cairns - day 3 - whitewater rafting

All the tours start way too early. When I headed out of my room at 6:40, the tour guide was already running around the hotel nervously. Picking up all the rest of the group took another 30 minutes. Tully is located south from Cairns and is about 1.5h drive, Tully river is the best white water rafting place around here - river is winding through a rain forest with numerous waterfalls and other scenic areas. Today we are going to be passing about 9km on level 4 rafting river, maximum commercial level is 6 - adrenaline kick will be a nice one :)

Upon arrival we were divided into groups and lectured for about 30 minutes on all the safety regulations. Safety was mostly common logic - when in the water after falling in stay close to the surface as the current is quite strong and don't wanna get hit by the underwater rocks, keep the helmet and life vest on, when raft flips over get away from underneath as quick as possible etc. Once on the raft, our instructor Teddie went though some more safety regulations and moves we need to know before heading towards the rapids. Teddie was this short buff guy, he has been competing with Australian team all over the world as we found out. But oh those Aussies. He had scars all over his face and arms and legs, everywhere. And so on the first level 4 rapid he goes "do you all see that big triangular rock in front of us? yeah, that is where I got those 2 scars above each of my eyebrows - also broke upper 4 teeth when smacking my face on it full speed. that was my first rafting ever" we all looked at each other with horror :) He'd also give us good introduction when approaching another complicated rapid, one goes like so "see the edge there? 4 people have died on this one" :O, we all look at each other with frightened eyes. Aren't they suppose to tell us those things on our way back in the bus :D ??

Anyhoo, rafting was an absolute blast. Our team kicked ass - we did not flip over once, no one fell overboard and we were mostly fastest getting through the rapids. We ruled :) Later we got to see the DVD that was made, basically in all other rafts someone went overboard and I guess all other rafts flipped over sooner or later.

Wonderful times, we were back in town around 6pm. Now I have registered myself for 24h Internet, uploading photos and blogging is in progress. I'll probably get the photos organized tomorrow. Right now I'm gonna head to town to go for tea with Ave's friend and grab something to eat as well. Tomorrow morning is for resting :) My plane to Brisbane leaves at 16:40.
Tadaaa!