Day 28 - Have you ever caught a wild bore while rafting? We have!!

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The alarm went off at 6 am today. We were again hoping for a beautiful day in paradise, especially since this was the last adventure for the two of us. We put on our swim suits, packed our dry clothes and ate breakfast. Pick up for the rafting was at 6:45. Several people from our lodging were on the bus and we met up with several others at the main office. In all about 29 people were on the excursion.

After we sign our life away we pile back into the buses and head for the drop off, this took 3 hours. They told us it would take 30 min Fijian time. We were not expecting that. It has been raining for 3-4 solid days and today was not different. It was a very rocky, bumpy road of red mud. At one point on the drive we all had to get out of the busses (there were 2) and walk across a bridge ahead of the busses and then they would take a running start and get over the bridge and then try and cut right to take a less steep path up the hill. We all had to walk up the muddy hill but it did seem far safer to walk it than to see the bus try and get up it. We get to the drop zone and pick up our helmets, life preservers and oars. But we were not dropping in there, we probably had to walk at least 1 kilometer to the real drop in and meet our guides. The walk was also full of mud and slippery. We were on a boat with a young Aussie/UK couple, Kate and Chris. Joe was our guide. He actually grew up in a village along the river, or at least that is what he told us. Joe was awesome though. He gave us great information about the Fiji culture, lifestyle and canyon. He was very funny too. We all had a great time, EVEN THOUGH IT RAINED THE ENTIRE 5 HOURS we were on the river.

Not far into the trip as we are paddling through these beautiful canyons, all of a sudden we notice a wild boar on a ridge of the canyon. The sides were too slick and the boar couldn’t get its footing and kept slipping and was basically stuck. The guides alerted each other of the boar and one of the guides, Patrick, took his boat to the side, scaled the rock wall and reached the boar. I think many in the group were a little shocked to see what happened next as they thought he might be going to save the boar. Patrick pushed the boar into the river; it was about a 15 foot drop. Then he dove in after the pig. The boar is swimming for its life and Patrick is right after it and grabs its ear. He then directs the boar over to the kayak. These guys are going to keep it. The two men get the pig in the small inflatable kayak and start wrestling to corral it. Patrick has his huge hands on its snout; thankfully it was a female so it did not have tusks. The boar kept trying to thrash around and get away but there is no way these guides are going to let that happen. They informed us how hard it is to catch a boar in the forest and many of the guides hunt a lot. The kayak guy took a strap off one of the boats which I’m sure what not very important. He was taking a strap and trying to secure the mouth with it. It was quite the scene and Kirsten captured it all on camera; even the part where Patrick and the boar fell out of the kayak and were swimming again. This time they went to a different boat and with one hand, Patrick placed the boar into boat and into a duffle bag for keeping. The women on that boat were not too happy to have a live, kicking, squealing wild boar on their raft in a bag for the entire trip.

We make it to the lunch spot which is a pretty large cave carved into the side of the canyon. We all get out and the guides prepare all the fixings for ham or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Moses even starts a fire with the bamboo trees. We got were pretty cold since there was no sun and it was RAINING.

The entire raft trip was 26 kilometers and we were over half done when we stopped for lunch. Back in the boats and we were on our way once more. The rapids were only rated 1’s and 2’s. There may have been a 3 in there somewhere but they were nothing perilous or hard. It was just a very scenic trip down the river. The patterns in the rock were all at an angle to the water, which made it appear we were going on a downward slope the entire trip. We weren’t though because we paddled quite a bit, there was not much of a current at all and the rapids were quite a ways apart.

There were a ton of waterfalls along the way and one particular waterfall was called the “Free Massage” Waterfall. It was pretty big and very powerful. Chris from our boat got out and walked through the falls. The girls knew that it would be too cold to even want to attempt and we stayed in the boat with Joe.

At the end of the rafting trip we paddled through a few villages. When we got out we deflated our boat and packed up our gear. One of the guides literally took off his clothes right there by the truck. As we walked up the road to our busses he was waving good bye to us with everything out. And we mean everything. It is true that everything in Fiji is bigger. Kate and Chester were trying to look straight ahead as they thanked him.

Fiji is a very beautiful place; it would have just been nice to see the sun shining for more than 45 minutes a day. We didn’t get one day of sun on our entire trip. We know you don’t feel sorry for us, but it still would have been nice to have one day to lounge by the pool or on the beach. Or at least take a shower without being rained on while we do it. Tomorrow Kirsten heads back to Sydney for the night and Chester has one more day in paradise.

We have a video of catching the boar, but connections are too slow here so can't upload it. Will share in a few days when we are back in civilization.

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Photos

Devils Slide
they made us get out to make it up. guess our asses were too big.

The wild boar
Just before he goes in the bag.

And more
It really was beautiful