Thrills & Spills with Raging Thunder White Water Rafting

Feb 24

Want to know a way to appear super cool to your teenage kids?

Just take them White Water Rafting! Five minutes in our son was exclaiming that he didn’t know too many other parents who would do this with their kids. And then he gave us top marks for taking him on the Raging Thunder White Water Rafting tour.

**Josh LOVED the action packed White Water Rafting**

We had chosen to go on the Tully River located in the Tully Gorge National Park and surrounded by world heritage-listed rainforest (only a 2-hour drive south of Cairns). Recognised as Australia's premier rafting location, the Tully River has rapids that are a guaranteed 3-4 rating all year round thanks to the hydro-electric scheme that governs the flow of the river.

With helmets on and life jackets buckled we managed to paddle our way through some preliminary rapids before the bigger ones arrived to test all of us. There were seven of us to a raft, including our highly experienced river guide and we quickly learnt how to ‘forward paddle’ ‘back paddle’, ‘hold on’ (trust me, this was an easy one), ‘over right’ and ‘over left’. More commands were to come as we mastered the initial rapids.

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We mastered the 'hold on' command pretty quickly!

What impressed me was the speed my kids (age 15 and 13) reacted to these commands. Granted they didn’t have a phone to distract them but still, if I got that response from them in the home environment I’d be more than happy!!

**We even remembered to wave at the camera!**

Another thing that surprised me was that we didn’t ‘have to’ stay in the raft all the way down. Sure, in the gnarly rapids it was good to be seated in a raft BUT there were plenty of opportunities to drift down the river sans raft. One time it was over a great slide/waterfall that gave us a good 3-5 second dunking at the end (although it felt like over a minute :) ). And we also got to jump off a 5-metre rock into the water below which was a test for some but lots of fun.

**Drifting down the river without the rafts was fun too**

But mostly it was all about the rapids and mastering them in our rafts. With names such as the Regurgitator, Devil’s Toilet, Midnight Rock, and Double D-Cup our rafting guide seemed to have a story (often very humorous) for all of them. Personally, I preferred to hear the story after completing the rapid BUT my daughter insisted on learning all the gritty details up front much to my delight (NOT!).

At times we drifted along the river past cliffs as high as 30 metres high (which had been formed from lava flow) with dense tropical rainforest spilling down into the valley, and where one rafting guide spotted a cassowary for his lucky crew. Lunch was provided half-way along our course which was a welcome break from all that paddling. Hot tea and coffee and a range of meats and salads fared us well for the next stage of the activity.

From there it was another good hour and a half of gnarly manoeuvres to get us through the churning white water and past huge granite boulders to our exit point. Sitting in the comfort of our bus for the 45-minute bus ride back to Tully we could view our photos online already. Proof that we’d conquered the river, although it wasn’t always pretty, but we’d managed to get the raft to the right spot, and us to safety, and that’s all that mattered.

Good Things to Know:

The Raging Thunder White Water Rafting Tour was established in Australia in 1984 and they pioneered rafting in Queensland.
Minimum age is 13 years.
No experience necessary.
Safety equipment includes life jacket and helmet. Some helmets have GoPro mounts if you want to capture the action.
This is a full day raft experience. You’ll spend approximately 5-hours on the water.
Lunch is on the side of the riverbank with vegetarian options available.
Pick-ups are from Cairns or Mission Beach, or you can self-drive to Tully.
Bring secure footwear (or available to hire), beach wear (board shorts and swimmers) and dry clothes, towel and sunscreen.
Photo’s are available online immediately after the tour.
Not suitable for anyone who is pregnant.
Travel insurance is recommended.

Are you keen to on a Raging Thunder White Water Rafting tour? Have you been White Water Rafting anywhere else in the world?