Hello River

It's hot. Oh boy is it hot.

Especially as we just came from the wintry southern hemisphere!

Today should reach the high 30's centigrade (100's f)

What to do?

White Water Rafting on the American River.... As you do...

The last time I went white water rafting I think I was about 15 and exploring Australia for the first time, and boy it was fun. This time it's me and Randall, Liana and Liam, my sister and hubby, my bestie Cathy and her boyfriend and other assortment of cousins and nephews....

We have enough for a few raft fulls just us! But many people are lined up for the river ride today. This is the thing to do on a hot summer Saturday! The river is dammed upstream and they let the water out at certain times of the day.... So we wait for the river and enjoy a picnic lunch. Pretty soon the rush and the roar of the river is clear and we are herded down to the awaiting rafts for a briefing. This is pretty standard stuff for our river guides. Randall and the kids get an old salt as a guide while I ended up in the boat with a guide who can't be too much older than Liana herself, but seems very confident....

Let's hope so, because I suddenly have one of my manic mummy moments and can just about see one of my precious children getting thrown from the raft and sucked into some underwater hole, held under by the swift current. Drowning. Oh god. What the heck is wrong with me? How about I put those thoughts aside and listen to the reasonable side of my brain. Which clearly states that a) thousands of people do this every day with no problem b) I've done it before and it's both fun and safe c) they wouldn't take this many tourists if it was in any way unsafe, after all this is America the land of the law suit ya know! and d) my kids are both level headed confident swimmers who are capable of taking care of themselves in the unlikely situation that they get thrown from a boat....

Ok, I really tried to listen. I decide that I need to just pretend I am that 15 year old person that didn't have fear and was interested in experiencing life, not being paralized with fear! Gosh, what happened to me? Do all parents have this transformation????

And so we push off.

It feels so good to be on the river.

It starts off so calmly, floating gently down the river, kind of like a ride in Disneyland! It's easy to admire the golden hills, the blue sky and the clear water. We are a bit baked by the sun and soon we hit a small rapid and the river guide tells us to jump in. So instead of white water rafting our first rapid, we end up white water floating it. All good. The river is freezing. The cold hits your bones!

Keeping us cool for the hours ahead of us.

We do hit bigger rapids. As the river meanders down, the valley gradually gets steeper and steeper, and the rapids get longer... Finally we hit the gorge and it's a series of grade 3 and 4 rapids which have us wet, screaming and laughing all at once! (The three hour build up to it made me forget the silly mummy that started out and allowed me to just relax and have fun, thank god!)

Five hours of wet and wild fun later we board a bus back to Coloma.

As we drag our sun burned selves back to the cabin we realize that someone has done a raid on Costco and that there is more food piled up at our house than can possibly be consumed in the next three days! But never the less. We try!

I don't get a shower till well after midnight that night. I was too busy eating, swapping stories with my family and challenging various cousins to Banangram tournaments. (An absolutely addictive game - something like scrabble, only better!)

But when I closed my eyes all I could see were rolling yellow hills and languid waters that started us off on our raft this morning.

Ah, nature. You can calm anything. Even a mum's loss of herself.