Sunday 17th July

Sunday 17^th July.  Day 1

This is Day 1 of the rafting trip!  We had to meet our transport at the bus station under The Bellagio at 11.30 so we got up early and went to the snack bar for Breakfast.  Julia and I ate the leftover pizza from the night before!  We checked out (successfully arguing a charge of $139 for transfers from the airport).  We were collected from the bus station and transported to the airport where we were to meet our transport to Marble Canyon.  The transport turned out to be a regular minibus service (The Salt Lake Express Shuttle) with regular passengers.  While waiting for the bus to arrive we sat and ate the sandwiches we had bought that morning for the journey.  We sat in the back of the minibus and the heat was incredible – we asked for the air-con to be turned on but the driver said it was on, and on full – but it did not circulate to the back!!!  We had to change buses at St George – and we breathed a sigh of relief expecting the second bus to be an improvement.  It was not!!  The driver was very apologetic and tried to change the bus for a different one,  but there were none available, so Kevin and I sat in the front behind the driver where we at least got a little of the cool air wafting over the driver’s seat.  Julia opted to stay in the back and stick it out (“mind over matter”, she said)!  I knew from experience that I would pass out if I had to spend another 2-3 hours in that heat!  This smaller minibus was full and Kevin and I had to sit next to a guy who ranted on about how wonderful Donald Trump would be as President, how it was imperative that Americans retained the 2^nd Amendment and the right to carry guns (he had just bought his wife a gun for her birthday as he believed there would be trouble when Trump gets elected) and how America would win the war against Muslim extremists because “we have God on our side and he never lets us down”.  Boy were we glad when we realised he was NOT going to be in our rafting group – he was doing the 6-day motorised rafting trip.

We eventually arrived at Marble Canyon Lodge which is a slightly run down motel in the middle of nowhere!  There is one restaurant, one shop selling rafting equipment and souvenirs and one garage.  There was no mobile phone signal and no internet.

The food in the restaurant was OK – some very good and some inedible, the salad bar was good, as was my “trout” but the French Fries looked and tasted like they were 2 weeks old and had been re-heated every day, then rolled in wood ash!  The jacket potato looked burned to a cinder!

Looking around at the other diners we sussed out who was in our party of 24 and Bob Katz and his partner Arline, came over to make our acquaintance, acting as if they were the guides for the holiday.  At this point we realised we were the only people from Water By Nature and that the trip was actually run by an American company Outdoors Unlimited. As well as the Bob Katz party, there were 2 American guys and J, K and myself.  We got chatting to the 2 American guys who seemed very nice.

We gathered for a briefing at 8pm – this left the 3 of us more confused than not!  Many people had done the trip before and we were the only non-Americans.  We were given a heavy duty dry-sack for our personal gear but told to take books and anything we needed during the day (including rain coat) separately for storage in a 6-person day dry-bag.  Rucksacks also had to go separately.  They advised us to carry at least 2 water bottles and to drink 4L of water every day, so Kevin and I bought another water bottle each and we all bought  clips to secure our hats to our clothing in the rapids.   Back in my room I packed and re-packed my bag.  I was asleep by 10 but then woke at 12, 1, 2, 3 and at 4.30 I gave up trying to sleep and decided to write my journal.  I was more than a little concerned that they do not provide hard hats – I would have brought my ski helmet if I had realised.  They assured us that the river was too deep for us to worry about rocks and that, even in the rapids, the rocks were deep below the surface – but I know the sides are made of rock and there will be rocks protruding whatever they say!!!