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Published: October 7th 2007
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Atherton Tablelands
beautiful rolling hills and lets not forget the wild turkeys It's about 4:30pm in the afternoon on Sunday the 7th. I'm currently on the beautiful Magnetic Island off the coast of Townsville, south of Cairns. It's still hot outside, the weather has been amazing the last few days.
Following my last entry, I enjoyed a bit more time up in Cape Tribulation in the rainforest. The weather turned sour there on my last morning there - saw rain for the first time in Australia. My tour stopped off at the famous Mossman Gorge tucked in the rainforest - it was nice. I spent an evening and the better part of a day in Port Douglas (located in between Cairns and Cape Trib). Port Douglas is supposed to be a lovely spot but the weather wasn't very nice, it rained the whole time, so I wasn't able to enjoy what it had to offer - beach and excursions out on the sea (just like everywhere along the east coast of oz). I met a nice German girl and together we walked through the drizzle to at least lay eyes on the marina and the beach. Surprisingly there were still lots of people swimming in the ocean despite the not so nice
Beautiful waterfall in the Atherton Tablelands
if you look closely, you will see me and a few others from my tour group back in behind the waterfall... the water was absolutely frigid!!! eekkkk rainy weather. We however just relaxed back at the hostel and waited for our transfer bus which would drop us back in Cairns around 7pm. My friend Pete graciously offered for me (and my friend Beccy) to stay at his place for the next two nights which was an offer I couldn't refuse. My friend Beccy stayed there the first night then moved South the following day. It was so nice to have a nice place to relax in and to have a comfortable bed - I had my own room! I did a great day trip from Cairns to the Atherland Tablelands. Saw pittoresque waterfalls (swam in one too!), hiked through the rainforest, saw pristine lakes, countryside (almost felt like I was in Tuscany in this area, not in oz), and had a fantastic Aussie tourguide named Bart - he really made the trip. Met lots of great travelers on this excursion and have met up with some of them since...
So I realized that I had officially spent lots of time in Far North Queensland - it was time to activate my Greyhound bus pass and make the trek South. My first stop south of Cairns was
Mission Beach
I landed on this beach from my sky dive, stunning!! Mission Beach. Now although Mission Beach is very beautiful, like most stops along the east coast of oz, many travels don't make the stop in this place, they simply continue on the bus passing it by. This place had something very unique to offer that very much appealed to me - SKYDIVING!!! Sure you can skydive pretty much anywhere in Australia but the unique thing about skydiving in Mission Beach is that you actually land on the beach, not in a field. I jumped tandem (with a trained person) from 14,000 ft (the highest they offered). This meant a 60 sec freefall before we opened the parachute. This was by far the neatest and most exhilirating experience of my life thus far. Words cannot describe the excitement and amazement I felt as I freefell through the cold air (very chilly air up that high). The plane that took us up (there was me 4 other jumpers and we each had a guide of course) was absolutely filled to the max. 10 people crammed this tiny little plane full. The plane ride up was a rush in itself, def. have never been in something so tiny before. I was 2nd to
SKY DIVING!!!
safe and sound back on solid ground after my 14,000 ft sky dive... INCREDIBLE!!! jump. As I sat on the edge of the plane with the door open, cold air hitting my skin, and with my feet hanging out the door, the excitement (and a bit of nervousness) really started to build... then my guy said JUMP and before I knew it i was spread eagle up above the world. We were overtop of the great barrier reef and the rainforest... i could see little islands, the beautiful colours of the reefs, the windswept sandy coastline, the hilly mountains, it was just spectacular!!! Anyways, it's an experience that you won't understand until you do it yourself, I highly recommend you all do it no matter what age you are, it's a must do in everyone's lifetime.
From Mission Beach I headed further south to Townsville. This is another spot that many travelers don't really stop at but I had a reason for stopping - my friend Grace (we went to high school at WCI together) and her bf Dave were doing Law school in Townsville (they're there for 3 years!) and we wanted to meet up of course. They met up with me at my hostel and we went out for a nice
Magnetic Island Biking Extravaganza!
we rented electric bikes for the day, kinda sketchy dinner together. We wanted to go out and enjoy the nightlife but Dave wasn't in 'Friday night club attire' and they're really strick on men re: dress codes. We got turned down from 1 Irish pub (can you believe that?!!) and then the other Irish pub let us in, lol. Once we got bored of that pub we went for a walk down to the Strand - the Townsville beach and promenade - from what I could make out in the darkness, it looked quite nice.
The next day, we met at my hostel again and headed to the ferry terminal together - Magnetic island bound! We spent a fabulous day together touring Maggie Island. We rented electric bikes and were able to see several beaches and lovely spots around the island - a truly wonderful day! They left at the end of the afternoon and I headed to my hostel which is very nice and right on the ocean - I'm here at Base Backpackers for 3 nights. My British friend Beccy was here last night so that was wonderful bumping into her again - we plan to meet up frequently along the coast. Girls from my Atherland
Magnetic Island
Grace and I overlooking a beautiful beach Tablelands day trip were also here so needless to say it was great bumping into people I knew and really liked.
This morning Beccy and I rented a kayak and paddled around for a bit. I have 2 more nights left here so that means lots more R&R to experience on Maggie Island. I head south to Airlie beach afterwards and from here I'll be departing on a 2 day 2 night Sailing excursion sailing the famous Whitsundays - a must do in oz! I'm very excited and hope my boat is good and that they people are friendly. It's now going on 5pm - I think I'm going to head outside and enjoy the rest of the afternoon in the sun.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and Happy Oktoberfest - party hard!!
***SPECIAL UPDATE*** Raquel and Josh got married on Oct 5th - so sorry I missed their wedding but the pix look great. Congrats to them!!
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