Somewhere Down That Crazy River

Manda writes:

There are lots of activities that you can try in and around Cairns - today we were going to give white water rafting a go. We weren't entirely sure what to expect, all we knew was that it was going to be a lot of fun and hard work at the same time.

We travelled for fifty minutes to the South of Cairns, to where the Russell River is situated. This river flows from Mount Bartle Frere, the highest peak in Queensland, and is completely natural. It doesn't rely on hydro-electric generators to power the rapids like its counterparts, the Tully and Baron Rivers. We had considered the other two previously but Tully River included five hours worth of rafting (a bit too much for a first attempt, we thought) and there were some works being carried out on the hydro-electric generators at Barron River which had effectively stopped all rafting there. Russell River sounded like the next best option as it included a rainforest walk, three hours rafting and a barbecue lunch.

We got dropped off at what seemed to be a disused shed (actually it looked kind of house-shaped, only without exterior walls and with a rusty corrugated iron roof). First things first, someone put the kettle on and cakes were brought out. "Eat some cake, you're gonna need it," came the voice of one of the instructors. Alan and Jack were our instructors - both bubbly chaps who motivated our group throughout the day. Believe me, at times we really needed motivating!

Kiwi Chris comes prepared with cigarettes for the rainforest walk (but later loses both of them at the first creek crossing!).

First of all, we had the rainforest walk. Well, that's what it was described as in the brochure. Try a one hour hike through undulating surfaces of a rainforest, throwing in poisonous frogs and plants and clinging sticking plants that could rip your skin. Was it that bad? Well, no, as the path we walked on was a well trodden one and the aforementioned dangers were off the track.

Certain members of the group had to carry some of the rafting kit. Everyone had to carry their own paddle which doubled as a walking stick in the rainforest. Ian had to carry one of the heavy backpacks full with our deflated raft.

The path we took was a dirt track that would occassionally take us through waist-high creeks.

Crossing the creeks was quite refreshing and luckily I was suitably dressed in a stinger suit, life jacket, helmet and trainers. I felt sorry for the young Indian lad in front of me who wore flip flops. [Ian adds: or 'thongs' as the Australians like to call that particular type of footwear!]

At one point, the Indian lad carried a backpack, the medical kit, a paddle and a stack of foamed mats. He did this without complaint until thirty minutes in. The instructor hadn't realised and re-distributed the load once it was brought to his attention. After the re-shuffle, the kid was left with a stack of foam mats and a paddle to carry. The stack of mats looked difficult to navigate through the narrow paths as they kept catching on the 'wait-a-whiles' (barbed, clinging plant tendrils). We were told that if we got caught by this plant, we'd have to 'wait-a-while and back off'.

We must have hiked for an hour before reaching the clearing where we heard the sound of running water. We'd made it! The rafts were inflated and foamed mats were used to line the rafts - we'd later appreciate how much these would cushion our bums during the rough spots!

Two passengers to a raft and my rafting buddy was Ian. The one with more co-ordination skills was to be seated at the back as this person would have more control of the raft. Knowing my strengths and weaknesses, I quickly shuffled forwards.

Russell River - no white water at this point.

Rafting is definitely a lot of fun. It took me a while to get used to navigating the thing. To turn right, you'd have to use your left paddle and brush in a clockwise direction or put your right paddle down and not move it. Sounds easy but when you are thrown down a rapid under sheer force of the river with a quick succession of bends, all logic goes down the pan (or rapid!).

Our group rafted down approximately ten grade 3-4 rapids and Ian and I managed to do it without falling out. There was one rapid in particular that was pretty difficult. We were told by the instructors how, on a previous trip, seven out of eight rafts fell out. We not only managed not to fall out, but went down backwards (don't ask how!). On this occassion, five out of eight rafts fell out.

[Ian adds: The down side to the trip? We couldn't take photos during the rafting, unless we used a disposable waterproof camera. It would have been too risky to take anything else down with us (besides, we needed to concentrate on navigating rather than getting the perfect shot!).]

All this rafting had given us an appetite. We went back to the disused shed and had a barby. We sat chatting to Steve, Martin and Chris about Aussie programmes such as 'Prisoner Cell Block H' and 'The Littlelest Hobo'. Someone even commented on how they liked watching Bea operating the steam press - erm, yep you're on your own there mate!