Taming the Tully

Hanging on for dear life (we are the two at top of photo)

Maybe we should point out the rock to the guide

Wild ride - is the raft still inflated?

Early Sunday morning (6:35) on 10/21 Cindy and I were picked up in front of our hotel for a 150k (90 mile) bus ride to the Tully river for a day of white water rafting. There were 30 or so people on the bus with us heading for the white water challenge. I looked around and realized we were the oldest on the bus including the bus driver by some 20 years! Well we got the last laugh. The head guide asked who had experience rafting. Cindy and I were the only ones who raised our hands. Now we're not only the oldest but here we are surrounded by white water rafting virgins. On our bus ride down to the Tully you guessed it we stopped for morning tea (love this country). After tea we picked up eight more rafters and headed up to the put in spot on the Tully. The guide told us, in rafter speak, that the Tully was a dam controlled water release river and at this time of the year we would hit level three and four rapids and it was a very technical river. Now to say that in terms we all can understand here is what he meant. Rapids are rated from one to six. One being barely a ripple in the water and six being a waterfall that can not be rafted. The very technical part means the water is low and we will be hitting and seeing lots of rocks and boulders in the river. Now you know a little rafter lingo. We got on to the river about 9:50AM and the guides told us we had to be ready to go by 10AM. I asked why we had to be ready at 10 and we were told that is when the dam would open the spillway and release water to bring the level of the river up so we could raft it. They leave it open for four hours and then close it off. This is only done on the weekends and the rafting companies have to pay for the release. During the week the dam is used to generate electricity and the dam is open all day to meet the elecricity demand during the work week. I guess you are wondering about the flat people and how well they did in water. Well they both slept in back at the hotel. They were exhausted from the rainforest tour the day before. Back to my story we got on the river and the water poured out and we went charging down the river. We both managed to stay in the raft through all the rapids. Other rafts had a few swimmers (not by choice) through some of the rapids. We spent about five and a half hours on the river. We had a great time and met some great people. We had two students from Korea and a girl from Canada in our raft with us. All three had been working in either Japan or Australia for about 10 months and were taking two months off to travel before they went home. After we completed the raft ride you guessed it, it was time for afternoon tea but this time we all celebrated with beer and chips! We got back to our hotel about 7PM. The flat ones were still in bed but some of our wine was missing and they both had smiles on their faces.

We surived to tell the story! Speaking of surviving, this area near the Tully river was where Survivor Australia was filmed (so we were told).