Day 78 – Rueisuei ride and rafting

Amazing crystal clear blue sky day with barely any clouds. It is the first day the tops of the mountains have not been shrouded in clouds. Perfect day to go white water rafting. 

Being a rest day we haven’t much cycling to do, just enough to get us back down to the river so we can start paddling. 

It wasn’t anything like whitewater rafting we had done in the past. Normally you have guide who sits in the raft and is in charge of steering and directing the other passengers what to do. In this case, the guide is in his own zodiac power boat and directs from afar. The six paying visitors, us four and two Taiwanese, are given no drills or paddle useful for steering the raft. To start with it was very frustrating because I wanted some sort of control, which is impossible from the front of the raft. Once I let go and went with the flow it was so much more enjoyable. It felt more like a roller coaster ride, so sit back and enjoy the amazing scenery. 

The guide in the zodiac was amazingly skillfull. He would position his boat in dangerous locations or nudge or push our raft to the best startin point of a set of rapids. He also had perfected the art of creating a wave that would completely drench the intended victims. 


Stopped at a waterfall that had limestone  layers like a massive wedding cake that has moss for icing. 

We were strapped onto the back of the zodiac for sections that were flat or the opposite – bigger rapids. In the picture below the sides of the gorge are lined with river stones set in what looks like concrete. Not sure how it was formed. 

After four hours we make it to the sea. That is Patrick in the zodiac with the guide. 

Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/936194342/

4 thoughts on “Day 78 – Rueisuei ride and rafting”

  1. Wow, what extraordinary adventures you are having. You seem to have done every imaginable activity on water. It will make a great film when edited into something on your return. I’ll have to think of a title. Im sure Bear Grylis would be interested.
    Thanks Julie for your rudey nudey card from Cambodia. I can quite understand why the boys didn’t want to be associated with it. Happy Birthday Robert for April 14th. You won’t forget your 13th birthday. Lots of love, Moya

    1. Definitely enough memories and stories to fill a movie or book. We have had more adventures with water yesterday on a river with a wild hot water spring. For more details you will have to read the blog post being posted tonight.

  2. Yes looked a lovely day, great country to ride and raft even without total control. Old rock formations or just wet all the time? Bridges for different traffic?

    1. Old and relatively new rock formations. The typhoon floods have a huge amount of power behind them. All over Taiwan there are multiple bridges. When they need a bigger bridge because they are expanding the highway they leave the old bridge. In many cases it is made to be a dedicated cycle path.

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