Mission Beach
Trip Start
Aug 16, 2004
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71
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Trip End
Aug 13, 2005
Mission Beach, Australia
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Mission Beach is only 40 mins or so away from Tully River. This is the best place in Australia to do White Water Rafting. We went with a company called Raging Thunder as we got a package to do horseriding and hot air ballooning up in Cairns. The rafting can leave from Cairns or Mission Beach and we thought it would be the same trip regardless. However, as we later found out, we were actually on the Xtreme Team rafting experience, which operates as part of Raging Thunder. It is the only rafting operation based out of Mission Beach and instead of just going straight down the river, they actually make it more of river experience, not just rafting
01 - Palm Trees along the beach.
.Tully river has grade 3-4 rapids and is a whole lot of fun. Probably one of the best days out we've had so far. The Xtreme team only uses 3 boats, 3 guides (Vince, Bazz and Jeremy) and max 18 people, so you get to know everyone on the trip. Compared to the other companies that send 10 or 20 boats down the river, this is much more personal.
After getting kitted out with helmets and lifejackets, having a safety briefing and learning a few paddling instructions, it is onto the river and its rapids. Quite early on, once we got to a quiet bit of a river, our guide Jeremy flipped the boat, so we ended up in the river. It set the scene for the day ahead and ensured we knew how to get out from under the boat. (Tip - Don't panic!).
The first part of the day, before lunch had the most exciting rapids, and we managed to get through it without too many disasters. I fell out twice and lost my paddle, and we almost flipped the boat over. I did recover my paddle again, after it floated by the back of the boat!
At one part of the river, we jumped out of the boat and into the river, and floated down some rapids
02 - Dunk Island
. This was the least fun of the activites as I kept getting water up my nose, and Graham hurt his knee on the rocks. The guides then showed the group how to go bodysurfing, but we decided not to do this.After standing up whilst going under a waterfall in the boat it was time for a BBQ lunch, on the riverbank. After lunch there was more rafting, but a bit gentler, or at least, more time between each rapid.
Next activity was a chute. You could either swim down this or go down it in the boat. It was basically a little waterfall, and I somehow got persuaded to swim down it. Instructions were to hold my breath and equalise my ears, as you go down about 4 metres into the water. All I can say is I'm glad I didn't see what I was doing until after I'd done it, but what an adrenalin rush! As we were all wearing lifejackets there was no need to worry about drowning.
So back in the boats again and some tricky rapids came up. Two girls lost their paddles and we had to paddle like mad to pick them up again. At this point one of the other girls managed to chip her tooth somehow as well! Shortly after that we came to a big rock to jump off into the water
03 - Big Spider
. I actually had two attempts at this, as the first time I stood on the ledge, I chickened out.So then after a few more rapids, we had a final swim and then it was back to the Raging Thunder Cafe to get some photos and a drink! We had in total 5hrs on the river and Xtreme team are the only company that are allowed to do all the extra stuff. We were absolutely exhausted by the time we arrived back at our hostel, and the next day we ached in places we didn't even know we had muscles, but it was so much fun and definitely worth doing!
The other thing that Mission Beach is famous for is for being part of the Cassowary coast, and therefore it is a good place to try and spot these magnificent birds. However, the best walking tracks are only accessible if you have your own transport, which of course, we didn't. There was a small walking track, Cutten Brothers track that we walked along, but unfortunately no casssowaries were seen! Maybe further north we will be lucky and spot them!
So Sunday we caught our last Greyhound bus in Australia and made the 2hr journey north to Cairns where our Aussie experience will soon come to an end!
