miércoles, febrero 14, 2007

The experience of rafting !!

I'll talk today about the experience of rafting, which I joined for the first time at the end of November last year with my coworkers and some friends.



On a sunny saturday, we decided to go to Kuala Kubu Baru, about one and a half hours drive from the center of Kuala Lumpur, where Selangor river lives along green nature and nice views.
We had a training for 10 minutes, where the masters explained about safety and asked us to sign (quickly) a document declining all their responsability on whatever could happen to us. Such a nice welcoming, scary if anything happened to us!!


We got into the boats carrying our equipment, that is a helmet, a protective lifejacket and an oar, never expecting how the experience would be...






Going down to the river calmly, we were spreaded in several groups, a total of six people in each boat, including two masters who helped us to manage the directions. So, we were actually sitting in the middle of the boat, with our oar, and a lot of excitement waiting for us!


There are five types of rapids, classified from 1 to 5 according to their difficulty, one means the rapid is the easiest one, and five is the most complicated and dangerous, not only rapid, but also a falling around less than two meters height with the boat!

Once you are in, there is no way to avoid it but FACE it... you gotta go all through it, even praying not to sink!! haha...


We thought some of the rapids would be like 2 or 3 only, but we found out on the way that some of them were even 5!! and with level difference... :D


So, yes, as you can imagine, some of the boats did sink on the way down to the river... the rapids are quite exciting, when you go down and the master asks to use the oar left or right so quickly you feel as if your life was totally depending on it ! (and actually it does haha...)


This is a nice teamwork cause all of us have to move at the same time and follow the instructions properly.


In the middle of the way, we did stop for a while to take rest and take some pictures on the waterfalls, it was such a nice view!


Sometimes we even had to stop for a while and carry on the boat ourselves in order to skip picky stones or avoid narrow spaces that the boat couldnt pass through... it was a nice experience fulled with nature, risk and a lovely, quiet ending!

Totally we did rafting for about 5 Kms, passed through about ten rapids, and enjoyed a calm swim at the end of the circuit. After such an experience, to feel relax and calm down on the river, you can just let the current take you away peacefully, enjoying the nice views, feeling alive!!

Let's go for it more times!


I would like to go rafting again, maybe some time later around Kuala Lumpur with my friends. Its a good experience, as long as the boat doesnt sink...hehehe :)