White-Water Rafting

This past weekend Lynn arranged for us to go white water rafting on the Ayung river on the outskirts of Ubud.  We all had a lot of fun.

One of the Green School moms organized the trip, and over 100 kids and their parents showed up.

We were divided into groups of five.  I went with Alexa and the mom who organized the trip and two other kids.  Lynn was going to go with Charlotte, but Charlotte wanted to go in a different group with some of her friends, so they each went in different rafts.

We had to walk down 500 steps to the river.  Lynn's and my legs were wobbly by the time we got to the bottom, but the kids seemed unaffected.

The river started out fairly rough with lots of big rocks, small drops and white water.  We floated through a deep gorge past beautiful, lush, steep banks that towered above us.

We stopped at a waterfall.  The water came crashing down from hundreds of feet above.  There was lots of friendly competition among the rafts, and big splash fights whenever two rafts got close to each other.

Afterwards Charlotte said she was a little scared for the first minute or two but then she had a lot of fun.  She was raring to go rafting again.  Alexa is considering it as a birthday activity.  It was thrilling but not scary, and great to be out on the river in a beautiful setting.

After the trip was over and we had piled out of the rafts, we watched as local women deflated and folded up the rafts, and then put them on top of their heads and carried them the 200 steps up to the road.  These women, some of them not so young, sure put us to shame with their physical strength and endurance.  It's now three days later and Lynn and I are still sore from climbing up and down all those steps.