We arrived late Thursday night to Gilligan's Backpacker Hostel on St. Patrick's Day, saw multiple partiers in their best green attire and dodged a few drunken fights as we checked in. After some room placement mishaps and an Australian girl yelling "You have been evicted!" on repeat (just like Big Brother, but not Julie Chen style), we made it to our room and called it an evening.
The next morning, we were off to the marina to begin our Scuba diving tour. On the boat, we met Elvis the entertainer who is responsible for some of our fabulous pictures as well as a few laughs here and there. As we began our excursion, everything was fine until the boat started moving. Family: Remember when we went deep sea fishing in South Carolina and I absolutely hated the boat part of it and felt horrible that evening? Yes...that happened again. As we were sitting in our scuba info session, I was doing everything possible from having to yell "Plan B" and run to the back of the boat. After it was over, I sprinted outside for some fresh air, luckily able to keep my small breakfast down.
Scuba diving was one of the most AMAZING things I have ever done. Being able to breathe underwater and see all the fish, corral and everything else so close and clearly was life changing. "It was like being in Finding Nemo," as some would say. We got to hold sea cucumbers, stick our hands into a massive clam, hold sea urchins and saw so many things. We did 2 dives, and the second one was very relaxed and we kind of got to do our own exploration, and it was definitely well worth it.
After a long day on the boat and a very nice sunburn, we headed back to our hostel, found dinner and called it another early night.
Saturday morning we had another early morning wake up call and headed up (I believe) to the Tully River to do some EXTREME white water rafting. Now when I say extreme, I mean extreme. They gave us life jackets and helmets and we braved the grade 4 currents (I think that is what you call them). We were thrown from the boat, flipped out, at one time thrown out by our rival boating gang, and the boat completely flipped over. Everybody but 2 people in my boat drew blood of some form, an I got some lovely scrapes from rocks and what not. White water rafting is absolutely no compairson to rafting/canoeing, but if you are a good or decent swimmer and comfortable with falling out of a boat into the river and risking your life, definitely do this! It was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again.
- Mother: You would have absolutely hated this weekend
- Dad, Aunt Angie, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Tammy, brother/sisters/cousins: You would have loved this! We should definitely look into doing this some time.
We then went to a local bar, sat around watching some March Madness, before some old 'Stralian man switched it to Cricket/Rugby/Soccer, and had a couple jugs of beer to round out our day.
Weekend in Cairns was definitely worth the experience, but very strenuous on the bank account. I would go on this trip again if I were to go back and do it all over again, just prepared myself a little better.
Word on the street is that I have around 46 days left in the Land Down Under. A trip to New Zealand with my mates, a small adventure in Sydney, and then a trip to Perth with Aunt T stand before this, but I miss you all and miss home a little too.
See you all very soon!
Until Then,
Wilson
2 comments:
omgoodness! please be careful when being flipped out of boats and diving through the sky. I would prefer you to come home in one piece.
btdubbs, could you please come home soon?
when they played your video at APO on tuesday, I spent the whole 3 minutes going "aw, wilson..." dear child, you are missed.
Oh, thank you very much! I will be home in 24 days! And then, you and I can frequent each other's cell phone inboxes and spare amounts of time.
And, I should make it home in one piece...We shall see!
Post a Comment