I’m at home, resting my knee after going white water rafting on Sunday. We rafted on a grade 3 part of the Kelani river in Kitagula. Since it’s pretty much impossible to take pictures while rafting (unless, of course, you have a death wish or helmet cam) you’ll just have to watch the film, Bridge on the River Kwai. All the exteriors for the film were shot on this location in 1957 when Sri Lanka was still known as Ceylon. It is the most incredible place I’ve been so far, adjectives that come to mind are: steamy; tropical; dense; lush; verdant and downright primordial. It’s the kind of setting, that if you were there alone, you could actually believe you were the only person on earth.
Good for me I wasn’t alone. The entire week prior, my fellow volunteers expended an inordinate amount of time convincing me to go with them. I explained that having seen the destructive force of the tsunami, I’m just not a big fan of fast moving water…okay… I fear it. Someone said, “There’s a technical term for that phobia, isn’t there?” I said, “Yeah, ‘drowning’.” Chris promised me that nothing bad would happen to me. He is one of those extreme sport type of guys and actually teaches people how to do weird stuff like this. He is about to finish his degree in Geography and Outdoor Recreation at his “Uni” in Liverpool. I then tried the fallback position of, “My insurance doesn’t cover this adventure kind of stuff.” I got nowhere fast with that one.
So I went. Armed with a Personal Floatation Device (I am forever going to spell that out and capitalize it) a helmet that did nothing for my hairdo and my prescription sunglasses attached to me with croakies, we climbed aboard. Once we bridged the communication gap with our guide: “Right side forward; left side back…relax.” (I can’t tell my right from my left without pretending to eat) we were off. It was very beautiful and relaxing for about seven minutes and if my constant chant of, “Iwillnotdrown, Iwillnotdrown, Iwillnotdrown,” bothered any of my fellow paddlers, they didn’t let on.
We were soaked by the first set of rapids and stopped about halfway to swim a bit. Then we went through the most intense rapids of the course. It was thrilling and we all came out the other side whooping and laughing. We came upon one of the final, and by all reports, most benign sets of rapids, when the other side of the raft bumped into a rock and I flipped right out into the river. I swallowed a little water but somehow hung onto my paddle. It was actually while getting back into the boat (sometime later) that I smacked my knee against a rock. True to his word, Chris didn’t let anything bad (worse?) happen to me. He jumped right in with a couple of the guides to fish me out.
Swollen knee aside, we all had a really great time. Afterwards, there was a buffet lunch at the nearby hotel where we ate like we all had hollow legs.
Good for me I wasn’t alone. The entire week prior, my fellow volunteers expended an inordinate amount of time convincing me to go with them. I explained that having seen the destructive force of the tsunami, I’m just not a big fan of fast moving water…okay… I fear it. Someone said, “There’s a technical term for that phobia, isn’t there?” I said, “Yeah, ‘drowning’.” Chris promised me that nothing bad would happen to me. He is one of those extreme sport type of guys and actually teaches people how to do weird stuff like this. He is about to finish his degree in Geography and Outdoor Recreation at his “Uni” in Liverpool. I then tried the fallback position of, “My insurance doesn’t cover this adventure kind of stuff.” I got nowhere fast with that one.
So I went. Armed with a Personal Floatation Device (I am forever going to spell that out and capitalize it) a helmet that did nothing for my hairdo and my prescription sunglasses attached to me with croakies, we climbed aboard. Once we bridged the communication gap with our guide: “Right side forward; left side back…relax.” (I can’t tell my right from my left without pretending to eat) we were off. It was very beautiful and relaxing for about seven minutes and if my constant chant of, “Iwillnotdrown, Iwillnotdrown, Iwillnotdrown,” bothered any of my fellow paddlers, they didn’t let on.
We were soaked by the first set of rapids and stopped about halfway to swim a bit. Then we went through the most intense rapids of the course. It was thrilling and we all came out the other side whooping and laughing. We came upon one of the final, and by all reports, most benign sets of rapids, when the other side of the raft bumped into a rock and I flipped right out into the river. I swallowed a little water but somehow hung onto my paddle. It was actually while getting back into the boat (sometime later) that I smacked my knee against a rock. True to his word, Chris didn’t let anything bad (worse?) happen to me. He jumped right in with a couple of the guides to fish me out.
Swollen knee aside, we all had a really great time. Afterwards, there was a buffet lunch at the nearby hotel where we ate like we all had hollow legs.
Maria after lunch, looks too tired to drive home.
Chris and Dani are about to fall asleep too.
Meanwhile, Kyle (I could eat...) Pinjuv contemplates a fourth trip to the buffet table.
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