Pull me under, I'm not afraid

I went whitewater rafting in Tully today. That is - going down a fast-running shallow river with many stones of varying sizes.

The busride there was quite long but very scenic - quite comparable to the car ride to Port Douglas from yesterday. Instead of the shoreline, I saw mountains with their tips in clouds and with sun just rising above them.

Then it started to rain, and that kept up for most of the day. Again.

Did not spoil the trip though. I had booked an Extreme rafting experience, which pretty much meant we were given chances to do pretty crazy stuff.

The day started off with us splitting in two crews. I was in a boat with two Englishmen, a girl from Switzerland, a couple from Netherlands and our guide, originally from Chile. The guides explained that the company initially tried running the extreme group with the best guides, but the rides had been too uneventful then as everything went according to plan. So now they instead had him. "11 years on the job and I still haven't got the hang of it".

We put on our helmets and life vests and then got the basic training of a raft crew. Initially just 4 commands: "forward", "stop", "backpaddle" and "hold on". Later another two were added "Get down" (Pablo Francesco came to mind) and "Lean left/right".

Those six commands eventually got us all the way through. But we had a lot of fun in between. For instance, our guide managed to flip the boat in the second straight, in a place called (fittingly) the "washing machine". What followed was a pretty scary mostly underwater trip, down a very fast running river and over quite a few stones. What was especially fun was that once I got my head above water, I pretty much instantly had to swim stronly towards the shore, as the current was carrying me towards the next treacherous straight. Or at least, so it seemed back there. Water was pretty fast and swimming against it was not at all easy. I did manage though. So did everyone else. Thankfully, all of us made it out safely, with the Swiss girl having a small cut on her knee and most others having just suffered minor bruises from the bottom stones.

This was unplanned. The rest of crazyness was scheduled though. For instance, we got to jump off two 5 meter high rocks - again, very scary but fun. We also went under a waterfall to get a cold shower and took a feet-first ride down a fast waterfall that pulls you under for 4 seconds.

The coolest thing, however, was the "drowning simulator" - basically, going through a fairly deep section of a rapid without a boat. It was so fun I ran it twice. Only two other people did it the second time though, as it really did involve spending quite a bit of time under water and wondering how long it will take to get a chance to breathe again. Seconds can indeed seem like minutes, as I found out. Nevertheless, it wasnt nearly as scary as the unplanned first flip.

Same went for the second and planned boat flipping - although, this time, I came up right under the boat, which was also pretty freaky.

Rain kept up for most of the boat trip. Despite this, the river was just scenic beyond the wildest beliefs - like right out of Lord of the Rings movie, yet again. At some point, we noticed a large butterfly was following us. Really beautiful, once it caught up and we got to see it up close.

At one point, our guide asked if one of us wanted to try steering for ourselves. Of course I did. Harder than it looked, but doable.. although I did nearly fall out of the boat when going through a rockier section. After me, one of the duch guys also got a turn but our guide pretty quickly took over the post again.

At yet another place, our guide just casually said "If anyone wants to go for a swim, just jump in the water". Could not say no to that offer so I took a dive. Others followed my lead in a while. We did it later as well, just before the "croc territory". Not that there would have been any actual crocodiles beyond that poing (one had been sighted 3 km downstream 2 years ago), but just to be sure.

Near the end, the guide said that about one person dies there each year. One guy on the other boat had his knees bashed by the stones fairly badly in the drowning simulator. Not a safe activity by any standards. But a lot of fun, and definitely worth the risks.

Now a word about the clever pricing scheme of the photograph CD-s. One CD was 100 whereas 6 CD-s were 120. Im fairly certain nearly every group left that place with 6 cd-s -- as it puts a very strong pressure on everyone to contribute as then the cost is just 17 per person (if one gets cd, then copies), but then one may as well pay a bit extra and just get 6 cd-s. Yes, we also got one.

The scheme at bungee jumping is also quite good. 139 for first jump and then 35 for next and 25 for the remaining ones. And jumping in a costume is just 5 extra.

And, of course, the free lunch paradigm of the hostels here - it is usually at a bar where you have to buy a drink to redeem it. Orange juice was 4 AUD, and the meal was pretty small with only a few fries, some salad and a tiny bit of meat (or a spring roll for the vegetarians like me). Not too shabby a deal, but still.

Then again, it is hard to find a place that offers meals under 10 AUD. The hostel's own bar had a fairly decent sized pot of fries on offer for 5 but they do advertise they have the cheapest meals in town.. which may well be true. Mackie D-s meals start at the same price range, for instance. What can I say, Australia is expensive