WATER WATER EVERYWHERE…

and plenty to drink, and swim, and raft and boat and have a blast.

So for the driest continent, Australia has been all about water so far. We swim, we scuba, and now we RAFT!

A full day of whitewater on the Tully! Class 4 rapids and fun.

It was 1 1/2 hours from Cairns (for those of you still wondering how the heck you pronounce this city, it's essentially "Can" or "Cans".)

We took a bus south to a land where they get 30 METERS of rain a year.

But it didn't rain on us. It was hot, sticky and perfect for getting soaked on a river coming down from mountains.

This was the first time Tom had ever rafted,and he got a good one. Our guide was Chris, a dirty mouthed, wild and fun Aussie (who seemed like a bit of a romantic as well, though he probably wouldn't admit it). He also guides in the US on the American River (Brad Riley, you reading this? It turns out that Chris the Aussie knows good old Brad Riley (of Former Feet First DJ company fame (where I work for those of you who don't know)).

Small world indeed.

But enough philosiphizing, let's hit the RIVER!

Chris had a blast with the 3 of us and a girl from Germany. (unorignal, but we all called her "germany"). He flipped us a couple of times on purpose. Which was a bit wild.

But he never did it when there was any real danger (though it sure felt like it when it happened). We paddled, hit some crazy rapids with names like "double D cup", "2 inch" and such. There are stories behind them all, and I'll let you guess what they are for now.

Olga got tossed from the raft when we were "surfing" a rapid, going around and around in the splashing foam. I did the river rescue thing and pulled her up into the boat... and we all took a breath... and she got sucked BACK into the churning waters...and went under the boat. When she popped up on the other side, I grabbed the shoulders of her life jacket, and Tom got one and we yanked her back in the boat again. She says I'll be the Godparent of her kids someday for saving her life. (you're welcome Olga, but don't start having kids to soon).

We had a tasty lunch.

But it was the afternoon that things got really interesting.

Because we flipped completely over in a rapid (first time I've ever been on a raft that flipped like that. It's always been someting intentional, but this one was legitamate!) Boat went over, i went way under and poppled up and we all were able to swim to shore. it was a hell of a lot of fun! :)

There were waterfalls, and other swims, riding class 2 rapids outside the raft. And at the end we went over a waterfall with us all at one end of the boat. it was about 6 feet tall, and Chris FLIPPED the boat end over end. We all went deep and had a good swim.

fun fun...

And the next day we rented a car. Drove on the wrong (right?) side of the road. Which is a very strange experience for anyone who's never done it. And then we went to a cool waterfall. (starts with a "J", but I'm blanking on the name). Where there was a really wide natural rock slide! So we slid down this 25 foot long slide of fun into a nice cool pool surrounded by jungle. Awesome.

and in the afternoon (after finally drying off, been 6 days of swimsuits in a row!), we are off to SYDNEY!

Where it's cooler temperatures. Less humidity. And...

More WATER!

Our first day here we met up with Catherine and her husband Troy. SOme of you might say "Craig, who the heck is Catherine?". Well, she is someone I met on the INCA TRAIL IN 2004!!!! Yep, we kept in email touch for 4 1/2 years and here we are meeting up to go out on their boat into the waterways south of Sydney! CraZy!

At this point Essylt and David have joined us, so there are 5 people in Team Nails Australia!

Catherine and Troy are so cool, they take us to the very nice boat (okay it's her parents boat, but they get to use it!), and we head out into the channels. ride some waves, jump off the top deck into the water, eat some great food, drink some strange drinks, eat some VEGEMITE! (yep, an Australia delicacy made of Yeast extract or something like that). It's bitter and salty. We shoot some video for my next Trespassing On the Lot film, and swim, and dance and sing to DOWN UNDER by Men At Work.

And yes... we were in our swimsuits again.

Water, water everywhere... every day so far!

Gotta go, running out of time on the internet.

Rock on

Craigo

PS: I'm Sorry for the non BCC's on the last email. I hope it doesn't cause you guys any problems with Spammers.