White water lilo

(Photo to come) Rapids terrify me. I'd be fine if you threw me out of a plane or off a cliff, or made me camp alone in a blizzard. Put me on an inflatable mattress on rushing white water and my face becomes screwed up with fear.

I had an inkling that I had this fear when I agreed to join a group of people liloing down the Shoalhaven River for two days. This fear was partly based on a previous experience white-water rafting on the White Nile in Uganda and partly founded on a known inability to control to much degree what happens to me in a rapid.

Liloing conjures up images of floating along a gentle river, watching the scenery pass by and enjoying the sunshine. For the most part it is like that. The Shoalhaven River valley is beautiful, with occasional cliffs cutting through the bush on either side. We could sit up on the long quiet sections with our back resting against the pack tied to our lilo. Just a quick flip forward on to our stomach was all we needed to do to prepare for the rapids. It takes a while to work out the best arrangement, so sometimes my 'quick flip' resulted in a splash and a swim.

We started and finished at Bungonia. The first day we did a 2km walk before doing 10km on the river. The second day was 5km on the river and then a 5km climb up a steep hill back to the car. On Saturday night we pulled into a beach below a fabulous campsite on the side of the river. We shared some wine and food while we dried our lilos around the fire. Most of us were quickly off to bed under our tarps to recover and store up energy for the next day.

Because of recent rain, the river was at 1.5 metres and flowing fast. This resulted in a mixed bag of less rocks to go around because you could just go over them (good), faster flow (bad as you have less control in the rapids, good because it means less paddling), and trees in the river (very bad). The rapids for the most part weren't bad. If there was any difficulty though, I found it! I hit submerged rocks, got folded up between trees, screamed, walked around the tricky parts, came off my lilo, but I survived fine and was soon joking about my reaction once I reached calm water.

I may try liloing again, but with some modifications to my equipment. It seems to be easier on a lilo with more loft, and a paddle is a definite asset. I'd like to try it when the water is not so high and definitely want to lilo the Wollangambee - this river is apparently more like a canyon.