Rafting adventure on river Cetina at Radmanove Mlinice

Tuesday, 29 April 2025 02:00
Written by Portal Editor

After a few hiking tours, it was now time to relax a little and even enjoy the pleasure of "daily" life: we wanted to participate in one of the well known rafting tours on Cetina river.

We probably do not need to tell anyone of our readers what is going to happen during this so much popularized recreational sport, if, at all, the customer / us usually uses wild water of different levels of difficulty. So we were excited about the difficulty of the Cetina, which is specified with WW2 level reaching easy to moderate.

Be sure to listen to the guide’s commands

We were picked up directly from the Camp Galep together with the other participants and arrived at our departure after 14 kilometers along the Cetina through the magnificent canyon, where a short safety briefing was carried out for the distribution of life jackets and helmets. Rafts, as our guide explained on the ground, are usually build in sizes ranging from 4 up to 12 people. They consist of very robust, multi-layered rubberized fabrics with several independent air chambers. The floor is just hooked on modern rafts, so that penetrated water escapes quickly, which should be confirmed by practice in a moderate way a little later.

The length of the rafts usually varies between 3.60 m and 5.80 m, the width between 1.60 m and 2.50 m. To differentiate between different boat shapes in Europe, the symmetrical raft, controlled with the single bladed paddle at the stern, is the most common. Other types are the asymmetrical, rudder-controlled rafts. Be moved forward, raft paddlers use the single bladed paddle. So far as first some technical details.

Quickly, we got some advices to the practical application of the paddle, which is most important and essential to listen to the commands of the Guides.

We decided, as a base language, to choose English, which led to the result in some translation work for us. After a few dry runs we got quick into the raft, even learned some details about the route, which consisted of three sections.

Overall, we would cover a distance of approximately 11.5 kilometers, which can be managed in 2,5 to 3 hours. As a very practical help we learned our divers shoes that prevented to slide from the fixing part for the feet.

A team working together

Thanks to the now quite sophisticated security measures of predominantly commercial providers for rafting it has become a relatively safe leisure sports. Depending on the destination, there are sometimes quite rigid security regulations of public institutions for providers:

This ranges from the audit requirement for operators and boatmen on the regular decrease of boats up to clear rules as regards the equipment to be carried.

Rafting is when the usual safety rules are complied with, any above average dangerous sport. Our guide had appropriate qualifications based on regulations of Croatia.

Then, finally, it should go. First, the course of the river was more similar to a calm water that allowed a smooth ride and appropriate exercises by our guide. This was followed by the first rapids and we have the opportunity to improve our speed of reaction to the commands of the guide.

Since two experienced canoeists were in the raft, we were quickly trained and above all acting together as a team, so the bigger tasks could be targeted.

What should we write more, the images speak for themselves. A great experience for almost anyone.