Well we slept last night on esplanande at the beach front in Cairns, most of the area has no camping signs but one part didn't so we chanced our luck and got away with it. The cost to stay in caravan parks is just too expensive to do every night so we figure we are gonna try and avoid them as much as possible.

So this morning we headed to the huge outoor pool area called The Lagoon on the seafront in Cairns which have public showers so we headed down there to get clean, the showers were hot and prob one the best showers we have had on our travels so all good, we werent the only ones either it was campervan tastic with people getting their showers haha .

We showered and had a wee cuppa tea in the car park with our cereal then headed off for our great barrier reef trip where we were doing 2 dives with Cairns Dive Centre. We got on the boat at 0730 and headed off it was a 2 hour trip as we were going to the outer reef. I was a wee bit nervous getting geared up but I knew there were no skills to do it was just diving, we got in and followed the anchor rope down to around 16m, it took me a few mins to get used to being underwater again but then we were off, we had one other girl with us and the dive master so it was a small group. I really enjoyed it but I guess I was expecting more, the outer reefs are meant to have sharks and turtles so I figured there would be an abundance of stuff but it was nowhere near as good as in Borneo.

The second dive was at another site not far away but it was much better the coral was really good in parts and we saw a turtle too but no sharks I was gutted. I think we have been spoiled by diving in Borneo as every dive there had turtles and endless amounts of different fish.  

We headed off to the lagoon area afterwards to get our showers then it was time for free pizza and beers provided by the dive company at a bar - however no drink for me seeing as I had to drive later and find our camp spot for the night haha.

Costs
Trip to the reef with 2 dives incl all equipment - £123 each