Tuesday, April 3, 2012

White-water rafting!


Whitewater rafting.

“Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!” yelled Stefan. “Whoa, Ow!” I said. 
“Bob, Jerry, Bob, Bob, Jerry!” again screamed Stefan. 
“What’s up with the ‘Bob and Jerry’ Stefan?” I asked. Whitewater Rafting is so much fun I want to do it everyday, not just today, but EVERYDAY!!!!! “Paddle forward team because we are going to do some 360s!” 
“Yay!” I thought to myself.

“Pff!” Went the raft against the rock. “SPLASH!” I got absolutely SOAKED by Bones. Liam was awesome on rafting because The Muffle Puffles (My camp group) did heaps of 360s.

Alex (short for Alexandra) and me asked Liam if we could hang off the side of the raft on the deep calm parts. Well of course we hung on to the side rope and had our feet up but I had to put my feet up on the side of the raft because I couldn’t keep them up myself. “Brrrr!! It’s getting a bit cold in here!” It was getting really cold so Craig pulled me and Alex up by the straps of our life jackets into the raft and we started paddling. “Okay who turned off the light and the heater?” I said to my team because the sun that was keeping me warm and the lighting had disappeared and it shadey. Then the sun came back and we all said “Yay!”

We stopped a little way down from where we started and Dion said “ I thought we should cross the river. So everyone get in your teams and line up along the shore line!” The Strikers went first, then the Chinchillas. Finally it was the Muffle Puffles turn. I was feeling cold, nervous and excited. We lined up along the shore line, linked arms and carefully waded into the water, it was only up to our waist. Dion yelled “Take a step, take another and another!” We kept taking steps until we were halfway into the water. The current was really strong and the river water was extremely cold. “Stop!” Dion called out. We waited a minute and then he said “Take one tiny step backwards!” As we stepped backwards I stood on a rock that wasn’t stable and nearly fell down but Stefan and Alex caught me. We kept taking steps backwards until Dion said “Now at your own pace keep walking until you reach the bank again. The river crossing was awesome!  I wished we could have crossed the whole river. 

After we all had a turn at crossing the river, the teams clambered back into the rafts, pushed off from the shore and started to paddle again. One hour later we stopped at a stone bank to have something to eat and some of us had a swim. We then we raced back to our rafts and fought to get out in front of the pack. 

Mr G was in a canoe with Tom (Rhys's dad) and they were behind us. We were all happily rafting down the river when Mr G and Tom crashed into a pole holding up the bridge and Mr G fell out! 

We finally got THE WHIRLPOOL!!!! Liam asked “Who wants to surf?!” 
We all replied “What does that mean?” 
He said “I will show you!” We paddled up to the whirlpool and Liam kept saying ‘forward paddle’ or back paddle’. So we did what he said and we kept going into the whirlpool and out of the whirlpool. The Strikers tried and Katrina fell out on the big rapid. She didn’t hurt herself and she did get back in the raft and carried on paddling.  


Two hours later we finished. The Polar Bears and The Muffle Puffles helped with putting the rafts on the trailer while the rest of the class got on the bus. There was three on a seat and four on one seat. It was a long road back to camp and our raft had the lunch muffins in it and they got a bit squished.


Finally, back at camp office we grabbed our day bags and got back on the bus to go back to camp. We got dressed and some of the class went down to the dining room to have afternoon tea. Then we had down time to get ready for a long night ahead.



This is my whitewater rafting writing. Hope you like it!:D

4 comments:

  1. Awesome Katherine!
    This writing is great. I like how you mentioned the 360's and the whirlpool.
    OH yeah Thanks for Including MR Bob and Jerry.
    Maybe could you mention the water pistol?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Stefan!
      I complete forgot about the water pistol. Bob and Jerry were a funny part of the rafting.

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  2. That was a great account of your rafting experience. I love the way you described everything and made it sound so action packed.

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