First Big Adventures in Cairns!

My name, written in bits of coral.

What an awesome couple of days it has been!  Sunday morning (yesterday) the group set out to Fitzroy Island.  A bus took us around 7:30 to the Reef Terminal Center, where we used the vouchers we received upon check in for our tours.  The company we are doing a lot of tours with, Raging Thunder, already knew we were coming, and everything was ready for us.  We departed the marina around 8:30 on a catamaran type ferry and sat rat on the top, giving us the best view during the 50-minute ride over to the island. 

During the ride we were worried that the weather would not clear up, and that we would be under cloudy skies all day.  However, as we departed farther from the city and the mainland, the weather improved so much.  The clouds parted and the sun shined on us, and because it was a fairly windy day, we were absolutely comfortable! When we got there we were instructed to meet the group and tour guide and beach hire, right next to the dock.  We each received a snorkel set and a kayak.  Much to our dismay (and amusment) we were instructed that we had to wear stinger suits.  Even though we were in a ‘low-risk’ stinger area, the season technically doesn’t end until May 31, so anyone on guided tours has to wear one.  Each suit has a hood, mittens for the fingers, and a strap that fits around the heel.  We had a lot of fun putting the suits on and making fun of one another, and of course we took tons of pictures! 

Laura's excitement when she discovered the hood!

Stinger suit: new fashion accessory!

Our sea-kayaking guide was a cute young Australian guy named Malcolm. We weren’t able to take any cameras because it was pretty wet, but I remember a lot of what we saw.  He took us down to one end of the island, and then back around to the other end.  Laura and I were a power team on the kayaks (we’d like to think).  Malcolm really made sure we got a good workout, and took us to precisely the windiest places with the strongest current around the island.  Eventually the group stopped and we all snorkeled right off the beach.  At this location the water visibility was very poor, and to see anything we were forced to dive down. 

The group and our guide, Malcolm.

When we got back to camp after the sea-kayaking tour we were given our included lunches: a sub sandwich, wrap, granola bar, apple, bottle of water, and lemonade.  I was actually pretty impressed with the packed lunch, and definitely felt full by the end of lunchtime. We ate in a butterfly garden next to the resort on the island.  The famous Australian blue butterflies (I don’t know it’s name, but eventually/hopefully I’ll get a picture) fluttered all around us.   Even though there is a resort on the island, it was very undeveloped.  The resort seemed to blend right in to the flora, and everything was very peaceful. 

The sunshine was gorgeous. Some girls in our group chose to lay out, but I chose to jump right in and put my snorkel back on.  While kayaking back we realized we could see coral on the bottom, so we walked down to that part of the island to get in.  The coral was awesome!  The fish were awesome! Visibility was quite a bit better in this area, but I still chose to dive down quite frequently to get a better look of everything.  There is so very cool stuff underwater.  My favorite thing that I saw were giant clams that were a beautiful electric blue color that would close when I got near to them.  The coral is so beautiful; we weren’t supposed to touch anything, but sometimes I couldn’t help myself.  Some of the corals are very hard like concrete, while others are very soft.  It is so cool that the coral is alive, and that it supports such a dynamic ecosystem.

Instead of sand the beach was mostly coral pieces.

Anyway, I snorkeled for so long that I had a severe water-log, and my lips got chapped. Eventually I got out and laid on the beach in the sun (which was super-blazing-hot).  One of the coolest things about the beach at Fitzroy Island is all the coral.  Along the shore bits of bleached and dead coral take the place of sand, so in many places you walk around on a beach of coral.  It blows my mind how much coral lays on the beach. We spent some time looking for cool pieces to take home as free souvenirs, and also talking pretty pictures on our piece of paradise. 

Around 3:30 we had to turn in our snorkel stuff and get ready to leave, and we were seriously worn out.  The chatting that had gone on the way there was muted, and some of even fell asleep on the boat ride home.

In the evening we grabbed a $10 dinner deal at a Irish restaurant, PJ O’Brien’s, and then spent a little time walking around town.  I bought a beach towel that says Cairns Great Barrier Reef that I am really excited about using for the first time (except for the fact that I slept with it last night because I was cold).   We planned on an early bedtime last night because we knew we would have to get up early this morning, and ended up getting into bed by around 10pm (and sleeping soundly!).

This morning we had to be ready for pickup by shuttle bus at 6:30 to go white water rafting on the Tully River in the township of Tully, about 2 hours drive south of Cairns.  The bus was the nicest charter I have ever been on, with leather seats and DVD players.  After a two hour ride up into the mountains, we arrived at our departure point. The staff was all very excited because the weather was so nice.  They told us that the town of Tully is one of the rainiest places in Australia, and that in the last 6 months they could count the beautiful sunny days on one hand.  Not only did we get to raft on a sunny day, but we also got to go all the way to the top.  Flood season is just now ending in Northern Queensland, and during the season they usually cannot raft the top section of the Tully River.  They took us up there, and told us today was one of the first days in months they have been able to raft it.  I was pretty excited that we had gotten so lucky!

Our rafting guide, Ash, was very funny and very good at his job.  He has been working on the Tully River for 9 years.  He gave us very good instructions, but had a lot of fun with our group of girls. He also told us how famous Tully River is for rafting; many guides from all over the world come to work at the Tully for a period just to be able to put it on their resumes. 

We rafted ALL DAY.  On AWESOME rapids.  It was so cool.  We worked well together as a team, paddled hard, and had a lot of fun. I rode right up front with Ashley and fell out atleast 3 times (the most of the group).   The craziest time was on a rapid called Double D-Cup; the guide thought it was funny to say I got dominated on Double D-Cup.  It was a level 4 rapid (6 is the highest level), so I got him a little worried, and the boat quickly paddled to me and got me back in.  The rapids were the most intense I have ever been on (the level 4’s in NC and TN don’t even compare), and it was completely thrilling.  During the trip we also stopped at a big rock and all jumped off, and had fun flipping the raft.  We did a lot of swimming between rapids, and the guide even let us float through a level-1 rapid with our feet up. 

Honestly, after Fitzroy Island, we weren’t sure the trip could get any better.  But it did. The rafting totally exceeded our expectations; everything about the day was perfect! We all had a great time; at one point, one of the girls said, “I think the most exercise I am getting today is my abs because we are laughing so much.”  We even floated down one rapid, all holding hands, ready for anything- we could’ve been on an Australian postcard.  It was an absolutely awesome day.