April 15, 2008 White Water Rafting on the Tully

Today was a 6:40 am pick up. Raging Thunder had the bus outside of Gilligan’s ready to go. We had to drive two hours to the Tully River in Tully. But it is one of the best rapids to raft for beginners in the world and it was so much fun. Our raft had the three of us Americans, 3 Scottish guys of similar age and one girl from the Netherlands and our raft guide Gareth has been all over the world guiding and he had lots of really interesting stories. Because we were all fit and adventurous we got to do more then the other rafts. Gareth’s goal was to flip the raft which he almost succeeded. He got us hung up on a rock on purpose and everyone fell out except for him and I but then I knew the raft was going to flip so I jumped out but my body got caught under the raft and it was wrapped around the rock and the water kept pushing me so I couldn’t get out. I’m still not sure how I got out but I believe I had my eyes open because I remember seeing it and using my feet to push myself in the current to get away from the raft and rock. And I came up and the other guides are doing a count and I hear them say your good we count 6 and Garreth saying but I have 7. Then he spotted me and we had seven. It was fun. He later told me that I didn’t look to happy when I came out. But it was super fun! I don’t know if I would do that exact scenario again but it was worth it. We got to jump off a rock a couple meters in the air into the water and swim some rapids then we headed back to Cairns. We got back to Cairns and played some cards and then went to bed early because we all had to fly the next day and rafting had worn us out.