Bob,s Skydiving

 

Well I got to tell you the most amazing day of my life. It started out with Maryanne and I going for a tour through the sugar mill inTully. We missed the tour as it had already started so, the next best thing to do was take a drive down to Mission Beach about 20 k away. It's a lovely spot as you can see on the  photos. There were skydivers landing on the beach. It was fantastic to watch them coming in to land. I got to talk with a few of them that just had made the jump and all of them where just so hyped up with the adrenalin rush from the dive. Some how I finished up back in the skydive office. There was another group getting ready to take the bus to the airport and I started talking to this rather pretty girl from Byron Bay who was running the office. She had jumped a few times herself and was telling me it was no big deal as the professional divers will walk you through it. She said there was one space available in this next jump, and with her nice blue eyes looking at me, and that smile I could not say no. She bought the forms over for me to fill in and I was shaking so bad that  Maryanne had to fill them in for me. It was a rush job as they where all waiting for me.  The bus to the airport was wild, with the hyped up music and every one was" high fiveing" each other saying, hey man we can do this. I needed a beer real bad as I was still shaking. The plane was ready to go when we arrived at the airport. We climbed to 14 thousand feet which is the highest jump zone in Australia. The view from that high was fantastic and you could see the great barrier reef with its small dotted islands and the air as clean as can be. I couldn't help thinking what a beautiful day to die.

The door rolled up and the cool air rushed in. Every one started sliding to the door. My dive partner hooked up to me was telling me to lean back and arch my hips forward, It's not a good feeling to watch someone jump out of a plane! It just doesn't seem right. I was the last one to go and words can't describe the sensation.We dropped 4 thousand feet, face first in one minute. I was yelling most of that time like frrrrrrrrrrk. The best feeling was when the parachute opened but, at the same time it almost knocks the breath out of you, as you slow down that fast. You go from 10 thousand feet down to the landing spot on the beach in about 6 minutes. The dive master had me pulling on the control ropes going right then left. We came in so fast I thought I would break a leg for sure. My feet where sticking out in front of me and were skimming across the beach at break neck speed, then he said put your feet down and we landed on our feet! Wow, what a rush! Two hours later I was still on an adrenalin rush. It was all filmed and put onto a CD. I had to take a sleeping pill last night as I was still wound up at bed time.  

This was a day I will always remember!!  

Tinarroo & Etty Bay

Just for a change of pace we headed inland through the Atherton tablelands. This is an area of rich, lush farmlands and rainforest's. We stayed in the town of Tinarro Falls for over a week and fell in love with the place. Lake Tinarro is a huge man-made lake with an abundance of Baramundi and red claw crabs.
Our niece Tracy, husband Brendon & their best mate Buddy came down for the weekend and we all spent a day on the lake trying to catch a feed of fish and crabs. We didn't have much luck with the baramundi but after leaving the crab nets out overnight we managed to get a feed of red-claws.
Our next stop over was in beautiful Etty Bay with magnificent ocean views, and interesting wildlife. We had a visit from one of the local Cassowaries and Bob made a new friend. The largest animal in Australia's tropical rainforest's, the endangered Cassowary stands as high as a human and weighs over 60kg when full grown.
We also had a visit from a huge goanna but he wasn't quite as friendly as big bird!
We then took a day trip into the town of Tully which is a rich sugar cane growing area. The caning industry has come a long way from the days when Bob was a cane cutter and everything was done by hand. Nowadays, machinery cut the cane and then haul it by small trains into the sugar mill. Tully is also famous for the large amount of annual rainfall they have. The huge boot in the photo stands 7.9 metres tall and this represents the record annual rainfall of 7.9 metres in 1950. Now that folks is serious rainfall!

Townsville, Cairns & Port Douglas

Townsville is another example of the many beautiful cities on the northeast coast of Australia.
We took a walk along the waterfront and stopped for lunch at one of the pubs along the way and then went up the mountain for a glorious view of the town. After spending a few relaxing days outside of town at one of the council parks we headed to Cairns. The drive north was nothing short of spectacular as we travelled  through miles and miles of sugarcane fields. The sugar mills are running at full capacity as this is a busy  time of year for them.Cairns itself is a beautiful tropical paradise nestled between the mountains and the Coral Sea. We got adventurous and took a scenic train ride up the mountains to the town of Kuranda. After touring the many art galleries and gift shops we got a ride back down via the chair lift. Being a little afraid of heights I found the ride thrilling and scary at the same time. It was worth the trip though as the scenery coming down the mountains was amazing. We landed safely at the bottom of our descent and headed home for a much needed drink. The following day we drove a little further north to Port Douglas which is itself another tropical paradise. The entire landscape is covered in lush green rainforest's and the beaches are endless stretches of sand and palm trees. A little slice of heaven on earth!

Tropical Queensland

Before heading to the coast we stopped in the town of Richmond to check out the dinosaur museum and so some fossiking. Millions of years ago this whole area was covered by ocean which was home to several species of marine dinosaurs. Over the years hundreds of skeletons from these ancient creatures have been uncovered and it is one of the few places on earth with these kind of dinosaurs. We drove out to one of the many fossiking sites and tried our hand at digging in the dirt to see what we could find. After a couple hours of scratching and digging we found a couple beautiful sea shells and the fossil remains of some type of fish scales. It was a very interesting day to say the least. We then went into an old gold mining town and took a tour of the ancient gold smelter. It was a lot of hard work back then and they would use liquid mercury to separate the gold from the ore. Needless to say they didn't realize how poisonous and deadly mercury can be and hundreds of the town folk died at a very young age due to the pollution from the mill operation.
The old cemetery is filled with families and young children who perished here, many in unmarked graves.
We finally headed to the coast and hit the beach in Rollingstone. Our caravan park was right on the ocean with hundreds of coconut palms. Bob couldn't resist gathering a few and extracting the juice. With all this fresh juice on hand the only thing left to do was buy a few local pineapples and make pina coladas. Yum!
Bob's brother Allan and wife Delphine spent a couple days with us as well so we had a great time sitting on the beach for our happy hour. Later that evening we were entertained by a family troupe who played and sang for us. Everyone gathered around with their drinks of choice, pulled up a chair or found a soft grassy seat and enjoyed the entertainment. It is good to be back to the warm sun and sandy beaches again.
Not sure about the guy with the strange tattoo but on that note, we'll see you later alligator!