So I haven't had the time to post about our MBA Alumni rafting trip last weekend since I was waiting for the pictures to trickle on in. What a great time, cudos to Aussie and Theresa on a job well done organising everything which is always a h-e-double hockey sticks of a lot more work than it looks.
Friday totally sucked as the summer babe-magnet Vitara jeep doesn't enjoy high speed highways (maxes out at around 120 km/h... ouch!) and we got lost to boot. Of course it didn't help that whenever we called for directions the people that had arrived hours earlier were completly hammered and no help at all. Sample conversation:
"Hey guys, where's the hotel? We just went on (insert road name here) and are at (insert intersection name here), where do we go?"
"Ahhh, turn your lights on." (shot round in background with cheering)
"What?, yeah they're on, where do we go, have you seen this (insert road name here)?"
"Errr, just og straight" (drunken cheers in the background)
"What?? Hey did you go by (insert landmark here) on your way there?"
"Hmmm, just turn your lights on and go straight." (more cheering in background) "Hold on..." (30 second pause on a roaming cell phone call from Austria to Austria, tres cheap... "Yeah just turn your lights on and go straight."
Hang up.
Other people in Ross's car: "What did they say?"
Ross: "Tim's drunk again."
It was a well deserved beer when we arrived. Saturday we woke up bright and early to start the rafting run. We needed gas and so told the caravan of cars that we needed to stop before getting to the rafting site. Of course they kept going, and of course we got lost again. An hour later and many useless phonecalls later (see conversation above) we finally arrived and got ready for the day's first rafting tour.
The first run on Saturday was very light, a training run, but not bad since personally I was still trying to wake up but the cold water sure helped. Man that water was cold, but nowhere near as cold as the other river we had the second day! I don't know if I can have children anymore after swimming in that Artic-like river! The second run rocked for the first part and the end was tame like the first run. Alot of fun with some people going overboard for some swimming (Anette was in the water more than the boat) and some good times. The group was broken up into two big boats of 10-12 people and for the record our team won, not that we were racing of course since the other team's hardest paddleing barely caught up to us when we were resting and letting the current take us. Of course it didn't help that Peter was suntanning... I mean, fake paddleing the entire time :-)
After rafting we vegged out, played some soccer (finding the ball everytime Louis kicked it over the cliff was harder than the actual game itself!) and started the bonfire. The bonfire was cool but a little low key as I guess most people were tired from rafting and drinking the night before. That didn't stop the Canadian contingent from doing it up Canadian style, hey Jenny did you ever call that 45 year old stud that you ran out on back? :-) The German's had a hard time keeping up (Peter you're an honourary Canadian) but the Kazakstani contingent certainly "took it up a snatch" with the smuggled "real" vodka. When we originally ordered some vodka shots they basically served us glorified water. The Kazi Vodka totally KO'd us and caped a great night.
I awoke to a pounding head the next morning, got ready and headed out. The second day we were on a different river and to offset the fact that we couldn't go on the major rapid run we were allowed two small rafts of 3 people each in addition to the 2 large boats. This made a world of difference as the smaller boats are easier to manouver but alot less stable. Our raft rocked! With the leadership of Aussie, balence of Timmy and my surehanded stearing ability we dominated the rapids only flipping once. This river also had some interesting and fun things to do like swimming (translation: floating and trying to stay alive) down a patch of rapids and jumping off a small ridge:
The water in the river is so clear that you can see the river floor everywhere there isn't rapids. Apparently it supplies all the water for Vienna, and for that day it supplied me and others with some much needed refreshment during our lunch break. To be honest it was 10 times better than treated Pforzheim water (hence my roomfull of emplty Volvic bottles). BEWARE the "golden gift" Aussie gave to the rest of Vienna when we left :-) So the second run was also alot of fun.
Shortly after getting back the Vitara crew took off for Pforzheim. It's quite discouraging that we drove straight and hard but still met another car at the Pforzheim gas station at 10PM that had left over 2 hours after we had. Damn you highway driving!!
Anyways the weekend was a total success and as I total it:
Over 2000 km and 22 hours driven +
Two cases of beer +
Twelve rounds of shots +
Two rafting tours +
One rollover +
One bonfire +
= One hell of a good time!
Note: other pics can be had from the rafting website or the MBA yahoo group.
Friday totally sucked as the summer babe-magnet Vitara jeep doesn't enjoy high speed highways (maxes out at around 120 km/h... ouch!) and we got lost to boot. Of course it didn't help that whenever we called for directions the people that had arrived hours earlier were completly hammered and no help at all. Sample conversation:
"Hey guys, where's the hotel? We just went on (insert road name here) and are at (insert intersection name here), where do we go?"
"Ahhh, turn your lights on." (shot round in background with cheering)
"What?, yeah they're on, where do we go, have you seen this (insert road name here)?"
"Errr, just og straight" (drunken cheers in the background)
"What?? Hey did you go by (insert landmark here) on your way there?"
"Hmmm, just turn your lights on and go straight." (more cheering in background) "Hold on..." (30 second pause on a roaming cell phone call from Austria to Austria, tres cheap... "Yeah just turn your lights on and go straight."
Hang up.
Other people in Ross's car: "What did they say?"
Ross: "Tim's drunk again."
It was a well deserved beer when we arrived. Saturday we woke up bright and early to start the rafting run. We needed gas and so told the caravan of cars that we needed to stop before getting to the rafting site. Of course they kept going, and of course we got lost again. An hour later and many useless phonecalls later (see conversation above) we finally arrived and got ready for the day's first rafting tour.
The first run on Saturday was very light, a training run, but not bad since personally I was still trying to wake up but the cold water sure helped. Man that water was cold, but nowhere near as cold as the other river we had the second day! I don't know if I can have children anymore after swimming in that Artic-like river! The second run rocked for the first part and the end was tame like the first run. Alot of fun with some people going overboard for some swimming (Anette was in the water more than the boat) and some good times. The group was broken up into two big boats of 10-12 people and for the record our team won, not that we were racing of course since the other team's hardest paddleing barely caught up to us when we were resting and letting the current take us. Of course it didn't help that Peter was suntanning... I mean, fake paddleing the entire time :-)
After rafting we vegged out, played some soccer (finding the ball everytime Louis kicked it over the cliff was harder than the actual game itself!) and started the bonfire. The bonfire was cool but a little low key as I guess most people were tired from rafting and drinking the night before. That didn't stop the Canadian contingent from doing it up Canadian style, hey Jenny did you ever call that 45 year old stud that you ran out on back? :-) The German's had a hard time keeping up (Peter you're an honourary Canadian) but the Kazakstani contingent certainly "took it up a snatch" with the smuggled "real" vodka. When we originally ordered some vodka shots they basically served us glorified water. The Kazi Vodka totally KO'd us and caped a great night.
I awoke to a pounding head the next morning, got ready and headed out. The second day we were on a different river and to offset the fact that we couldn't go on the major rapid run we were allowed two small rafts of 3 people each in addition to the 2 large boats. This made a world of difference as the smaller boats are easier to manouver but alot less stable. Our raft rocked! With the leadership of Aussie, balence of Timmy and my surehanded stearing ability we dominated the rapids only flipping once. This river also had some interesting and fun things to do like swimming (translation: floating and trying to stay alive) down a patch of rapids and jumping off a small ridge:
The water in the river is so clear that you can see the river floor everywhere there isn't rapids. Apparently it supplies all the water for Vienna, and for that day it supplied me and others with some much needed refreshment during our lunch break. To be honest it was 10 times better than treated Pforzheim water (hence my roomfull of emplty Volvic bottles). BEWARE the "golden gift" Aussie gave to the rest of Vienna when we left :-) So the second run was also alot of fun.
Shortly after getting back the Vitara crew took off for Pforzheim. It's quite discouraging that we drove straight and hard but still met another car at the Pforzheim gas station at 10PM that had left over 2 hours after we had. Damn you highway driving!!
Anyways the weekend was a total success and as I total it:
Over 2000 km and 22 hours driven +
Two cases of beer +
Twelve rounds of shots +
Two rafting tours +
One rollover +
One bonfire +
= One hell of a good time!
Note: other pics can be had from the rafting website or the MBA yahoo group.
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