Tubing on the Guadalupe

Saturday

Fortunately, after a relatively big night, we didn't need to be at the coach until about 0930 for breakfast burritos - a variation of egg with sausage, egg with bacon, beans and cheese in soft flour wraps. They were hot and pretty good for the morning after! There was no sign of Laura until just before the bus left as the night out had taken it toll!

We also met the group from Dallas another 30 or so people - this was a large group to go tubing!

The drive to the Guadalupe River took about an hour. Poor Laura was nearly dying, while the rest of us were getting given mini vodka jellies - the orange flavour was my favourite! We were also given rubber bands to identify our group in the river and transferable tattoos - just for fun. So most of the journey was spent putting on our tattoos. I decided on one for my shoulder and one around my ankle (I still have them as they have not come off in the shower!) We also spent a far amount of time covering ourselves in sunscreen as this was going to be an intense number of hours in the sun.

At the river, there was a number of tubes already in the water - not moving very fast!! It has been a very dry summer so the water level was extremely low. We all opted, without much dispute, for the 3 hour trip and not the 7 hour trip down the river!

Our tubes were large inner tubes with a piece of plastic tied on to the base of the tube (as we soon discovered, so your bottom doesn't scrap along the rocks!) We also had beer coolers in other tubes that would float down the river with us, to give us sustenance!! It was nearly 12:30pm by the time we set off and to begin with I was convinced I was going upstream faster than down stream. There were other groups on the river, as well as, family groups, one of which had there dog with them in the ring and who looked particularly sad about it. The only time the dog cheered up was when his owner put him in the water for a swim then lifted the dog out and ended up with a Labrador sized dog on him in his tube.

Some people had music playing, but the common theme was definitely the beer coolers. The beginning part of the river was very slow flowing, but deep enough in the centre not to get bothered by rocks, however, as we continued down we got to some small rapids, which meant pushing normally! We stopped on a rock to wait for the group (and the cooler!), and it was so hot off the water. You also had to be careful because the black tubes heated up to burning temperature. I got stung twice by a large wasp like thing, and it hurt - lots, however, I was more shocked by the size of hole it put in my arm with its stinger! I took over Lindsey's waterproof camera and took lots of photos (that I will get from her, to show you). We were very good putting on a ton of suncream throughout the float! We were about half way down the river when Lindsey began sinking! Here tube had got an inch long tear in it! That meant we were down to three tubes between four, so poor Chris had to opt for swimming and walking! The deflated tube was then towed the rest of the way :)

There was a group stop at the edge of the rapids to get a bit of body relief from sitting in the ring all afternoon. It was nearly 4pm by the time we got to get out point. I was looking forward to food and water by that point. I only heard of one injury in the whole group, a riped off toe nail!!! It was good, however it would be certainly more fun with more water and you would be able to go much further in less time, maybe next year we will be lucky with the rain fall!

For dinner it was meant to be Rudy's BBQ place, however, the que was enormous, mainly because we had two bus loads of people, so the four of us went around the corner to a Mexican place. As I said, all I wanted was food and water - and that it what I got! The BBQ food smelt really good and I was slightly disappointed that we didn't wait in the que, but I don't think I would have lasted!

It must have been nearly 9pm again when we got back to the hotel. I was feeling tired and was very tempted by bed, but finally at 11pm, after a shower and lie on the bed, Lindsey, Chris and me, (Laura had gone straight to bed), went out on the town again! On the way to the bars, we went along a path next to a small burn, and I saw this over sized cat thing running in front of us. I immediately stopped in fear and said, 'what is that?' It was a raccoon, but a big one. Once we had crossed over the burn, it went back the way we came and jumped up on to some rocks next to the path - obviously where it lives, and most likely feeding on human food, which explains its size!

This time we went to a place called Maggie Mae's, which had a large roof top bar. The temperature was really pleasant and there was not the humidity you get in Houston. The music was good and we stood looking over the balcony down the 6th Street people watching! (my favourite past time). Unfortunately, all those photos have come out too dark!

It was very nearly two before we were back at the hotel (again).