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Published: February 4th 2010
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It was a lot of fun but very exhausting. We were picked up from the hostel and headed 20 minutes to the rental office. There were ten of us from the Kiwi group that opted to head out to the river. Half the group would sledge while the other five would white water raft.
We all suited up with wetsuits, booties, life jackets, helmets, and flippers. The sledgers got back into a separate van and headed to the river. As we arrived we were instructed to pull a sledge from the trailer and head down to the river. A sledge looks like a thick body board with handles for the rider to grip while plummeting down the rapids. The hike down to the water was about 15 minutes. This normally wouldn’t be difficult yet the booties that I had selected were quite thin and I felt every rock on the gravel trail.
One by one we plugged into the water. Where we entered looked like a set in a movie or a ride at an amusement park. The section of river where we dropped was surrounded by thick forests and was the size of two king sized swimming pools. There
was a 12 ft high water fall that cascaded into the pool. We jumped in one by one and practiced our flipping and turning. It was pretty easy for me, while some had some more difficulties. There was an older couple well into their 60’s if not older on the tour.
We were ready and headed off to the first series or rapids. It was quick and we all gathered to get more information on the next set. This is how the entire trip would be; go down rapids and meet up in the eddy in the next pool of water. The entire section of river had smaller rapids that emptied into calmer bodies of water. An eddy is a calmer place in the river where the current travels in a circle. If you stay within this area you are not carried down stream.
After the fourth or fifth rapid my legs began to tire. It was difficult to paddle with flippers since I didn’t have much experience with them. By this time the four guides took turns pulling the older woman and some of the girls down the rapids. Surprisingly the older guy did pretty good. He
only needed help thru the rapids once or twice.
The second to last rapid had a special current that allowed you to surf the river. All you needed to do was face up the river on the bottom of the rapid and your board stayed in place while the river flowed below you. When you got out of that area you were thrown down stream or even under water where you did a few summersaults. I gave it a go three separate times. The second time a did a few barrel rolls which were awesome and even surprised the guides. On the last go around the guide told me to try and stand on one knee, which I did successfully and rode the current for a while. It was definitely the highlight of the river trip. There was a new guide who was still a trainee that was told by the other guides if he couldn’t ride the current on his knee he would be fired. He was unable to do so.
On the last rapid we were told that it was important to stay to the left on account that the next rapid was a class 6.
Basically if we went down it with the sledge we would die. One of the girls crashed on the last rapid and was pulled up by a guide. She started crying and freaking out. While it was true that the next rapid was a class 6 rapid, it was a good 50 meters down the river. It was pretty easy to paddle to shore at this area.
We were picked up at the end of our run and returned to the office area. I am glad that I did this yet I wish it included an extra trip down the river since we all knew the correct lines. I am pretty sure that we could have successfully run this section in about 20 minuets if we didn’t stop for five minutes after each rapid. All and all a great experience and was a pretty good workout as well.
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Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0492s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Mom
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Sledging
Sounds like you did fine!!! I would have been watching ...maybe that is not even possible??? Quite Adventurous!!!!!Looks like fun from this side of the computer!!!!!