Gorge Walking: Is it a form of torture? and Rudolph

Hi! We've all heard about waterboarding, but the real question is: Does gorge walking constitute torture??? This is it. You have your kids strip down to their underwear, put them in a wet suit, give them a helmet and have them jump into 50 degree water, making them swim upstream against rushing currents in a gorge all in the name of fun? Well, that is exactly what Steve and the kids did this morning. Luckily the air temperature was a balmy 64 degrees in Aviemore. Their guide Scott told them to have a good sense of humor. I told him I won't go in if the water is below 80 degrees, so I passed. The kids slid over rocks into the freezing water, screaming as they went in and as they came out. Steve and Caity thought it was exhilerating and jumped off 10-12 ft. cliffs into the water. Christian, Paige and Gary had other words for it. They seem to be suffering hypothermia when they got out. They were shivering so bad they couldn't get their wet suits off. Meanwhile, Steve and Caity went for another go at it.  They went through a section of the gorge called the toilet flush. The water is swishing around really fast. I couldn't help think about a story we saw the other night on the BBC news. A four year old boy flushed his two week old puppy down the toilet. Neighbors heard the cries from below their house and the fireman came and rescued the puppy. When they asked why he did it, he said, "He was dirty." Well, all I kept thinking was now my kids know just how that puppy felt when he was flushed down the toilet.  Torture? you decide?

After everyone warmed up we went to the Reindeer Centre and had a chance to wander through a free roaming herd of reindeer. There were about 140 in the herd with 35 roaming on the hill where we were. The kids had a chance to feed the reindeer. They were so friendly and we learned alot about the reindeer from the guides. We hiked for 20 minutes to get up to the area where they roam. The kids really enjoyed this experience. Each of the reindeer have names and can be adopted. We got some great pictures of them and hope to share them with you all soon.