Page 300 - Demo

296jump in as once you had got wet you stopped trying not to get wet again and so were less likely to do so. It looked pretty high to me, but I just took a run and hoped for the best followed by everyone else. We then set off in the raft. The Coxswain asked if we wanted a rough on an easy ride. The young American girl%u2019s cry of easy was drowned out by us all shouting rough. Well, at just about the first rapid the raft overturned,and we were all in the water. Eventually we got everyone back on and set off again. You had to paddle at the coxswain%u2019s instructions, and it could be quite hard work to keep the raft in the best channel. Each time we came out of a set of rapids, all of our RAF group raised our paddles in the air and said %u201cjolly nice rapid%u201d all in our best Oxford accents. This caused quite a stir among the Americans in other rafts. I think a couple of chaps fell out at other rapids but eventually we stopped at a sort of beach to have something to eat. At this stage, the girl said she would not get in the raft again and wanted to go home. We now had a problem as the leader said we could not leave anyone there and they would have to take her up to a road and walk back to the starting point and that would take some time. He then promised her that if she got into his raft, it would be a very gentle trip to the end, and she would definitely not fall out. After a lot of time and tears she agreed and so she and her boyfriend swapped with Serge and another of our group. As she moved away her boyfriend said that he was really sorry that he had to go as he was enjoying it all so much. I am not sure that Serge was quite so keen on the swop either as he was not too keen on falling in. We had a great time with the rest of the course with an awful lot of laughter. When we finished, we drove back to the start point to get changed. We were now very cold indeed and really shivering. However, a beer at the end was part of the package and we demanded it. The beer was also freezing cold, and it was hard not to spill it from the plastic cups while holding it. We were the only people having any and so we helped ourselves