April adventure

Flatmates, love them or hate them there's no escaping that when you live with someone you're not sharing a bed with then there's gonna be times when differences of opinion can't be reconciled with a lusty workout on the king size.

Now don't get me wrong, I dearly love my long suffering buddy who inhabits the hobbit's room next door to my cave but when it comes to the monthly chore of bill paying there's times when I could throttle the little bastard for his tightfistedness.

Many months ago when his time of the month would come around I toyed with the idea of manufacturing a fuss but decided on a far more practical manner in which to seek revenge – I'd subject him to joining me on life endangering jaunts, all in the name of creative journalism.

So far I've managed to half drown him on a beginners surf trip to intermediates territory, almost induced a coronary for the lad hiking up in the hills but the latest coup has been by far the most rewarding, a good old fashioned rafting exercise up in the hills of Karangasem, with him upfront in the dinghy, breaking my fall on the heavy drops over the rapids.

In truth we both had the times of our lives descending full throttle down the spinning grade three-plus waters of Telaga Waja. Picked up from Seminyak HQ at eight in the morning we winged our way up into the breathtaking natural heartlands of Karangasem with four other rafting compatriots. After an hour on the road we found ourselves at base camp, suited and booted in the pre-requisite safety gear, helmets and life jackets, introduced to our guide Panca, given a quick lesson and armed with a paddle each for battle purposes.

Ten minutes later and we're charging downstream trying our hardest to synchronise paddle strokes and follow instructions from Panca about what direction we should be headed. I'm already looking for my first opportunity to satisfy April's retribution on flatty and I don't have to wait long until we're approaching a three-metre drop over the falls and I shuffle the unfortunate soul into pole position, plant both my feet on his shoulders and brace for impact. Fortunately for him we bounce back from our splashdown, all in one piece with the raft intact and Panca screaming his lungs out, it's a quick adrenalin fix and we take charge of the paddles bouncing off further down river humming the Duelling Banjos theme from Deliverance.

A Java Kingfisher breezes past with breakfast dangling from its beak as we cruise past some imposing steep banks, gigantic waterfalls and ancient hanging trees. The night before had seen a large storm front move in over the Karangasem hills destroying trees in its path and littering this particular stretch of the river with debris. Time to take evasive action as we duck and glide under one felled tree with millimetres to spare between tree trunk and cranium only to swing round the bend to be confronted by a large, partly submerged log blocking the river.

Now any normal approach would be to slow down and negotiate a path around the blockage but being red-blooded boys we decided a far less defeatist approach would be to charge the obstacle at full thrust, make contact with the log then jump forward and pivot the raft over our temporary see-saw, thus clearing the hurdle in one smooth motion.

Unfortunately for us this would require dexterity, composure and expert timing, none of which were factored into our genetic make-up early on this Saturday morning after Friday night's beer tasting spree in town…

Smacking into the barricade I'm up and over the prow of the raft as though my life depended on it, too keenly as it turned out as I missed the front seat completely and end up making a solo flight down the next section of the river on my buttocks, to the soundtrack of raucous laughter from the inhabitants of the temporarily grounded dinghy.

Flatmate one, drenched, humiliated journalist nil…

Having lost ground to the other rafts that hurtled past we sped up and headed towards the second and final drop, the dam.

A four-metre plunge over the weir is by far the highlight of the trip with both feet this time implanted into flatty's kidneys as we charged the freefall into misty oblivion with a collective audience of five other rafts cheering our ungracious descent.

I'm permitted a temporary station in charge of the raft, promptly smacking us into a huge rock before running us aground on a submerged boulder, cue more humiliation – I'm starting to think that this revenge tactic of mine towards flatmate might just be generating large amounts of bad karma in my direction…

Relieved of my command and sent back below deck for oar duty Panca steers us heroically into port and we set foot on dry land some two hours after setting sail.
Voyage completed all that's left to do is ascend the 165 steps up to the restaurant and an emotional reunion with a cold beer.

I'm half way through Bintang number two and eying up the buffet spread as flatty huffs and puffs his way into view, alternately clutching at his chest and kidneys.

Perhaps there's some justice to this monthly revenge business after all…

Rafting trip to Telaga Waja orgainsed by Sobek Adventures. T: (0361) 287 059.