All the campsites in Cairns were full up when we got there. The last week or so in Australia it was hard to plan ahead due to the monumental rains which delayed us a few times, so we hadn’t booked anything. We found a scuzzy motel just outside the city (cockroaches, bad smells) when we arrived and were implored more than once to take the bikes into our room and not leave them locked outside. We then moved to a scuzzy cabin on the outskirts of Cairns, and were implored again not to leave the bikes locked outside, but take them in with us. The cabin didn’t really lock well anyway. On the bright side it was the cheapest place with a roof we found in Australia, and we managed to get the tent dry and packed up: We won’t be using it in Indonesia.

There were a few practical things to sort out with the bikes before we left Australia. Primarily they now have new tyres. The wheel size we have means that those are difficult to get, but we found a shop who kindly ordered them in for us, and also gave us a couple of boxes to pack the bikes in ready for our flight.

The final thing we wanted to do before leaving was to see the Great Barrier Reef. We booked a snorkelling trip on a small boat, but it got cancelled due to high winds. We scrambled around to find another one on a larger boat that was going ahead. A boat trip being cancelled due to high winds is a clue that we wouldn’t be in for plain sailing. About a third of the passengers were outside throwing up. Many people didn’t go in the water when we got to the snorkelling spots, because it was so rough. The waves were enormous, and we were all being tossed around like rag dolls. It was difficult to see any of the guides and easy to get cut off from the group in an instant. It probably shouldn’t have gone ahead. I found myself on my own and unable to find anyone at one point, and was beginning to panic and flap around until I spotted a giant turtle at the edge of the reef. Other than a koala, it was the one thing I’d been hoping to see, and after that I was happy just floating around watching it for a while, gradually forgetting about the turmoil above the sea. It swam up towards the surface, close enough to touch. The turtle was followed by a buffet, one of my other favourite things in the world.

The second snorkelling stop I was feeling much more relaxed and confident about going off on my own, and the sun came out and lit the coral and shoals of fish up.

On the way back we were warned that it would be the roughest going yet, and anyone who had already been ill would definitely be again. I was musing on how easily I get car sick, yet have never had a problem on a boat, when the sinking nausea hit me and I felt myself turn green. The next hour was spent in the limbo of trying to hold everything in, because while being outside might help, staggering the whole length of the violently pitching boat seemed even more unmanageable. In the end I kept my share of the buffet, and also my dignity, and for the first time ever was fine getting on a plane because it wasn’t a boat.

I managed to escape Australia without seeing a truly devastating spider. There was one instance of a large (by UK standards, not Aussie ones) shiny blue one. I can’t look up what it was because that would mean seeing pictures. It was at night in a public toilet that had light sensors, so I was trying to stay on the loo while also dancing around desperately to keep the light on. A difficult balance.

We arrived in Denpasar on Bali, where there are probably a higher percentage of Australians than there are in Australia.

Our only task was putting the bikes back together, which gets easier each time. We now have nearly a month in Indonesia; all we need to do is return to our starting point for a flight out. We’ve bandied round the idea of riding and island hopping as far east as we can get, and then catching a ferry back. But I’m skittish about getting on a boat again so soon, knowing that the shortest ferry journey is 4-8 hours (Indonesia doesn’t run on exact times) and they all go up from there.

I’m oddly nervous about setting off. The streets here are very narrow and the traffic is crazy, so the prospect of cycling isn’t filling me with enthusiasm. On the other hand a new place is always exciting. There is so much to see here and so many roads to be ridden.