Katie and I gearing up at the bus, ready to hit the rapids.
We set out with about six rafts and stuck together throughout the day, leap frogging each other as part of their safety plan for some of the rougher rapids.
Sometimes it was hard to believe the beauty we were in the midst of.
Yeppers, that's Katie flipping out of the raft and back in - I believe this is where she lost her paddle.
We elected to steer under the pelting waterfall.
We survived! This is us dry and satisfied after a great day of rafting.
Our final day in Cairns was another action packed adventure. We went white water rafting on the Tully River, where we hit more than 45 rapids (ranging to grade 4) in a World Heritage Rainforest. Tully is located about 1.5 hours south of Cairns, boasting more sugar cane and banana tree fields. The river scenery was spectacular and the water was COLD. We hit one of their coldest seasons. Boo yea. In addition to rafting, we got to take the plunge and try raft surfing, rapid swimming, and rock jumping.
I was out of the raft at every opportunity, first out to float down the river early in the day. We got a great guide who was making is 1,000th trip down the Tully River with us. Lucky him he got such a great crew. We were one of the more adventurous rafts (nicknamed Daggs), with all five of us taking the opportunity throw ourselves into the raging 'washing machine' rapids, jump off the 5 meter high rock, and purposefully tip out of the raft at a major waterfall. Katie nearly fell out of the raft, and I fell into the center of the raft a few times, but Adam was the only one to get knocked out other than our intentional spill and purposeful ventures. We simply followed directions when prompted (forward paddle, back paddle, lean left or right, get down, or hold on). What a great active day. We stopped for a bbq lunch midday and were all anxious to get back in the water. I'll definitely do that again. Bring on the grade 5 rapids!
We celebrated the end of the day at a bar on our way back to Cairns. Katie and I must have had 'tourist sucker' across our foreheads as we splurged for two of everything everywhere we went - the great news is we have DVDs of both our diving and rafting experiences along with pictures.
Katie and I barely made it back in time for our flight. We returned to the hotel at 6:45pm to pick up our bags, mooched a ride with a couple of strangers who'd already hailed a taxi for the airport, and made our 8pm flight. Phew! Nothing like living on the edge. What a weekend!
