Way down upon the Barron River, far far away, that's where my heart is rafting ever!

I've become tired of waiting for the rafting people to put their pictures up... So here it is, newest blog update! I have a couple pictures from that day. Didn't have access to my camera until after the trip was done. You can see here where we came from. Another groups of rafts are in the distance.

Little kids were taking turns swinging into the water. We didn't get to try but it looked like fun! I was impressed with a lot of the kids flips!

So yeah, just like everything else so far, rafting was AWESOME!!! I'm happy that I got to check that off my "I've never..." list. That list is growing smaller... One thing that will probably remain on there: bungie jumping. Mackey wanted to do that in Brisbane. Yeah sorry man. I remember one time telling Dad that I wanted to go skydiving. Dad said "But you're not terminally ill..." Anyway, I'm proud of myself for enjoying roller costers. I think I'll stick with those kind of drops!

We got picked up by the tour group at our hotel and made our way up the mountain alongside the Barron River. Extremely beautiful sights! I spent my non-paddling time just staring up at all the trees that surrounded us. No cameras allowed since they would only get soaked. Plus you kinda had to stay focused ;) Our raft was made up of 6 guys (that includes my brother), myself and the tour guide Fabio... who by the way was fabulous ;) hehehe! He was from Peru and had been in Cairns for ten years. It was interesting to hear the mix in accents. There were also four other rafts in the trip.

First up of course was safety. We learned what to do if we fell out of the raft. I was thinking that it wouldn't be that big a deal, I mean, I know that falling in is a big deal, but I'm used to canoes and such where it's tough to lose balance and fall. On the raft it was a different story! You sit there on the side of the raft and when you go over the falls you hold on to your paddle for dear life with one hand and hold onto the rope on the raft for dear life with the other! Fabio told us we could wedge our feet underneath the seats that went across the rafts and that would help us stay in the raft. I still have bruises on my right shin from how forcefully I had my foot wedged. That right foot was the only one close enough to the seat haha! Left one didn't help out much.

Just like when we realized that a pipe had burst in our apartment causing a huge leak in the ceiling, I was giggling like crazy the entire way! Mom says it's a shock factor, maybe a nerve-wracking situation that just causes you to laugh when instead you should be worried. I'm not going to lie, I was freaked out the entire way. Still having a blast though! And I'd go rafting again in a heartbeat!

About a third of the way down we were asked if we wanted to go swimming. Turns out Fabio was being serious and we all hopped out of the raft and floated a bit down calmer water. One guy stayed in the raft because he couldn't swim. I had running shorts and a tshirt on but that didn't matter. Bring on the water! The thing to remember was to stay on your back and keep your feet up in front of you. I loved being in the water! I heard one guy ask "How's she going so fast?" hahah I guess it looked like I'd caught a current, but really my arms were going underneath the water like a duck's feet! So fun! Most swimming I've done in months! Then we had the joy of climbing back in the raft... that's very awkward lol!

The big excitement... yes the entire experience was very exciting... but the big excitement came when we did what's called "surfing." Basically you paddle like crazy upstream towards one of the falls and then your raft gets sucked in by a current but is still being pushed away by another current, so you just stay there with your raft flying all about. We all stayed to watch each raft surf. Unfortunately, the crew that went after us got sucked in and flipped! Six not too thrilled tourists in their lifejackets and helmets and one surprised tourguide thrown into the water and heading downstream towards more rapids! All the tourguides jumped up and started throwing ropes left and right to the tourists. We did manage to pull everyone out of the water and back in their raft. Only lost one paddle. I grabbed one from the water. Felt proud of myself lol!

We got to jump in and go down the rapids on our backs once more near the end. It was a wonderful experience. It turns out during the wet season that river fills soooooo high (we could see the water lines on the rocks) and crocodiles actually come up the river! They have to make sure the crocs are gone each season before they start rafting again. Of course we didn't know about that until after we were through with our rafting trip lol! Good times :)

After rafting we enjoyed walking around the beach at our hotel. No swimming (you were told to swim in the pools at your hotels) but the sights were still gorgeous.

And here are some photos from the Brisbane International Tennis Tournament! Pat Rafter was a super cool tennis player, and still is a super cool person! I got a picture with him years ago in Indianapolis. I always remember thinking wow, he still takes the time for pictures and autographs with fans! What a nice guy!

Andy Roddick strutting his stuff in Brisbane...

His most powerful weapon...

I just thought this photo was awesome! Aussie legends!

A look at Monfils about to serve inside Pat Rafter Arena

And for you boys, here's World #21 Ana Ivanovic. She was ranked #1 in the world in 2008 when she won Roland Garros.

And one more. I like her tennis outfits :) They're designed by Paul McCartney's daughter Stella!

And yeah, I took a pic of Darren Cahill. He was Agassi's coach and now does a lot of commentating for the tennis championships. If I ever met him I'd tell him that he's a good looking guy! There he is, top of the picture...

That's something Mumsy and I tend to do, blurt out random compliments... Eh Mom? Remember? George McPhee incident? LOL! And I may never meet Darren Cahill. However, there was that one time when I heard Brad Gilbert say to Cliff Drysdale "I'm telling you, I'm a wealth of useless information!" and I remember thinking hey, that sounds like me! I decided then that if I ever met Brad Gilbert I'd tell him that what he said made me laugh. About a year later I did meet Brad Gilbert, ran into him in Georgetown, and totally forgot to tell him my story. Ah well, life goes on :) Sorry to ramble there but I hope you've enjoyed this edition!

Smiles all around :)