A narrow slot leading into a 5 metre fall onto shallow rock, To make this worse the water seemed to be slamming into the side wall. Sam said that this drop would dislocate you shoulders and rearange your face if you got it wrong. We decided to run it anyway and Ross launched into the waterfall's plunge pool looking very nervous, lining up he dropped through the slot getting knocked onto edge and landing in the plunge pool with a quick high brace and he was down looking releived, Rheanna's turn next lining up the Mamba and dropping throught the slot she made it look super smooth and slid over the next 2 metre drop, Barny next, dropping in the water slammed him into the wall knocking him over and leaving him upside down in the pool and Ross and Rheanna thinking they'd have to put major rescue and first aid skills into practice, luckily he rolled up with nothing but scratches on his helmet. Sams turn and dropped in lifting his paddles leaving his ribs exposed to the rock wall, he'll feel that for a while. From re reading the guide it turns out this one is often portaged.
The river widened untill the next big waterfall, this one is sometimes run but the lip looked too dry meaning you couldnt get speed and would probably faceplant, not fun on a 20 metre fall. We took the boats for another walk. This marked the entrance to the Mellte gorge where the real fun started, the drops became cleaner and the water was channeled making features more powerfull. The next drop which need inspecting was a large slot known as the Backlooping slot, which led into a 2 metre drop onto rock which had to be boofed if you like your ankles as they are, this one is also sometimes portaged. The backlooping slot was run first without too many creekboat acrobatics, then came the shallow drop.
Barny ran first boofing and breaking out, no dramas. Rheanna's line was a bit more dramatic, missing the boof she landed sideways and capsized and drifted towards an undercut leaving Barny slightly worried but a sweet roll and some casual paddling later she joined Barny in the eddy in time to watch Ross land with a crunch in his playboat (an interesting choice for the Mellte) and got the eddy with an "Its a bit shallow", Sam followed and we carried on down the river.
Another large horizon line apeared, Sam scouted and pointed a line between a tree stump and a metal rod. Ross: "Paddle hard and make sure you boof" Rheanna: "I don't know how!". After dropping of the lip I wondered why hadnt I landed? Turns out the wier was quite a big one and landed on to not very much water. Ross, Barny and Rheanna got down fine. Ross used the opurtunity to explain to Rheanna what boofing was whith a "just watch Sam". Sam paddled hard toward the lip, hit the metal bar and lost all speed, span round and ran the wier sideways and got surfed in the stopper. "Thats not boofing"
Grade 4 rapids continued untill we reached the 'Looping Pool' this is a 20 metre deep pool with a powerful jet of water flowing into it, everyone ran the rapid leading into the pool fine and then the playboating started, Sam, Barny and Rheanna all managed to throw cartwheels and pop outs in their creek boats and Sam alomost got a full loop in a Big Dog Force! Ross managed to throw several ends in his Project 52, Once we'd finished we wathced Sam frontflip of a cliff which made Green Bridge look tiny, the rest of us followed, whilst satisfyed ourselfs with just jumping, The looping Jet, dished out some serious down time when it was jumped into. A few small rapids led to the get out.
What a trip! Have a good new year everybody. Barny
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