Today we woke to rain, but I didn't care because we were going to get wet anyway. The rain here isn't like rain back home, or like the rain we had in Sydney for that matter. It is fine and warm here. But, to be fair to Sydneysiders, it was very unusual weather and it isn't generally that cold.
Today was our day for white water rafting. I'm going to use bad grammar because I need to emphasize how much fun I had; it was the most awesomest day of my life. It was sooo much fun.
We boarded the bus and were taken to Raging Thunder Adventures, along with several other adventure seekers. It was left up to us to break into groups of six, and we also chose our guide. Our group was made up of six women and we chose Vinnie to be our guide because he was nice to look at; actually, truth be told, it was me who decided on the nice looking Aussie to be our guide.
After our brief introductory safety orientation, and Vinnie telling us that somebody always falls in at some point, we put our helmets and life jackets on and headed down to Tully River. Apparently Tully is the worst place to live in Australia because it gets so much rain - up to seven metres. That is why Tully has such good white water rafting.
Some of the commands - To the left means everybody to the left of the raft; to the right means, well, you figure it out; all down means put your paddles vertically in the air, handle end down and sit on the bottom of the raft; lean in means, well, lean in.
We all got into the raft and headed down the river to begin our adventure. I was scared at first, but quickly overcame that.
If Female Viagra is meant to produce heaps of fun, get me some more. I couldn't take the smile off of my face after the first rapid we went over. It was called "Foreplay". I guess they figure they need to warm us up. Not too bad, but I thought this was the extreme rafting trip! "Just wait", Vinnie says. Little did I know what was coming.
Oh cool, another rapid! This time it was called "2-15" meaning that it either takes two minutes or 15 minutes to get through. Oh my Gawd, we're going to flip. Vinnie quickly assured us that we weren't going to flip; he was saving that for later. Oh great! We got through the rapids in two minutes and other rafts got stuck and took much longer. That's the fun of it though - getting stuck and not knowing what's going to happen.
There were large boulders and medium sized boulders that made up the rapids and our raft would quite often hit them head on. Poor Emma thought Vinnie had it in for her.
We had great conversations during the entire trip. Rachael was wearing her swimming goggles because she didn't want to lose her contact lenses. She was quite the picture and we had quite the laugh at her expense. Our conversations involved everything from crocodile sperm to Rachael checking out Emma's bum, but that's another story. It was heaps of fun. Oh shit, look out, another big rock, and it's coming towards me. It didn't hurt though because the raft takes the hit. I think I will have a few bruises though tomorrow.
There were three rafts on the river and when we all came together, we would splash each other with our paddles. Our raft was usually first to get through the rapids and I always yelled to the other group, guided by Dino, that "We're having more fun than you are, na na na na na na". Vinnie started a joke about me getting an Aussie husband and the next thing I knew, Rachael was going to stay in Marie's tent tonight to leave an extra spot in our tent. It was all in fun though and nothing came of that.
We stopped at a rock, or should I say huge boulder and climbed to the top and jumped in the water. It was about 20 feet high. Our life jackets and helmets remained on though so nobody would get hurt. It was pretty high and we were all encouraging the scardy-cats to jump.
Next, stop for lunch on shore. It was a barbeque and you wouldn't expect something like that in the middle of the jungle/rainforest. Australians know how to do things big. Yes, it was like we were rafting through a jungle and Vinnie told us that crocodiles are here sometimes. Fortunately, I didn't see any, but Rachael is sure she saw one.
When we finished lunch we got back into the raft to continue our trip down the river. It was time to horse around again and then we were in for a a very fast and rocky rapid called "The Regurgitator". But 'Why Vinnie, would you feed us lunch before this particular rapid?' It wasn't that bad though. Next rapid was down the lava flows. We had the chance to jump in the water and float down the rapids on our backs. Once we got out of the rapid that sucked us under water, we had to swim hard to get out of the water. If we couldn't swim across though, the guides had ropes to pull us out. It was sooo much fun.
Oh shit, I hear a water fall and I was envisioning Niagara Falls. No worries though; it was only a water fall coming down a cliff. We steered towards it and rafted through it. It was hard when it smacked down on our heads, but it didn't hurt. That was just the first water fall. We then came to "Disappearing Falls" where we had the opportunity to jump down the falls. We were told that we would have to equalize our pressure because the falls are so strong that they will take you down deep and fast. That was alot of fun too. Are you sick of hearing me say "that was alot of fun" yet?
After those falls, we had about four km remaining of our 12 km trek. Next came a set of three rapids called "Jabba the Hut"; then "Flip Wilson", where we all flipped the raft; and then "Shark's Tooth". I have no idea how they come up with these names. It was fun navigating through the rocks. The last rapid of the day was called "Double 'D' Cup"; probably named for its curvy route.
I didn't fall out of the raft today, but thought we were going to capsize several times. I am an addict now. Vinnie definitely has a nice office to work in. I wanna move here. Oh, have I said that before?
If I have gained any weight on this trip, I lost it today with all the paddling and moving back and forth on the raft from the "Go Left" or "Go Right" commands. I have a sore bum. I can see why rowers have a six pack and I think I will have sore abs tomorrow, and my shoulder may be sore too. This was definitely the most fun I have had so far on this 12-day adventure. There are only two days left and five left in Australia.
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