Whitewater Rafting

I have been waiting for someone to send me on their photos from a hike that I did before the whitewater rafting... but she has been sick and hasn't been able to bring it in for me.
So, I thought I had better post the whitewater rafting blog before I forget what I did!!

Over the weekend of 18th August, a group of us travelled to a camp site just out of Golden in British Columbia, situated on the Kicking Horse River.
We camped right next to the upper reaches of the river, next to some mountains on one side of the river and trees on the other side. It was a very beautiful campground and very different to the camp sites that I have stayed at in Australia!

Saturday lunchtime we joined a group of people to do a whitewater rafting 'tour' down the Kicking Horse River. We did the middle and lower canyons. Below is a link to the website for the company that we did it with:
www.alpinerafting.com

It was so much fun! I wasn't sure how I would go passing through the rapids, especially in the lower canyon (where is gets wilder), but it was GREAT!!
I was in a boat with 7 other people and our guide was the head guide for the day, so often we were at the front of the group.
Apparently the Kicking Horse River is the third best river in the world for rafting - so that's even better! (I am not sure what the other two rivers are)
The scenery down the river was gorgeous too.

Parts of the rafting were a little scary, I almost fell out very early in the piece, which freaked me a little (because they give you all sorts of scary safety talks before you hop in the boat), but it was fine. The guide calls out to you during the rafting (we had paddles) and would call "forward", "back", "stop", "hold on" and the scariest (at first)... "Get down!" where you have to drop into the middle of the boat to avoid falling out.
But once we got going and went through a few of the rapids, the fear goes and you start to feel safe. Toward the end a few of us jumped off the side of the boat into the river (we were wearing wetsuits, helmets and life jackets) and floated along beside the boat of a while - it was fun!

I would definitely do it again! 

We had another night camped at the river's edge and then travelled to a nearby lake for a swim, before heading back to Calgary. We were the only ones at the lake and it was (again) in a gorgeous setting! I had been very keen to go for a swim (without a wetsuit!) before the summer ended and I missed out all together. 

We came back with such good stories, on such a high and have now made a whole bunch more people keen to do it next year - so I'll be back there next summer with any luck!
It's also surprisingly reasonably priced. And the camping was free! Bargain!

Below are some photos (some of which were on facebook, so some of you have probably already seen them)

 Campsite!

 Our group at the beginning of the day

 Just out of a rapid

 Our group!

River setting

Lake on the way home

Winter is now on its way... We are in autumn and the days are shortening. I have booked myself a flight to Vancouver for 4th October for a long weekend (still to book the return flight though!) and will try to get a few other things in before winter. Apparently we should still be able to get a few hikes done before winter, so that's good.

I also realised that I have been here for 4 months and it's only 4 months until Christmas! The time has flown by, so I think (and hope) that the time will also fly by to Christmas when I can see all the family again!!

Much love
xoxo