up!!!!

The sites from above the rainforest canopy were no less impressive. We could see for miles and miles (or kilometers and kilometers)!!! We even got off the sky rail at a couple of stops and took a short walk on the trails through some of the rain forest. All in all it was a great way to spend a day!!!