If ever you needed to test the loyalty of your friendship, don’t do what Trevor Noah did on his friend-vacation river rafting experience.
While most of us recover from the holiday period, Noah and his friends are living their best lives, at risk, on a river rafting experience in Costa Rica.
Among the four friends on the raft was TV and radio personality and long-time friend of Noah, Anele Mdoda, with her bright orange shoes.
Noah had followers in stitches when he shared snippets of their first time experience on the river raft, which ended up on top of them.
From what started as a leisurely chat on the calm waves, turned into a rough ride as Noah and his friends fell overboard into the rough river.
He captioned the post: “Have you ever heard people say “My friends are ride or die!”? Well how many people actually get to test that?
“This years annual friend vacation had brought us to Costa Rica and for the first time we’d be white water river rafting. The guide told us it had just rained so the rapids would be class 3 to 4, which really excited us because we didn’t know what that actually meant.”
Noah explains the calm before the storm: “The first 20 minutes were easy - so easy we started chatting about which countries we’d want to river raft in next. Then the actual rapids began, and most of our conversation turned to sounds that only Africans would understand.
“Each drop was steeper and scarier than the previous one and just when we thought we’d seen it all, our guide told us the next drop coming up was a rapid the locals nicknamed “Terminator” 😳
“It started like every other rapid as you can tell from my smile, but soon the boat was almost vertical and then we were all smashed in the face by Mike Tyson in water form. I don’t really remember much except that one moment I was sitting in the boat and the next moment the boat was sitting on me.”
The former “Daily Show” host says his life flashed before his eyes when he hung on for dear life after the raft capsized.
“The one thing no one can really prepare you for is what it feels like to get sucked into a rapid. Your life jacket is almost as useless as a seatbelt in a plane crash because the rapid is so powerful it keeps sucking you back underneath like a giant water vacuum recirculating your body over and over. Up is down and down is up and all your ancestors voices are clearer than you’ve ever heard them.
“I popped up first and grabbed onto the raft for dear life. Sizwe popped up second and like any good friend pulled himself up by pulling me back under the water. After what felt like an eternity Anele and her orange shoes finally resurfaced and all three of us were pulled to safety🙏🏽”
Noah says he learnt a solid lesson from the experience.
“In many ways that river rafting experience was a perfect metaphor for life - You can’t always choose how crazy the river of life might get, but what you can always choose is the people in your life who you’ll ride those rapids with. And if you choose wisely, even a capsized boat can turn into the greatest adventure. ❤️”
He ended the post with the hashtags: #Friendship #RiverRafting #CostaRica #PuraVida #LifeFlashingBeforeMyEyes #thankyoujesus
Followers had a chuckle at the post and said:
boity wrote: “Perfectly narrated! So scary yet so heartwarming! 🥹😅😂😂👏🏾👏🏾“
nhlanhla_mafu wrote: “Anele and her orange shoes , shame man 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂”
jenniferbala wrote: “Am I the only one noticing the raft guide looking so chilled in frame 4? Just really glad you all lived to tell the tale; this was definitely one for the books. 🙏🏽”
khayadlanga wrote: “I would have had to report the death of three great South Africans on this day.”
Halleberry applauded the bravery: “now that’s a BAR! this just made the whole start of my new year! ❤️”