Australia Adventure Day 4 - Barron River Rafting

30 January 18 -

Breakfast at Frydays -

Since we had the luxury to sleep in a little more, we could have a leisurely breakfast! We brought forward our Frydays breakfast. Initially, I just wanted to go there for lunch and their acai bowl but their breakfast choices seems appetitizing too. 

The place is more like an outdoor chill bar feel than a cafe. In the morning, it does not have much of that night life feel. We were sitting at the sofa seat, and it was a bit dirty with the fried food crumbs. I ordered a salmon omelette (A$17.00) with add on mushrooms (+A$2). There is a choice of mushroom being outside or inside the omelette, and having the shrooms outside is a great choice! I love sauteed white button mushrooms. Our other order was the egg benedict topped with ham (A$17.00). Since I was there for the acai bowl initially, I ordered the acai fresh smoothie (A$9.95) and it is a good serving. Quite expensive after all. The other drink should be iced mocha.

The serving here is also quite huge, just slightly smaller than Lillipad Cafe's. But I will say Lillipad Cafe still wins. They major in breakfast after all! The toast here is all crispy, which results it to be too dry. Omelette wise, it is still quite yummy with melty cheese. Although the salad on the side looks slightly unappetizing, it is good to have a balanced breakfast with some greens.


Cruze coffee for the morning boost -

We were back at Cruze to utilize the discount card that was given to us in our freebies from Raging Thunder. No milk in my coffee this time. Just one good hot and cold long black (A$6 each)! Cruze coffee just has an amazing variety of coffeebean type so do check it out. The staff are really considerate too. My hot coffee was double cupped so that it is not hot to hold. And just look at the customised sticker label on the cup awww.

The morning was so carefree, and we had time to go back for a nap before our bus comes at 1.55pm.


Barron River Rafting with Raging Thunder -

Following the previous day of fun activities, we were in for another excitement! We were going to go rafting for the first time. As we were on the bus, the staff explained on the procedures of what to expect and how to use the paddles. We were divided into groups and our leader is a cool experienced instructor named Marty.

We alighted at a roadside where the paddles, helmets, lifejackets and shoes were laid. One by one, we were given our sizes for the lifejackets. This is when we saw familiar faces - Marcio and Cam. Marcio realised it was us when he assisted with tightening our jackets. It was great to see them again!

Anyway, regarding the free rafting shoes that I have mentioned, it just turned out to be all used. Many of them were broken with holes too. I guess their "free" means complimentary renting. Otherwise, it would have cost us A$5. There were a considerable number of people (5 - 6 raft boats) so I was happy to have found the right size for the shoes. And that is my A$5 neon sports shorts bought at Kmart :).

We started near the Barron Gorge area. The whole adventure starts with introductory from Marty to our team of 6, on how we should sit, tuck our feet in and paddle. As we were sitting at the edge, it is really important to push your feet under the thwart of the raft, one towards the front and one into the back. This would trap your feet and prevent falling. I think it would also be better to move with the flow and get low when going towards the rapid.

It requires a bit of getting used to before you can get the rhythm of paddling. I got scolded for padding forward, when I was supposed to back pedal. It is just a matter of the direction of clockwise and anti-clockwise. I hit the paddle of the girl in front a few times throughout the trip. We started with smaller rapids and then bigger ones with a turn. One of the brothers in our team fell into the water and it was amazing to see how quick his brother managed to pull him out by his lifejacket. The one who got all wet had a look of slight shock 😅.

We listened to Marty's instructions all the time. We stop and move as per his commands. He suits this role very well since his voice is quite deep, giving off that sense of authority. In fact, he is probably the most senior among the other instructors since we got the luxury to cut queue and used a shortcut to get in front. It was the part where we will get our photos taken.

On his command, we got into the middle quickly and smiled for the camera. It was very quick and I could not lock my feet in properly. As a result, the force of the rapids threw me up and I "flew" up a little. As I dropped back down, my cheek slammed hard onto the helmet of the girl in front! Apparently, she felt the impact on her head and asked if I was okay. Hahaha that moment was so painful but yet so funny at the same time. Lucky, the impact was not big enough to leave a bruise.

After the short moment of photo taking, we quickly got back to sitting at the original positions again. At one corner, we waited while the rest of the rafts came along. Our job was to splash water at them with our paddles! However, I was at the back and the weak strength of my splash did not seem to reach anyone at all.

We went down one main rapid and it was super fun! The funny thing was that there was a man from the raft in front who fell into the water. Before he could be saved, our raft was over him and moving with the flow! We were so surprised. When Marty realised that, his reaction was just amusing.

"There's nothing I could do anyway. " He was not sorry at all and he said it in such a funny way. We were just watching that raft that the guy fell off from. None of his team members were attempting to save him! The instructor was the only one who got into action. That made us laughed even more when Marty pointed it out!

Apparently, some of the instructors were on training or taking a test. The group members/clients they get are those who are more difficult to manage. Judgemental in a sense, but these people will look less fit and adaptable. I am probably the "burden" in my team again. The rest are all quite sporting and adventurous feeling.

So back to the same main gushing rapid, each raft was supposed to get into it and the instructors were supposed to steer it out from the "trap". We waited patiently as we observed each raft getting into it. For us, it was an absolute fun with Marty's skill and experience! He knows what he was doing and he could do it quickly. The water was gushing in our rafts as we steer, and we were just enjoying the ride.

We were told to get out of the raft when the water was cool. One thing though, we were supposed to swim only. It is not safe to stand up because the white water river bed may be filled with different shapes of rocks. The feet could easily get caught and you will be stuck there. We swam as we saw our raft getting further and further in front as Marty paddled it away. I was once again the slowest, so swimming became so stressful.

Once we reached the raft, Marty demostrated how we could get up to the raft ourself. Unfortunately, I don't think we both succeeded. The core muscles must be super strong man! So Marty helped my bf up and then he pulled me up later. As I lay down with half my body on the raft and my legs sticking out, it seemed like I was momentarily unable to get up. My bf pulled a little more and I struggled to get up, it felt like my body was too heavy with all the water.

That was another funny scene because my head was in front of my bf's crotch area. Marty was then teasing us that that was not the right place for whatever we were portraying 😆.

The last part was a stretch of river for us to have a relaxed paddle. With our helmets off, we had nice conversations about Marty, what we were doing and crocodiles. The view and atmosphere is just amazing. If only we can do this often like a gathering with friends and family. This is one of the activities I thoroughly enjoyed myself! This is the easier level of the rafting range they provide.

The boys were in charge of carrying the raft on their shoulders while the girls carried the paddles. Marty reminded us to return our shoes, but even if we kept it, it is fine. The shoes only cost like $2 and they charge rental of $5 hahaha. Looking at the broken state, it must have earned many $5. We collected our belongings and got changed.

We gathered at this area for free drinnks and collected our thumbdrive of photos from Marty. Ours was already pre-paid - A$15 in 1 thumdrive. Lucky we were given an option to share our thumbdrive instead of getting 1 each. The photos are the same anyway, just one set since we are in the same team. We almost paid extra A$15 for a 500mb thumbdrive. The rest can still purchase photos on the spot but if I remembered correctly, it is quite expensive. Something along A$20 or A$40. Our canyoning photos was supposed to be additional A$30 but we were given complimentary with our package.

The bus sent us back to our hotel and we were ready for dinner! Do you realised that we never really had a chance for lunch? We are mostly still quite full from breakfast hahaha. One less meal to try out different food!

Dinner at O' Cha Cha Japanese Dining & Tea-

I had high expectations for this one. Tripadvisor reviewers stated that this restaurant is a hidden gem which serves authentic Japanese food! It is located really near our place at the second level. The interior design of O' Cha Cha is indeed very Japanese like. There is an area for people who would like to immerse in the food in the Japanese way of sitting. We were there quite early at 6pm and we were greeted enthusiasticly by their only female service staff outside.

She speaks really fluent Japanese but I suspected she might actually be of another nationality. True enough, she told the other table she is from Philippines. The guests at the table seemed to be Japanese and even they thought that she is from Japan. Her overall mannerism and style also exudes the Japanese culture; very gentle and polite.

We thought that we ordered quite a lot but it was actually a good amount since we were starving! The Eucalyptus green tea came first and it is such a great mix of flavour. Eucalyptus is an Australian speciality so the two flavours together is like a fusion of the two cultures.

The sashimi salad with octopus & wakame salad was the first to be served and it was superb. As the first dish, it whets our appetite with the citrusy sauce. It would have been better if they reduced the sauce as I found it too salty for the amount of wakame seaweed. The octopus taste well marinated, and totally not raw at all. As for the salmon sashimi, it really is better than those I have eaten in Singapore. However, it still loses out to Japan. Remember my favourite sashimi? My new found interest in sashimi started from that trip to Japan! Never used to like raw food.

My next favourite food is the takoyaki! I really really love the piping hot cripsy takoballs from O' Cha Cha. The taste is just so Japan, so delicious! I could also say the same for their panfried gyozas. The outer skin is slighty chewy and the filling is just tasty. Both dishes are definitely more authentic than Tokyo Dumpling's. I strongly recommend to satisfy your gyoza craving here instead.

The mini okonomiyaki is a great size for fun-eating. Although it contained quite little of the vegetable, I like the taste of it, not too mushy. For our mains, we ordered one bbq beef rice which was popular among customers, and a cold soba. The cold soba is fine and good, but it just made me more sure that I prefer the greeny cha soba. We both found the beef rice disappointing. The beef slices are a little tough. When mixed together, the whole taste is oily and not so flavourful.

I choose the sakura rice cake as my dessert, because mochi is love. This pink mochi here, however, has red bean filling which I find too sweet as usual. What is interesting is that the leave sticking to the mochi is salty! I guess it is to counter the sweetness of the red bean paste.

The whole dinner cost A$79.70 and it was well worth it. It was such a pleasurable experience. This is way better than wasting money on the Golden Boat Chinese Restaurant.


Supermarket time -

Right after dinner, we went for some snacks. It was as if we were trying to fill ourselves up for the lack of lunch haha. The smell of the fried chicken and fries in the supermarket has been tempting us for days so we finally decided to try it. Unfortunately, appearance and smell can be deceiving. The food is just cold and horrible tasting. There was this dim sum snack which I thought looked like siew mai. We were told that the filling is of lamb and vegetable. We both could not tolerate the strong pungent smell. I also got a potato salad from the ready-to-eat corner but the sauce is too sour for my liking. Well, at least the two Arizona tea is nice.

Our last and full day with Raging Thunder at Fitzroy Island the next day!

Australia Adventure Day 3 - Cairns Canyoning

 29 January 18 -

The experience of Hooley Dooley & Figjam.

Our initial plan of canyoning on day 4 was swapped to the afternoon after our skydive. We were okay with the change since we had nothing planned out. The weather was great and the skydiving process was smooth, so we ended quite on time. The only thing was we started our second adventure without food! Our lighter-breakfast was almost fully digested. As we took the bus towards Crystal Cascades, I could feel my stomach being a little empty. Nevertheless, when you are going to have fun, the hunger will be forgotten!

About a 20 - 30 minutes ride inclusive of picking up another 3 people, we were at the carpark of Crystal Cascades, right after the previous group who were already done. We signed off the forms, wore their outfits on and put on the harness. We were with 3 instructors, with 1 being the photographer (Marcio, Branden & Cam). As it was a considerably long walk up the starting point, we were told to wear our long sleeved yellow top on my waist first. My mood was great! I just had a skydive achievement and I was going to do something that I thought would be extremely fun! 

[I did skydive with and for my bf, but this canyoning was purely my choice.]

After some walking and perspiring, we reached this super-duper steep upslope. We were warned that it will be difficult and we should take our time. It was the steepest I have ever walked. Just had to keep moving with the body leaning forward. It feels like the moment you stop, you will fall back. Breathless is the word to describe my feeling after I completed that slope. I realised that I was quite unfit! Oh my goodness, despite all my efforts of regular exercising. We sat by the side and rested while our instructors explained about the procedures and how to use the special carabiners. The rule is always to be hooked with one carabiners to the rope, removing only one at a time to move along.

We practised hooking the carabiners before we conquered yet another steepy slope! This one felt slightly longer. Gosh, I was struggling and breathing really hard near the top, but you really must keep moving up no matter what. By the time I was done, I was in need of water badly as my throat was freaking dry. Unfortunately, there was no water fountain but Branden said that we will be brought to the start of the river for a drink.

One of our group members, Aaron, placed his head under the water. So when it was my turn, I did the exact same thing LOL. Apparently, that was just Aaron doing it for fun, and I was there thinking I should be drinking like that. I put my head in twice somemore. The helmet was stopping the water from flowing into my mouth, so I barely drank much water. Hahah I am crazy, but I really had some slight problem understanding the Australian accent. They might find it difficult to understand my Singaporean accent cum singlish as well.


Abseil, Slides, Jumps, Zip-line -

The whole adventure started with an abseil! Honestly, I was so excited and thought I would enjoy everything about canyoning. I ended up being really scared when it happened. The first abseil height was 10m, thankfully. The thing about abseil is to have a relaxed body while straightening the legs to walk 90 degrees down the cliff. But it was impossible to relax and I was just gripping the rope tightly. I managed to lean back but the rock is super slippery with the water and algae. I fell off at least 3 times, scratched and bruised myself in the process. When you become vertical against the rock, it is so difficult to stand back up again. Weak muscles I have, like I mentioned in my skydive post. I was struggling to move on the slippery rock, and my pace was slower than the pace that the rope was released, so I kept falling.

When I finally was done with the first obstacle, I felt so relieved to have finished it. My bf was checking on me and I was okay. But I was feeling shitty and I did not want to continue! The activity I was looking forward to turned out to be such a scary experience for me. I felt like hiding and going into my comfort zone. But this activity course has no turning back! You just have to keep moving. Life is as such.😖

The instructors has warned about the wet rocks and advised us to walk with smaller steps, but I still seemed to be too slow. It was so darn hard to walk because my sense of balance is quite horrible. My poor feet are too small. After the abseil was a short slide, a small little waterfall. We kept our body straight, and with our hands raised, we slid down. It was definitely not as fun as a waterpark slide lol. We then practised jumping 1m. If we did not manage to jump with a proper form, we will not be allowed to try the 10m jump.

The next one was an abseil again, a longer one. I remembered it as the 35 m one but it does not feel like it is that high. Once again, I fell several times and banged against the rock. I had to push myself hard outwards to stand back up again. I just kept taking damage! When I reached the ground, it was like I was momentarily confused. I did not know what to do and there was no one around. I looked up at Branden and he was signalling me, but I was clueless, so he asked me to stay put. Then Marcio came from the left and led me. I recalled something like if you choose 10m, go to the right. If you are less brave, turn left for the 4m jump. My mind, however, seemed to have to stop working at that moment.

So as I was at the edge of the cliff, preparing to jump that 4m, I really hesitated. I told Marcio that I was scared, and he said "no you are not" in quite a serious tone. I think he was not intending to entertain my whimpers. That moment, I was truly alone and afraid. I can't not jump since it is the only way down. So I just counted to 3 and jumped! I think I was quite brave and quick. The "just do it" motto has been put to use. I must be so thirsty because I drank a mouthful of water with the impact of the jump.

[After that, I was told by our rafting friends that they were in the group right before us. One girl accidentally fell and landed flat on her face. Cried all the way throughout. Gosh. And then I heard from a friend how a person jumped wrongly, broke the face O.O and needed surgery. This can be quite dangerous, so you got to really jump bravely and properly. Most insurance probably does not cover extreme sports as well.]

The next is a longer slide and this one looks more vertical. There is rope work involved and we were slowly let down. With my hands raised again, after posing for a photo, down I went again. However, it was so horrible and painful! I think the strap of the harness or the rope was pressing into the groin area. The slide down was also very slow and water just keeps gushing on my face and mouth.

We went under one area and there was this mini cave with frogs around. My group seems to consist of all the fearless people, and it seemed odd for me to feel slightly terrified of the frogs. There was a part whereby we had to jump into a waterfall from the back, and then swim out to the right side. The instructor said that if anyone is not confident in swimming, he/she may not want to try. But I tried. I jumped into the gushing waterfall, tried my best to swim to the right, but I arrived right back to the left 3 seconds later. It does not seem like my strength had any use because I did not swim in freestyle. I felt so embarrassed about the fact that I ticked "good" to the question of our swimming skills. My bf lost one side of his shoes at this point due to the current. But luckily, it was already near the end when we did this.

Yet another slide came along, and my face was just submerged into the water. There was another 4m jump! For this, we have to carefully stand at the edge and aim further out when we jump. It was slightly less scary since I have tried it once. Then we just walked and walked on the slippery rocks, until we come to yet another slightly shorter jump. Finally, I jumped without screaming! There are some parts where you have to step across or go the edges kind. Even though I was secured with the harness, I did not dare to let go and the step seemed too big to take.

Branden said to me "You are making it difficult for yourself". I find this quite funny. It is as if the other people who were going through this already had experience or training and there was zero fear. I did not choose to make it difficult for myself. I just did not know how to get past the fear yet. It was my first time after all right? Frankly speaking, this might be a challenge for those faint hearted ones. I felt I was already progressing great.

There was also a zipline in which we land in the water. We slowly step out on the metal bars and let go gradually. The speed is slower than the normal zipline but it was a nice experience. There was this part in which we were supposed to run sideways across the canyon to the other side. Cam demonstrated it with a quick run over and I was really dumbfounded. How was I supposed to do that man! It seemed like it was easy for everybody else?? But I had to do it so I tried to run as well, but after my second step, I fell and just arrived at the other side. LOL.

I knew my head hit the rock, so I was very thankful for my helmet. Cam was right beside me, and his face just looked really stunned and worried for me. I was fine though, slightly happy I was already at the other side! Aaron consoled me and said that I came over in such a cool way, while everyone did it normally. According to my bf, I tumbled over because I tripped on my leg. See, my leg froze and it did not move. He was so worried and was prepared to jump down into the water to save me if the need arises 😅. This could actually lead to serious injuries, so I was relieved I was okay.

The final abseil was a high one as well. As it was at the area where other visitors can enter. We were there waiting for people to jump down the cliff before we can proceed safely. It was quite dangerous to jump at that area as the water level was not as deep. Anyway, I performed the best at this last abseil. I still fell twice near the top. I chanted "1, 2, 1, 2" as I went down step by step. I was hanging there waiting for my bf to come down to take a photo together, and my neck was so tired and strained. They asked us to take a kiss shot but I rejected it due to being so tired already. Anyway, I don't think the angle was good enough to see our kiss.

As I reached the ground, I was so happy! I have conquered it and it was over. I was so drained. I found that even walking was a challenge for me because I could not seem to balance on the wet and slippery rocks. Marcio asked me which activity did I enjoy the most, I said I like it best now because everything is over! During the process, I was very sure I would not do this again HAHA. But I think with a few more of such experiences, I would be coping better.

Regardless, really thankful for the team members who were really helpful towards me along the way! The instructors might find me irritating and funny to laugh at at the same time. I think Branden found my worried-going-to-cry face quite hilarious haha. Although I may not have 100% enjoyed it, this first experience was worth it! At least, my bf enjoyed it totally :).

The second acheivement of the day! A lot more effort was put in for this one. 

They drove us back to our hotels and we had a chicken and ham wrap on the way (light lunch inclusive in package). We were starving! I have used so much physical and mental energy to complete this activity! And look at the bruises and cuts just on my hands and legs, in addition to bruises on my body.

Dinner at Golden Boat Chinese Restaurant -

We decided to go for dinner quickly and head back to hotel for an early night. However, our food plan was affected because Tokyo Dumpling was supposed to be for today. We were supposed to go dinner somewhere further the day before because we intended to drive for one day initially. We looked at two other options on my schedule but both were closed on that day as well. In the end, we decided on the Golden Boat Chinese Restaurant near our hotel.

We have passed by several times so it was time to see if their food is good. The price range is quite expensive for Chinese food by the way. We asked for a recommendation of food and the staff said abalone lol. It was good that we did not go for the pricey atas dishes because the food sucks.

The fish seafood fried rice (A$28.80) tastes okay, but it was quite oily. The fish is tasteless and does not seem fresh. The staff reccomended the broccolini with prawn paste cake, so we tried. It is freaking A$38.80 for that plate of oily vegetable. The vegetable taste like Kai Lan and can be tasty if it was not that every strand we ate was soaked with salt and oil. I find the prawn paste cake acceptable but because it was oily, it gets jelat. Even the tea is not worthy of being served in a Chinese restaurant. It is bland and taste very weird. A$72.80 on this dinner was an absolute waste of money.

We asked for the bill without finishing half of the food on the plates. All of them could not hide the surprise on their face and asked us if we wanted to takeaway. I hope they know their food is really not up to standard. We went back to finish the chicken and potato convenience dish we bought at the supermarket. While microwaving, it smells really good. The taste is okay okay only la. It was supposedly for the next day's breakfast because it was an early day if our canyoning was in the morning.

Now that I think about it, it was definitely better to go for canyoning in the afternoon. It would have been such a shock to my body in the early morning!