We decided to head towards Mission Beach today. This was not on our original plan of places to visit, but our friends Jo & Paul recommended coming here to do a sky dive. We watched a DVD of Jo & Paul's skydive a few weeks back and it looked amazing. It's something I've always thought about doing, and what better place to do it than over the beach in sunny Australia?

On the way, we saw a turnoff towards Murray Falls. It was only a few kilometres off the main highway so we thought it might be a good detour. We reached the picnic area first, and figured this was an ideal place to make some lunch. We shared the bench with a huge wasp, which obviously sensed the DEET insect repellent, freaked out, picked its grub from the nest and proceeded to fly around for 10 minutes wondering what to do. It looked like some sort of insect bomber aircraft! After lunch we took the short boardwalk to the falls. They were very attractive falls, with a lot of water cascading down into the pools and over the boulders below. The best waterfall we've seen so far.

It was then back to the van once more, and heading onto Mission Beach. Once we arrived we took a brief stroll over the beach, but the weather was so hot that we couldn't stand more than a few minutes. We spotted a decent campsite just over the road from the beach, so it seemed a good idea to get set up a bit early. Once we were settled, we booked our ticket for the sky dive tomorrow, there's no going back now! 14,000ft, 60 seconds of freefall, followed by a 5 minute drift back to earth. After that was all sorted we took a dip.

Stu cooked up a delicious Mexican this evening - with freshly made guacamole (all the trimmings!). The wireless internet connection at the campsite is also pretty good, so I took the opportunity to see who was online this evening for a chat. I managed to hook up with my parents for a 'yarn'. We tried the video call but the line wasn't great. It was nice to catch up with them again.

Before settling in for the night, I nipped over to the amenities just to use the ladies, and was greeted by a wealth of Australian wildlife. Outside the ladies were a huge toad, lots of geckos and a variety of different beetles - some of them far bigger than I have ever seen. Just when I'd plucked up the courage to work my way past some of the bigger insects, I realised I'd left the key to the toilets back in the van, so had to go all the way back. This time I made Stu come with me, just in case I needed to shoo away any big bugs. Stu took this as another great photo opportunity. The crazy thing is that they have a mosquito grill over the toilet door, and then a big gap above it so all the bugs get in anyway! I don't think I've ever used the toilet so quickly in all my life! But as for Stu, he's still outside taking pictures as I write this!

By the way, I've just noticed that with the air con on in our van - it's so hot outside this evening that there is actually condensation on the outside of our windows! That's a new one on me!