Monday, April 18, 2005

Rafting Expedition - Day 6

Up about 6:00, I had to pee so bad. Steph was sleeping beside me in the shelter, and she punched me in the face in the middle of the night. And the sand flies (or something) bite lke crazy, and leave great big welts, itchy as heck, and they itched for days. Oh well, part of the experience.

We had tea/coffee and breakfast, got the rafts packed and had our rafting safety meeting. Mani made it sound so scary, all the things that could go wrong. They had two rafts, our raft, plus a gear raft, and two safety kayakers. He was explaining what to do if you fall out (try to swim to the nearest raft or kayak), if you can't swim (too tired, caught in whirlpool, etc.), one of the kayakers will come for you, or a throw rope will be thrown to you. What to do if the raft flips. Rule number one: DON'T PANIC!!!

We started rafting around 9:30 or 10:00. Remember all the locals sitting on the bridge all morning, watching and waiting for us to start rafting.

There was some awesome whitewater today. Big rapids, with big waves and rocks. We had to stop a few times so the guides could scout the rapids ahead and find the best line to take.

I was sitting at the front left side of the raft, and I took the lions share of the waves coming over the front of the raft. The water was SOOOO cold, everytime it happened, I would yell and freeze for a second or two as the wave came over me, then shiver and shake it off, then continue paddling. Steph was sitting behind me, she was laughing so hard at me.

As we were rafting, local kids would run along the rivers edge, along the rocks and boulders, keeping up with the raft. They are so sure footed on the rocks and boulders, in their bare feet or the flip-flops. It's amazing.

We stopped at a small beach for lunch about 1:00, and locals, especially kids, just sat on a big rock and watched is. I ate like a pig.

After lunch, we continued rafting, and stopped at another beach about 3:30 for the night. We camped where the Kabeli river meets the Tamur river.

My watches stopped working today. It's supposed to be waterproof. Dumb Timex. It might still have warranty, I'll have to bring it back to Canada and check it out.

It was a beautiful evening, no rain threat. I brougt out my MP3 player and speakers, and we listened to music.

The guides made supper (pasta with a mushroom cream sauce), and Mani made hot rum punch, which was really good. Steph and Shaun to bed early (as usual), I was to bed at 8:45.

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