Hannah Law

I’m getting back into the exercise (and the blogging) for 2011. Last weekend I headed out to Penrith for a session of white water rafting with a bunch of Poms!

We made the hour long trek out to Penrith hungover, with only a slight detour(ssh!), and kept ourselves entertained by spotting the Fire Museum and giant Sewerage Plant – two great Australian icons.

Upon arrival in the middle of nowhere, we signed the consent forms but not after having a mild attack at the words “risk of permanent injury & death”. Keen to get into the water (to shake those hangovers!) we kitted up with helmets, life jackets and paddles to receive our briefing. Our group had 10 people but we split into two: 4 in an unguided raft (brave … or crazy!) and the rest of us in a guided raft.

And we were off… up the pulley that took us to the top of the man-made rafting course, that was originally built for canoeing in the Sydney Olympics. With paddles at the ready we went head-on through the first rapid – throwing our weight to the left and then paddling furiously to the right to make sure we all stayed (relatively) dry. Still smiling, we had a moment’s break before the next massive rapid hit us and the raft behind bumped into us. Paddling furiously we tried to beat them but failed miserably. We all survived round one without being thrown into that ferocious man-made rapid that is grade 3 – apparently the highest commercial grade allowed! After telling the instructor we thought round one was pretty tame, he replied with “famous last words”. And he was right. It all went downstream (sorry, couldn’t resist) after with arms, legs and helmets being thrown haphazardly around, bums going overboard and paddles in the eye (that looked painful).

The chaos, also known as rafting, continued for about an hour and a half with a quick break for ‘raft surfing’ which was definitely the highlight!

It was a bit on the pricey side ($89) but perfect for adrenaline-junkies and thrill-seekers.

A big thanks to Dorota for organising!