Goranko Fizulic (the Croatian Minister for economics) returned from his first trip rafting on the river Kupa, wet from head to toe and announced that rafting is his favourite sport.

"Rafting is definitely a great thing! Even though I came to Kupa with a fever (my temperature was 38 degrees celcius) that I calmed with two panadols and sleep. Although I was unwell I knew that if I refused to go rafting, the journalists wouldn't have believed I was sick, they would have thought that I was afraid, so I had to go with them to the boat. When I got to the boat I was flushed with cold waves. As my zodiac sign is Pisces, I feel very safe in the water and I'm looking forward to having this adventure again, but during the summer time!" said Goranko Fizulic. "We had great diving-what should this word be????!".

Sunday was the first time Goranko Fizulic had experienced the charms and challenges of rafting. The trip took place on the section of the river Kupa where the water is between two and three meters deep, and sometimes as shallow as 20 centimetres. The water temperature was only 9-10 degrees Celsius, the air temperature was around zero degrees Celsius in the morning and only up to 10 degrees by noon. Fully equipped for rafting with special wetsuit and boots, winter jacket, life jackets and paddles Goranko Fizulic along with another 10 brave people set out on the river. Minister Fizulic always initiates new actions so he agreed to go down the river without lots of negotiations. There were 11 very brave people on the boat: Roland Zuvanic, Damir Reskovac, Vjekoslav Paun, Andreja Sarac, Goran Cop, Marina Dijakovic, Zeljko Kelemen, Alan Seribenk, Tomislav Kraslj, Goranko Fizulic and photographer Hrvoje Zucko. They completed the trip four to five kilometres down the river, after an hour long battle with the rapids. They were as wet as drowned rats.

The most important things during the rafting were co-ordination and team work of all members of the crew, the skipper was Zeljko Kelemen, the president of the Croatian rafting Association. “At the beginning of the adventure we didn't have many problems, we knew how to move to the right or to the left side” said Fizulic. “Roland Zuvanic and myself were at the front of the boat, actually the other rafters were all supposed to follow our lead. Zeljko was yelling instructions from the back of the raft. I'm not really convinced that the two of us were directing the boat, especially on the part of the river where the water was very rapid, instead we were carried by the wild water. That's the most exciting thing- when you are being carried by the wild water, when you can't fully control the boat, when there is the possibility of being turned over, or the boat getting pierced on the rocks. And right after that we started diving, all of a sudden...- And I ended up with people under my legs” laughs Martina. “To protect ourselves from the big wave that literally covered the boat, Mr. Fizulic and Zuvanic slid down to the side of the boat we were sitting on , and as I was sitting on the very edge, they were suddenly under my legs. But they got up very quickly!” says Marina who was the only one on the boat without a paddle. “I enjoyed it, I was screaming, and I was kind of afraid to get into the cold water. All in all, it was very exciting. In the calm part of the river, we enjoyed the landscape” says Goranko Fizulic “and the real challenge was the wild waters of the river that was full of rocks. We once even got stranded, we regained balance on the boat and then Zeljko had to jump into the water to push the boat away and help us dislodge. But, in our defence, the same thing happened to the women's crew during the competition, even though they spent much more time on one of the rocks than we did. Although some of the spectators were yelling to stay on the rock for longer, we still didn't go swimming. “Nobody fell in the water, but if that had happened we all had life jackets on that keep you afloat. Even though we stayed in the raft the whole time, Roland and I were wet through from top to bottom because the boat was occasionally splashed with water and filled with water. It was very hard to keep your legs in the cold water (10 degrees). Overall it was great, it was a wonderful thing to have experienced because rafting on the rivers Kupa and Cetina should enrich Croatian tourism” said the Croatian Minister for Economics. After the river adventure, the crew of the boat changed into dry clothes and went back to the starting point to Osilnica. They then had lunch in the village restaurant where they had beef soup, sausages and other local specialties as well as traditional and famous local drinks known as Rakija and Portugizac. “Our plans are to go rafting again and it is certain that the minister will come back next year”.

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