Practise your Question One....

 

 Below is a sample Q1 for you.

Read Source 1, the online travel article called Rafting on the Grand Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde.

 

1.   What do you learn from Elisabeth Hyde’s article about where she has been and what she has been doing?                                                                                                               (8 marks)

Complete this in 12 minutes and bring it in by the end of the week for marking and feedback. Alternatively, email it to - forrestera@cockermouthschool.org

 

 

 

 

 

Rafting on the Grand Canyon

by Elisabeth Hyde

 

“Just two rules!” our guide Ed shouted. “Rule Number One – stay in the boat! Rule Number Two –

stay in the boat!”

 

It was early July, and we (me, my husband and our three teenage children) were in the middle of a

13-day, 225-mile trip down the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon.

 

On the first day, the 22 of us stood at the starting point, blinking at the sight before us: a long line of 6m rafts, masses of gear, an army of river guides scurrying about. This would be our world for the next two weeks.

 

We were a mixed group: our fellow passengers ranged from our 13-year-old twin daughters to a couple in their mid-70s. You can’t be shy on a Grand Canyon river trip. Not when you’re spending two weeks with two dozen strangers, floating down one of the biggest rivers in North America. You’re on the water for five to eight hours every day, and when

you’re off the water, you’re eating, sleeping, and bathing together in one of the most spectacular environments on earth.

 

Our party filled five inflatable rafts, each rowed by a guide and four or six passengers. All the gear we could possibly need was strapped into these boats. It’s the tightest packing system I’ve ever seen, so that passengers ride perched on the side tubes – prime seats with great views.

 

Rock, rocks, everywhere. During the calmer stretches our guides pointed out the various layers towering above us. Terracotta sandstone, flaky grey shale, massive maroon cliffs streaked with black – I kept straining my neck gazing up at the steep walls closing in on us.

 

Riding the rapids in the Grand Canyon is a Disneyland-like experience – one second you’re plunging straight down into the trough of a wave, the next you’re getting drenched with cold spray as the boat shoots up and over the crest. It’s a white-knuckle, roller-coaster ride that has people screaming with the thrill of it.

 

Which brings us back to Ed’s Rules. The only one who violated them during the trip was me. We hit one rapid at the wrong angle, and the boat rose up and pretty much ejected me into the foaming madness. For the next 45 seconds, I got sucked down and spun around and finally spat up into sunlight, gasping for air. Was I scared? A little. Exhilarated? More than I’ve ever been.

 

By the time we rowed the last stretch, toward Diamond creek, our clothes and hair held about a pound of silt each, but nobody cared. I welcomed the chance for a shower, but the trip left me with a desire to run away and become a river guide.