| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 19/06/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 58 |
| Copyright: Other |
Adventure holidays by rachael oakden
Rapid descent:the Tully River is one of Australia’s premier white-water rafting locations
Standing waist deep in ice-cold water in pitch darkness was not what I had in mind when I pictured myself in Australia.But on finding myself in Mole Creek, a village in northern Tasmania that billed itself as the country’s caving capital – it seemed rude not to.
Kitted out in a fetching boiler suit and head lamp, I said goodbye to the June sunshine and waded into the mouth of Oakden’s Cave with an earnest pipe-smoking environmentalist named Vicky.
The possibility that this freezing cavern might be named after some distant Tasmanian relative did not make it any less daunting. There are dry caves and wet caves, Vicky explained. And this one was definitely wet.
As the first few inches of freezing water seeped into my boots, all I could think of was what Vicky had said on our way down the soggy bank to the cave’s entrance: “Watch out for leeches.”
Now I was doomed to spend the rest of the morning dreading the moment where I’d remove my boots to find that half a dozen bloated black worms had taken up residence on my foot.
But, four hours later, I was drinking hot chocolate by a wood-burning stove remembering a magical underground world of stalactites and glow worms and the exhilaration of squeezing through narrow passages that any sane, claustrophobic person would steer well clear of.
That’s the thing about adventure travel. Whether you’re on the edge of a bungy platform, at the open door of an aircraft with a parachute strapped to your back, or in a raft about to tip yourself into a raging grade-four rapid, you wonder why on earth you’re putting yourself through it. It’s only afterwards that you think: “Wow, did I do that?”
It was the same as I stood shivering in a soggy wetsuit on the back of a diving boat on the Great Barrier Reef, being told to jump into a dark, choppy sea at six o’clock in the morning.
The only place I wanted to dive was back into my bunk for a few more hours’ kip but once I’d taken the plunge, what I saw was unforgettable.
To be under the water when the sun came up and the coral began to glow a hundred different colours was an extraordinary privilege. Unlike me, fish are at their most active when they wake up and start foraging for food, the marine life we saw at sunrise was more plentiful than at any other time of day.
When a nosey giant blue grouper came within two inches of my mask to say good morning, I thought for a second I was still asleep and dreaming.
White-water rafting required a similar spurt of willpower.
The Tully River might be in the heart of the Queensland rainforest but the torrential mountain rainwater that makes it Australia’s premier rafting location sure is cold. And as soon as I saw the guides wearing little more than tiny shorts and life jackets, I realised that a wetsuit was out of the question.
Half an hour later, after being warned not to fall out of the raft because that might result in death or serious injury, I was cast adrift with nothing but a paper-thin spray jacket, a life vest and a silly helmet to keep me warm. But the excitement of careering along a bubbling river through a gorge lined by virgin rainforest soon took my mind off the fact that I couldn’t feel my hands. Even when the funsters in my group decided it would be a riot to deliberately capsize the raft, twice, I was so entranced by my surroundings that I didn’t care.
Later, the pictures taken by the ‘hidden’ guides, as we plunged into the rapids, showed me screwing up my face in terror while everyone else smiled and waved maniacally for the camera. I was enjoying myself – honest. But afterwards I enjoyed it even more.
Rapid descent:the Tully River is one of Australia’s premier white-water rafting locations
Leave the beaches but watch out for leeches
Icy water, raging rapids. It’s all good fun
Thumbs up: Rachel enjoys sunrise underwaterfactfile
Do’s and don’tS
n Do get your teeth examined before diving. Air trapped in bad fillings expands as you come back to the surface. Ouch.
n Do wear a wetsuit when white-water rafting. It will help you float.
n Don’t touch anything that looks like a giant nettle in the rainforest. It is a stinging tree that attacks the nerves in your limbs. Horses have been known to turn mad from the pain.
n Do wear sunscreen and insect repellent, but not when white-water rafting. It will wash off in about five seconds and poison the ecosystem.
n Don’t let fear of leeches ruin a day’s bushwalking or caving. They are harmless, if horrible, and easily removed with salt or matches.
n Do learn how to use your camera properly when you go caving. Glow worms and light shafts make amazing photographs, but get it wrong and they can come out looking like shots from the Hubble telescope.
n Don’t be over optimistic when squeezing through narrow underground passages. Deep underground, no-one can hear you scream.
Tight squeeze: the caves are not advisable for claustrophobics