White Water Rafting the Tully River

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This turned out to be one of the best things we did during our Queensland trip. We were in Cairns and looking to book all excursions leaving from town. As I had a keen interest in rafting, the other three travel mates were easily convinced by our local travel agent in Cairns. We booked a trip with the more popular of the two groups that run regular tours from Cairns.

We were headed to the Tully River, south of Cairns towards Townsville. This area had been flooded for the previous two weeks...which ultimately had ruined our plans to drive south from Cairns to Byron Bay. But, we got lucky with the rapids!! Our group was the first rafting group that were allowed to go in 2 weeks...the Tully River had been massively flooded as well as the area around the river. While on the bus to the rafting site you could tell the recent flooding's destruction as mud slides and displaced vegetation and branches lay strewn across the landscape. I was hyped to get on the river!!

The Tully is normally class 4 rapids, but since it was still a little bit swollen from the rains, they classified it as 4+ rapids. Now this would certainly excite my good friend from home who is a white water rafting tour leader during the summers in good old Pennsylvania! He is an avid kayak-er and lives for rapids!!

The day turned out to be a great day on the river, very warm temperature and the torrential downpour that occurred late in the trip did not even cool off temperatures. The rapids were intense...it was somewhat challenging as we maneuvered around the river. A small crocodile was spotted by another guide...pretty sweet...nothing to be worried about though!! All in all, a great day and very enjoyable experience rafting on the Tully! I would highly recommend..
recommend..

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Photos

rapids on the Tully River
this is what white water rafting is all about!