Tuesday 9 April 2013

4 mile beach and white water rafting.

As we had rafting in the afternoon we had the morning in Port Douglas. Our villa was right next to 4 mile beach, which is 4 miles long as Debbie, James and Paul found out the day before taking a couple of hours to walk it. Miranda, James and I walked along the beach into the town and in gorgeous sunshine, stopping to take pictures on the way. It took us about an hour and ten mins to get to the town and had a wander around the shops before breakfast. Paul and Debbie drove up to town and picked us up ready for a quick change and drive down to Cairns to Lake Placid.

We met the white water rafting company and got grouped with a mother daughter combo from Chelmsford in the raft, not sure if James was too keen on this as last time he went he was the only bloke and had to do a lot of the work. At least Paul was with us! Miranda and I were put at the front of the boat, which worked really well as we had to keep in time with each other and everyone else copy us.

After a little practise learning commands we headed down the rapids, I was a little nervous after being told what to do if you fall out but was reassured when I asked Miranda if she fell in last time and she said no. Guess what happened on the first little rapid...both Miranda and James fell in!!! Well James seemed to follow Miranda in, they were fine and got scooped up by another raft and then transferred back to our raft in a calmer area. After that our guide took it fairly steady and only Lauren, the daughter fell in after that point but on a heavier rapid.

Further down the river we could get out if we wanted to and float down, Miranda, James and I took this option and it was quite fun going feet first down some gentle rapids. I said to Miranda it would be fun to do that the whole way down until she reminded me there were crocs at the bottom of the river!!

We were in the rafts for a good couple of hours and the guide asked me to go in the front of the boat for the 'mother in law' rapid, named because once she gets her claws in you it's hard to get out!! The raft in front of us got really stuck so we weren't in that area for long. It was quite tiring and we had a 700m flat paddle into a head wind to get back to the area we take the boats out. This was where we had parked the car and wandered earlier on, reading the warning signs not to go near the banks and be careful when launching and bringing boats in due to crocs, but we didn't see any, thankfully!

We ordered the CD with all the photos of the day on, so should have that in a week or so to upload. We also stopped off at a Rexs look out point halfway back to Port Douglas on the Captain Cook Highway for a few photos.

We got back to the villa and is girls fancied a dressy night so did out hair and make up, the boys didn't even shower, despite being in a river but did put shirts on. We went to 'The Beach Shack' which was in walking distance, it didn't look much from the outside but when we got there the floor was all sand, like a beach shack and the food was amazing. I tried a couple of different Aussie beers, VB and Little Creatures and enjoyed a delicious veggie stack. Debbie and Paul very kindly paid for dinner for us all, and we were all surprised at how yummy it was for its location as we were out town.

We had an early ish night as were being picked up early the next day for a boat trip.

Love Nikki xXx





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