White Water Quest

Three times and all set and ready to make it the fourth, the week has been long and FRIDAY was an energy zapper, yet my energies were more focused on SATURDAY morning – and it finally arrived. The reservations were made ages ago, and now that long-awaited weekend of wild whitewater adventure is just around the corner, I slept like a log and woke up to BRIGHT and BEAUTIFUL morning.

This time around we had freshies to join us, among the few 2 jittery lasses stood out. Aunty Lai Kit a super mom with 5 children (seeing that she took the challenge, it shouldn’t be a problem in the future to get consent for her kiddos to do adrenaline sports!) the second is a wacky, animated, food loving lass – Joanna (who prone to getting tons of bruises from simple knocks and bumps – this adventure will surely add on to that).
So here goes, for us dangerous, adrenaline, heart stopping junkies – the river rapids are often called nature's roller coasters, but we discovered that it's more like the entire amusement park with the exception that we can’t re-ride it until the cows come home. We had the calm and shallow waters similar to a merry-go-round, then we had the tiny rapids and occasional stops being trapped between rocks similar to bumper cars, and finally we had wild white water, gushing, roaring rapids similar to roller coasters. The veterans – Ahem! (Josh, Terence, Gene and I) literally pleaded for the guide to bring us to the most dangerous, exciting, crazy rapids. Little did we know that we’ll have such an episode in the first few rapids…

A few feet from the first rapids, the team were having a good laugh and getting into the hang of paddling. Then nearing the gushing cauldron of white waves our raft steered to the right and then immediately to the left, before I know it I was swung out of the raft grabbing tightly to the rope secured to the raft, then swoosh, I felt a something next to me and saw Joanna yelping for help. I tried pulling her up with the life jacket but it was mere seconds that he was out of the water and back into the raft… still holding on tight to the rope, we were onto another rapid, as the raft bumped and steered through the rapids, so did I in the water. My right sandal came off in the midst of the chaos and naturally I didn’t want to lose both of it, my toes clutched tight to my left sandal while my arms work overtime grabbing on the rope. With a little more swerving and sliding, I was hauled up the raft again… Ahhh… of all the times I’ve been rafting, this was the first I was overboard, what an experience that sent the adrenaline shooting higher…

We had a GREAT laugh with many concern “are you ok?” … Joanna was soothing her bruises and she had quite a shock plastered on her face, soon enough it evaporated and we were on the go again – what’s next?
We paddled out of the calm eddy that we were waiting in. We enter another rapid. Prior to this second one, our raft happily chatting away about how exhilarating that our raft was the first to have over-boarders… Then Terence made this fine statement about not going overboard just seconds away from his own little episode. SWOOSH… now you see him, now you don’t! Ironically he spun around facing our raft that was heading downstream and he waved at us… Joker! But it wasn’t that funny anymore, as we reached another rapid, Ter was body surfing in it spinning and churning as if he was in a washing machine, his head hit a rock (thankfully we had helmets) and then after being spunned around countless times, he found a branch and held on to it for dear life… Our raft neared him and he guide again yanked him into the raft. It wasn’t such a pleasant ride for Ter, nonetheless it was thrilling (I dare to say).

Up till now, I’m amazed at the agility and strength of the guides. Because although we thought we did a lot paddling and obeying all the rafting commands, the guide did most of the steering, maneuvering and rescuing. For just after Ter went down, Gene sitting just behind me lost balance and fell off as well, she had a few seconds of fun in the river before our guide came to the rescue and quickly hopped back to the rear of the raft to ready for the coming rapids.

We reached a point where it was safe for us to do some body rafting. The moderate currents bound by a few big boulders set the path for us to cross the river into the middle we would all go down one at a time into tiny white waves and roaring currents. But first we had to brace crossing the river, holding on to the yellow rope, we made our way over. Joanna although apprehensive at first, gained composure and conquered her fear (proud of you!) and Aunty Lai Kit went ahead and was one of the first sliding down the tiny rapids. The water is about 10 feet deep and as long as you keep your feet up in front of you, you shouldn't bang into any rocks. We jump over the side and get whisked down the river. It was as much fun, I’m sure Gene and I would have asked for more given a choice.

The rest of the ride was calm and peaceful. The scenery was just breathtaking, away from the deafening sounds of car engine, we just lingered in the beauty of God’s creation while getting quite a tan. The ride definitely fueled the adrenaline and craving for adventure, thrills and spills!

Back at the ending point, we had a much awaited meal which tasted better than any caviar or fine dining spreads. Our famished tummies swallowed every and anything edible. The gals had lunch in the raft while the guys didn’t really bother where, just as long as there was food dragged some chairs and dived in devouring their sandwiches. Just as I thought, the lunch wasn’t enough for quite a few bottom-less pits, so we headed to Kampar for their infamous curry chicken bun larger than the size of my head.

The rafting was a good workout and the bodies were all drained plus the hearty meal we had, most of them went into snooze… while Joanna, Gene and I yakked the whole way back, Joanna surrendered to her heavy eye lids ¾ the journey back… The close of yet another white water quest, when will be the next one? Soon I hope!

P/s Thanks to Andrew and his trusty cam, we got some awesome pics. Keep updated with Andrew’s photo blog for the snap shots.