White Water Rafting

A question I hear a lot while out on my travels fixing broken computers in various tourism establishments is what there is to do here while it's raining. Now, forgive me for being rude but if you can't think of something to do here then you've got no imagination. However, have you ever considered white water rafting? You're wet anyway so go and get wetter in a fun way.

The Tully River holds some of the best rapids in Australia for your white water rafting experience. In the wet season it often flows so fast that even the instructors won't go in (although I did hear one say about the impending tsunami-that-never-was that he'd be OK because he was out rafting that day anyway). Thousands of happy punters can tell you that it's not as scary as you may think, it's a bit of hard work and a hell of a lot of fun so give it a blast. You won't be disappointed.

Skydiving

Now, I've done a few tandem skydives in my time ranging from a murky one in Cambridge, UK to landing on the beach in Mission Beach and looking at the beautiful reef while I was serenely floating to the ground (obviously, that bit was after the 120 miles per hour freefall for 45 seconds!) but I've always wondered: 'why bother with the 10,000ft skydive'?

The reason I ask this is that if you're going to throw yourself out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft with a large handkerchief tied to your instructor's back and a lead holding you to him then go for the big one - the 14,000ft. Skydiving is scary enough anyway so get the benefit of 45 seconds of lung-emptying screaming and face wobbling.

Enjoy your next skydive!

Question For Backpackers Hostels

I have a question for backpackers hostels in Mission Beach.

Why don't you advertise the fact that people can stay in Mission Beach and work on the farms in Tully because there is transport available? No disrespect to Tully but, if you're on holiday in Australia, most people would rather stay in Mission Beach than there owing to the fact that a) we've got a beach and b) they haven't.

The reason I'm asking this question is that I've been in the visitors centre a couple of times when people have wandered in and asked about working on farms in Mission Beach. Worse still, the visitors centre haven't mentioned the transport offered by farms in Tully to and from work so these backpackers have gone off and stayed in Tully just so that they could earn some cash.

Seems like a big hole in the Mission Beach backpackers market to me. Tell people, SHOUT it from the rooftops, advertise it on your websites (if you've got one that people can find). Anything, just get more money coming in to Mission Beach and give people who have to work their way around Australia a choice of staying a) somewhere very nice or b) somewhere ok.

Woolworths - My Two Cents

There has been a lot of whingeing by people recently about the impending development of a Woolworths in Mission Beach. Well, I think all you whingers are idiots.

What choice have you currently got for grocery shopping? Either you can do a roundtrip to Innisfail and waste 100km of fuel; you can drive to Tully and get not a lot of a choice in the IGA; or you can pay the exorbitant prices charged by the local grocery stores. I mean, if you're all getting worked up about the environment then that hour and fifteen minutes to and from Innisfail isn't doing it much good and neither is the 40 minute one to and from Tully. Agreed, there should be a lot of planting going on around the new Woolworths site with local plants but take a look at it now. It's yet another bit of ugly, cleared land standing idle in Australia.

Come on Woolies, build the place as soon as possible so that we can all have some selection in our produce, blend it in as much as possible with clever planting, give us reasonable prices, and don't feed us with the leftovers that people from the North Shore in Sydney wouldn't buy because it the quality was too poor.

Bingo

Bingo will recommence in the Rainforest Room at the Mission Beach Comfort Resort on Monday 14th May at 7:00pm and thence every Monday evening. The profits for May and June will go to Junior Soccer.