We grabbed our waterproof camera, slathered on sunscreen and headed out for our first white water rafting adventure—only to find that outside it was overcast and had been raining all morning. What seemed to have put a drag on the start of our day, this not-so-sunny weather actually ended up working to our advantage.
The van carrying all the soon-to-be rafters climbed up the mountain to the Tully River and we were told that since it had been raining so much we would have to start about 7km farther down the river because of the high waters. But as our new entry point neared, our driver got a call—we’re going to go for it anyway!
More rain = faster rivers, so we would have to be careful, but we felt…errr…well…I guess “safe” in the hands of Mauricio, our Chilean master rafter who would lead us through the rapids.
Our Team of 6 with Chief Mauricio
The first big one was “Double Waterfall“. After learning all 5 rafting commands, which sort of reminded me of the “Dodge, dip, duck, dive, dodge” commands from the movie “Dodgeball”, we were ready to go.
After starting out nice and easy, our raft began picking up speed as we approached our first set of rapids. We narrowly maneuvered around a few huge boulders and then Mauricio shouted, “No matter what, just keep paddling!!!”
Mauricio being all boss as we ducked for safety
“Wait. What?! No matter WHAT? What does that mean?!” I looked over at my sister, who seemed to be feeling the same way I did. She had a half smile, half “I think I’m going to crap my pants” look. Then it came. Our raft of 7 people tumbled down the rapids, and to my surprise, managed to keep all the passengers inside—this time anyway.
Heading straight for the Double Waterfall
Literally hitting the rapids!
The most intense drop of all, "Corkscrew"
The day was filled with similar rapids, each with their own surprises, especially with Muaricio getting a kick out of flipping us over now and then. Ya know, just to keep the excitement alive I suppose. Once, I almost felt as if I was on the brink of drowning after having the raft flip over on top of me! Luckily, my helmet and life vest were more reliable than my sister and raft-mates who all floated away laughing as I choked back water.
As we neared our ending point, Mauricio shared stories with us about his trips around the world searching for the greatest rapids from the Colorado River in the United States to the Zambezi River in southern Africa. According to him, the best rafting in Australia is the stretch we took on the Tully River. I think this is just the start to my search for the greatest rapids as well.
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