Australia

The next morning when we were checking out of Scotty's Beach House, the girl on reception asked us if we would like to do a Sky Dive as there were some places available for that day. We were planning a bit of a long trip that day so we asked her how late we would have to stay there. She told us we would be back on the ground, having already completed the jump within an hour and a half, and that a bus would pick us up in 30 mins. We couldn't believe it would happen that fast but we decided to go for it.

The bus picked us up, and after about 20 mins, we were at the airstrip in Tully. There was a 5 minute training course on how to position ourselves during the jump, and that was it. I had heard that in Ireland you have like a half days training to prepare for this but not here. The jump was a 14,000ft jump with a 60 second freefall. While we were there, we bumped into the guy from our room in Gilligan's. He had booked his jump over a week ago, while we were staying with him in Cairns, and here we were, about to jump before him!

We were getting the whole jump filmed so that we could get it all on DVD at the end, so the whole time, the instructors had Camcorders in our faces, capturing the nervous looks, and grins. We were brought out to the plane, and I was shocked at how small it was. There was no door on it, and just about enough room for the 8 of us to fit in. There was 4 instructors and 4 jumpers.

After the plane took off, the instructors kept showing us the gauge showing us how high we were at each stage of the climb. The view from the aeroplane was absolutley amazing. Somehow, I hadn't quite developed a fear of jumping, I guess I hadn't had enough time to think about it. Eventually, we were at the required height of 14000ft. After that, it was literally a few seconds before the first girl had jumped, Jason was in the doorway getting his countdown of 3..2..1......and he was gone,just like a concrete block, I was told to cross my arms and put my legs out the door...The force of the wind against my legs was really strong, and as I awaited some sort of a countdown, I felt a push from behind and I was already gone....I went spinning out the door, upside down, and around until finally, I was in the correct position facing the ground with the wind hurling up at me as I fell. I cant explain the sensation, it was unreal and the fact that the ground was a dot in front of me, didnt even enter my head at the time. During the 60 second freefall, my skin was forced up on my face and my mouth was blown open wide as I gasped for a breath. The instructor tried to get me to wave at the camera but I was in awe of the whole thing and didnt quite pull it off correctly as you will see from the DVD..By the end of the 60 seconds, I was beginning to feel a bit nautious, so I was relieved when he pulled the chute open.

There was a tug upwards as we slowed right down, and my body fell back into a virtical position. We had fallen 12,000ft in 60 seconds. The view from here was even more amazing, and I had a complete feeling of weighlessness. It was great. The instructor pulled on the chute a couple of times to make us do circles and that was so cool. The weather was amazing that day too so it just made the whole thing even better.

The landing spot was on Mission Beach and I could see it below me. Another couple of turns and we were coming down on it. I lifted my legs and the instructor landed us on the beach with just a little bump. It was over....and it had only just began.

We got the DVD a couple of days later and I have to say, they are absolutely hilarious. I will be getting it copied and will send a copy to you.

It took me a little while to stop looking for a clutch in the car, just out of habit. Eventually, it was too easy to drive as there wasn't much to do on the big open roads. The trip to Mission Beach was about 200k so was gonna take a little under 3 hours.

On the way there, the car was beginning to overheat so we had to make a stop and fill it with water, this happened a couple of times after that so we realised we couldnt keep doing 180k per hour in it or it would just burn up.

The Australian roads were in great condition though, much better than any of the roads back home, and the scenery was absolutely amazing so driving there was an absolute pleasure. Every few mins we passed over a creek, each with a different but unique aussie name. The rainforest was our horizon for the majority of the trip, and we had a ball getting down there.

We arrived at Mission Beach and went to a place called Scotty's as it had been recommended to us. Lucky enough they had a room available so we checked in and had a look around. The whole place was completely relaxed and there was only a small bar and cafe in the place. There was no nightclubs or anything in the area so it was just a complete chillout zone. We bumped into some girls we had met in Cairns and we had a few bottles and then went into the bar. It closed at 11 though so we literally only had a couple of drinks and then it was off to bed.

The next day, we went shopping for a car. There was one place that was recommended as a garage, and that was Travellers Autobarn. They were looking for quite a bit more than we had planned to pay though, about 3.5k. There was a buy back scheme where they would guarantee to take it back from you but we felt that was already added to the price so we headed back to the hostel to have a look at the notice board instead.

As we were reading through the notice board, we saw a Ford (Millenium) Falcon advertised for 2.2k with its NCT equivalent done in July. As we were looking at it, a voice came over our shoulder saying we should buy it cos its a great car. Needless to say, it was the two gorls that were selling it. They had originally put the wrong phone number on the ad and so had come back to change it. We put it all down to fate and went round to take the car for a test drive. The car was running smoothly enough for one that was 16 years old. It was a 3.9 litre estate. It had electric windows, mirrors, air con and it was an automatic. There was a little graphic of some girls face on the side of it too but we didnt care to be honest. We bargained them down to 1.8k and agreed the sale.

We couldnt get all the money out in one day so we agreed to pick the car up the next day. we had to pay to register it (like taxing it) and then that was it, we were away down the coast. Our first stop was going to be Mission Beach.

We were not up too early the next day and met most of our room mates while we were lazing around in bed. They were all either English or Irish, but we all got on pretty well and over the course of our week or so there, we went out drinking together quite a bit.

There was a few favourite spots in Cairns, Gilligan's was one of the biggest but it had some quiet nights too, and so for those nights, there was PJ O'Briens, which was an Irish Bar. Or the Woolshed which we weren't that fond of, but there was something on every night in one of the bars so we always had somewhere to go and something to do.

we hadn't really done much in Cairns until Day 6 when we booked a trip out on the Great Barrier Reef. It was an early boat leaving at 7:30am. The idea was to get an early night before heading off, but of course, I chose the not going to bed route instead, and stayed up all night before getting on the boat. It was a Catamaran so it wasnt going to be too pleasant a trip. I was feeling very ill on the way out, so I got some sea sick pills from the crew foir the way back and I was fine. The weather that day was absolutely gorgeous, sun was blazing down. The crew on the boat were great fun, and really made the difference on the day. The boat was called Passions of Paradise and I would highly recommend it.

The boat took us out onto the reef and then offered us an introductory dive where they would show us exactly what to do, and if we liked it, we could pay more and go for a proper dive. We did the introductory, and eventually, I got the hang of the breathing and went down below. The coral and the fish were absolutley amazing down there. I had never seen anything like it in my life. I managed to see a shark, and a turtle, which the others didnt get to see that day. The diver then fed the fish around us and they were swimming right by our faces which was really amazing too.

Walking around with all the gear on was virtually impossible and so we were laughing our heads off trying to get off and back onto the boat. The water pressure didnt really agree with my ears and I suffered a bit that day but it didnt last too long thankfully. We were brought back onto the boat then for lunch, which was pretty good, and then the boat moved off to another great spot on the reef where we could go snorkling.

I had never been snorkling before but I found it really easy, thanks to the diving I guess. Again, I saw absolutely loads of different types of fish, they were all so close to us too. One of them got a little too close. His job is to clean other fish from stuff that has become attached to them. He though the scab on my leg was one of them and so he came at me and tore it off. I got a fright initially and then got out of the water to have a look, it was so funny, the crew said it happens all the time and so all I could do is laugh. The salt water and the cleaner fish did my wound the world of good though and so I was chuffed.

After that, they hoisted sails and brought us back to Cairns. The trip back was great as we were cruising along with the sun shining down on us, and there was some pretty spectacular sights too.

It was a 10 hour flight over to Cairns as we had to stopover in Darwin for a bit first. We landed in Cairns on the Tuesday morning, 3 weeks after leaving home. We had no details of our Visa's or bank balances on us, but we were welcomed in none the less. After a quick sniff from the fruit & veg doggies of course.

It was a strange feeling when we walked out of the airport, we had finally hit Australia. It was early in the morning and it was nice and hot, not too hot though. We had booked a hostel in Cairns called Gilligan's so we hopped in a taxi and headed for there.

We arrived there at 8:30 in the morning so it was too early for us to check in, but they took our bags into storage free of charge. The hostel had a huge bar, pool tables, big screens, a nice swimming pool, and of course a games room for the Pokies!!

We went for a walk around Cairns and I have to say it was really beautiful. It was an old looking town but the weather was beautiful and the pier was very easy on the eye, even at that hour of the morning having had no sleep. Then there was the lagoon which was so beautiful and relaxing.

We stumbled across a casino amongst all of this natural beauty too, and of course our inquisitive nature got the better of us :o) The place was massive but it did not have Texas Holdem in there so after a quick game of Blackjack, we just ended up watching a movie in there and eating the free popcorn.

We went back to the hostel to check in but of course it was still too early so we hit the bar for a game of pool, and a quick one!! We met two other Irish lads in there that were playing pool so we had a few beers and a few games, and before we knew it, we were drunk again, and it was 2 in the morning...

The rooms in the hostel were really nice, 6 beds, but we had our own bathroom, and a huge locker each that we could put our bags into. Coming in so late that first night, I just took a free bunk and passed out for the night.