WHITE WATER HORROR!

Well here I am still gobsmacked after reading Lynne Cox's amazing story of how she swam through icy waters from Alaska across the Bering Straight to Russia. Not to mention swimming through snake and shark infested waters around the Cape of Good Hope!

A shiver goes up my spine when I think of that lot! I wonder how she did it, as I think about how limited I am in this sort of courage. I would not even swim in my own pool after dark, little own the deep, and dark ocean. I am so paranoid about anything that wriggles crawls or slithers around on the ground, and worse when I think about what could be lurking in and around in the open seas. 

I never used to be like this in my younger years. Being born and raised practically on the edge of the Swan River in Fremantle, Western Australia,

I learned to swim at a very early age when my father threw me in from the deep end of the jetty into the Swan, and told me to swim.....and I did.  Real fast!

I didn't think about sharks, and they would have been around back then!

I didn't worry about them when I,  along with my siblings and friends would swim out into the middle of the river to wave at tourists on board the local tourist ferry boat taking them on through the nearby heads at the Harbor's gateway to the wide open sea.  It was such fun, with never a thought about a blue, grey or a white fin coming at us!

 It was later in life when I moved to Sydney, and then up here to the Gold Coast that I became an absolute paranoid wimp!

And this is why I cannot believe that I was stupid enough to go

'White Water Rafting down the Tully!'

'Young People' having fun!????

                                                         

My friends Lorraine and Greg, along with Betty and Jock were holidaying in Cairns and I was to join them for a few days break.. When I arrived, Lorraine excitedly informed me that we were all booked for the next day to go 'white water rafting' down the Tully.

'White what?'  Down a Tully?' I asked

'Oh it's lovely! You just sit on a raft and we float down the Tully river,' she said.

'We float?' I asked, thinking oh that sounds nice. 'Er we float?' I checked.

'Yes! it's lovely, I went on one in Canada, and it was beautiful! very relaxing!'

I have to tell you that my dear friend Lorraine is the most optimistic, and positive person I know.
We've been friends for many years, and if she says it will be fine, it will be fine. Why only, a few years before, when we were driving our worn out hire car in London, and it began to cough and splutter, it sounded as though it was going to cark it right then and there in the middle of the heavy traffic.

 'Oh! It'll be alright! It probably just needs a clean!' Lorraine exclaimed!

Guess what?
 When we cleaned it, the damn car came to life, and it got up and went! 
'It was fine!'

So, when Lorraine told me about the 'floating on a raft down the Tully', I thought to myself:
 'Oh that sounds nice, I may take my book with me, or perhaps I'll have a snooze.'

*

the beautiful Tully

Next morning, very early we were all on board the 'White Water' Tourist Bus that was to take us to the top of the Tully, so we could get on to this raft that was going to 'float' us down the river.

We seemed to be chugging and climbing for a long time to get to the top of the Tully. I put my book away so I could see where we were going.  The crowded bus seemed to be straining, with gears crunching as it carried its load up this very steep hill.

The Tour Guide was standing hanging on to a strap as he was describing the surrounding country.
He bent down to look through the window, 'Yeah! there it is' he said pointing to a house standing on top of a hill. 'See that house right up there on top of that hill?'
 All eyes turned to follow his pointing finger.
'Well most people think that the crocs all stay down around the water......but, they don't you know?'

We were all bouncing along in our seats as we stared at this house standing on top of this high mountainous hill.

'Well', the guide continued, 'the people who live up there in that house went away for a couple of days, and when they came back, there was this huge big croc in their garage!'
As we still gasped and stared, he added 'Yep!' he walked right up that hill and got into the garage! 
They forgot to roll the door down!

'Excuse me?' I asked the guide. 'Where did the croc come from?'

'The river' he said.

'Oh?   There must be another river nearby'.....
*

Finally the bus stopped. We were told to remain seated until all 'gear' was unloaded. I sat there transfixed as I watched life jackets, helmets and oars

being dragged out from the storage area beneath our bus, and then carried by the guides and helpers down this mountainous slippery slope to the river.

By this time I was really wondering about the 'floating' part of this expedition.

 However, we were all told to follow the guides down the hill, and finally reached the water.
 A very fast moving water, which I later learned was actually referred to as, 'the calm'.

We were each handed a life jacket and safety helmet to put on and then one by one we were checked.
 We just have to make sure that we are all 'nice and secure'.

'Oh my god!
I thought, 'secure?' 

Their were four rafts. Each one would carry five plus the guide, who sat up
 on the back edge of the raft.

We each sat next to an oar and he quickly gave instructions on how to steer in unison,
 with the rest of the crew.

 About the action of steering, pulling and maneuvering the raft around.. It was like a hard and fast army drill. We began to move along and towards the centre of the fast moving 'calm'.  It was getting noisy with the sounds of water crashing down a fall from behind us.
The guide settling in to his position as he was giving us the drill.

He had to yell above the noise of the water.

'Okay! Everyone we have to be quick, but I have to tell you how to ride the white water of the Tully!'

He quickly gave instructions on how to steer in unison with the rest of the crew.
 And when I say 'HOLD ON', you hold on. If I say a BIG HOLD ON you have to crouch down low in the raft!
When all is clear I will yell 'BACK ON THE JOB!' Which ended up with the word 'job' being strung out to 'BACK ON THE JAARB' in typical American style boot camp expression!!!

He added, yelling 'Now, if you do happen to fall out, you will be fine. Someone will hand you an oar for you to hang onto so we can get you back into the raft.'

'Okay?  NOW!'   This first fall we are going down is called
 the 'Alarm clock'. So lets move!

'Excuse me' I yelled to the guide, 'I don't want to do this can you take me back to the bus?'

'The bus? he shouted 'The bus has gone!'
                                    
OH!  FUCK!
                                                
*

            

        Furiously I tried to manage the oars as instructed to do, well, twisted and pulled, whatever!

                 ''BIG HOLD ON!!..yelled the guide when all of a sudden we were spinning around, thumping and bumping, screaming and squealing, and then a fast flop, and we were into the calm again

  'BACK ON THE JARRB!!!'

he yelled again as we were skimming along at full speed toward the next white rapid.

The 'Waterfall Theatre' which was a long ride of terror!

The guide rode the raft over every foaming twisting and rock falls as though he were riding a bucking bronco or a raging bull at a rodeo!

'Oh my God!' I kept slipping from the side of the raft as I gulped white water as I struggled to grab hold of my oar, or something, anything! Please!

I can't tell you how relieved I was when we pulled over to the lunch area. We all got out of the raft, legs shaking but hearing the guide telling us how well we were doing!

'Excuse me? Is this the end? Er like we have lunch and then get on to the bus?'

'Hell no! We are only half way down the Tully!'

                                                              *

After we had eaten lunch it was time to get "Back on the 'job" and get on with the next horror stretch!

Somehow we managed to get through another hour or so, and the guide yelled over the noise.  'Well! we were going to end the ride here, but you have all done so well we have decided to go on for two more falls!

'The first one is coming up now, it is called 'The Shark Fin Fall', which means that the rock is shaped like a fin, and we have to row the raft and maneuver very carefully to get the centre raft over the fin which must be in the centre. 

The Alarm clock and Sharks Fin now called Sharks Tooth will always be in my memory!

Actual photo of us in the raft:  that's me in the second row facing camera

'I REPEAT! THE FIN MUST BE IN THE CENTRE.........OKAY! LET'S MOVE! MOVE!

We all frantically rowed, this way and that, I don't think any of us knew what we were doing, as we got closer to the fin, there it was! Coming at us!

 'IT WAS NOT IN THE CENTRE! .....WE AREN'T IN THE CENTRE!

                              SUDDENLY I WAS TIPPED OVERBOARD,

                      AND HURTLING DOWN THE TULLY FEET FIRST!

                                                              

In a split second I was hurtling down the foaming white rapids feet first!

I was whizzing down the Tully in a helpless break neck speed! I flashed past the other rafts! And my oar passed me!

Suddenly a huge rock loomed in front of me. I tried to grab hold of it, but instead I was sucked down underneath into a whirlpool of swirling waters, and was tossed around as though I were in a washing machine. I don't know how long I was in this treacherous spin before I tossed up to the surface, only to be pulled into, and carried onto the next so called fast moving 'calm'.

Finally a raft caught up with me and dragged me on board. 

Looking back now, I must have looked and acted like a hysterical maniac! Which I think I surely was!

The guide did his best to calm me down, but then had to inform me that we had one more fall to go. 

      

             'THIS ONE'S NOT SO BAD! IT"S EASY! JUST HANG ON!!

                                                                                                   

Finally, still in shock, but happy to be alive, we were on the bus and on the way back to Cairns. I was still sopping wet, and still shaking as I was dabbing my cuts and bruises collected on my trip down the Tully.

My friend Greg was also wet, sore and aching all over due to cuts and bruises that he collected when he went out of the other other side of the raft and fell on the 'rock fin'.

I think that White Water Rafting should be indulged in by only very experienced raft experts. 

 I believe there have been a few deaths which have occurred during this extreme sport.

Furthermore to my dear friend Lorraine:

                                                   

I would not call that experience a 'relaxing float down the river!!!'

Words by B Watson

Images via Cairns Info & Cairns Adventurer