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I got up a lot more easilly than I thought I would. I quickly cleaned up and got downstairs, and had to wait around while everyone else was trying to get up. girl, NY and Windelynn had arrived and were getting ready to pack the cars.
The drive out of the city was quite easy since there wasn't any traffic. It wasn't until we got off the expressway before I started to get tired. We had stopped off at a gas station near the intersection and I took the lead. After a few minutes, we were flashed by the other car and stopped. They insisted that we were driving south, while I was adamant that I was driving north. We argued about it for a several minutes until I pointed at the brightening horizon and stated:
"The sun rises in the east, so we are going north."
And that, as they say, was that.
While I was driving, DL was taking pictures of the sunrise. We came across a very scenic spot on the highway which overlooked a lake. It faced east so one could see the rising sun across the calm waters. It was a picture perfect location, but I was driving by way too quickly for her to take a shot and with my limited window of conciousness, I decided that it was better to continue driving than to stop for a few postcard pictures.
The drive up was fairly uneventful. We had fruitless searches for food, and eventually stopped for several minutes at an intersection so that I could take a quick nap. I might've been taking those corners a little quickly, but most of my passengers were asleep so I didn't think it would bother them too much.
We arrived at the recreation centre pretty much on time. We had plenty of time to wake up, eat some food, and stretch. We got registered, I got some postcards and something to hold onto my sunglasses so they don't disappear into the river (I can't remember what they're called) and we sat in on the orientation speech. (Which was longish, and we were in the back so it was pretty tough for us to hear anything.) Actually, I probably shouldn't have bought those glass things for nine bucks. The elastics that came with our shoes were good enough for the job! (DL, NY,, and Windelynn all used them. *shakes fist*) Afterward, we picked up the equipment and headed back to the car to wait. That's when I decided to go shirtless and apply a bit more sunscreen. NY went a little crazy with the stuff, putting on several coats (at least it seemed that way too me).
We then got on the bus and headed out to the launch site. We met our guide and got in the raft. We were given the usual welcome speech and rules. After a quick overview of the commands he'd use (like "hard forward", "back left", and "hold on!") we were off!
The first rapid was one of the bigger rapids on the trip, and we got through it without any problems. One of the rafts flipped while trying to surf it, so our guide went out to help him flip it back, but we lost our chance to surf that rapid because there were so many other rafts there and the river was clogged with kayakers. We were actually going in for a run but some kayakers sneaked in so either we ran them over or we got out of the way. Oh well, there would be more chances right?
After was a break while we waited for the rest of the rafts so mos of us got out and had a quick dip in the river. I was one of the two who stayed on the raft. On hindsight, I probably should've gone in, but I wasn't really in the mood to get wet quite yet.
We had a couple more smaller rapids before we took a lunch break and had an opportunity to jump off a rock into the river. It was actually quite fun, except for the fact that you're jumping directly into the current and there was a good possiblity that you'd be swept downstream by the flow. I was one of them and had to be rescued by the safety guys downriver. *hangs head in shame* No, I'm not a good swimmer.
We then had another chance for more surfing at another rapid and this time we made good on our attempt. I was in the front and since I had never surfed before, I was surprised to see how sudden it was. First there was a wall of water in front of me, and then we were in the water. Glug, glug, glug. It was great! We tried for a second time with other guys in front but we didn't have the power.
<- was paddling. *hangs head again*
Our guide was telling us the names of the rapids as we came across them. One of them was called "Coliseum" and then the one after that was called "Dog's Leg" then he went through the story of how the the rapid was named "Dog's Leg" and.. okay, to make a long story short, the punchline was that the people pointed down the river at the rapid and said:
"There's the collie. See em?"
He had to repeat it again before I got it. *groans*
We then had a few more rapids before going out for another dip in the river, which I took advantage of. The water was very warm. It was amazingly warm, and combined with the hot, sunny, and clear day made it feel more like a heated swimming pool rather than a river. (Had it been in June I would've been freezing my butt off!) It was cool letting the current roll me around in my life jacket. If it wasn't for it I'd be flailing my arms around madly while trying to stay afloat. Maybe I should take up swimming again. *thinks* Nah.
One more rapid was all the was left before we got onto the pontoon for some lunch. The food was okay, and I needed the rest since I found out that I had burned both of my upper thighs and my left shoulder. Most of us had some sort of burn here or there except for NY who, thanks to those multiple layers of sunscreen, was whiter after the event than before!
We got back to the centre and watched a video that they put together. It wasn't that great, but showed some of the highlights of the trip. Since there were eight rafts altogether, our group didn't get all too much airtime. I might try to edit the copy that I have to show a bit more of us..
Finally, it was time to go. We got back into the cars and got ready for the trip to Montreal.
