White water rafting in Bali

Just a little apology none of my schedule posts have actually posted recently! 


When we were planning our getaway to Bali we decided we wanted a mix of culture, relaxation and adventure so we quickly decided on a day of white water rafting. We booked through Nyoman ( who was recommended to us on Facebook) she owns Resi Bali Tour  which offers a mix of private tours and activities, for a few hours of white water rafting, pick up from Seminyak and a buffet lunch you can expect to pay around $40 AUD per person which is great value for money.

The optional flying fox to the start of the rafting

We were picked up bang on 08:30 from our hotel and shared a journey out into the jungle with a few other couples, the van was comfortable and luckily had air conditioning, I even snuck in a little nap on the way. Once we arrived at the rafting centre we paid our fees and got assigned life jackets and paddles, it was glorious Bali chaos, however we were given ice cold bottles of water to cool down whilst we waited for our time to go.

There was a fairly brief safety talk before we set on our 14km journey, our guide was really fun and enthusiastic, he knew a few words in English, you know the essentials like 'boom boom' (in both a sexual way and a raft hitting rock kinda way), 'pokemon go' and 'beer'.

After the first 30 minutes of paddling we pulled over for a leg stretch / re-inflate and chance to climb a waterfall (which we chose not to, let us at the rapids!)

The journey wound through rice paddies, section of jungle and through several waterfalls leaving us well and truely soaked...

It was definitely a laugh and more than suitable for those with no skills on the water at all, the couple in front of us didn't paddle at all (so of course myself and the guide made every effort to soak them with our paddles).

The journey ended by flying off a man made waterfall before a few flat water turns to the end point. I wish I'd taken the clip to attach my go pro to my helmet as it was a whole heap more exciting than it looks in photos! 

When we were back on dry land we had a horrific hike back up to the buffet, showers and pick up point. I'm not going to lie the steps were horrific in the heat and humidity and took me a good 15 minutes longer than anyone else in the group, they sucked. The showers were probably what you'd expect in the middle of the countryside in a third world country, I would definitely recommend packing lots of clean clothes, body spray and baby wipes!

I chose to not eat any of the buffet food as again, it's what you'd expect for an included buffet in the countryside and definitely didn't look vegetarian friendly (I'm not one to risk bali belly).

Overall the experience was so, so worth the $40 we paid, it wasn't the most exhilarating thing I've ever done but for an activity for total beginners and families it's awesome fun and something we'll definitely recommend friends and family do when visiting Bali.

Have you been white water rafting before?

xo

Rock Reef, Bournemouth

Last week I headed down to Rock Reef on Bournemouth pier with a bunch of blogging ladies to check out Bournemouth's newest adventure activity attraction. We were met by the marketing manager Juan who explained that Rock Reef offers clip n climb, a high ropes course, a caving experience and they are just about to launch a zip wire stretching from the end of Bournemouth pier to the beach.

After a quick tour we were left with our instructor Will who gave as a safety briefing and tested us to makeup we'd been paying attention before letting us loose on the clip n climb, which features 25 different climbing walls throughout the building. We started off on a very normal looking rock climbing wall which gave us all a chance to test the harness system, which works a bit like a giant seatbelt, when we felt comfortable with that we were left to explore the rest on our own...

 

Our instructor will hung around to make sure we were all safe (or to laugh at us all screaming..i'm not sure which).

Louise on the high ropes course- which has to be one of the most terrifying things I've ever done.

Once we'd all been round the high line we got out of our harnesses and headed back downstairs to have a go at caving. Once again instructor Will gave us a safety briefing before we headed in. As it's an artifical cave there's emergency exits every few metres and there's CCTV built in so you can watch what's going on from outside.

Louise, Cheryl, me,  Rosie   and Sarah

We thought we'd all hate it, but it has to be my favourite activity of the day. You enter through a small tunnel and then fall into a giant ballpit, which we all sat in for a while chatting, giggling (or crying of laughter in my case) and debating building our own caving systems complete with ballpits at home..something I'm still considering. We were then given the option of going back out or exploring the tunnels, a challenge which Cheryl and I quickly accepted, quickly followed by Sarah!

I don't think I've ever had so much fun at a blogging event and thanks to Will for making the evening so much fun! I think it's safe to say we'd all highly reccomend Rock Reef, it's a perfect way to spend an afternoon and is suitable for little kids and big kids and would make a great birthday party, hen do or work team building day. We were all quite excited to hear that they're thinking of developing some fitness classes at one point in the future too, which sounds like awesome fun and we can't wait to go back when the Zip Wire is open.

You can find Rock Reef on Bournemouth Pier and online at http://www.rockreef.co.uk/

x