What better way to spend Labour Day weekend, then rafting down the Credit river with friends and family?
Our good friends Sara and Paul invited us to raft with them this weekend. Her father has a trailer at the park right on the river. They had told us about this activity a few weeks ago and we eagerly asked to come along.
They have some good friends at the park, who have extra boats, and volunteer to drive us and our gear up to the drop off point. Luckily, Sara's dad's trailer is right on the river and we can float right to their front door.
We loaded up the trucks, 10 of us piled in, and
individually slid into the boats. Some people chose to ride as couples,
but Sara said it's more fun on your own, so we went with our own boats.
Her two words of advice were: don't touch the trees...the spiders are massive, and watch out for the waterfall.
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| The rafting crew |
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| Two paddle Tom |
I'm not even kidding. And both are true.
I decided not to open my drink for fear of this waterfall, which they assured me was no big deal.
We cruised casually along the river, not really caring which direction we were facing, as long as it was away from the tree.
Then it got noisy.
The waterfall.
I was at the back watching as one by one, boat after boat, disappeared over the edge. I was in a tiny boat, the same as Sara's. She and Shay went over first, and Paul and I hung behind. He was in a bigger boat. I could see nothing, but heard Sara scream back "You will get wet!"
I panicked as my boat started to turn backwards. At the bottom of the waterfall are many rocks. The falls are a good two feet high. My boat managed to turn and go nose first, scooping water directly into it, so that there was barely a difference between the water level inside or outside of the boat. I frantically tried to scoop the water out, as I held on to my camera and Strongbow with the other (very happy I hadn't opened it yet). I got stuck in the rock cove, but managed to pull myself out. The water moves quickly here, so now I was trying to empty my boat whilst avoiding the spider trees. Shay laughed at me. But then he hit a spider tree, and freaking Shelob jumped down on him. Served him right!
I managed to Pirate his boat, and abandon ship for a bit, t dry off and empty my boat. The only way I could manage was to physically lift it out of the water, dump it out, then climb back in. Sara and Paul careened with us, and we tied our boats together, steering and dodging rocks as a unit.
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| Paul photo bombing the SuperBoat |
We made it safely to the trailer. Sara's dad and step-mom had all the snack ready as we deflated our boats and toweled off.
What an amazing adventure. I can't wait to do it again! Next time, in a bigger boat!
