Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Monday 23rd April 2007 Journal brought to you by an extremely tired SophieThank you so much mum and dad for the amazing Christmas present that I took advantage of today. It was a really spectacular day and I will remember it forever.This morning we had to get up at three thirty because we were doing a hot air balloon ride over the Cairns Tablelands. It was a very weird experience having breakfast at that time in the morning. We caught the bus at 4:10 and made our way around Cairns to pick up the other passengers from the various posh hotels. There were two Germans and the rest were Japanese and Chinese. It is quite surreal how many Asians there are in Cairns ? I feel like I am already on the last part of our trip! We were taking over to a field in the middle of nowhere about two hours away from Cairns. They were just setting up the balloon in the dawn light and they were absolutely huge! We were told that we were going to be in the second balloon trip, which I was a bit upset about because it meant we were missing the initial sunrise but it actually turned out to be the better flight! We always seem to have that luck. While we were watching them blow up the balloons, huddled together in the dew blanketed fields with the sun just begin to melt the dark sky (yes, I felt very poetic whilst reminiscing about this experience ? I should write a book on it) some random dude started waving at us. I thought it was aimed at some one behind us but when I turned around there was no one there. He persisted on waving and then as a blast of flame lit him up we realised that he was actually a guy we had met on the greyhound with Holly and Luke, called Chris! It really is a small world.Once the balloons had departed we all jumped on the bus then chased them across the sky. When they landed half an hour later, we were driven across the field and clambered in. Chris was doing the hour flight so happened to be on ours as well, so that is how we know that ours was better. For one it wasn't as dark and you could see for miles around, secondly the sun was still rising at this point and three we got to see some better scenery! When the balloon lifted off we were taken along the river valley and we could see the reflection of the balloon in the water. It was magical. It was a surreal experience because the pilot told us that we were cruising at 40km/h, 2,500ft above the ground yet there was absolutely no wind and we felt like we were floating it was the craziest thing ever. The views were spectacular - we could see pineapple fields and mango plantations and we could here what people were saying on the ground. We even had a conversation with this old guy and his little girl! The houses looked like something a doll would live in and the cars looked fake. The tablelands are so beautiful especially from the bird's eye view. We had to adopt a special position for landing, which involved us crouching down and holding onto a bar and it was very smooth. We had to be tipped onto our side in order to clamber out and then our next task was to fold up the balloon. I was given the special job of yanking on when end of it to stop it blowing away although what use I would have been if the wind had caught it, I have no idea. You can just imagine a little ginger figure being dragged along the ground behind this massively huge balloon. We then went to have the best breakfast we have had the whole trip. Yes, I know, all we talk about is food but this was truly great. We had scrambled egg, pancakes, toast, mushrooms, fruit salad and cereal. Tami and I fattened ourselves up with several portions as we never know where our next meal is going to come from. Ok that's a lie but we are backpackers so do take advantage of free food. Having bought the hot air balloon trip with a certain company we got a free trip to Fitzroy Island, which was so much fun! We caught a really fast boat over there that bounced over the waves (and I swear broke my back) and we were there in no time. We met Chris there (from the morning) and then decided to walk up to the summit. Tami didn't feel well unfortunately so bailed out half way through (we found her sitting in the cafe quite the happy chappy while we were sweating and dying later on). It was definitely worth it because it was beautiful up there - you could see all the surrounding islands. I went in the sea for a while when were back at the beach and then we caught the ferry back to the mainland.It was Luke and Holly's last night out in Australia so we went out in the evening to the Irish pub and met up with the Irish boys from the Whitsunday Islands. It was a brilliant night and we didn't get home until 5:45 which meant that we had been up for the grand total of 26 hours! Go us. Then I had to get up at 7:15 to ring the mother and couldn't get back to sleep after - it was a killer. Absolutely amazing day though so thank you again parents - it was a fantastic Christmas present. I love you two :)
- comments