good day, mates!!! will try and catch you up on the Bergs happenings.

Sunday evening we had dinner at a wonderful beach cafe - italian food. people eating there also had a dog like misty so we made small talk with them - they were canadian. one of the guys sitting at the next table asked us where we were from and i said dallas and he immeditely said, what do you think of george bush. i told him i would rather not comment. that concludes sunday.

monday we cruised out to the great barrier reef with Ocean Spirit. A first class operation indeed. We had four hours on the reef, some snorkeling time, some time in the submersible and some time taking a bird tour. the Michaelmus Cay which was where we went is home right now to 30,000 nestig birds so you can imagine the noise level of being up close with that many birds. my new snorkel mask was wonderful. i saw lots of beautiful fish and corals and sponges. Food was great on this huge catamaran and i would highly recommend this to anyone.

The cruise met my every expectation of planning for it for almost a year.

Today finds us in Kuranda. We took the train up this morning at 8 :45 Am and it was very cool and beautiful weather. We are now at an internet cafe and i am using a MAC to send these greetings to you. It is a little warm today but there is a breeze. we are killing time waiting to go to the skyrail station to take the gondola back down the mountain at 2 PM. We had lunch at a wonderful little place - BILLY'S - thanks Neil for the recommendatio. the batter dipped fish was wonderful. went to the koala park here in Kuranda and fulfilled another of my wishes for my trip. I am now the proud owner of a picture of me holding Chibby the 3 year old koala. It is adorable...We also visited the butterly park and the bird park and they were fantastic as well.

we are dining tonight at a little seaside cafe called Atlantis. We have had beautiful weather, no bugs, no stingers sighted on our great barrier reef cruise although i did wear my wet suit for protection had we seen any.

Tomorrow is one of our most adventurous tours. We are going on a 4 wheel drive tour to the daintree forest (rain forest) and cape tribulation - also on a boat. an all day tour. So we should see the best of what this part of Australia has to offer.

One other item i will mention. Taking the bus into town yesterday to catch Ocean Spirit the guide told us about all the Queenslander houses built in the 40s being torn down now for new condos. These homes look like houses on stilts with lots of shuttered windows. They were built to last for ever. Recently the condo people paid 1.5 million AUS dollars for one just to have the property.

I'm signing off for now. will post again wednesday or thursday morning.