22.08.2012 – 22.08.2012  25 °C

White water rafting day today!!! We actually had a quite a leisurely start today as we needed to fill in some time til we hit the water. After brekky we headed north back to Cherokee to have a look thru the Cherokee Museum. The theme running thru the museum is the interaction between the tribe and the white settlers (probably hardly surprising). The museum started with an introduction into the beliefs of the Cherokee peoples before it started to explore the traditions of the group. Like most native American tribes, the Cherokee built large central houses for use as meeting places and had raised pavilions for religious purposes. The museum then explores the changes from hunting and gathering to cultivation of the land and ultimately the impact of the white settlers.

The Cherokee were one of the first tribes to try and interact with the settlers. They were some of the first to assimilate and trade with the settlers. Sadly, the relationship soured over the years until the tribe was actually split into two. One part of the tribe agreed to sell off parts of its lands to the settlers with an agreement to keep a small section. The rest of the tribe did not agree to this sale and was sent into exile out to Oklahoma, the now infamous Trail of Tears. The exhibition didn’t spend much time focussing on this aspect of the Cherokee as this museum tells the story of the assimilated part of the tribe (the smaller part).

The last part of the museum is an account of three Cherokee elders who travelled to England to meet with King George in the late 1700s accompanied by Henry Timberlake. He was an English speaking white American who had lived with the Cherokee, spoke their language and had lived amongst them for a year. Most of what we know about 18^th C Cherokee’s (and the journey of the 3 elders to England) comes from the diaries of HT. I find it interesting that if this man hadn’t written a diary during his time amongst the Cherokee, our knowledge of this time would be so much poorer.

By the time we had gotten thru the museum it was lunch time and time for us to head back to the ranch for a bite to eat before we headed out for our white water rafting adventure. The adventure began out at NOC where we were decked out in a waterproof jacket, life jacket and paddle before we boarded the bus for our journey up the river. The rafting here is done on a river that’s water is controlled by a hydro company. As the hydro releases water, the river rises and so the rapids form.. Our rapids today are all rated 1s thru to 3s so nice and small rapids for me to cut my teeth on!

I only need one word to describe white water rafting…… FUN.. White water rafting is awesome! We were really fortunate that we had a great boat, great leader and our fellow passengers were really into having fun. This meant that our leader deliberately ran us up onto big rocks so that our boat would do 360s. The biggest downer was the fact that we had to paddle.. but heck the paddling is half of the fun, particularly when I’m paddling forward and the person behind me is running their paddle into mine! Very amusing!!!

The water was pretty cold, so the first few splashes of water coming over the bow was certainly felt. fortunately, it didn’t take too long for our bodies to get used to the chilly water and then it was two hours of pure FUN. Our guide stopped us half way down the river and let us take a look at an old Cherokee cave. It was a cave that was used by the Cherokee when they were being herded out of their territorial lands. Those who didn’t want to leave their lands (when they were forced)  hid out in caves just like the one the guide brought us to today. The climb up was actually a bit difficult, because we all had wet feet and the ground was steep covered in loose stones. Not ideal, but worth the climb to see an old Indian cave (no cave paintings or any sort of artefacts though!)

Back on the river and the last rapid was by the far the best rapid of the whole river.. the drop off at the end was pure heaven…. So much fun, way better than any old roller coaster any day! The actual river itself was not only heaps of fun but was also quite beautiful. Because the river isn’t super rough we got plenty of time to check out the river banks and the nice homes that line some parts of the banks. One part of the river has house blocks for sale. You can pick yourself up a piece of white water paradise for the bargain price of 300k.. According to locals it is well overpriced (and for the USA it probably is) but compared to prices in Au, there is no way could you get something this pretty for this sort of price at home!!!

All in all, my first experience at white water is not going to be my last! Super duper fun! We ended our adrenalin filled day with one of the best pizzas I’ve had in many a day at this small pizzeria in the middle of Bryson City.. just goes to show that even though you are in the back end of no-where you can still get world class food!!

Song of the Day– Guns ‘n Roses, Paradise City