Raging Thunder

Cheers mates!

The 5:35 alarm yesterday (February 21, 2014) was 100% worth it. We loaded the bus and took off on a 2.5 hour journey to the booha of Australia for white water rafting. As we were traveling up to the top of the river we passed many scenic towns and places. We drove through the Southern Hemisphere's largest banana plantation, it was amazing how many banana trees were growing! Once we reached the top of the river we put life jackets and helmets on and grabbed our paddles. We had the best boat leader, his name was Rob and he was from Wales. We started off in the river learning simple maneuvers such as forward paddling, backward paddling, get down, move left, move right and the honeymoon shuffle. We were on a level 4 river. Level 6 is Niagara Falls which will kill you instantly. People have died on the Tully River, but here I am alive re-telling my experience. So many fun rapids that it's hard to explain all. At one point Rob instructed myself and Paige to sit on the front of the boat with our legs hanging over the edge while holding on to the OS line. He then instructed the others to paddle forward so we headed down rapids, that was literally the coolest thing I have ever done, obviously hanging on and screaming for dear life. After rapids there were usually flat pools of water were we played games with the people in our boat. We learned how to save people and pull people into the boat after falling out by ourselves, I got some nice big muscles today. One of my other favorite parts of the day was a part of the river which was extremely dangerous. Rob instructed all 6 of us to sit on the front of the boat linking arms. Next thing I know we are going down the rapid backward and soon enough we're all in the water. The reason why we did this is because of the vertical world pool, if someone fell in they'd be taken under and not been able to escape, so doing this maneuver allowed all of us to dodge the world pool and have fun. To get back into the boat Rob insisted on me listening to him instead of stepping on the closest rock and lifting myself in. Thank god I listened to him cause what we did next was so fun! I was on the side of the boat facing outward holding onto the OS line. I then went under the water and lifted my legs up and next thing I knew I was flipping into the boat with the help of Rob. Every time from then on when I got out of the boat Rob flipped me in! For lunch they had hamburgers and sausages made for us when we made it half way down the river. My muscles feel like jello but overall today's experience white water rafting was so fun! I want to find more rapids to white water raft because of the many smiles and laughs it brought to me. Although there were crocodiles and lots of creepy crawlies, the smiles and laughs over shined the scary-ness! Oh my god and today was the first time I took my belly button ring out for the first time other than changing it in 6 years! Thank god I did, I didn't want it to get ripped out. I wish I had pictures to share with everyone but phones and cameras were to be left on the bus. Miss you and love you all!

From Down Under
Em