Raging Tully

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Back on the road and up through the sugar cane and little narrow gauge railways that link the massive farms with the main depots and main lines.

Our next stop was Mission Beach in the wet tropics. Another of the World Heritage Areas of Australia and home to the Cassowary, a very large blue bird with a terrifying hard horn, it has been know to de-bowel people!

A very small coastal town very chilled out and a perfect place to relax, that is if you want, but it is only a stones through from the town of Tully at the foot of the great Tully River valley. World famous (but you knew that) for its white water rafting. The Tully River is a dam controlled river so always plenty of water to have fun in. We had opted for a whole days raft and went to bed early in preparation of the day.

Waking up early we were picked up at seven fifty in the morning and taken up to a café to meet a big coach from Cairns. We then all went on the coach and climbed the valley, they played us a safety video and told us not to worry too much and have fun safely! When we finally reached the car park we all got our wonderfully bright gear on, I think you’ll agree we look great! and headed off for our raft.

The first rapid was called ‘The Alarm Clock’, this is as it’s the first and yes it really wakes you up. After many more and covering lots of water we stopped off for a barbeque, all being careful not to eat too much as it was straight back into the raft and off for many more rapids in the 8Km to the bus. Luckily Alice and I got through this unscathed just a little bruises from bouncing into things but one of the girls fell off the back of the raft and cut her leg open on a rock. Her whole leg came up beautifully purple and blood ran down from her shin, but she was fine and off we went.

When we finally finished we were absolutely exhausted, so glad we did it though the best fun ever.

The next day feeling a little sore and bruised we had a leisurely start and stroll up the beach to the main town of Mission Beach and saw the visitor centre and learned about the wet tropics and why they’re so special. It was really great and very relaxed, just what we needed after the rapids.

The hostel was great, clean and really friendly staff but best of all it had a TV room with comfy seats so Alice disappeared off to get her fill of Neighbours and Home and Away.

Saturday came far too fast and it was back on the mighty Greyhound again, last time though. We took the two hour trip up to Cairns, there were fields and fields of sugar cane on either side and more little railways and yellow diesels, like Ralph. In the distance we could see tree covered hills and then more and more developed land until we hit Cairns central.

Tourist capital and adrenaline launch for North Queensland. Full of hotels, hostels and plenty of bars. Made me feel really quite old surrounded by young 18 year old backpackers all running around screaming. After we had settled into our hostel we hit the night markets and to see the town all lit up. Cairns is the city of possibility a place to come to let your hair down and be irresponsible. A change from some of the real working cities we had passed through, just demonstrating how diverse Australia

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Photos

our new clothes
do you think we look sexy?

dog in the sand
go on look close