We really should not have been that surprised. Our hostel was in Mission Beach- the rainiest place in all of Australia. Everyone filled out some quick paperwork, hopped back onto the bus (a recurrent theme of this trip) and we took off towards the river. After about an hour or so of traveling, the rained slowed down enough for us to make a stop for breakfast and gear pick up. Everyone grabbed a delicious bacon and egg sandwich and scarfed it down while waiting in line to pick out their water shoes, oars, life jackets and helmets. We broke into groups of seven and were assigned an instructor- Benny. Ben was quite the character, he spent the majority of our trip singing songs and teasing every passenger. After getting all geared up and reviewing some safety instructions, the seven of us hopped onto the small yellow raft and took off down the river. I think we were all a little bit nervous at first. It was still raining and the river was pretty choppy. Each white water rafting river throughout the world is rated on the same standard scale of one to five, one obviously being the calmest, and five being the most dangerous. We were on a four. Our boat weight was pretty evened out with four guys and four girls. At first everyone seemed a little bit tense, but once we got started excitement took over and no one remembered feeling nervous.
Everyone dug their oars into the water and pulled through quickly approaching the first rapid drop. Benny trained us well with a few basic instructions- forward, backward, rest and down. "Forward," he screamed and we paddled furiously trying to pick up speed. "Rest!" Everyone in the boat held their oars still and we plunged down the first rapid. It was exhilarating. The raft dropped and then bent, adjusting to the sudden change in elevation. Everyone got soaked but it didn't matter, the splashing was worth every second. One drop down and we all wanted more. "Forward!" Ben yelled and we kept on going. This went on for a few minutes before we got to take a break and jump into the water for a swim. The river water was actually warmer than the rainy air so we swam around for awhile before hopping back into the raft. We spent the rest of the day speeding down rapids, jumps and waterfalls. It was so much fun, our boat was really successful too! Unlike all of the other rafts, our boat didn't flip once and no one ever fell out. The other Loyola boat flipped a few times and lost a couple of people along the way too haha.After a delicious river side lunch we hopped back in for a few more hours of rafting thrills. We stopped along the way and climbed up a giant 25 foot rock to jump off of. After rafting along a level four river all day I felt pretty fearless but the plunge was still very thrilling. Eventually the sun even started to peak out and everyone's rain and river soaked life jackets dried right off. Once we reached the end of the course, we floated around just chatting about the days activities. The river itself was absolutely gorgeous. The entire white water rafting course weaved throughout the Australian rain forest and included countless stone waterfalls and gorgeous blooming tropical flowers.
Eventually everyone climbed out of the river, finished drying off and got changed. Ben hugged each one of us goodbye and commended us on our superb rafting skills. Guess what we did next? Hopped right back onto the bus. Luckily though, this was our last bus trip. We were headed even further north to Cairns where we would be staying for the rest of our break.
That night in Cairns we checked into our accommodations, showered and got ready for the night. Everyone met to walk down to the Woolshed for dinner, drinks and dancing. Dinner was delicious (a steak dinner- first one in Australia!) and the dancing was even better.
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