When we left Townsville for Mission Beach we left in style! For the first time we ditched the Greyhound and travelled up with Chris in his campervan, that looks a lot like the bus in Scooby Doo. It was much more fun than travelling on a coach, and surprisingly not any less comfortable. Mission Beach is a lovely, beautiful place but very small and quiet. It was much further off the main track than we expected, and we passed an amazing number of signs warning about Cassowaries; not that we actually saw any. The hostel we had booked into was very nice, and one of the better ones that we have stayed in. Even though the doom was a 10-bed, in was very spacious and nice. We just chilled out in the hostel for the rest of the day and went for a bit of a wander. After dinner we sat around the fire that had been lit in the garden. We had to be up early the next morning because....we were doing our skydive!

This was the day that I had been looking forward to since before we left England. We were being picked up at 7.30 in the morning which was early, but I thought it would be better than doing it later in the day and having to dwell on it. I got up about 6 as I couldn't sleep, but the two boys had been up for hours as the Champions League Final had started at 5! We finally left for the airfield just past 7.30 after the busdriver had been kept waiting until the penalties had finished. It was still too early for me to get nervous, and our minds were kept busy by filling in forms. When we arrived at the strip we still had to wait over an hour before we actually set off. We had booked to do an 11,000 feet jump as it was better value for money, but once we were there we thought we might as well do the highest there was, so we went for 14,000 feet. Once it had all been paid for and we had passed some time watching other jumps on TV, it was time for us to set off. My instructor was female, and she showed me what postion I had to be in when we first jumped out and when we landed. I had paid for a DVD of my jump too, so I had to do a bit on camera before we left the ground. When everyone was ready we boarded the plane. It was very small inside and a bit of a squeeze. As I had gotten in first it also meant I would be last to jump, which I had been worried about happening. For some reason I really didn't want to be last! Gradually we climbed higher and higher and could see for miles. I wouldn't say I was scared, but it was a bit nervewracking, especially when I was told we were only half way up and we seemed really high. Unfortunatley Chris hadn't been able to get on the same jump as us, but he was allowed to fly up in the cock-pit with us. When we reached 14,000 feet it was time to go. It all went so fast there wasn't any time to be scared, and as soon as I saw the first person jump I knew I would be fine. We scrambled to the edge and I put my head back and crossed my arms, and then we just sort of fell out. We free-falled at about 125mph and it only lasted 60 seconds so it was over before I knew it, but it was brilliant. It happended so quick I even forgot to look at the camera. We jumped out well above the clouds, and as we went through the water in them burned my face. Once the parachute was pulled it was about 5 minutes before I landed. One of the reasons we picked this particualar jump was because it was over the beach, and we had great views of the islands and could even see the barrier reef in the water. It was amazing! My instructor let me steer us around, and before I knew it, it had finished and we were landing on the sand. The whole experience was brilliant and I wanted to do it again already!

Once we had finshed the skydive we went back to the hostel to wait there for a bit, and then when there was no sign of Chris, went down to the beach to see if we could see him land. We were too late as it turned out, but the beach was gorgeous so Justin and I stayed there for a while and had a walk around. Mission Beach is really long with white sand and a great view, but it was also completely empty and we couldn't see anyone in either direction. After relaxing there for a couple of hours we went back to the hostel where my skydive DVD had been delivered along with our pictures, so we had a look at them. They are probably the most unflattering pictures possble, and the DVD was cringe-worthy, but I'm still glad I got them. We spent that night in the hostel drinking wine and playing cards, as it had decided to hammer it down with rain. We knew we were near the rainforest now! We were lucky as it turned out because other people who had booked to dive later on in the day had had theres cancelled due to bad weather.

The next morning we didn't do much as the weather was still bad. We drove back to the airfield to pick up our free sky-diving T shirts that we had forgotten to get the day before. This was probably a bit of a waste of time, but we thought why not? We had to wait for ages as there were so many people hanging about. They were all waiting to see if they would be able to go up due to the rain, but as soon as we left it started raining loads, so I doubt they did. We went for lunch in the town and then left for Cairns, making a few diversions on the way to places with funny names. Just one of the perks of having a van I suppose. I couldn't believe we were on our way to Cairns, and our journey up the east coast was nearly at an end!