Our camping ground is right beside the Barron River where we met the Fishing Dude. But John has been investigating further afield, or should I say further upstream. We are below the dam, so there’s not a whole lot of water flowing over the rocks and boulders. But…John has heard that they are letting water out of the dam about 3pm each day for the rafting companies to run some trips. So…..you guessed it. John and the boys go on one of the rafting trips? No. John takes the plastic sit-on-top kayak down the white water? Yes. Do I think this is a low risk activity? Nah.

So off we go to the dam wall at 2.45pm. There are about seven rafts from two different companies heading down the river. John and the boys lob in the middle of the pack. It provides the punters with some entertainment as they negotiate  the first rapid – successfully. I drove alongside the river to another vantage point where I found a huge set of rapids that they had to portage around. Then to another section, where they nearly pulled off a clean run, as the following photos tell the story.

Looks good

Still good

Can’t tell…

A bit sketchy

Gone.

Done.

Time to scramble.

All safe.

Very entertaining.

They had a fun time and I was pretty happy that they got the support of many rafting guides, safety backup and the use of the commercial safety guy in a downriver boat.