Black Water Rafting - Not so much

Before I even begin this entry I'll let you know that I am aware that I look like a twit in every picture but there was no way to explain this without the pictures.

Jacob had heard about this black water rafting place where you are basically white water rafting in caves. The company was called Black Water Rafting but I thought it was a bit misleading it should have been black water trekking or something like that. You don't really white water raft but in a section you sit in a slow moving river in tubes. I should have realized from the picture below from the web site.

But it was a fun 5 hours and I've never been in a cave. The group we were with was really great; there was a couple and then a bunch of guys from London who had just gone to a friend's wedding.

You begin by abseiling (you are harnessed onto a rope and lower yourself down) 100 ft down this small hole into a cave. Here is what I looked like starting to go down and below is a picture from the web site to give you an idea of what it's like after you get through the small opening.

Because you are looking into the wall the whole time it isn't that scary although once I was done my legs were a bit jiggly and I was happy to be on solid ground.

The caves are full of glow worms which make intense blue dots on the ceiling, kind of like blue stars in the sky. They call them glow worms but really they are glow maggots - but that's a bit harder to sell a tour on so they go with worms.

Once everyone is in they connect us to a zipline/flying fox, again you are harnessed onto a big clothesline. The guide wanted me to go first and decided that it would be more fun if everyone turned their lights off. Then he says "1...2...3" and I only move 4 inches so I think there is something wrong. But no, that was a joke and he lets me go and I'm sailing through a dark cave unable to see in front of me and screaming my head off. It was the scariest and most fun part of the tour.

The hardest part was when we finished we needed to jump 15 feet down into the river on our tubes. I could barely do it I was so scared. I saw everyone else do it and survive but it was still hard to jump - oh how will I do the bungee jumping!

The next few hours were climbing through the caves, up a few waterfalls and the black water "rafting." Along the way they would give us cookies and drinks. But I had none of the drinks because there are no public washrooms in caves underground 65 ft.

The beginning of the trek where we're still harnessed onto a rope while walking. They take the harnesses off before we get into the water.

Every so often we sat for a drink or cookies.

The end of the 5 hours I climbed up a waterfall and out a hole into civilization.

The group after we were done, the five hours flew by really quickly and we were exhausted.