Whitewater Rafting

Today was our whitewater rafting trip. It was a beautiful day and the level of the river was fine - a bit slow but good for the first rafting trip for many kids. The rating on the Waupu River is between 2 and 3 with an occasional 4 when the river is running. The surrounding countryside is gorgeous - some deep gorges, a hot spring where volcanic water smelling like sulfur wells up and runs into the river (we swam there), and local farms. We had 4 rafts, two were fairly new, and good safety equipment.

Three rafting companies joined our trip and two of the companies had Westerners. We had a good preparatory safety talk by one of the locals (a German man) and he led the way in an inflatable canoe, filming our adventures. The kids had a fabulous time, splashing each other, racing, jumping into the river for a float or swim, enjoying the waterfall (though it had a lot of fallen logs blocking the way) and the scenery.

Stefan was the only one who got bounced out and he bruised his knee and came up under the raft next to a rock wall. He popped up a few seconds later, spitting some water, scared, but before long was back to his old self (the story will be embellished of course).

Tomorrow we're off to Berastagi and the Karo Batak villages in the highlands. We've had a great adventure in Bukit Lawang and will miss it. More stories to follow....

from the Trekkers