A large group of us settled on a date to go; reservations were made, what-to-bring lists were circulated and google map directions were sent. And then it rained. Heavily. And the whole venture was on the brink of being cancelled due to dangerously high water levels (producing harsher rapids) in the river. Luckily, by the Sunday morning the conditions had improved and it was deemed safe to enter the water.
Carload by carload we all arrived at Happy Raft ready to roll. As one of the first to arrive, I spent some time chatting with the owner, Mark (a fellow Aussie from Brisbane) about my mild water phobia and jokingly requested a pair of floaties to wear on the trip. Mark assured me everything would be fine and that once the adrenaline kicked in I'd have the time of my life...
With everyone managing to find the place and gather, the next thing to check off the list was our insurance paperwork. I had no problem answering the medical questions and waiving indemnity, but I have to admit I did write a little note at the bottom - alongside my Mother's contact details - stating that in the case of emergency they should pack me up and send me home to Australia ASAP!!
Paperwork complete, we listened to some brief instructions and then filed downstairs to find a wetsuit, life jacket and helmet. I managed to squeeze into a nice little khaki green wettie, secure my life jacket with rib-squeezing surety and nab a funky red helmet to wear. Next we were given some white sticker labels and a marker and told to come us with "rafting names" for ourselves. Someone in our group suggested animal names and such is how I landed the moniker "Monkey" for the rest of the day.
This is my Britsh friend Austin (aka Icarus) and I before heading into the water!
Finally we were ready to drive upstream to the start of the rafting course and so all 30-odd of us climbed into the bus, rafting paddles in hand. A 10-minute ride later and we were there, all too busy deciding how to arrange ourselves in groups to pay much attention to the rapids surging in the river down below. Mark kindly allocated himself as my group's guide (I think to make sure I didn't end up drowning myself accidentally) and I hopped into a raft alongside Samantha (from NZ), Bella (from the UK), Robert (from Germany), Liz (also from the UK) and Sarah (a fellow Aussie). Not the biggest, strongest or most athletic of groups but a fun bunch nonetheless.
My rafting group: (L-R) Bella, Sarah, Samantha, Robert, Liz, me and Mark.
Taking our first rapid shortly after setting off was an exhilarating (read: scary) experience but Mark was right, I'd have fun once the adrenaline started pumping. Pretty soon we were hitting rapid after rapid and having a blast. A quiet part of river gave Mark the opportunity to teach us the secret skill that's absolutely essential when rafting: effectively using your paddle to splash the other group's rafts as they float by. Needless to say, shortly thereafter the 'water wars' began and in addition to navigating the whitewater we were also concentrating on staying as far away from the other rafts as possible (unless of course we were planning a sneak attack).
Halfway through the morning's rapids, we pulled up alongside a rather large though easily climbable rock and were given the chance to get up there and jump off. Most people had no problem climbing up the (maybe) 5-metre high rock and launching themselves off the top. Bella was a tad shy about the whole thing and after spending an entire 10 minutes at the top lamenting her ascent up the rock, was dragged into the water by Mark to a thunderous round of applause. Highly amusing.
Frolicking over, we all jumped back into the rafts and took off for the second leg of the morning trip, posing for photographs taken by some Happy Raft guys on a nearby bank.
Eventually we made it back to the Happy Raft base and beached our rafts in search of lunch. I'd heard about the bagel lunches put on by Happy Raft and had been told that they were amazing. I admit to being a little skeptical - I mean, how good could a bagel possibly be? Turns out, pretty bloody amazing. Freshly baked bagel buns, cream cheese spread, tuna, sliced ham, lettuce, tomato - we each made and ate as many bagels as our restricting wetsuits would allow. Another 30 minutes for lunch to settle/photos to be taken and we were off again down to the river for round two.
The afternoon raft was a bit calmer than the morning stint and we even got a chance to swim in the river on the way down. A few of us girls made a chain and went down some small rapids sans raft. I was surprisingly content with swimming in the river, that is until someone mentioned it's a famous eel fishing spot! Back into the raft for me, where the 'water wars' had escalated into people diving from raft to raft in an attempt to conquer. We also had a go at holding the raft up on its end in the water - which required everyone to work together in perfect harmony so as not to upset the balance. Unfortunately, I thought one of the group was about to bail and so myself let go of the rope, causing the whole raft to tip upside down and throwing my fellow group members into the water. Oops.
Attempting to tip the raft on its end (just before I bailed, bringing everyone down with me!).
By the time we got to the next big rock platform many of us were no longer in the mood to jump. Plus, this rock was MUCH bigger than the last one, standing at a good 10-metres tall. A brave few clambered up though and one by one took turns pin-dropping into the water below. I decided to have a go after all, though after getting to the top I immediately began looking for ways to climb back down again. It's when you're standing right on the top that you realise just how high it is. Not to be outdone by fear however, I took the leap (rather awkwardly, I must admit) and hit the water at a strange and unusual angle at the bottom. First thing I did was check for mobility in all my limbs, tilt my head side-to-side to make sure my neck still worked and then began coughing and spluttering from all the water I'd managed to swallow. Everyone who had seen my drop was asking me if I was alright and truthfully I think I did give myself a bit of concussion (I certainly was a little afraid to fall asleep later that night!). Nothing as bad as what befell Liz though, who managed to take a paddle to the face, splitting open her eyebrow and bleeding profusely all over the raft. After a hasty patch-up attempt, Liz was all bandaged up and were set off on the last half hour of our trip along a section of river that mostly allowed for serenely floating down in our rafts.
The bus was waiting for us when we got to shore and as it was now roughly 4pm we climbed back on board and headed back to Happy Raft to shower, change and check out our pics. By the time we'd packed up and headed home, I ended up calling it a night pretty early, completely plum-tuckered out by the adventure.
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