Labo(u)r Day
September 1 saw the international office put on a rafting trip for all the, umm, internationals if they wished to pay a small fee
Departure was at around 8am so weary eyed we left for the departure point at Sawmill Gultch Road about 45 minutes away. Arriving we organised the groups and found an appropriate leader. Our raft consisted of The Evers-Swindell twins, Hamish Bond, Eric Murray, Mahe Drysdale and Rob Waddell. Now the organisers didn’t approve of such a powerful combination of amazing athletes and conspired to split the group in the name of fairness to the other rafts. We weren’t having a bar of it and teamed up with Dudley to find safe passage through the 15km of river rapids.
Before we set off Drysdale asked to flip the raft over, to the agreement from Murray (myself) and Waddell. However the Evers-Swindel twins along with Bond argued the opposite. The deciding vote was cast by Dudley. Needless to say Drysdale was left disappointed, however came to a compromise with Dudley to make the most extreme lines for maximum enjoyment.
We climbed aboard, Drysdale and Waddell leading from the front, the Evers-Swindell twins took the middle seats, while Bond and Murray held the boat together from the rear. With little encouragement and some training, we roared towards the first set of rapids. Well, what the Evers-Swindell twins called rapids. Once we safely cross, Dudley informed the twins that what was just passed were not a rapid at all; in fact they don’t even have a name. This scared the living daylights out of the twins, to the enjoyment of Murray.
We eventually made it to a few set of rapids. Some violent movement nearly sent Bond into the drink, but he held on to the disappointment of the rest of the crew. However we witnessed one of another crew take a drink to much laughter. After some series of rapids we reached the final rapid set named Tumbleweed. With a steep drop and a whirlpool to navigate, we charged hard and only survived by the skin of our teeth.
As is evident the other raft made it through safely as well, and with that we headed for dry land and a well earned lunch. Because it was Labor Day, the shops weren’t open before we left, and as such no one had their Weetbix before setting off. Lunch was very welcome. Turkey sandwiches were the norm, however normally there is more bread than any single ingredient in a sandwich. Not in America where turkey outweighs the bread by about 2:1.
We set off on the final stretch on calm waters. The rapids were all behind us so we were able to create memories as a group. Murray decided to sing a folk song from his native New Zealand. Drysdale recorded it, however he failed to turn the microphone on; one of those “you had to be there moments” to tell the grandchildren. Murray and Waddell recreated the famous Titanic moment at the front of the raft, while one of the twins and Bond decided to compete in synchronized swimming with the other teams as we reached dry land for the second, and final time for the day.
The team from left: M. Drysdale, R. Waddell, E. Murray, G. Evers-Swindell, C. Evers-Swindell, H. Bond.
Team photo and video (C) George Pendleton 2014