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The Black water rafting was amazing probably one of the best things I’ve done so far. It’s an action sport and is done underground. Basically it involves wearing a wetsuit and caving helmet with a head lamp. You get kitted out by 2 expert guides and then they take you and your team through the cave. We had a 30minute lesson on abseiling before we entered the cave it was good we learnt the basics and how to stop quickly.
We then started the journey from a 40ft drop. Your guide is there at all times to support you but it doesn’t help when they are asking you to drop yourself over a 40ft ledge with a bit of rope supporting you. I slowly dropped myself over the edge and began to abseil down i actually felt pretty safe i had to remember NOT to let go off the rope as in reality i would be dead. However if that was to happen i have to scream and the lady at the bottom of the cave will pull on the rope and that will stop me from falling 40ft. I wouldn’t recommend it though because you would drop so fast ha. As i was abseiling down into the cave it gets darker and darker and the space you are abseiling down is tight. The abseil felt like it was never going to end you can’t see anything when you look down. The guide "brigsy" shouted to me so i knew i was pretty close to the ground. I actually started to get used to it so was able to go faster towards the end ha.
When I got to the bottom Brigsy unattached the rope and i sat on a rock waiting for the rest of the team to abseil down. We then climbed down the cave and walked along tight ledges we have ropes and clips attached to us so we can attach ourselves onto things so we don’t fall. We whizzed down the flying fox which is over water and rocks and then sat on a wall dangling our feet over the side. Our guides brigsy and Terry gave us hot chocolate and a flap jack which was soo nice :) I will attach a picture of this it’s so random ha. Our feet were dangling over a river so i was pretty sure they were going to ask us to get in it. The drop was about 4 meters but i assumed we wud take the stairs. Brigsy gave us a big black rubber ring and asked us to put it behind our bums and jump. Obviously he picked me to go first ha it was soooo cold we had to move constantly to keep warm. We then made our way down the river and saw glowworms (magets). Glowworms use its glow to attract food and to burn of its waste. To catch their prey they hang web like spindles from the cave roof, we switched our lights off on our helmet so we could see them.
We then got off the black rubber rings and made our way through the freezing cold river. It was so cold, it took my breath away. The rocks were slippy so walking through the river wasn’t easy, we had to climb the cave walls and through tight gaps in the wall. Its defiantly not for the faint hearted, I absolutely loved it and laughed so much. All in all it takes 5 hours to do the adventure and you are in the cave for about 3 hours. The very last bit of the cave you get a choice of going 2 ways. You can either climb up the water fall which is slippery, high and you need strength or just leave the cave an easier way. I wanted to at least give it a go but wasn’t sure I would be strong enough. It was a full on water fall and you really had to trust your guide as they would ask you to put your feet on rocks that you couldn’t even see as there was just water gushing over it. I was the last to climb up the waterfall I found it hard to get myself on the rocks to start climbing but then found a rock to pull myself up and began to make my way up. I wasn’t attached to anything so falling wouldn’t be fun ha. I got to the highest point of the waterfall and then brigsy asked me to stretch my leg across onto what looked like just water. It’s strange because you just do what the guide says even if it doesnt look quite right to you ha. There was a rock there so I could get my balance and pull my other leg across and then pulled myself up and made my way out. It was amazing so much fun Katy Perry did it 6 weeks ago :)
I’m currently in River valley in a remote area and green surroundings of river valley adventure lodge. Towering cliff surrounds the lodge and a river runs right past the front door. The river is a great river to raft, it’s a grade 5 river and people come from all over to raft here. I didn’t raft here as i did it in America but everyone has just come back and said it was amazing but freezing. It was boiling hot in America when i did it so you didn’t actually mind falling in but i imagine it would be pretty different here.
There’s a log fire in the middle of the room and a big table for us to sit round and play cards. That is literally all we did to amuse ourselves, there was also a happy hour at 19:30 ha. Things got livelier as the night went on and some boys made a game up using the huge table in the middle of the room. Basically you had to sit on top of it and try and get underneath it without touching the floor was really funny to watch. The people that owned the lodge were giving a free beer out to the person who could do it….was funny haha.
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