Friday 29th July.

Friday 29^th July.  Day 13.  Mile 213 – 243. Separation Camp

13 Rapids today:

Three Springs (2), 217-Mile Rapid (7+), Trail Canyon (3), Granite Springs (2), 224-Mile Rapid (3), Diamond Creed (4), Travertine (3), 231-Mile Rapid (5), 232 Mile Rapid (5), 234-Mile Rapid (4), Bridge Canyon (4), Gneiss Canyon (4), 237-Mile Rapid (4)

Foot Clinic

Our last day in the paddle rafts!  Ended up in Dave ‘s raft again today, unfortunately.  Before setting off  he did his, now normal, foot clinic but the guest first aid kit had gone missing so he had to use the staff first aid kit.  Julia located the guest one – Bob Katz had it in his tent, self-medicating his foot rot. When Julia told him that lots of people were waiting to be treated, and that Dave had instructed that he return the kit immediately, he replied “they will get it in a while”….. selfish, arrogant, know-it-all beep, beep beep!.  Bob and Arline have done the trip 7 times before yet they constantly kept everyone waiting as they were the last to pack up their tent and bags – yet the first to get a pitch for their tent and always the best one.

Simon’s scorpion sting caused him severe problems and he had to ride on an oar boat so he could lay down.  He said he tingled all over, had a sore throat and was feeling very spaced out.

We had to make a packed lunch as the plan was to hike up to a waterfall where we would eat lunch.  There was no option of staying with the rafts instead of trekking, so I went along, despite very sore feet. The climb was not too bad, even the knotted rope climb up a huge boulder and the rope ladder up a short, vertical waterfall was enjoyable – my years of climbing up the ratlines and along the yards on The Stavros made it easy for me!. 

 We climbed up, had a photo shoot under the top spectacular waterfall inside a cave then had our lunch and lay in the shade for a snooze for an hour before descending and continuing our rafting.  Julia actually fell asleep lying in the stream at the top of the waterfall!!

There were some good rapids today with high waves – Dave told Kevin off for not keeping up the rhythm of the paddling (Kevin was lead paddler on the front left).  Kevin got cross saying “I can’t bloody paddle if I can’t reach the bloody water”!  One high wave almost knocked Dave off the back of the raft (wish it had!). During the afternoon we tied all 8 rafts together and floated downstream drinking beer and soft drinks and having a laugh.

Our campsite was rather small but we pitched our tent on an elevated flat sandy ledge.  Near us were Simon, Paul and David as well as Vicki and Ronnie.  As thunder had been threatening a storm all afternoon, we decided to erect one tent to use in case it did rain though we lay our tacco pads outside in front of the tent.  My feet were excruciatingly painful so I retired immediately after supper but the rain arrived at 10.45pm and we scuttled into the tent.  Julia and I stayed in for the rest of the night (despite it being incredibly hot) but Kevin went back out after the first and second downpours. Julia had to nudge me at one point as she said I was snoring like an express train – even the 3 Brit guys heard me!!

I don'rt like beer!!

Our last campsite. You can just see the "tide mark" where the last flood scoured the canyon wall