#tully river

[oceaniatropics]

Tully Gorge National Park, Queensland, Australia, by reubennutt

[oceaniatropics]

whitewater rafting adventures on the Tully river, Queensland, Australia

[charlie-kins]

White water rafting on the Tully River. Queensland, Australia. 9th August 2015.

[vazzablaxinoz-blog]

Day 30 - Raging Thunder - Extreme Rafting

Today was awesome. Again, we woke up early to be picked up by Raging Thunder for our extreme rafting trip up at Tully river. When we arrived at the office/pub/thing we handed in our vouchers, used our free shoe hire voucher and signed some forms. We then got into another bus with the rest of the people doing the extreme rafting, to get to our destination. On the bus we watched an introductory video for the rafting and were designated into groups. Me and Vicky were put into a group of 6 with two other couples - one from Oz and one from England. They were all really nice :) It was a whole day experience and we had so much fun. We were rafting down the rapids and down some small waterfalls, and taking breaks to jump off rocks and swim down plunges and things, it was so cool! Luckily, nobody really injured themselves and it was so easy to get the hang of doing. The group was good fun and so was our instructor, who had lots to talk about. We stopped for lunch halfway through, which was included in the price. It was a nice BBQ with burgers and sausages. So good! At the end of it, we dried off and got changed in the trees as there were no changing rooms. We got back on the bus to the office and paid for the photos. It was $60, but four of us split the price so it was cheaper, so one person bought them on the USB and sent the photos to us. I had a quick beer at the bar before getting back on the bus to go home. Everyone got a bit of a sunburn. Mine isn’t that obvous though so I think I’ll be okay :) Tonight we will be packing our bags again as we are heading down to Townsville tomorrow on the Greyhound bus, for our stay at Magnetic Island. Will get some dinner now. Zzz.

[farcornersofthesky]

Gone Rafting

Between April and August, I averaged one rafting trip down the Tully every two months. Unfortunately, I can't afford to go back until my brother visits (unless someone wants to gift me a trip back... Anyone? ... Yeah, didn't think so) so the memories of this most recent trip have to last me a few extra weeks. Thankfully, even with a screwy foot that caused me to be more klutzy than normal, it was an absolutely brilliant day to remember: clear blue sky, more water than I've seen in the river so far, an all around lovely group of fellow rafters, and my favourite guide Jack.*

Fortuitously, I managed to catch Jack on his last day guiding on the Tully before he leaves for a summer rafting guide job in New Zealand.

Extra fortuitously, I wasn't in Andy's raft when he accidentally flipped it mere meters from a fall.

We were parked on a rock right beside the top of the fall when he flipped so we were able to fish everyone dumped into the water out before they took solo swims over the waterfall but it was an exciting few minutes—especially when the rescue efforts caused our raft to swing sideways towards the fall, precariously floating across it's top, lightly touching the rock against which we'd been parked with one end of the raft and the tall rock on the fall's other side with the other. I was convinced we were going to go over sideways especially when Jack stopped shouting at us to pull people in (though everyone still in the water was at least clinging to a raft at that point) and started shouting for us to get down and stay down so we did, crouching motionless in the bottom of the raft (I'm not sure the lady beside me was even daring to breathe), and the raft stopped edging closer to the fall.

After other rafts pulled in the unintentional swimmers, righted Andy's raft, and restored his passengers, Jack sorted us into the positions he thought best to make it over the fall given our position on it, tugged us around a bit, hopped in, and over it we went.

Due to the extra water in the Tully, after lunch Jack took us exploring down a side of the river you can't normally navigate. We floated between the dark rocks and under a tree whose sun dappled branches overhung the water by a good two meters. As we approached the tree, I wished for a camera. When we reached it and the sun glinted down through the leaves above us, I wished even more that I could make my fellow passengers vanish, anchor the raft to that place, stretch out and just stay there for several hours, staring up through the branches to the blue sky and soaking in the beauty and peace.

I seriously love the Tully. The first two trips both had a few moments of out and out terror which resulted in post adrenaline rush highs which this trip lacked but I think I may have enjoyed it even more because I could completely focus on the river which is just stunningly gorgeous. I'm really going to miss visiting it.

*Jack had cut off his mullet the last the I saw him but this time he had grown a pale blonde pencil thin moustache. He'd also replaced his orange helmet and gear with black. Although I thought the orange fit his personality, the almost all black look was certainly more professional.