#ThroughTheThunder

Day two of canoeing got off to a shaky start! None of us had the time on us so we were late making it to the river. We waited patiently while the guy ignored us and gave instructions to the new people we were supposed to be going with.
Once their canoes were all pushed into the water we waited to be told if we could still go or not. Although a little exasperated, luckily we had the nice guy who told us to grab a life vest and got us going in the canoes fairly quickly.

The first dip of my oar in the water, I felt my arm ache! 7km there and a further 7km back and I was struggling on row one! Luckily the pain eased off and we created a rhythm that allowed each arm to have a short break. We sang songs to distract us and the two girls in my boat taught me to count to ten in Dutch- which I've already forgotten!

Eventually we arrived at the marked spot on the map. It was really beautiful with lush green trees and clear water. We parked up our boats and everyone dived straight into the cold river. I checked around for bull sharks and stingrays but couldn't see any so I swam to a fallen branch. After very ungracefully hoisting myself onto the log, Steph and Bibi joined me to sunbathe while the others jumped off the platform attempting somersaults.

All was going well and we were having a great time chilling out on the little island when the sky darkened and from far away we heard the roar of thunder. Can we beat a storm in two hours? The answer was no! We set off as quickly as possible but soon after, huge blobs of rain fell onto us and the thunder boomed close to our boats. So, on a metallic boat, surrounded by trees and in the middle of water we rowed as fast as our arms could take us.

I tried to rationalise by thinking that the thunder was probably miles away and high up in the clouds, but as the lightning flashed in front of us we rowed harder and harder. I couldn't believe it when we turned a corner and Wietske said that we were back. I was sure we would still have another hour of rowing left and only believed it myself when we saw the broken tree swing that hangs beside the little beach. "Home!" It had only taken us an hour to get back as the fear of death had our adrenaline pumping and our arms rowing at top speed!

We moored our boat and practically sprinted inside the camp to get out of the storm. New people had arrived at the camp including two Swedish guys that knew the Stratford group from their Fraser Island tour. They taught us a tradition called 'Slap the Goon' this is where you pull the goon out of its box so that it is just in its foiled packaging and slap it three times while people chant, "Slap the goon! Slap the goon!" You may be thinking it is a pointless drinking game but it apparently has a purpose- the goon is so awful that you have to slap the bad out of it! I'm not sure given my hangover the next day that it worked?!

I found more new people in my room also from England but possibly the most boring individuals I have met on the East Coast. As I came in one of them asked me if it was my bed he was pointing at. "Just asking because it's got the biggest huntsman spider I've seen since I got here in Australia 4 months ago!" Ppeeerrrfffeeecct! Ok Mrs spider, you stay on the wall and I'll stay on my end of the bed. Luckily, the girl in the room chased her away leaving my bed spider-less.

Everyone had a bit of a gathering where we were playing games and drinking goon except for the 3 new English people. They sat in the cold, empty room all evening by themselves and were less than impressed by the slapping of the goon! At midnight, thinking we were ninjas- I snuck Steph into the room because she didn't want to sleep in the tent. We stealthily and probably very noisily snuck back to gather her things then ran to the dorm room. Criminal masterminds in the making! Thinking back, I should have charged her $2.50 for the room for the night!

By the time morning came, we were feeling a bit relieved to get back on the road. We had enjoyed the camp despite its location and aesthetics but I was looking forward to not sharing my shower with a toad and the mosquitos!