Bali, Indonesia: White Water Rafting

On July 4th we woke up nice and early in preparation for our day of white water rafting on the Telaga Waja River in central Bali.

I didn’t know what to expect, I had been white water rafting in Canada a number of times, and for the most part I spent more time in the water than I did in the boat.

We were paired with a really nice couple from Australia, and the 4 of us (plus our guide) shared one boat. 

I found that rafting here was very different than rafting on the Ottawa River. The major difference is that here the water is very shallow, with lots of large rocks, and the river is very strong forming one long continuous rapid. You barely have to paddle because the river will just carry you along the whole route. But along the Ottawa River there are lots of rapids but you have calm waters in between rapids where you need to paddle. Also, the water in the Ottawa River is much deeper and the rapids are much stronger, so we frequently tipped our boat or fell out, but here we didn’t tip and everyone stayed in the boat.

We were swept down about 12 kms of rapids. It was so much fun!

We went around many bends in the river and we frequently bumped into the shrubbery along the shore:

The river also took us through some waterfalls, where we evidently got soaked:

The scenery was breathtaking as we traveled through luscious jungle and rice terraces.

We finished off the rafting experience with a buffet lunch overlooking the beautiful river and scenery:

Rafting was one of my highlights in Bali! We had an amazing time, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone visiting Bali!