Today was the most amazing day of my trip so far. After some debate, and running around, Luke, Steve, Emily, Sharon and I decided to go whitewater rafting. I was a bit sceptical seeing as I've been in both Alberta and the North Island of New Zealand, but I knew I would feel as though I missed out if I didn't go. I'm really glad I went! The 7h30 pick up was challenging due to the late night last night, but so very much worth it!
After a quick breakfast, we met our driver Chris (who was really cute), and started our hour long trek to the base camp in an 80s/early 90s Range Rover with Steve and I on bench seats that faced inwards in the back. Poor Steve wasn't looking too hot after our late night. We very nearly hit a goose, and had to dodge a few others. Every time Chris swerved to avoid them, the girls squealed and woke Luke who was dozing (aka hungover) in the front seat. Randomly, it turns out that Chris had worked with Sharon's friend's dad when he was a guide in BC!
At the base we has some free mochas (aka hot chocolate mix in drip coffee). We each picked up some free clothes out of the lost and found shopping cart to bulk up and keep warm (soooo glad I did this), put on our drysuits halfway, got booties, gloves and a helmet and loaded onto the bus. It took another hour or so to get to the drop site driving over gravel roads and later a farmer's road. Unfortunately the bus (a medium sized tour bus) needed to turn around, and had very little space to manoeuvre. At one point during a 3 point turn, the rear end of the bus was hanging over a cliff! None of us girls wanted the bus to fall over the cliff cause Chris, the cute guide, was driving! We couldn't get all the way down to the drop site, so we had to portage the boat for a ways following our safety briefing. For the last section we just slid the boat down a grassy hill. Then we got into the water!
Luke was the first to get wet; he was the guinea pig for what to do if we fell out. I think I got a massive wave in the face on our first set of rapids; I don't remember so well because I got massive waves of water in my face almost constantly every rapid we hit while I was at the front with Steve! We had our first attempt surfing early on, but Steve 'fell' out almost right away, so we had to rescue him. We got 2 more chances (the second was the best, and the last a total surprise!) to surf later on. At the second surfing section, we spent a bunch of time going back over and over (practice makes perfect right?) and we even had a contest - who could stay in for the longest! Steven and Emily won because they managed to make it to the last round, Luke fell out first (I think I took him out) followed by Sharon and I. There was no lunch provided, BUT we did stop at the edge of the river where a basket had been wheeled down using a pulley. WAFFLES! With whipped cream and rhubarb jam, all homemade! They were delicious! There was also hot chocolate made with milk (probably whole milk - it was really rich! and good for keeping us warm). After our stop we floated another little ways then got out again to walk along the bank and check out the "Green Machine" (I can't remember if that's actually the name, but it was a pretty bad as set of rapids!) and watch our two kayakers navigate it first. Unfortunately we didn't flip here, but it was pretty exciting as we rafted up to and through it! My heart was pounding a mile a minute!
Next, Anup, our guide, asked if we were interested in cliff jumping - unanimous YES! We stopped on the right bank, hiked across a mini-glacier, climbed up a rock face and stood 7m above the flowing river. 3-2-1 - nope, that's effing high! Steven didn't take any time to think about it, but it took Emily a few tries to finally take the plunge. Sharon and Luke both took it like a champ! I was certainly nervous, but it was pretty exhilarating!
The final parts of the tour were pretty calm, and gave us a chance to get to know Anup. He was from Nepal, and had wanted to be a rafting guide since he was in his teens. He'd been in Iceland for ~13 years. Sometime near when he'd started, a client had told him how old the canyon was, and he had us guess. We were way off with our 200 thousand years, turns out it's 9 million and 13 years (because 13 years ago it was 9 million years old!) A few years ago he'd been to Vancouver, and had smoked some green grown by a famous Canadian! He couldn't remember the name right off the bat, but we eventually figured it out! (Sorry, I'm not gonna say who, but you probably know him!).
When we got to the exit point, we didn't have to carry the boat up the hill like I've had to in the past; they had a pulley system rigged up to a tractor which pulled the boat on a cart up the side of the canyon! The girls and I took another topless photo (sorry mom) in our drysuit bottoms before piling into the bus for 20 min to make our way back to the base. We almost hit a really dumb sheep who tried to play chicken with the bus - it was walking in the tyre track and didn't move over, I guess it just didn't care too much as it walked past us on the port side.
Back at the base, we had some more coffee/mocha, Sharon and I split a locally brewed beer (something to do with a festival?) and we chatted with Chris about the potential for a hydropower plant on the river we'd just conquered. I'd never before considered the impact the damming and use of the river as an impact on tourism - usually I'd just considered the ecological/environmetal aspcets, but for Viking Rafting, it would put a serious dam-per on business (pun intended!). Chris had taken a bunch of photos of us on the river, and was kind enough to cut us a deal for them! If you're ever in Akureyri - VIKING RAFTING IS AWESOME!
Laura out.
ps. this was written at a kick ass coffee shop (as recommended by Caitlin).
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