Cairns Vacation 1999

Cairns Adventures

The trip to Cairns will be my first one overseas that I did not do with my parents. True, I have been to USA for my studies and have travelled there quite a bit plus a few leisure tours in between my business trips. This one is done purely for holiday purposes and thus it qualifies to have a section on its own.
planning the itinerary

Even before surfing on the web, one of the things that Shuhui and I did was to get a book called Let's Go Australia. This book is written for the budget traveller in mind and so, it's quite appropriate for us.
After booking the tickets (flying by Malaysian Airlines, booked thorugh Jethmal Travels located at Peninsula Plaza), the next thing to consider is where to stay. There are a few places listed in the book, and after some discussion (well, I made the decision without informing Shuhui and she was pretty mad at me for doing so), and some surfing on the web we chose to bunk in at Caravella Backpackers 77, I think 77 stands for the address of the place. There's another one also on the Esplanade but on the quieter side of town. They have full laundry facilities (also a machine for laundry detergent) in addition to dinner at the premises (pretty convenient, I think). Also, I read from a few travel books that they are among the more popular backpacker places in Cairns. So, I wrote to the website to book and also seek for info; got a reply (finally) about 2 weeks before the trip from Donna, and we're all set.
Next will be the stuff to do. We are planning for at least the following:

liveaboard scubadiving at the Great Barrier Reef
skydiving
hotair ballooning
whitewater rafting
horse riding
visit to Undarra Lava Tubes

Budget was a big concern, especially since we are planning to spend a max of S$2000/person for the entire trip. The plane tickets itself has already cost us S$490. The scubadiving is AUD$420. This has already amounted to about S$910. Plus the lodging of about AUD$17/night, we have AUD$850 left to have fun and food. Skydiving is AUD$228, hot air ballooning is AUD$156, whitewater rafting is AUD$128 if we go on a full-day trip in Tully River, horse riding about AUD$65, while the visit to Undarra including an overnight stay is AUD$317. This is just about right, I guess.

The city of Cairns

After a horrendous flight from Singapore plus 2 one-hour stopovers in Kuala Lumpur and Darwin, Shuhui and I finally reached Cairns at about 9am. The weather was excellent, kinda expected since the winter season is just over - the temperature was around 28 degrees Celsius, and humidity was low.

First impressions of the city: it was not as crowded as I expected it to be, comparing to Singapore, and very small (you can finish walking the entire city in less than 3 hours on foot - I'm not kidding). The tourism aspect of it however, is much more well-established. The first that we did once we reached the airport was to go to this free telephone counter where we can make a free call to whichever hotel we want by pressing the 3-number code. Since we have placed a booking at Caravella's, all we had to do was to pres the code and we got connected. After talking to the reception, we decided to take a cab to the Esplanade which cost us $9.20, compared to $5/person if we decide to use the pick-up (we were refunded of the cash later). The place is pretty nice, and they also provide free dinner at the Underdog Hotel (lamb and ham casserole) plus transport.

a view of Caravella 77

I guess the entire city is catered for tourism, you can deduce that by the number of gift-shops just along the Esplanade. And true enough, we did not have to make a single reservation of the tours since there are more than 5 shops alone near the place we're staying that does nothing else but tour bookings - almost spoilt for choice. We decide to just book with Caravella on all our tours, maybe we can get a discount (we did!). Basically, the shelves on all these stores are just filled with brochures that tell you everything (well, almost) you need to know about the tour, plus the price and on that, we did our selection. And here it is.

Tuesday 14 Sept 1999 - arrival + lookaround Cairns
Wed - hot-air balloon + Kuranda and Skyrail AUD$99
Thu - 1/2 day horse-riding at Mulgrave River AUD$75
Fri - rest + Reef Teach $12
Sat to Mon - 3d/2n liveaboard with Deep Sea Divers' Den AUD$415
Tue - rest
Wed - skydiving at Mission Beach @ 10 000 ft plus pictures AUD$334
Thur - rest
Fri - full-day whitewater rafting at Tully River with R n' R AUD$113
Sat - rest
Sun to Mon - 2-day visit to Undarra Lava Tubes AUD$317
Tuesday 28 Sept 1999 - depart to Singapore

night-view of the Esplanade

Looks like a pretty full itinerary but it really is quite OK since there are quite a number of rest days in between the activities. One major thing that we did was sleeping (at least for me). In Cairns, everything seems to close at 7pm (sunset is at 6:25pm) and by 8pm there doesn't seem to be anything else to do except to go the pubs which I am not too fond of. So, bedtime is around 9pm, what makes this even weirder is that I can actually sleep at this early hour compared to pass-midnight in Singapore. Anyway, I digress....

this Peregrine balloon is the one we went up on

Hot-air balloon at Atherton Tablelands

I almost choked when told that the pick-up for the tour is at 4:30am - finding it a dificulty even to wake up for work at 6:30am. Nevertheless, we set the alarm for 3:45am and got ready in front of the hostel by the said time. Sure enough, the bus came on time. Probably the reason why the pick-up has been so early is to pick up all the other passengers and also the trip to Mareeba where our balloons are at. When we got there, it's almost 6:00am and the big balloons are almost half-filled. Shuhui and I are going on the 1st flight, and our instructions were to go to the balloon once we see it standing up, which didn't take too long at all.

Shuhui and me, taken before sunrise

It's my 1st experience on the balloon. Basically, the basket is divided into 6 sections, of the the pilot takes the middle 2 to place the fuel-tanks for the burner. Each of the other 4 sections can sit 4 passengers which means that including the pilot, there are 17 of us on each flight. On each section, there are 8 ropes which we need to hold on to during landing which we discovered are very important - the balloon can actually topple to the side during landing, and the ropes are only things we can hang on to prevent from dropping off the basket.
The ascent was simply incredible, and the view is really breathtaking. And when all the other balloons ascend as well, together with the sunrise, you can imagine how beautiful this experience is. We were up there in the air for about half-an-hour while the pilot maneuvers the balloon to a different location for the landing. And when we descended, all of us had to help to pack up the balloons which involved squeezing all the air out, and then putting the entire thing into the basket before going for breakfast.

a shot taken from the balloon, a few hundred feet up

Breakfast was at the Rainforestation, after which we hopped on a bus to the Kuranda markets. It's just a market for handicrafts, mainly Australian home-made products. After comparing the prices on some of the stuff, I bought 3 t-shirts as gifts for my friends back home. We also splurged on a painting - it's a very interesting piece of work where the artist actually paints native Australian birds on a piece of bark, and uses real feathers to adorn it. The original is a bit expensive so we got a print but after seeing it up on the frame, decided to get the one on the wall. Cost us AUD$110, but I think we made a good buy.

Skyrail - journey from Kuranda to Cairns

The trip back to Cairns is on Skyrail, something like a gondola or cable car which passes over the rainforest. They have 2 stops in between which we got down for a short walk to look at the Barron Falls, and a short guided botanical tour on the rainforest canopy at Red Peaks Station. A very good start to our holiday in Cairns, and once we got back to our hostel, basically slept 'til dinnertime.

Horse-riding at Mulgrave River

Shuhui wasn't too enthusiastic about this tour since she has never ridden a horse but I guess she said OK after we decided on a 1/2 day as opposed to a full day in the nearby Mulgrave River, being such a good sport that she is.
True enough, the guide picked us up in front of Caravella 77 at 8:15am, and after picking up the rest of the group, all of which are Japanese, we headed to this ranch. After doing all the paperwork, we then were given helmets (btw, we need to wear jeans and shoes for this tour, no sandals allowed). Then we were given a ride on the same bus to the stables where our horses are waiting for us fully saddled and ready to go. Mine was Brandy while Shuhui was riding Bonsai. The thing is, we will be called by our horse's name rather than ours, making it easier for the guide. There is also a Japanese guide to cater for the rest of the group...seems like we're the only non-Jap in the group of entirely Asians. We were given various instructions on how to walk, to turn left, right, etc. by the guide, and then we're off.
It was a really slow walk at first, perhaps for a warm-up, and also to allow all of us to adjust to our horses' gait. Also went through quite a few uphill and downhills which we either had to lean forward or backward to enable our balance - after all, it's just those reins and stirrups that support us the entire way. Actually, the real thing is a lot more fun that I could tell in words, especially when we went through the different paths - sugar cane, mango, jackfruit plantations and even a river crossing. During the crossing, the water is deep enough to reach the belly of the horse, so all of us had to pull our legs behind us (still got the shoes wet, though).
Probably the more interesting portion is when we reach an open field, and the guide brought us to a "trot" or even a "canter". For the trot, the buttock hurts really bad since we didn't know how to sit on the horse - the result of which we bounce up and down on the saddle. It turned out that if we put our weight on the stirrups and lean slightly forward, we can actually not bounce as much (and our butts not hurt as much). For the canter though, this is different since we actually have to sit and follow the horse's undulating rhythm as it canters...otherwise the butt will hurt, too.
Lunch was served, with steak and barbequed sausages with lots of fruit and juices. Dessert was fruitcake. Conclusion - Shuhui enjoyed herself, and I guess I did too, except for the bruised behinds. Excellent experience for those who have never tried horse-riding.

Norman Reef - Pontoon site

Liveaboard scubadiving at Great Barrier Reef

Initially, our plans were to join Pro-Dive for our liveaboard experience, but the dates that we wanted were fully occupied until early October (no way, we're back in Singapore by then). Because of this, we decided to do the diving with Deep Sea Divers' Den instead on board the Ocean Quest. One difference between the two is that Pro-dive includes Reef Teach in their package - not that big of a difference in price but something which we thought was overlooked by D4. Anyway, we signed for the Reef Teach ourselves and it turned out really great.
Basically self-explanatory in the title, the 2-hour session by Paddy Colwell is a presentation on what we will see in the Reef, the biology/anatomy of the corals, and what to avoid when we're doing it. I thought that this talk should be required for all those who are interested in the sport of snorkelling and scubadiving, as Paddy taught us how to identify certain fishes by their shapes and color, the corals and all. We have to identify the differences between damselfish, surgeonfish, wrasses, triggerfish, butterflyfish and angelfish and how to name the corals - lunar, soft, plate, staghorns, etc. A well-spent AUD$12!

clown fish and sea anemone

We were picked up at around 7:00am to go to the D4 diveshop to show our certification. Pretty standard for most of the other companies. Anyway, we then headed off to the Pier and to the boat, i.e. SeaQuest. Around 10:00am, reached our dive site at Norman Reef called Sandras. Since this is our 1st dive after our classes, we are kinda blur as to what is going on. Apparently, they'll just provide us with a profile of the dive-site, and that's it. We suited up, wearing 5mm shortie. and after checking our equipment, jumped straight in. Didn't enjoy the dive 'cos I was overweighted, put on 4 x 1.5kg when I usually use 4 kg. Almost impossible to maintain neutral buoyancy to enjoy my dive. Even Shuhui put on too many weights. Only the next dive did we settle down.

white-tipped reef shark

Turned out that we are spending the rest of the 3 days at Norman Reef at various other locations. Not much comments here as they are pretty much the same as with the other reefs that I have been to in Malaysia. The differences: the soft corals here are huge. Almost 3 feet in diameter, I'm not kidding. Also, lots of batfish which will just swim beside you, and lots of trout and snappers, giant clams, common reef fishes such as damselfish, wrasses, goatfish, clownfish swimming in anemone, surgeonfish, and triggerfish etc.

Wally, the Giant Maori Wrasse at Norman Reef

The highlight must be to see "Wally", the affectionately called Giant Maori Wrasse that is about 5 feet long that will swim close to you to be patted. I touched and he's very smooth...interesting experience. Also saw a few stingrays, painted flutemouths, humphead bannerfish, Moorish Idol, Barramundi cod, Emperor and Regal Angelfish, nudibranch, loggerhead turtle, a 4-feet long whitetip shark

Skydiving in Mission Beach

What can I say? The most exhilarating, adrenalin rush I have ever had!
Shuhui and I had initially signed up for the 8000 ft drop, but later decided to pump in the extra cash to get photos for this once-in-a-lifetime experience, and also to make it to 10,000 ft for the 30 second freefall. After all, we are not too sure if there is another time that we'll be this crazy again in our lives to jump out of a plane.

The jump is in Mission beach, a good 2 hour drive away from Cairns. Upon arrival we were introduced to the people that we will be jumping in tandem with, I'll be with Geoff while Shuhui jumps with Rob - both really cool guys, as you can see from the pictures. After the introduction, including the other two skydive-photographers who will be jumping with us (for the pictures), we then headed off to an airfield. Apparently, "Jump the Beach" had an office in the place - this was where we put on our jumpsuits (aptly named, I think). We also had to put on the safety straps with all the safety locks. After putting on everything, we tried to walk to an open area for the instruction, and I found it really hard to walk straight. You see, there is a strap between our legs which make it near impossible for your thighs to come together...almost funny to see us walking - as if someone had given us a kick in the groin area.

Anyway, both Geoff and I will be sitting with me between his legs in the plane. At 1 mile before we jump, the pilot will yell out "One mile". Upon hearing this, we will have to sit up and kneel while making our way to the exit. Basically we'll just edge our way out until my knees are about 3 inches out of the plane. Then Geoff will shout "Fold your arms", which I did, and at the word "Go", I'll have to pull my head back and arch while we jump out the plane. After that, Geoff will tap my arms upon which I'll stretch them for the photographer...all while still maintaining that arched body position.
Everything happened as he said it would be, except I didn't know the door of the plane - well, there is no door on the plane. Just imagine driving a car with an open door. Now imagine you're in a plane. Scary, right? And I can actually see the clouds beneath me before the jump...10,000ft is really, really high in the sky. "One mile", yelled the pilot and somehow everything went as planned and my knees are right at the door. ''Fold your arms, head up, and go!" Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Frankly, during the 1st few seconds, it was a complete blur - I have lost all my orientation. All I know is that my back is arched and my arms folded. I think my eyes are closed, and my screaming is just about silent. After all, I'm being pulled by gravity back to Earth. Then I saw the photographer just in front of me, and hence the pose. About 30 seconds of the freefall, Geoff pulled the cord which releases the chute and we just went up and slowly glide while he tells me of the sights that we can see from that height. He even allowed me to take control of the 2 cords which controls the direction of the chute, one to turn left and the other right. Slowly, we made our way back to Mission Beach, our landing site.
Will I do it again if given the chance? Yes, yes, yes. And I think Shuhui would, too. All in all, this must be the greatest adrenalin rush I have ever had. Next time will be 14,000 ft for 75 seconds of freefall.

Whitewater rafting in Tully River

This trip was done in the Tully River situated about 2 hours drive away from Cairns near the town of, what else, Tully. We had signed up with R n' R which stands for Raft and Rainforest and our pick-up place was about 2 minutes walk from Caravella - they share the same office as the Pro-Dive diveshop - pretty convenient for us, I thought. 7:00am was our time to be picked up by their dark green double-decker bus, which means that we have to wake up earlier for breakfast...otherwise no energy at all. Upon reaching their office at the Tully Country Club we were provided with morning tea/coffee with biscuits. Some were renting sandals and spray jackets. Then off we went to the river.

After organizing ourselves into groups of 7 (one raft sits 8, including the guide), Kelvin just came to us and had us organized. Shuhui sat beside me, and there's a brother sister group, and also a honeymoon couple with us (from London). Similar to other rafting trips I have gone to, the instructions were "Forward paddle", "Back paddle", "Over left", "Over right", and "On the job"...the last 3 to shift positions on the raft to either side. There's also a command "Great sex" meaning to jump up and down. Then we went through a small rapid to test the obedience of the team before going on the Theatre, our 1st big one. Not bad, and so we continued with the other ones with names like Corkscrew, Zigzag, Wet n' Moisty. etc.

One cool feature of this company is that they provided photographers at a few of the major falls, which we bought later. Also, the first 2 rafts to go over the rapids will have to wait by the side to do "safety", meaning the guide has to stand by the rapid to throw a rope in case someone went overboard. This happened a few times, one raft even capsized and threw everyone down!
There's also once Kelvin had everyone sit at the edge of the raft, and when we went over this waterfall, everbody just went overboard except for a few who refused to budge (like me). We also went thorugh under a waterfall, which the water is simply freezing. Lunch was at 12:30pm, and the another 2.5 hours after that before we change and left fro Cairns.
As always, a great day to raft. Excellent and very good guides...highly recommended.

Undarra Lava Tubes

I must say that one of our most interesting tours has to be the one that did not involve the "adventure" spirit, i.e. the Undarra tour. And we didn't many Asians compared to all our other tours. In fact, when we asked our guide how many Asians that he has actually seen coming to Undarra, he said probably a handful. About the only people who knew about this place are Australians, and the Germans (I wonder why).

Anyway, the journey was a massive 4 hours from Cairns, which we set off by bus at around 8:00am, reached Ravenshoe at 10:30am for a morning tea, and then proceeded to Undarra for lunch at 12:30pm. The driver must have been trained as a guide because he was talking almost non-stop throughout the entire journey, regarding the sights and sounds of the Atherton Tablelands, the Great Diving Range, White Rock, the Pyramid, Bromfield Swamp, Mt. Hypipamee, and the Gulf Savannah (the many termite mounds, and cattle ranches).
The day began for us in Undarra at lunch. The first thing we were told when we were seated for lunch was to watch out for a kookaburra. It's a bird that looks like a large kingfisher with grey and brown feathers. "Watch it or it will steal your food," said the attendant. And sure enough, it actually swooped down from its perch and went away with the ham from anothr table, and there were 4 people sitting there!
After lunch we went for a self-guided tour at the Atkinson Lookout - pretty easy walk, and the scenery is basically bushes and more bushes. We were given a map, and also a botany map that tells us the certain trees growing in the area which included quinine, tea tree, bloodwood, etc. And we saw 2 wallaroos. It's one thing to see these in a zoo, but I guess it's a totally different experience to see them in the wild. These creatures just hopped away when they saw us. Oh yes, we also a a lizard- if I'm not mistaken, the guide said it was a 2 lined dragon.

we stayed at Lodge No. 1 - Firth

Our sunset tour started at 5, and it turned out that we were the only ones doing it that day. Peter, our guide, must be the funniest guy we've seen so far in Cairns and he entertained us with his jokes at his former job at Uluru (Ayers Rock) and also the stories of the tourists at Undarra. All this we did while watching the sunset up on one of the hills eating fruit, cheeses, and juice (champagne was offered, but we chose to pass). Then we headed to one of the lava tubes to watch the bats come out, literally, by the hundreds. He said that there are 3 sure things in life: death, taxes, and that bats don't miss. It's very interesting to see the hundreds of bats coming and they don't make any sound at all, not even touching the leaves.
When we reached the lodge, it was time for dinner and our table was inside this carriage (pretty romantic, huh?). As usual it was a choice of cheese, salad, and rolls. The main dish - Shuhui chose kangaroo steak, while mine was Blue Salmon. Very nice - the roo steak tasted similar to beef. After dinner was the campfire but since they were reciting poetry, and we have no idea what they were talking about, decided to retire early into the (freezing) carriage.
The next day we woke up early for our bush breakfast located 200m from the main lodge. It's a genuine bush breakfast where the water is still boiled by firewood. We had eggs, bacon, and toast (putting it over the fire). And yep, the kookaburra were there, about 6 of them just waiting to steal the food from some unsuspecting soul. Smart bird, they only go for the bacon, and not much else. Maybe that's why they're so fat.

The main attraction, the Lava Tubes. How it was formed - the region has a few volcanos, and when the lava starts to flow, the outer layer cooled much faster tha the inside and therefore, when all the lava flowed out, there remains a tunnel left where the lavaflow once were. We went to about 3 of them, and the pictures are really cool - one of them deep enough that torchlights have to be used. Have to see it to experience it. But we were all left in wonder at how beautiful they were.
The afternoon, we went for another walk and this time we saw to grey kangaroos just in front of our carriage. Apparently, sleeping underneath to avoid the hot afternoon sun.
Overall, it was a great experience, and highly recommended if you have 2 days to spend.

Of course, the pictures here are just among the shots that we took, plus a few postcards that we bought. Shuhui and I are currently compiling our album of our great adventure in Cairns consisting of the postcards, trip brochures, and the photos - hopefully to be done by mid-October of 1999. See ya and hope your stay is as enjoyable as ours.
Back to Wei Kwan's Outdoors page.

http://www.oocities.org/Tokyo/Courtyard/9049
a service of Weikwan, Inc.
most recent update: October 4, 1999
Copyright Ng Wei Kwan 1999 all rights reserved
Romans 8:28