02/04/06 - BARRINGTON TOPS

The last stop before Sydney was Barrington Tops, which is a National Park. I'd had the same bus driver since Hervey Bay - Pistol Pete. He was a really good laugh, and on the way to Barrington we had an 80s rock marathon on the bus, provided by my Ipod and his Iriver. It went down a storm!

The place we stayed at in Barrington was as remote as Kroombit Cattle Station, except a lot better. They had all you can eat pizza! I had my Ipod hooked up to their music system and we listened to some classic rock. That evening we were going to go kayaking down the river. The river has rapids up to Grade 3 (Olympic standard). So it was going to be a bit like white water rafting, except you were in a kayak - on your own - at night. They gave you a little torch but you couldn't see shit.

I was in the second group to go, so we had a few beers before we went which helped pluck up our courage. For legal reasons I won't name the company we were with because you're not really supposed to drink before you do this! Anyway, the water wasn't as cold as I had feared in the river. I did capsize a couple of times, like everyone else.

The last few rapids were called the 4 steps. Half way down them two girls were going down perpendicular to the river banks and then got stuck. My kayak turned and them I was stuck parallel to them, except my kayak got pushed upside down and then underneath their kayaks. My head was in the water and the girls weren't moving, they were just sitting their laughing and squealing which really pissed me off considering I was drowning! I used my padal to push my self up and move the two girls off, which worked. I then pushed myself up with my left arm, which I had already pulled a muscle in slightly when I was surfing. My arm made a cracking sound and gave way. I thought I had broken it at first, but I could still move it. I got back in my kayak and went down the rest of the rapids. My arm was aching like mad but it turned out I had just pulled the muscle more (or something!).

As soon as we were out of the river, and the equipment was away, we grabbed our beers and sat in the hot tubs outside. There we were, up in the Australian mountains, drinking beer, sitting in a hot tub, staring up at the stars (and you could see everything), and they had speakers outside so we could listen to my Ipod. It doesn't get much better than that.

After a while we went inside, drank some more beer, ate some more pizza and listened to some more music. I had a good night sleep after. In the morning we were finally making our way to Sydney...

Next: Sydney
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Ready to kayak!