Spring Break
DAY 6
Wednesday, April 19th, 2017
Toady was an early morning wake up! 5am wake up time and had breakfast then got on the ferry back to the mainland. The ferry took forever to leave and most people fell asleep on the ride back. Once we got on the mainlands it was time for our 2-hour bus ride to go white water rafting in the Tully river! They put a movie in for us to watch on the way up but my eyes were closed before the opening credits came on. After I woke up from my nap I looked outside the window and looked at the beauty outside. Once we got to the top of the river, we got off the bus and got all geared up. I forgot to pack my chest piece for my go pro and I was too afraid of losing it or it falling off of my helmet so I decided to leave it on the bus.
Within 10 minutes of being there and getting ready it started to rain. I was already nervous to begin with. I had never done anything like this before. I was afraid of falling out of the boat and getting hurt. Our instructor, Allen, was very nice and helped ease my nerves. He ensured my group that we would all be safe. My group would have to work together to listen to Allen and all the commands he gave us to steer and guide the raft. I was sitting up front ready to head down the category 4 rapids. Once we all got going, it wasn't as much work as I originally thought it would be. I imagined rowing the whole time but that was not the case. We would row a couple times then stop. When we would go down some waterfalls we had to get in the “get down” position and sit in the bottom of the raft with our oars in the boat pointing towards the sky. This got my heart racing, seeing the falls we were rowing straight towards then getting down the last second. Half way through we got out and relaxed in the river going down with the current (alongside our boat with Allen inside of course) This was so much fun just floating down the river with all my friends. The sun even came out for a little bit. We were pulled back into the raft and headed to a spot to have lunch. I had a sausage burger (I think...not really sure what it was but I was hungry and ate it). After I finished eating lunch I got to see a GIANT EEL in the river and some big fish and turtles as well. After lunch it was time to head back in the raft because we were only half way down the river and still had 2 or 3 more hours of rowing!!!!
After lunch my hands were sooo cold It hurt to row since I had to hold on to the metal oar. Allen said once we get moving the bold will start following to my hands and I’ll be warmer. As we were all rowing Allen told us about where we were. We were in the famous Daintree rain forest, which is the oldest rainforest in the world!!! It is an estimated 180 million years old! Riding down the Tully river through the beautiful rainforest. I really wished I had brought my GoPro so I could capture some of the beautiful waterfalls and trees I was going through. Our raft (almost) made it without any people falling out. One of my friends fell out on the last little fall.
I surprisingly really enjoyed this experience! I had more fun than I originally thought. We got back on the bus and drove to this (random-I don't know why we had to go here) Pub to pick up our pictures from the white water rafting experience. I knew I was going to get them no matter what they looked like because I didn't have any pictures on my GoPro or phone and I know my mom would want pictures to scrapbook. After everyone got their pictures, we headed on the bus for one last road trip to our final destination for the rest of the trip. I was about to fall asleep when I saw the brightest rainbow I have ever seen. I was really happy I didn't fall asleep and miss seeing the beautiful rainbow or scenery.
After a few hours we finally arrived in Cairns, the last stop on our destination. We arrived at the coolest hostel called Gilligans. It was very nice for a hostel it felt very clean, so I was happy we would be spending the last 4 nights here. We had an hour to get ready and head over to this place called Woolshed for our dinner. I had a delicious steak! Our group had the whole upstairs to ourselves. After dinner I watched a gold fish racing competition! This was so funny to watch. At first the auctioned off gold fish to use as “countries” One of my friends paid $5 to race Japan’s Goldfish. There were 2 long tanks with a start and finish line on each sides. Players put their fish in the water and had to blow through a straw to create bubbles to make the fish go to the other side of the tank. This was very entertaining to watch everyone race their goldfish. After the gold fish races we just stayed and danced there for the rest of the night. This was also an early night due to waking up at the crack of dawn for tomorrow-day 7.....”Adrenaline Day”