Day 220-21 - Back To Cairns

Day 220 (Thursday 22nd) - Back To The Woolshed

I got up, had a delicious Promite sandwich and caught the ferry over to Townsville in time for the 0900 bus departure, for my last day on the Oz bus, all the way through to Cairns. The journey wasn't too exciting - we stopped in Cardwell at a BP station where the toilets were labelled MANGOES and NO MANGOES, which was the most interesting thing about the town. The highlight of the journey was stopping at the Innisfail croc farm - they farm crocodiles for their meat and skin, and after some snake and baby saltwater croc petting we got to see some of their breeding stock - enormous beasts up to 5.1 metres, most of whom were removed from the wild as they were deemed to be problem crocs. They were fed by the keepers, and we got to get much closer to them than at Australia Zoo, for far less money. We rolled into Cairns around 6, arranged for a table at the Woolshed (where I spent most evenings last time I was in Cairns) for about 8, and then I was dropped off at Calypso Backpackers, where I stayed last time I was here. It hasn't changed much at all, and still has a nice feel about it. I wandered up to the kitchen to stwo my food, and who should I see but Haddy and TJ! They are here until Sunday, when they fly on to Singapore. Within about 5 minutes I was persuaded to go on a snorkelling/diving trip on the outer reef on Saturday, and Bungy Jumping was mentioned too. They came with me to the Woolshed, where we arrived a good half hour late, and had some awesome cheap steaks and a few drinks - the place seemed a lot smaller than I remember it being 5 years ago, but that might just be me making it up. We had a laugh, danced on some tables, chatted to some of TJs mates from school and I was in bed about 3am. During the course of our conversation, I agreed to come Bungy Jumping with them in the morning, a decision I may regret...

Day 221 (Friday 23rd) - Bungy!

I awoke hideously early, after only 5 hours of sleep, and got up and phoned Clare - I had a vague memory of setting up my voicemail and having a brief chat with her around 3 in the morning, for some reason. I was informed that I had told her that the dates she had come up with for New York were fine (which they are), and that I was very tired and needed to go. In our longer conversation she told me all about going to see Derren Brown, asked questions about how much money to have and to bring, and told me that Mum had said she didn't want us staying in hostels in New York, as they're scary. Piffle, I thought, then I remembered Banana Bungalows in LA, which had more than its fair share of oddballs and down-and-outs living there. Anyway, after breakfast we got the bus to the AJ Hackett Bungy tower and signed up - Haddy and I went first, and TJ decided to watch for a bit before making her mind up. When we got up there I had the cord strapped to my ankles (they use an ordinary bath towel for padding, which seemed somehow odd), shuffled to the edge, and promptly became terrified. The tower is 50m high, quite a long way for a vertical drop. I looked down, then up, then panicked, then jumped - or rather dove, as the bloke had told me that if I just stepped off I would be in a whole heap of trouble. I managed to avoid and expletives as I fell, and was dunked head and shoulders deep into the water at the bottom. After a couple of bounces I was caught by the guys on the raft and taken to shore, where I filmed Haddy doing hers - very gracefully I might add.

Having sen us, TJ decided she could do it, so she and Haddy went up to wait for her turn. I could see from the bottom that TJ was absolutely terrified. This became more evident when she shuffled to the edge and clung white-knuckled to the railing while the bloke whispered assurances in her ear - she started the countdown three times before eventually flinging herself over the edge, letting out an incredibly high-pitched scream which was only stopped by her immersion in the water. On the bounce back up the scream turned to cries of "for fuck's sake!" and so on. She was really shaken when she got off the raft, but glad to have done it. We had a look at the DVDs and photos that we all purchased, which are just about worth the money - as Haddy said, when else are you ever going to get a video of you Bungy jumping in Cairns? (Although this technique loses some of it's persuasive power when she has used it to persuade you to do a few things a day for the last week or so).