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28 Jan
We spent all day on the bus from Airlie Beach to Cairns..... thrilling!
29 Jan
Stupidly whilst we were in Brisbane we booked to do a skydive and now the time has come to throw ourselves out of a plane! 7.40am pickup from the hostel so after a light breakfast of toast and coffee (less to bring back up) we got the minibus to the 'Jump the Beach' skydive base (www.jumpthebeach.com.au) near Mission Beach. We had booked to do a 10,000 foot jump but were convinced into upgrading to a 14,000 foot jump so that we could enjoy the 'sensory overload' of the freefall for a full 60 seconds! After a three hour safety briefing, well not quite, we had a five minute explanation of how to jump put of the plane (what to do with our arms, how to land etc.), watched them pack the parachutes then we were off. We were in the first load to go so after I had few quick words on camera with my tandem jumper Pierre (now nicknamed Beefy Botham by my Dad and brother after they saw the photos on the web!) for my DVD it was time to go. We jumped into the back of a tiny plane along with two other jumpers and their tandem jumpers and a few photographers. It took about twenty minutes or so to get up to 14,000 feet so quite a bit of times for the nerves to set in! We were all strapped up before we got into the plane, so they just had to attach us to our 'jumpers' whilst we were going up. I can't talk for Ed but I can honestly say that I wasn't too nervous until they opened the door and it was time to jump. A Korean guy went first and he looked terrified! I was next so shuffled across the floor of the plane, sat on the ledge looking out at the ground below for a few seconds and then that was it - before I had chance to change my mind I was falling headfirst towards the ground doing forward rollypollys! The freefall lasted about a minute and it is diffucult to remember what happened as they were so right about the 'sensory overload'. As you can see from the photos we both had a great time although I am quite disturbed about the excess skin on my neck that was flapping around, whilst Ed is concerned that one of the photos show that he appears to be going bald! After a minute the parachute went out which jerked us back up but then the nice cruising down to the ground began. As we jumped opver Mission Beach we had the stunning scenery of sea, beach and green fields below us. I even got to steer the parachute as we spiralled down to the ground. After about five minutes we landed, a perfect landing on my part (must be in the blood from my Dad who is an ex-paratrooper!) and I was ready to back up and do it again! Ed landed a minute or so later, we had a few more photos taken, thanked God that we were still alive then sat on the beach waiting for the others. If you ever get the chance to skydive JUST DO IT!!
30 Jan
Still not having had enough snorkelling I booked myself onto a boat trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. Another early start to get to the boat 'Compass' then we spent about two hours cruising the 50km out to the outer reef. Our first stop was at Hastings Reef where we spent about 90 minutes snorkelling. The variety of fish was amazing, and the coral even better than I have seen before. A professional photographer came into the water with us - he found some massive sea slugs and handed them to us then took our photos (at $30 I wasn't that bothered about buying it). He also found some Nemo fish and took more photos of those. I got a bit snap happy with my dispoasable camera and managed to finish it just on that stop. I was then gutted when we got off at the next snorkelling point, Breaking Patches just off of Michaelmas Cay, to find that the coral was even more stunning. The water went from being 8m deep in places, to then having to be careful not to touch the coral as I swam above it. I was so astounded by the coral that I had to bring myself to get out of the water, to get back onto the boat to buy another disposable camera! Glad I did though because just as I was swimming back to the boat the photographer found a big sea turtle so I managed to swim alongside the turtle for a few seconds. Unfortunately then we had to get back on the boat but were welcomed with hot drinks and a nice buffet lunch. We then headed back to Cairns so I spent the next couple of hours chatting to a girl from England, sunbathing and relaxing on deck. One of the best $60 I have ever spent!
Ed went on a rainforest tour to Cape Tribulation - I will let him tell you about that sometime as not too sure what he got up to.
31 Jan
8.25am pickup for my 'On the Wallaby' rainforest and canoeing tour. We drove past lots of banana trees which are now growing again after they were destoyed by a cyclone that hit last year resulting in a national banana shortage! We also saw lots of sugar cane - apparently a cane toad was introduced to kill off beetles damaging the cane but that didn't work and now the toads themselves are causing damage. The local government in the Northern Territory are trying to prevent the spread of the toads into their national parks so they hand out beer vouchers for every toad caught...... Ed & I have set up our own toad farm!! The bus then headed to a rainforest area in the Atherton Tablelands. We walked to a massive Cathedral Fig Tree which has no trunk, just branches and root. We saw beautiful electric blue butterflies, secada beetles, tree dragons, turtles, and spent a lot of time pulling small leeches off of our feet and shoes - yuk! After a ncie picnic lunch in Eacham National Park four of us headed off for the canoeing tour. Unfortunately the heavens decided to open so we got very wet but it was great fun. We canoed around a lake, then up a small stream where we stopped for some aboriginal body painting. The guide, Matt, found some stones in the stream that Aboriginal people use for painting - when rubbed against the rocks this makes a sort of paint which we used to paint each other with! After an hour or so there we canoed back down the lake to our starting point where the canoe games began. This involved games such as turning the canoes over then running over the top until falling into the water. I didn't join in - well, I couldn't risk getting water into my perforated eardrum after all!
Ed had booked to go on a scenic flight over the Great Barrier Reef but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the weather.
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