Saturday, February 2, 2002

Hot-Air Ballooning and White-Water Rafting

We woke up at 3:45am (yes, AM) and were picked up in front of the hotel at 4:20. After a 45 minute ride to Mareeba, we were taken to the liftoff area. We were in the first flight, so we were right up close as they inflated the balloon and got it ready.

The company we worked with, Raging Thunder, flies the largest commercial hot-air balloons in the world. They hold 12-16 people each!

We looked down on the second balloon as they prepared to ascend.

It was fun to watch our shadow on the grass.

Just as the sun was rising, we lifted off into a clear sky. It was a very smooth ascent, and we could look across the landscape over a layer of low mist hugging the ground.

We soared up as high as 5000 feet, and then skimmed along the treetops for a while (at one point we actually hit the top 4 feet of a tree, knocking off a few branches!). As we coasted along the treetops, we could see lots of kangaroos running around on the ground. They are really fast!

Our first attempt at landing, the grass was almost 6 feet tall, so we went back up, and then it was bout another 20 minutes before our pilot found a suitable landing site (our half hour ride turned out to be almost an hour long, bonus!). Once we were on the ground we swapped with the second set of passengers. They went up for their flight and we followed them around in the shuttle bus. Then we all helped to fold up the balloon and put it back on the truck.

Once that was done, we went to a central location in the forest to have breakfast.

The bus then took us down the mountain and where we switched to the bus to the Baron river. A short 15 minute ride had us at the river entry point, where we met our river guide and the 4 other rafters we went with. The pilot was a really nice guy, cracking jokes and poking fun at everyone. He made sure we were the 'troublemakers', having us splash every boat we went by. There were a few rapids and lots of rocks and great scenery. There were a few sections where we got out of the boat and floated through some white water, which was lots of fun. In all it lasted about two hours. After a grilled lunch at the exit point, the bus took us back to the hotel.

We were both exhausted so we took a nap for a couple of hours. There was a really big thundershower which woke us up around 4pm, but it passed pretty quickly. We walked a couple of blocks to a little pizza place, and then had some great desserts. Cairns is a small town, but the area around our hotel is loaded with lots of little shops and tours companies. It's fun to walk around and people watch. Then we headed back to the hotel to watch a movie and get some sleep. Tomorrow we dive!