White Water Rafting & Wild Cassowary

I was in Tully yesterday to meet some other travelers for an overnight outing in the Tully Gorge. The five of us, the Stray tour guide, and the activity guide/driver had a lovely afternoon visiting several water falls, then a lovely evening making dinner and hanging out by the fire. We went for a drive after dark and saw several musky rat kangaroos, a bandicoot, and 3-meter-long amethistine python! Wow!

This morning after we packed up camp, we went to another waterfall for a swim. Another lovely location. The water was cool and very refreshing. Since we were already wet--why not when it hasn't stopped raining...it is the Wet Tropics after all--I went on my first white water rafting trip. I got much wetter.

There were six people plus our expert in our raft. It was a fantastic time, but I don't think we did very well. I came out of the boat three times, but only the first one was by myself and alone.

The first time the raft got stuck in rocks and we had to move into another boat. I slipped between them and splash! But I held on to the side rope and they pulled me back in. No problem.

The second time the raft went up on its side against a massive rock. Three of us were on the bottom side and all three of us went in the water. It was probably a good thing though, because if we hadn't gone in, the raft probably would've flipped. I smashed my hand on an underwater rock taking off a bit of skin in my finger, but nothing to worry about. One girl had a big lump on top of her foot and lost her shoe.

The third time, oh boy. I got caught in a swirl, tossed around in a washing machine cycle and not let up to the surface for what seemed like a very long time but was probably only about 10 seconds. I just kept kicking as hard as I could and the water finally released its grip. I popped up in the rapids sucking in as much air as I could, turning myself around so I was facing downstream, and glancing off more rocks. Then I had to swim for the boat. By the time they pulled me into the boat I was exhausted, and all of this was maybe two minutes. Maybe even less. It felt like forever. Scary.

But it really was a great day. There were dozens of Ulysses butterflies around...one landed on me!...and even a couple of water dragons sunning themselves during a much welcomed break in the endless rain.

On the drive back to Mission Beach, we saw a Cassowary on the roadside! Yay!! In the wild with a bus between me and it. A perfect end to a great couple of days in the Wet Tropics of North Queensland!

Oh, at noon I was either on the river or in it, so the selfie is after we finished. And yes, I wore my glasses the whole time thanks to a strap. They did get bent when the girl in front of me smashed her helmet into my face, but overall they survived really well.

So long [for now] and thanks for all the fish. ✌️

P.S.: Here are two websites that show pictures and videos of rafting the Tully River. They held the World Rafting Championships here just a few days ago!

https://www.ragingthunder.com.au/tully-river-ra…

https://www.wrc2019.com/

P.P.S.: My friend received my new debit card yesterday evening!!!Read more