Living life to the max - Sharks, crocs and freefall

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After my great night out in Airlie Beach, the following morning we had a drive of 650kms north to Cairns to do, not advisable to undertake with the mother of all hangovers, no voice, no energy or will-power to even get out of bed and one hell of a sore throat,!!
Mum ended up doing most of the driving as I sat feeling really ill, and the situation was not helped when I thought I needed some food and grabbed some ‘gone off and mouldy’ bread from the esky and ate half of it before my taste buds told me something was really wrong, nearly causing Mum to have to pull over to the side of the road at speed! However we did manage to get there without any further adventure and for the first time since Mum arrived the heavens opened and it was pouring down with rain!
Due to the weather we opted to stay in luxury in a cabin rather than the tent, but it wasn’t that luxurious, though compared to a tent it felt like it, and by this time my sore throat had developed into a cold.
We had our sky dive booked for the next day, but as the weather was still so overcast we rang up to find out the situation, and were asked if we minded rescheduling to Monday, and then later found out the main reason for this was not the weather, but the fact that the plane we were meant to have gone up in had crashed the previous evening up in the mountains somewhere, with the unfortunate loss of the experienced pilot (who also happened to be one of the tandem sky-divers).
So we booked ourselves a trip to Cape Tribulation and the famous Daintree Rainforest with a company called ‘Billy Tea Safaris’. This turned out to be a terrific day out, it was just a shame that the group of people we were with were a bunch of boring old gits who did nothing but complain, and were impossible to make conversation with, though it didn’t stop us from making the most of it and our guide was a great laugh and a brilliant cook.
We had a really interesting boardwalk through the rainforest, which along with Taman Negara in Malaysia are the two oldest rainforests in the world. The Daintree rainforest boasts a greater diversity of flora and fauna than any other rainforest in the world. It also has the Emu sized dangerous, native, blue necked Cassowary, which is the only place in the world this 6ft high bird is found.
We stopped at a lovely creek and tried some exotic fruits from the rainforest and sampled some ‘Billy Tea’ which is Australian grown and made in a large billy can, hence the name of the company.
Next stop was a quick walk along Cape Tribulation beach, which was a beautiful white sandy beach where the rainforest comes right down to meet the sea. After this was our Aussie style BBQ lunch (which my brother, Guy would have loved) consisting of all you could eat huge steaks and lovely salads… yes you did read that right..all you could eat steaks!
After filling ourselves so full we would have sunk like a stone if we had tried to swim, they then took us on a boat trip down the Daintree River which is famous for its crocodile population. We were lucky to see two huge crocs along with a couple of smaller ones, several green tree snakes, and the most wicked green tree frog. This trip was the highlight of our day as we had both really wanted to see crocs in the wild and had got quite up close and personal to it. The big male croc had been watched over the past few days as he had been spotted pushing and eating half a dead cow down the river, and looked rather fat and contented when we passed him.
The next day we set off early to catch the tour boat to the Great Barrier Reef to do some quality snorkeling. On the way we had the usual safety and equipment talk, during which
One of the crew members explained the kind of aquatic life we might expect to see down there. At this point he asked what seemed to be a perfectly reasonable question ‘who would like to see a shark?’ When I put my hand up, I got a lot of worried faces turned around at me, and he said ‘I suggest you keep away from that bloke then!’
Mum and I saw some amazing fish, including a huge Maori Wrasse that was about 5ft long and 3ft in depth. We chased and swam along side some turtles which was great fun and something I have always wanted to do. I dived down to see some really large clams and in the process swam past the people who were actually diving! Which somewhat startled them as they are not used to snorkelers diving that deep!
Then came the moment I had wished for… as I was scanning the coral looking to see what else I could find, I suddenly saw a big dorsal fin with a white tip….yes, you’ve guessed it I had finally found a white tipped reef shark about 2 mtrs long and only about 3 mtrs away from me! After trying to shout under water to attract Mum’s attention, which is not a very effective method of communication, I found myself swimming after it as fast as I could to get a better look at it. After about 10 seconds, the thought occurred to me, ‘what the hell am I doing? Most people swim in the opposite direction, not after it!’ Don’t ask me what I’d have done if I had actually caught up with it or it had turned to face me, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, I was just caught in the moment. Maybe the guy on the boat was right. Mum unfortunately missed it, but couldn’t believe the speed at which I had taken off after it!
Mum and I had to laugh, as about 5 mins into our snorkeling it started raining very heavily, and most people swam back to the boat! We looked at each other quizzically, as we were already wet so what was that all about?
You may be happy to know that it does rain in Australia, and had been doing so quite a lot since we had arrived in Cairns, and we had our fingers crossed that it would improve by tomorrow for our rescheduled skydive.

At last - a half reasonable day, and our skydive was on! The company had borrowed a plane and as we waited in the office for our groups turn, a number of floral tributes came in. While we sat waiting we watched a few other peoples skydives that had gone earlier that morning.
It was funny, but both Mum and I were waiting for the nerves and butterflies to kick in, but instead we just got more excited about doing it and were counting down the minutes to our turn. Finally they kitted us up and we met our tandem skydive buddies, Mum had a really nice short, chilled out looking guy with a mass of fair matted dreadlocks, called Mike; and I had the only girl, quite fit looking called Elisha. She was about a foot shorter than me which concerned me slightly, but being strapped up tight to her wasn’t all that bad and helped me forget all about it within a few seconds!
Five sets of us squeezed into this tiny plane which didn’t hang about and climbed steeply straight up through the clouds to 14,000 ft. I had a great view as I was sitting next to the thin, rattley perspex door, as I was to be first out. I couldn’t believe that we were both so psyched up for it and still the nerves didn’t come. The door opened and before I could even think about the noise and the rush of wind, I was sitting on the edge of it …and gone…tumbling head first at 200kms an hour into nothing, before hitting the white fluffy clouds (so now I know what they feel like), as we fell through the depth of clouds, I could feel the tiny moisture droplets stinging on my arms, but I still had no sense of position as I could see nothing but cloud. The speed and noise were immense and as we broke through the clouds the view of Cairns and the mountains behind were stunning. But all too soon the 60 second freefall was over and the parachute was deployed, a strong jerk and deafening silence followed which was surreal. Our instructors allowed each of us to guide our parachute in its turns and spins to bring us gently towards the ground and only took back over control for a surprisingly comfortable landing. Despite all the debating about whether it would be worth the money to get a DVD done, we were glad we had opted to get it done as it was all over so quickly that we could now relive almost every second. So anyone who wants a laugh can view it when I finally get back home.
This was something that both Mum and I had wanted to do for years and it was great to have finally achieved it (we are now part of the exclusive skydive club along with you Eva). Trouble is I want to do all over again now! I have only one more thing to say on this matter… Owen and Pete Wreford, you now have a promise to fulfill, as you both said you would do it if I did!!!
Over the past five days in Cairns, we had been so busy during the day that our night life had been quite boring and uneventful, so as we were driving out of Cairns for our next destination, I got a text from Hayley, telling me that a few of the gang from the ‘Hammer’ boat would be in town that evening, so after a quick discussion with Mum we turned the car around where I dumped her in a hostel and went out for the night!
It was another great night, where Hayley led me astray AGAIN and I ended up dancing on a table! It was a great surprise to meet up with them all again, but this time I stayed off the sambuca so that I could function for the drive the next day.
It was a shame that the weather was so poor and we didn’t feel that we had seen Cairns in its best light, but it still didn’t stop us from having a great time and doing all the things we had hoped to do.

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Photos

James bond style boat
My dream for when I become rich and famous.......yes i know to do that I have to actually start work sometime!!

Watch out for Cassowaries
I think the sign speaks for itself

Driving into the Tropics
Finally left the endless flat land and sugar cane fields behind

Emmangen creek
Why you need a 4x4 to drive most places in Australia

Our tropical fruit selection
Yes I know there is bananas in there!

Ummm..... steaks!!
What did you have for dinner Guy?

The crocodile infested Daintree river
Where somedays you may see half a dead cow being nudged down stream by a croc

Comments

[Eva]

WOOHOO!!
Well done on the skydive both of you!! :)