Penrith White Water Rafting, Penrith

...Water Rafting.

Penrith is home to a set of man-made rapids, created especially for the Kayak event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It's an hour from Sydney by train, and is close to the edge of the Blue Mountains. Penrith itself, however, is not very picturesque. In fact, the main thing we concluded from out brief visit is that it's where old shopping trolleys come to die: there were literally dozens of them randomly discarded on the ...
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Trains to Penrith run regularly from Sydney and take between 50 mins and 1hr 10 mins. We caught a taxi from the station there to the stadium ($13 = 5.50 GBP) as public transport links are virtually non-existent, though we ended up walking back afterwards as there were no taxis in site and we thought we might find one if we started walking. 2.5 km later we were back at the station, a bit tired but feeling like we'd earned the ice cream ... more

"Arse Wax" yelled Kate a split second before the raft flipped and the group of us were spent spiralling into the water.

My Australian flatmates seem constantly surprised by me, for all sorts of random things. For example, I'm British but until last week had never seen a movie version of Pride and Prejudice. I grew up near Blackpool, but I don't like roller coasters. Here's another one: I'm scared of log flumes. That moment at the top when you pause before coming hurtling back down the chute? Scary. And yet…last weekend I agreed to go White Water Rafting.

Penrith is home to a set of man-made rapids, created especially for the Kayak event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It's an hour from Sydney by train, and is close to the edge of the Blue Mountains. Penrith itself, however, is not very picturesque. In fact, the main thing we concluded from out brief visit is that it's where old shopping trolleys come to die: there were literally dozens of them randomly discarded on the streets surrounding the station, looking as if they'd been then for quite some time.

Trains to Penrith run regularly from Sydney and take between 50 mins and 1hr 10 mins. We caught a taxi from the station there to the stadium ($13 = 5.50 GBP) as public transport links are virtually non-existent, though we ended up walking back afterwards as there were no taxis in site and we thought we might find one if we started walking. 2.5 km later we were back at the station, a bit tired but feeling like we'd earned the ice cream sundaes we were about to indulge in.

I booked over the phone as online booking is not yet available. Advance booking is essential as it's popular and departure times are limited due to the way they run it, but we booked about 4 days beforehand with no problems. The rafting costs $72 (= 30.50 GBP) for 90 minutes on the water, and starts with check-in and disclaimer form signing (the usual 'If you die or lose a limb it's not our fault') half an hour before hand, so the entire experience takes over two hours. We had been threatened with an alcohol breath test when booking, but this did not materialize, so we must have been looking sober (and scared). Since checking-in took only minutes, and we were already dressed for the water, we killed time at the café on site as many others seemed to be doing. They stock sandwiches and hot food, and a good selection of cakes, chocolates and protein bars along with any soft / hot drink you could ever want. Prices are reasonable, despite the fact they're the only place for miles around, but picnic tables are provided for those who wish to bring their own provisions. There is no shop as such - though the check-in desk sells mugs and a few other items, emblazoned with the centre's logo - so we made do with the free postcards on offer at the café.

Lockers are provided for those on self-guided tours, though you have to pay a few dollars for these. For those on guided tours, however, bag storage is provided free, as are changing facilities and hot showers. We met our group (about 40 people can go at once as there are numerous rafts) and kitted up with the safety gear - life jackets and hard helmets (regular for smaller headed people, Lego-man style for the bigger headed). Then it was time for a safety briefing including what to do if / when you fall in, lose a paddle etc etc. You can book as a group or as individuals, and they make up the rafts accordingly, so since there were just two of us, we joined another group. They were boys of about our age on a stag do, and were, to put it mildly, completely insane. Excellent.

Once in the raft and on the water we got a quick lesson in the commands of the rapids - go left means go left, go right means go right, get down means….well you get the idea. Then it was time to begin our first trip round. Being man made (and constructed with kayaking in mind) the course is unusual. There are 8 rapids in the loop, and you typically go round at least half a dozen times, returning to the top on the conveyor belt. The base is concrete blocks, so a lot of the safety briefing included how to avoid damaging your knees by whacking them into these, and how best to drift / swim while in the water. There are also those funny dangling sticks (I believe that *is* the technical term) that kayakers need to navigate at times, like the things skiers glide in and out of on the piste.

Each raft has a guide at the back who gives instructions and generally keeps you on course, though we did get stuck at one junction for quite a while. The rapids didn't seem to change, but it felt like they were getting stronger each time because of the way the guide navigated us. After a few laps we started going down backwards which was one of the scariest things I've ever done since I hate not being able to see where I'm going or knowing when we are going to hit a rock.

Several laps round, it was decided that we should go for a bit without paddles, so we left these on the side and reboarded the raft. It was shortly after this that we capsized, sending us spiralling into the water, and all rules on what to do in that situation spiralling from out of my mind. We got separated from each other but only for a few minutes, and were soon struggling back into the raft to go round once more.

That was the only time we fell out - several of the boys deliberately fell / jumped over board, but that was intentional. At the end we also go to abandon ship for a quick swim in the surprisingly warm water before crawling to the shower blocks to freshen up.

Some Tips

· Wear old clothes you're happy not only to get wet, but not to have back for a week or so. My shorts and t-shirt and still drying on my balcony here, and we've had 3 hot days since getting back. My trainers, I'm convinced, will never fully recover, so it's a good thing I had them down to be dumped out here anyway. Wetsuits can be hired at the venue for $10 (about 4 GBP) but very few people bothered with these - you're unlikely to hurt yourself that much and if you do a wetsuit will be of little use. Plus bruises add character.

· On log flumes it says 'you will get wet, you may get soaked'. If they were to have a sign here, it would read 'you will get soaked, you absolutely will'. One guy on our raft memorably said 'I didn't think we were going to get wet…' Apparently he'd planned to wear the t-shirt he had on when they went out that night. Doh!
· Only attempt this kind of thing if you're a strong swimmer. We were asked if (IF!) we could swim at the start, but I really cannot imagine doing this if you couldn't swim, and swim well, despite the life jackets. You need a certain level of water confidence not to freak out when you're under the water and have a raft and 8 big hairy men over your head.

· Prepare to become intimately familiar with the strangers you share a raft with. Within moments of our first 'get down' I was on the floor of the raft, apologizing to a guy for kneeing him in the balls. He looked like a young Mr Big from Sex and the City, and in all honesty, I think he jumped his balls onto my knee rather than the other way around, but I'm British and we say sorry when other people step on our feet or bump into us, so I instinctively apologized.

· Similarly, be prepared to see various body parts as clothes have a tendency to slip down in fast flowing water. We saw several of the boys' hairy arses, prompting the comment at the start of this - I subtly described to Kate how I'd just seen an immensely hairy, um, crack, and we thought it would be hilarious to recommend a wax to them, but didn't have the nerve to do so when there was a good chance of them hearing, hence the timing of the comment at the start of this.

· Take shampoo! That water was rank even though those rapids were artificially filled, so I can't imagine how natural rapids would be any better. We didn't think of shampoo or shower gel, so could only rinse off there, not remove the gunk.

Verdict

If I'd stopped to think before hand I might never have gone through with the trip. But now log flumes will no longer scare me, I've done something outside my comfort zone, I've played in an Olympic rapids set up as well as swum in Olympic and Commonwealth pools and I have some funny stories to tell. I am really, really glad we did this, though it's not likely to be something I try again any time soon. There are many worse ways than this to spend 30 GBP in an afternoon, and I don't think we missed out by going on a man- rather than nature-made course.

There's a very thorough website here:

http://www.penrithwhitewater.com.au/html_05/home/index_real.htm
 

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