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Looking down from near the top of Cat Bells in the Lake District

Paddling Kit
Kayak (think about how much space there is for kit as well as how easy it is to get kit in and out – I took a Jackson Villain, others in the group had Dagger Nomad 8.5, Pyranha Everest, Pyranha Burn M, Liquidlogic Jefe, Jackson Hero)
Throwline
Safety knife
Whistle
Helmet
Cag / Dry trousers / Drysuit
Thermals
Spare thermals
Buoyancy aid
Spraydeck
Pin kit
Paddles
Split paddles
Drybags (I took a mixture of Ortleib medium weight drybags and Watershed drybags. Next time I’ll take Watershed Stow Floats – pricey but definitely worth it)
Airbags
String/rope to tie in drybags and other kit
Water filter bottle
Satellite Phone (We took one for the group. We were too remote to use mobile phones)

Camp Kit
Gas stove (we took one stove between 2)
Saucepan (I took a one litre trangia pan)
Saucepan handle (preferably detachable – otherwise gets hot when cooking on an open fire)
Saucepan lid (speeds up cooking)
Firesteel (great for firestarting if your lighter gets wet – I took this one: Light My Fire Swedish Firesteel – Scout)
Spork
Mug
Lighter
Cotton Wool
Vaseline (vaseline soaked cotton wool is a brilliant fire-lighter)
Toilet rolls
Drybag for toilet roll (I didn’t take a separate dry-bag and my toilet roll got damp on day one!)
Sun hat
Wolly hat
Down jacket/gilet (even though it was warm enough during the day and evening, mornings are cold)
Long sleeve / short-sleeve t-shirts or shirts
Fleece
Trousers
Socks / Warm socks
Shoes (I took crocs as they are light and don’t absorb water)
Bivi / one man tent (I took a Nemo GoGo LE – I’m 6’6″ and had plenty of space, it packs up small and is light)
Sleeping mat (I took a Nemo Astro Air – packs up very small, is very light and, at 6cm thick, makes for a great nights sleep!)
Sleeping bag
Sleeping bag liner (I took a silk one – adds warmth and means I don’t have to worry about getting the bag dirty as I get in and out)
Tarp (we took 3 between 6 of us)
Towel (I took one of those really small travel towels)
Antibacterial hand wash
Zip ties
First aid kit
Gaffa tape
Head torch (I took a Silva Ninox – waterproof and uses standard AAA batteries)
Sewing kit (Was used to sew up a hole in a spraydeck)
Scrubber sponge (for cleaning pan and stuff)
Washing suds
Insect repellent
Mozzie head net

Food

Multi-day food (7 days)

I took the following:
7 x Dried pasta/rice/noodle dishes (1 per day for dinner)
14 x Porridge sachets (2 each day for breakfast)
7 x Coffee sachets (1 per day for breakfast)
1 x Block of cheese (chunk each day for lunch)
17 x Pepperoni sticks (2 per day for lunch and then some spare – they came in packs of 17!)
7 x Energy bars (1 per day – afternoon snack)
14 x Cereal bars (2 per day – 1 at elevenses and 1 at lunch)
6 x Chocolate bars (1 per day for dinner – I would have taken 7 but I only had 6)
1 x Bag of trail mix (for general munching)
1 x Instant noodles (spare)
Some salt and pepper sachets for flavouring food

If you think I have missed something, let me know I I will update the list.

Saturday 20th August 2011

Today was the day. We were to fly in to Lac Vital to start our descent of the West Mapgie and later the Magpie. We had a couple of hours to have yet another go at packing our drybags and working our just how much food to take with us – we were expecting to complete the trip in six days, but do we take enough food for a full seven days? Or six days plus a little extra? Lots of decisions to make! We also popped to the map shop just down the road from the hotel in order to get some detailed maps of the rivers. If you ever happen to find yourself in Sept Iles you have to pay a visit to this map shop. The man in the shop managed to keep us entertained for the best part of an hour as he talked about bears before teaching us how to fold maps ‘the army way’! We later sent Martyn in to get a mosquito head-net. He came out with a can of bear spray and proceeded to sleep with his paddles in close proximity for the entirity of our Magpie trip for fear of bears!In what seemed like no time at all, 11am arrived and it was time to head to the float plane base. With only one car, six people and lots of kit it took a couple of runs to get everything to the base and it suddenly became very real that we were actually doing this. The float planes we were going to be flying in were moored up on the pontoon, we paid and then the fun of squeezing our boats into the planes began. Although each of these planes could take three passengers and three kayaks, only two kayaks could fit inside each plane. That meant that one boat had to be tied to the outside of each plane! As my Villain and Simon’s Everest were deemed to be the two longest boats, we were ones lucky enough to test the knot-tying ability of the pilots.

Our shuttle vehicle

A 45 minute flight took us to our destination – Lac Vital – and all we saw during the flight were trees and lakes. We had a soft landing onto the lake, unloaded the planes and then stood back and watched the planes take off. As we were stood there watching the planes disappear into the distance it suddenly hit me that we were doing this. Miles from anywere. Miles from anyone. Just the six of us for company for up to a week.

Our only escape route departing

With our boats having to be empty for the flight our first task was to pack our boats for the first time, before setting off across the lake towards the outflow which was, after a couple of miles, to lead us into the West Magpie River. Arriving into the West Magpie, a big flat section combined with the wind lead to a few minutes of confusion before we worked out which way was downstream! This flat section lasted for about five miles and took us to our first whitewater of the river – a little gorge with three rapids in. This was to be our first experience of paddling whitewater with loaded boats and I screwed up at the first attempt! Luckily the line I ended up taking went ok. Below these rapids was a nice looking beach where we decided to stop for the night – just over two hours after setting off from Lac Vital. With a fire going and our bivis pitched (and Martyn’s paddles next to his) it was time to find out whether the Wal-mart Sidekick pasta dishes were any good – not that we had any choice as these are what we all had for dinner every night! Any spare energy was spent trying to outsmart the very persistent black-fly that seemed intent on eating us all alive despite a combination of Deet and headnets and by 2130 we were all in bed.

Sunday 21st August 2011

Overnight rain cleared in time for us to get up, cook our porridge and pack away our camp but started again just as we were setting off downstream shortly after 0900 although the rain didn’t last long. During the morning we were treated to some fantastic rapids, requiring a combination of boat and bank scouting. Today everyone got to grips with paddling their loaded boats (which paddle very differently to empty ones). Following a cereal bar for elevenses, a nutritious lunch of a pepperoni, some cheese and trail mix set me up to continue for the afternoon – well, until it was tme for my mid-afternoon Clif (energy) bar.

One of the many fantastic rapids

We failed to find a nice beach to camp on so, just before 1700, ended up stopping and scrambling up the bank where we set camp in a clearing. The ground was covered with a thick, white moss. It was about six inches deep and made for a very comfortable base to sleep on. After pitching camp, we sat around the fire cooking our dinner (more Sidekicks) and checked the GPS and map to find out where we were and roughly how far we had paddled during the day – it turned out that we hadn’t paddled as far as we thought we had.

Camp 2

Monday 22nd August 2011
We had heavy rain and a thunderstorm during the night. Fortunately the rain stopped for us to get up, cook porridge for breakfast and pack up camp before starting again just as we got in our boats and set off downstream. From looking at the map last night, we expected to spend the morning paddling flat water before reaching plenty of rapids during the afternoon. As well as the rain, we were also treated to a headwind which made paddling flat water for hours hard work. However, after a lunch of more pepperoni, cheese and trail mix we were rewarded with some fantastic rapids almost all afternoon.

Martyn hoping he gets through the hole

I didn’t have that great an afternoon. On one of the earlier rapids I came down slightly further towards river left than everyone else, managed to pin nicely against a rock and ended up upside down under the rock. Not wanting to join Simon on the swim tally I was determined to stay in my boat. Luckily I was able to reach up and haul myself back upright – much to my relief! Not content with scaring myself the once, I went for a similar trick on one of the last rapids of the day. The line was something like “ride the tongue down but avoid the rock at the bottom”. Guess what? Yep, I hit the rock. Hard. And got myself into a broach pin. Looking downstream, I was positive that I didn’t want to swim. In fact, I wanted to avoid getting off the rock upside down if at all possible. After a few minutes of wriggling I managed to get the nose of my boat free, allowing me to paddle into the eddy just below. Having seen my amazing attempt at the line, for some reason everyone else decided to portage the rapid. It was still raining as we decided to make camp on another moss-covered clearing, as it had been all day. Despite this, Ray Mears would have been proud of Nick as he managed to get a fire going – for which we were all very greatful, having something to cook our dinner (yes, more Sidekicks) and huddle around to keep warm.

Tuesday 23rd August 2011

Having breakfast on day 4

The rain has finally stopped! After our now traditional porridge, we packed up and set off downstream along the flat water. After a couple of rapids, we arrived at what looked like almost any other rapid on the river. However, we had been warned about what to expect today – a gorge that is not marked on the map that requires a portage with a lead in that looks like every other rapid on the river.  It didn’t take long for us to realise that we had reached the unmarked gorge and the portaging began.

Inspecting the gorge

Doug had already started to portage along the left bank whilst we inspected the gorge so he continued while the rest of us decided that portaging down the river right bank would be better. How wrong we were! Our route involved ferry-gliding across the river above the gorge, bush-whacking through so very dense trees along a steeply sloped bank before lugging our boats up and down over rocks. We got off to a bad start amongst the trees when Simon managed to disturb a wasps nest by dragging his boat over it! By the time we emerged from the trees, only 1/3 of the way along our portage, we could already see Doug at the end having already completed his portage. Reaching the rocks, Rich and I shouldered our boats (which was no mean feat considering how heavy they were) and proceeded to clamber over the rocks. Once we were happy that we had passed the rapids we wanted to portage we sought to get back onto the river. Unfortunately there was a small matter of a cliff in the between where we were standing and the river approximately 5 metres below. After lowering our boats down using our throwlines, climbing down after them and then getting back into our boats at the bottom, we paddled the next part of the rapid to join Doug. As we were portaging next part of the rapid just downstream and starting to falter due to the exertion of portaging in this heat we were quickly brought to our senses by shouts of “swimmer!”. Looking upstream we could see Simon’s boat soloing its way towards, and then past, us. We completed our portage as quickly as we could, jumped in our boats and set off after the boat and paddles. Once these were retrieved, we regrouped and saw Simon walking downstream towards us, quite obviously in considerable pain. It emerged that Simon, Nick and Martyn had re-entered the river higher up than Rich and I had. Both Nick and Martyn had successfully managed to make their desired line down the first part of the rapid after they got back in but Simon wasn’t so lucky. He had meetings with a hole, a wall and an undercut and was sucked out of his boat. Somewhere amongst all of that he took a big impact to his lower back which was causing him a lot of pain. His boat was also looking slightly worse for wear, having had the nose remodelled on a rock during its solo mission.

Simon's remodelled boat after his swim

We took a little break before setting off downstream in search of the lake. After another hour or so (including a lunch stop) the river widened and flattened – we had reached the lake. We had completed the 45 miles of the West Magpie in approximately 24 hours of paddling and we now had 26 mile flat water paddle down the lake to look forward to. I had never even attempted a flat water paddle of a quarter of that distance so I was not looking forward to this. We paddled all afternoon until we stopped at a beach to make camp at 1800.

The lake - we had to paddle to the horizon and beyond!

We were fortunate, in some ways, in that we had a slight tail wind for the four hours we paddled down the lake. Although this is what we wanted, we seemed to expend a considerable amount of effort attempting to keep our creek boats pointing the direction we wanted to go! The evening was spent cooking our dinner (another Sidekick!) over the campfire as we were treated to a beautiful sunset. We also saw our first sign, since our pilots had flown off and left us on Saturday, of other human life as a float plane flew past us having picked up a fishing group further down the lake.

Wednesday 24th September 2011

Waking to clear blue skies and the lake as flat as a pancake we were all hopeful of a good paddle down the lake. Our start was delayed as we took advantage of the lovely weather to dry out our kit on the rocks next to the beach, but we eventually set off at 10am. We made good progress for the the first hour whilst the lake was as flat as a mill pond. Our luck then changed and our progress slowed considerably. It started off as a very gentle breeze at first, but the wind continued to pick up and we spent the rest of the day paddling into a full-on headwind. Every time we stopped paddling forward the wind blew us backwards. The next 6 hours were spent with our heads down, occasionally looking up to make sure we were still on track heading towards the hills in the haze in the distance. We would paddle to the horizon and discover there was still a considerable distance to paddle. Lunch was eaten on the go as we all just wanted to keep going and reach the outflow into the Magpie river. I cannot explain the relief that I felt when I noticed the water beneath my boat flowing towards the outflow! Despite the tiredness, we paddled about an hour down the river, taking in the first few rapids before stopping for the night. We stopped at a beach that wasn’t ideally suited for camping – it was covered in shrubs and not at all flat – we had to remove some of the shrubs in order to create a big enough gap to put our bivis in, and all of our bivis were on a slope.

Enjoying what we hoped would be our final breakfast on the river

On the plus side it did have a nice rock for us to sit on while we were enjoying our dinner -yes, another Sidekick! As we were sat around the fire the discussion turned to tomorrow. We knew that it was less that 35 miles to the get-out and knew that it had been done in one day before – the group was split into a Thursday club and a Friday club, based on when they expected us to reach the get out.

We were treated to an amazing sunset after a hard days graft on the lake

Thursday 25th August 2011

Despite the mixed expectations over whether we would finish today the whole group were up and ready early, managing to set off downstream by 0820. We were into the whitewater immediately, albeit with some easy-ish rapids to start with. It didn’t take long for the whitewater to subside and, before we knew it, we were back paddling flat water into a headwind! Simon demonstrated the dangers of portaging as he managed to pin himself as he got back into the river! Maximising our chances of completing the Magpie in one day, we even lunched on the fly as we portaged another large rapid. There were a number of fantastic rapids ranging up to grade 5, although they were interspersed with a considerable amount of flat water. At 1600 we arrived at a rapid leading into a gorge. The entry rapid looked nasty, and the rapids downstream didn’t look any better. I set off along the rocks on the left bank. After I had made it about 50 metres downstream, Martyn shouted from upstream to say that they had located a portage path on the other bank and they were all going to use that. If I wasn’t so stubborn, I would have carried my boat back to the top of the gorge, paddled across and then made use of the portage path. However, I am stubborn. Very stubborn! Instead of taking the logical option, I decided that it would be easier to paddle across the river in the pool I was next to and carry my boat up the other bank to the path. Sounded simple enough and definitely like a plan! My grand plan came crashing down when I had paddled across the pool and realised that the bank on this side was considerably steeper than I had realised. The next half an hour was spent scrambling up the cliff to a ledge, hauling my (very heavy) boat up to the ledge on a throwrope, and repeating. I then had to drag my boat through the trees and down a bank, where Martyn was standing having taken his boat along the path and then coming back to look for me! Having seen the portage path I would highly recommend its use in the future – it is considerably easier than hauling a loaded boat up a cliff! Reaching the enf of the portage path, we got back in and headed across the flat water towards the get-out. Paddling across the lake we were quite surprised to see a cloud of spray coming up from the flat water ahead of us – certainly not what we were expecting. As we got closer, we realised that this was Magpie Falls. This time I decided to follow the others along the portage path! Again, we set off across the flat water towards the get out, all feeling tired and ready for the end. By now it dusk was setting in and we were tired. We should have expected this by now, but the river had one final curve-ball to throw us. Martyn and Rich sat in an eddy above the rapid, looked down and could see an eddy part way down. Martyn went for it, made the eddy and then peeled out again. Disappearing over the lip, the next we saw of him was the nose of his boat coming back over as he was back-looped towards the centre of the hole. Luckily it washed him straight out so, one by one, we followed. A nice grade 5 rapid to end the trip! From here, we paddled around the corner and could see the pylons marking the end of the river. To end the trip, we were treated to the sight of a beaver swimming just in front of us. With the dam now completed, it was a simple walk up the track to the car where our (now warm) beers were waiting! We changed out of our stinky paddling kit, loaded up the car and set off on the 100 mile drive back to Sept Iles. To say the atmosphere in the car was jubilant would be a slight understatement! Unfortunately there aren’t many photos from the day due to the relentless pace we maintained during the day.

Back in Sept Iles, two hours later, we started the search for somewhere to stay. Somewhat surprised, the first motel we tried was fully booked and so we booked into Motel 7 – where they only had 3 double rooms available. Fortunately none of us were fazed by this – we were happy to be somewhere with modern facilities!! After collecting the car and showering, we headed off into town to find the slap-up meal and beers we were all eagerly looking forward to. However, none of us had taken the late time into account and we discovered the only place open for food in Sept at 11pm on a Thursday was Subway…. not quite what we were looking for but we weren’t going to turn it down.

Friday 26th August
Despite not having to pack up camp can get off paddling today, we were still up early. Following on the food trend last night, our slap-up breakfast consisted of another McDonalds before we heading back to the motel. The next couple of hours was spent unpacking and drying our kit out under the clear, blue sky. By late morning our kit was dry and we were packed up, ready to hit the road for the long drive back to towards the airport.

Simon’s write-up can be found at: http://thedrownedfish.co.uk/2011/09/05/quebec/.

More photos are available at:
Http://photos.andywicks.com/Quebec2011
Simon’s photos on Facebook

Sunday 14th August 2011

The issues started before we had even set off for Gatwick. After arriving at my house, we discovered a 4 inch crack in the bottom of Martyn’s boat – that would make it entertaining to paddle across 26 miles across a lake! Fortunately I had a couple of spare boats in the shed that Martyn was able to choose from so he ended up taking my old Nomad 8.5 (I have recently changed to a Jackson Villain). After spending a few hours practicing how to pack our gear into our boats, Doug arrived and we loaded the boats onto the car ready to head to Gatwick very early the following morning.

Monday 15th August 2011

Today started very early – we left my house at 0430 in order to get to Gatwick for 0600 This should leave us plenty of time to unload the cars, drop them off at the car park and get to check in nice and early. Upon arrival at Gatwick drop off, we pull up behind Simon’s car who had arrived only a couple of minutes previously… not bad considering we hadn’t arranged it!

When flying with boats the most stressful time is checking in as we hope that we get the boats on without any issues. Fortunately Thomas Cook have a clearly defined policy for taking kayaks (£30 flat fee each way) with the only weight limit being the 32kg limit specified for baggage handlers. Once we had checked in and then dropped all of our boats off at oversize baggage it was time to go through security to get some breakfast – I can proudly admit to enjoying my fry-up with both a coffee and a pint of London Pride!

We discovered we were on the same flight as Sam and Emily from Love It Live It, who were off to Ottawa to run a coaching course. During the flight Emily came over to show us some photos from her trip down the lower Magpie river a few years before which whetted our appetite even more.

Arriving at Ottawa, we retrieved our boats and kit, collected our hire cars (a Ford Explorer SUV and a Dodge Caliber) and commenced with the challenge of loading them with 6 boats and all of our luggage – no mean feat! It didn’t take Helen long to get tired of our farcical attempts at loading the boats so she decided to take public transport to commence her own holiday (she flew out with us but as a non-paddler had her own itinerary as a tourist in Canada). After numerous attempts, we were finally fully loaded and ready to leave the airport and headed into downtown Ottawa in the direction of the Ottawa Paddle Shack where Martyn and Simon purchased matching bright yellow cags and Rich invested in a set of AT paddles. Our next stop was just down the road at the Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) were we all invested in a considerable number of Clif energy bars and various other bits of outdoor gear we needed for the trip. Returning to the Dodge we discovered that we had already earned a parking ticket – having only been in the country for a couple of hours!

Having lightened our wallets significantly, it was time to head out of the city towards our first river. A two hour drive took us to Maniwaki, near the Gatineau river. We pulled in to a motel only to discover that the lady on reception didn’t speak a word of English, so it was time to pull out our best French. Somehow we succeeded in getting three rooms so we dumped our stuff and set off in search of much needed food before getting a relatively early night (having been up for approx 22 hours taking into account the five hour time difference).

Tuesday 16th August 2011

Struggling to adjust our body clocks, we were all up and about early and wolfed down a McDonalds breakfast before setting off to the river.

Trying to locate all of our kit at the Gatineau get-on

The shuttle took considerably longer than any of us expected and this was the first, but definitely not the last, time that we doubted the distances quoted in the guidebook. The river turned out to have a considerable amount of flat sections, although it did have a number of interesting rapids. On the track between the get-out and the road Simon discovered that the Ford Explorer was not 4 wheel drive as he managed to get the car sideways on a bend, heading for the bushes! After collecting the Dodge from the get-in, we set off on the six hour drive to Tewkesbury, in preparation for paddling the Tewkesbury section of the Jacques Cartier river tomorrow.

We arrived in the town of Tewkesbury after dark and, after discovering the only motel in the area was fully booked, we decided to bivi in the car park at the get-in. Pitching in the dark we were glad at how easy it was to pitch our bivis. The biggest challenge we faced was in avoiding the boggy patches all around where we were pitching.

Wednesday 17th August 2011

Awaking early again, we were to all surprised to discover that our wild camping spot came with a port-a-loo (courtesy of the local rafting companies who use the car park as their get-on).

Our wild camping car park

With no eateries in the close vicinity (we were actually a couple of miles outside of the town), it was porridge for breakfast. Once kitted up and the shuttle complete, we got on the river and were pleased to see that this river actually had a flow (unlike the Gatineau yesterday where the flat sections had no obvious flow). It didn’t take long for the rapids to arrive and after a few warm up rapids we arrived at what looked like a long rapid. As we started to eddy-hop our way down Simon managed to drop into a chunky hole and proceeded to demonstrate his freestyle ability. Unfortunately, the hole was not in the mood for letting Simon escape in his boat so before long he was heading downstream while his boat continued to recirculate. Having seen Simon’s beating, none of us were particularly up for following his line into the hole so Rich and I headed off downstream after him, being careful to avoid the big holes. Simon managed to get himself and his paddles to the bank and out of the river at the bottom of the rapid, approximately 200 metres from where he swam, while his boat managed to eddy out into the eddy next to the hole he swam from. Once Simon had collected his boat and everyone else had reached the bottom of the rapid it quickly transpired that Simon was not the only one to enjoy some hole time – Nick managed to drop into the same hole as Simon but escaped in his boat and Doug found himself in another large hole towards the bottom of the rapid – again managing to escape in his boat. We later discovered that Simon had been beaten in a hole called “Meatgrinder”! There were a few more chunky rapids before the get-out was reached. Despite it only being early afternoon and the run down taking a couple of hours, we made the decision not the run the section again – deciding instead to set off towards our next destination – the Malbaie. As we starting to realise, Canada is actually a very big place requiring a considerable amount of driving to reach each of our destination.

Following the instructions in the guidebook, we turned off the highway after kilometer board 55 onto what the book describes as a ‘dirt road’. It turned out they weren’t joking! After a few miles of this we crossed the river and arrived at a lodge claiming that we had to register our entry into the park. A chat with the woman in the lodge was again made complicated by having to hold the entire conversation in French, but it didn’t take them long to get across the message that camping was prohibited in the park with the nearest campsite being at Lac Ha! Ha! half an hour up the road. Bundling back into the cars we went back to the highway and followed the directions to the campsite. Luckily it was easy to find – it was signposted from the road. However, as the receptionist didn’t speak a word of English booking in was complicated but we ended up with two pitches for the six of us. We did feel and look quite out of place as all of the other pitches had large RVs or caravans on whereas ours had 6 bivis! As each of the pitches had a fire pit we decided that we would have a go at cooking dinner on an open fire. Our attempts were short lived as, blaming the restrictions imposed by the small fire pit, we pulled out the gas stoves to cook our dinner considerably quicker whilst doing our best to avoid getting eaten by the mossies.

Thursday 18th August 2011

As the alarm went off at 0600 we all awoke looking forward to the adventure that awaited us today. This morning we didn’t even consider cooking porridge on a open fire so fired up the gas stoves and left the campsite by 0730. Now, such an early start when we stayed just over half an hour from the get-on should mean that we got way before we ended up getting on at 1300! The guidebook says to drive as far down the road to the get on as we dare before unloading and continuing on foot.

Making our way to the get-in

We decided that we ought to do the shuttle while we left the others to walk down to the river so off Rich and I went. If we thought the dirt tracks up to this point were bad we were in for a real shock! The stones in the road grew into what could be classified as rocks and the gradients became steeper. At the top of one particularly steep descent we passed a four-by-four going the opposite direction and I was concerned by the look of shock they gave me as I sat in the Dodge! Nevertheless I slowly set off down the hill wandering if I would be able to drive back up later… The guidebook describes the track to the get-out as a ’6km horrible, horrible dirt road’ – worse than the tracks we had driven along so far. Again, we drove the cars as far as we dared, before deciding to ditch the Dodge and see how much further we could get in the Explorer. A bit further down the road we ditched the Explorer and continued on to the get out on foot (we had to continue down to the get-out so we would be certain to recognise it later on as we paddled the river). After walking for about 2km we spotted something moving along the path a little way in front of us. As we continued to watch it walk on we both came to the conclusion that it was a bear! Needless to say it didn’t take us long to decide that we weren’t going to continue along the path so we hot-footed it back to the Explorer, continually over our shoulders to check that it hadn’t decided to follow us – not that we would have had any idea what to do if it did!! Reaching the car we breathed a sigh of relief as we drove back up the track to find the Dodge and then back upstream to where the track crossed the river, which is where Rich and I decided we would paddle to. We made it back to where we unloaded the boats more than 3 hours earlier without further incident and headed off down the track to the get in. The others had taken all of their kit the few kilometres to the get in and we met them as they were carrying our kit down. We eventually made it onto the river heading downstream at 1245 – almost four hours since we started the shuttle for the 7 mile river! The Malbaie is a fantastic river with plenty of pool-drop rapids and plenty of big holes to avoid.

Martyn in one of the many rapids

We were able to inspect most of the rapids from our boats but, knowing there was a 30+ft waterfall on the river we were suspicious of a few of the horizon lines. As it turned out, we needn’t have worried – the spray kicked up from the bottom of the waterfall was visible from a distance. Inspecting the falls from the bank, Martyn and Nick quickly made the decision to portage, with Doug not far behind them. Rich, Simon and I spent a few minutes looking at lines but our eyes were constantly drawn to the ferocious boil occurring on the right hand-side at the bottom. Despite this, both Rich and I thought that there was a line down the falls, starting off on the left, hitting the rooster tail and hoping that it doesn’t throw us into the mess on the right at the bottom. As we were both so confident in our line choice neither of us wanted to go first so it was down to the only fair way to decide – rock, paper scissors. I went scissors and Rich went rock so, after one last look at my line, I headed off to get in my boat. Sitting in my boat in the eddy I was confident on my line and peeled out into the flow. Within seconds I was over the lip and underwater at the bottom, slowly floating towards the surface. The aeration of the water at the bottom made for the softest landing I have experienced – so soft in fact I didn’t even feel it. One second I was going off the lip towards the rooster tail and the next I was resurfacing! I floated into the eddy below and signalled up that all was good. Shortly after Rich followed me down and resurfaced at the bottom upside down. Having seen me and Rich get down safely Simon decided that he wanted a go and, after ensuring there was sufficient camera cover, got in his boat, peeled out of the eddy and fell off the waterfall.

Yours truly on Gatineau Falls

Rich paddling out from the bottom of Gatineau Falls

The rest of the river passed without incident and the get out bridge was soon reached. With the boats loaded and us changed, we set off back up the dirt track towards the get-in to collect the Dodge before heading off in the direction of Sept Iles. Unfortunately, the second hill proved too much for the Explorer and we failed to reach the top. In fact, we only made it about a third of the way up before the car lost grip and made it no further. Thinking it might be too heavy, everyone but the driver got out who reversed the car to the bottom of the hill before taking a run up and trying again. Nope, still didn’t get to the top. We were starting to get concerned that we might be stuck out here, miles and miles from anywhere (including the road!) and it was only a couple of hours before dark.

Trying to get to the top

Three more attempts and a change of driver later the car finally made it to the top – much to our relief. We collected the Dodge, returned to the road and started the 7+ hour drive to Sept Iles. We stopped at a roadside Motel after a couple of hours, enjoyed our first showers since Tuesday morning and dined in yet another diner.

Friday 19th September

After a relaxed start we continued the long drive to Sept Iles, eventually arriving mid-afternoon.

The long drive to Sept Iles

Our first port of call was the float plane location to check that everything was still on for our flight tomorrow. Despite having booked a plane to take all six of us together, they didn’t have a large enough plane available so had changed our booking to two smaller planes capable of taking three passengers and boats in each and that our take off had also been put back from 0800 to 1430 due to pilot availability. Leaving our boats at the ‘airport’, we set off for Sept Iles town centre to locate a motel for the night. We checked in to the Comfort Inn, unloaded all of our gear into the rooms and then Nick, Rich and I set off to do the shuttle, having lost the spoof. We were to leave the Explorer at the get-out for the Magpie, some 100 miles further east from Sept Iles with the shuttle. Whilst we were spending almost four hours completing the shuttle Doug, Simon and Martyn made a start at packing for the Magpie trip.

Upon our return at approximately half past eight, the three of us made our first attempt at packing before we all headed off for our last proper food (and beer) for at least five days. An enjoyable dinner was had in Mike’s – a chain of ‘traditional’ Italian restaurants, accompanied by a couple of beers each… except Nick… who stuck to the soft drinks. Returning to our rooms, most of us had a second attempt at packing before retiring to bed.

To be continued…

(EDIT: the rest of my diary is now available at http://blog.andywicks.com/2011/09/29/canada-2011-multi-day-on-the-magpie/)

Simon’s write-up can be found at: http://thedrownedfish.co.uk/2011/09/05/quebec/.

More photos are available at:
Http://photos.andywicks.com/Quebec2011
Simon’s photos on Facebook

A quick summary….

• 22nd December I had laser eye surgery with Ultralase in St Albans. I have gone from a -6 prescription in both eyes to having 20:20 vision – can’t really complain at that. The big downside was having to take a 3 month break from paddling while my eyes healed
• 26th December I asked Lindsay to marry me. After her initial response of “Are you serious?” she did say yes! Wedding preparations started in earnest the following day and are still ongoing

Lindsay and I

• Visited Frinton-on-Sea in January
• Had a holiday to France at the end of February, first to Menton Lemon Festival followed by a few days taking in the sights of Paris
• Chose our wedding photographer (Innovation Images) following a test shoot – the results can be seen here
• Popped across to the Isle of Wight over the Royal Wedding weekend (very grateful for the extra day off!)
• Back in a boat for a paddling session at Holme Pierrepont in May
• Went camping in Devon at the end of May and even managed a flight in a glider! – photos
• Lee Valley Whitewater Course (Olympic Course) finally opened to the public on 11th June – I was there straight away. I have now had four sessions and would highly recommend it if you get the chance. It is a challenging course (on my 3rd visit I snapped my paddles and swam!) but great fun.

Lee Valley Whitewater Course

• I came 12th in my first visit to the Kingfisher Blastathon at Abingdon weir
• Had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend at the Tryweryn with Kingfisher at the start of July (aside from all the damn midges!)
• I have just returned from a week in Scotland with Lindsay’s family, learning about their roots.

That just about brings it up to date. Looking forward, I am shortly to embark on a trip to Canada with the aim of paddling the Magpie River in North East Quebec. Flying in on a float-plane and then spending a week paddling back to civilisation sounds like a great trip, aside from the massive (read 26 miles) lake we have to paddle across in the middle!

Flying with kayaks is always an interesting experience and this starts from the moment of arrival at the airport. We can really use public transport due to the kayaks so I drove. I dropped Jethro off at the terminal with our boats and all of our luggage before I set off to leave my car at a friends house in Ealing for the duration of our trip. Things started to go wrong immediately as I took a wrong turn as I left the airport! About an hour later I returned to the airport ready to find Jethro and then check-in.

Jethro with our boats

At check-in, we knew that we had a baggage limit of 32kgs each. My boat weighed 22kg and Jethro’s 21kg. This did not leave much weight for our paddling kit and equipment for the three weeks. Fortunately, the check-in assistant asked me how much our boats weighed rather than having us fight to get them through the queues so they could be weighed. “About 15 kilos” was my response, barely expecting to get away with it. A few seconds later I was presented with our baggage tags, boarding passes and instructions on where to drop off the boats. We dropped off the boats and rest of the kit at oversize baggage before heading to find a bar for a few pints.

Our flight to Nepal required a three hour stop-over in Delhi. After going through numerous security checks we were able to take in the new terminal 3 building whilst we waited for the final leg of our journey.

Upon arrival in Kathmandu, we organised our visas and collected our bags and boats before being met by Shankar from Mountain River Rafting (MRR), who had organised our transport to our hotel. MRR was the company we had booked our Tamur trip with. After dropping our kit at the hotel we wandered down to the MRR offices to meet Tej and find out more details about our trip. Although we had booked to do a Tamur trip, Jethro and I were the only customers. Unfortunately this meant that, due to the high costs of running the trip, we were not able to do it. Instead, Tej proposed that we do a Sun Kosi trip, tagging the last river day of the Tamur trip on the end. The Tamur trip would involve a days drive from Kathmandu, a three day hike along a 3000 metre ridge, six days on the river and then another days drive back to Kathmandu. The Sun Kosi trip would involve a three hour drive from Kathmandu, seven days on the Sun Kosi, a three hour drive from Chatra to Mulghat, one day on the Tamur and then a days drive back to Kathmandu. We agreed to the Sun Kosi trip as it involved more paddling and still included the bottom of the Tamur river, which is arguably the best section of that river.

Leaving the MRR office Jethro and I decided to take a walk around Thamel, the tourist section of Kathmandu. Within five minutes we were lost and it took over an hour to work out where we were! By this stage we were both tired so had dinner and a beer or two before hitting the sack.

Day 3 – Wednesday 20th

Myself and Jethro were the only customers on this trip. Accompanying us from MRR would be Shankar, a Nepalese raft guide and Ben, Ras and Rem to help paddle the raft. There was also a dutch raft guide called Patrick who was out in Nepal travelling and accompanied MRR on some of their trips. Day 3 saw us set off for our Sun Kosi trip. This involved an early start for a 3 hour journey to our get-in near Dolalghat, with a brief stop in Bisantapaur to pick up the last of our supplies. After getting the raft rigged and loaded we finally set off to start our 270km journey down the Sun Kosi to Chatra.

Finally on the river 48 hours after leaving the UK

Jethro decided to test himself by ending up in a sticky hole only a short distance after getting on. After about 25km of flat water we pulled in to a beach to strike camp. Following a starter of fresh popcorn and coffee, our Nepalese guides cooked up a delicious dinner of spaghetti, sauce, veg and cheese.

Day 4 – Thursday 21st

During the night we were all awoken by heavy rain – with only a thin tent between us and the elements and only a few metres between the tent and the river a nervous night was had by all. In the end we needn’t have worried as, although the river did rise by a couple of feet, it was still a long way from reaching the tent. The river had turned orange though!

A now orange Sun Kosi, not far from our camp

Today saw our first decent-sized rapid, a rapid called ‘Meat Grinder’. Due to the high flow of the river, this rapid was not as big as the guides expected it to be – it was more like a collection of big waves. The rest of the day was mainly flat water with a few smaller rapids. This gave us all lots of time to think how lucky we are to be able to travel to see such amazing places and people.

Wherever we went we always drew an audience

The river plays a vital part in every-day life out here – it is used to provide water as well as food in the form of fish. We saw many fisherfolk during our trip, and many techniques were used for catching the fish. The man in the picture below travelled down a stretch of river numerous times each day – first to lay nets in some of the eddies and then, after walking back upstream, he would travel back down to collect his fish.

Travelling down the river to check his fishing nets

Our camp for the night was located located on a beach which had a clean stream running through it. Boy did it feel nice to wash all the sand out of our kit after spending the day being rubbed raw! Unfortunately this water was also used for refreshment by local animals, so we were treated to buffalo and goats wandering around and through our camp during the afternoon and evening.

We got up close with the local wildlife

Throughout our trip we would tend to stop for camp by mid-afternoon. This would give us enough time to dry our kit, pitch camp and cook before it got too dark. At this time of year it was pitch-black by 1800 in the valley. After dinner we would lie back and spend an age looking up at the sheer number of stars visible in the sky and then retire to bed by about half past eight.

Day 5 – Friday 22nd

Crawling out of the tent this morning we were treated to the sight of the valley covered in mist and the river was back to its normal bluey-grey colour.

Just downstream of our camp were the Punch and Judy rapid – first major ones of the day. Jethro ran Punch first as I took photos, before we swapped and Jethro took photos of me running the rapid. This was the way we did most of the rapids on the river, taking it in turns to go first.

Arriving at the beach we were to camp on I realised that we had paddled two of the named rapids without me noticing – they were either washed away during the monsoon or the river was still too high. We ended the day on a beach just a few kilometres above the hardest rapid on the river – Hakapur. We camped on a beach where Slime, author of the current Whitewater Guidebook for Nepal, was camped with the Equator Expeditions trip he was paddling with.

Sharing a camp with the Equator Expeditions group

Day 6 – Saturday 23rd

Following a short, gentle warm-up we quickly reached Hakapur rapid. Looking at the rapid we could see why no-one else had run it since the monsoon this year – it was very big, very fast and there was one hell of a hole at the bottom. Despite this, both Jethro and I could see lines down and were happy to run it. Jethro went first, starting on river right and aiming to hit and surf a big lateral wave across to the centre-left for the bottom of the rapid. The lateral wave turned out not to have as much power as expected and didn’t give Jethro the help he needed, leaving him to ferry hard in order to avoid the big hole at the bottom on the right. My line was slightly different, starting just right of centre at the top to skirt a hole before working my way across to the left for the bottom. We both made it through without so much as a roll!

Here are videos of both Jethro and me running Hakapur:
Jethro running Hakapur rapid
Me running Hakapur rapid

Now, both Jethro and I have similar ideas when it comes to whether to run or portage a rapid, with the difficulty of the portage and effort required forming a considerable part of the equation. The portage around Hakapur didn’t look particularly easy as it would have involved carrying our boats over some quite large rocks. By making the decision to paddle, we thought we had avoided the effort of portaging. How wrong we were. The raft could not make a safe line down the rapid, so everything had to be unloaded and carried around the rapid whilst the raft itself was led empty along the side of the rapid, as close to the bank as possible, before all the gear had to be loaded back onto the raft. This whole procedure must have taken at least and hour and a half in temperatures close to 30 degrees.

Jethro aiming for the lateral wave

Me narrowly avoiding the big hole at the bottom

During the afternoon we paddled past the confluence with the Dudh Kosi, famous for its 1976 Relentless River of Everest Expedition. This marked approximate 143km paddled in three days! The rest of the afternoon was almost entirely flat, with no rapids of note to speak of. We passed another large group – about 35 clients – who were partaking in a raft guide training and assessment course. We stopped quite early today and entertained ourselves by playing in quicksand.

Day 7 – Sunday 24th
Today we paddled from just above Jaws rapid to below the first rapid of the Jungle Corridor. Whilst paddling Rhino Rock, Jethro went first whilst I was on photo duty. As I was happily snapping away, I witnessed Jethro suddenly disappear completely from view, only to re-appear a second or two later by shooting vertically out of the water! It turned out there was a considerable sized hole in the middle of this rapid and Jethro had paddled right into it. Needless to say I took a slightly different line around the edge of said hole.

Jethro immediately before disappearing from view

Below Rhino Rock we stopped at a small village in order to make a call to organise a jeep from Chatra to Mulghat in a couple of day’s time. Whilst there the guides procured a chicken, which Patrick quickly named Jack. Jack was tied into the raft (alive) for a twenty minute paddle downstream to where we were to make camp for the night. Shankar and the others performed some magic trick to turn Jack into a curry, which we all enjoyed for dinner.

This had been the best day so far for quality and quantity of whitewater.

Day 8 – Monday 25th
Today we paddled the remainder of Jungle Corridor – an amazing collection of whitewater rapids interspersed with stunning landscapes. At the end of Jungle Corridor there is a waterfall coming in from the left bank. We took the opportunity to stop here for lunch and take our first showers since leaving Kathmandu! From the waterfall to where we stopped for camp was mainly flat water with only a couple of smaller rapids. We stopped for the day at approximately 1430, spending the afternoon sunbathing and reading my book. This evening we also had our best camp fire so far – being one of the first groups down since monsoon means that there was normally quite a selection of firewood, but Ben had a penchant for burning things and throwing all of our collected firewood onto the fire in one go. This evening we kept him away from the fire and let it burn slowly.

Day 9 – Tuesday 26th
This morning I woke up to the view in this photo – not a bad start to the day!

Not only were we paddling some amazing whitewater but we were also treated to some stunning views

Today was a short day, with only a two hour paddle to where we were to make camp on a beach formed at the confluence between the Sun Kosi and the Tamur. This confluence marks 260km paddled. From here it is only a 10km paddle to Chatra where we are to meet our jeep tomorrow to take us to Mulghat. Below this confluence the river takes on a new name – the Sapta Kosi, meaning seven rivers. From here it flows out across the plains all the way to the Ganges and eventually into the Bay of Bengal. The seven rivers are the Sun Kosi, Bhote Kosi, Tamba Kosi, Dudh Kosi, Indrawarti, Arun and Tamur.

The afternoon was spent entertaining the kids from Trebini Bazaar, the local village. As this was the first place any of us had managed to get any phone signal since getting on the river eight days ago we also took the opportunity to catch up with with the world via text message. After dinner Jethro and I lay looking up at the stars discussing various deep and meaningful matters of life and the world before we got another early night.

Day 10 – Wednesday 27th
An early start – 0815 on the river – saw us setting off on the short final stretch of the river. We paddled past a temple on the left bank, a place only accessible by foot from Chatra but sees a pilgrimage every January consisting of tens of thousands of people. Rounding the last corner of the trip we were both amazed to see the suddenness with which the mountains disappeared and the plans (or terai) appeared. We filtered off into the irrigation channel for the final couple of kilometres to Chatra, where upon arrival we packed up before making our way to a local bar for our first cold drinks since Kathmandu.

Loaded up ready to head to Mulghat

We set off in the jeep around midday for the three hour drive to Mulghat, which took us up and into the Tamur valley. We stopped for briefly at the top to take in the stunning view back over the valley with plains in the distance. Arriving in Mulghat what seemed like the entire village turned out to watch us re-inflate and load the raft before we set off downstream. We only paddled for about 45 minutes before stopping to make camp. Following a relaxing afternoon spent trying local sugar cane and some random local drink that Ben had procured from a local village, during the evening we spent more time simply taking in the amazing view of all the stars – even managing to catch a glimpse of a shooting star.

Day 11 – Thursday 29th
It is difficult to find words to describe the section of the Tamur from Mulghat to its confluence with the Sun Kosi some 35km downstream. One amazing rapid would lead straight into the next and everytime I looked around everyone in the group was grinning from ear to ear. Following quite a gentle trip down the Sun Kosi where every day we were presented with long sections of flat water, this section of the Tamur was completely the opposite – the only bit of flat water that I can remember was the final few hundred metres above the confluence. This is what we had come all this way for. The majority of the rapids were read-and-run, with only a couple requiring prior inspection. Due to the sheer quantity of rapids it would have taken us days to get photos of most of them so we only stopped to get pictures of the more interesting ones.

The most entertaining moment of the trip happened on a rapid called Hell’s Hole, which is an innocuous looking
rapid consisting of some fun wave trains. However, behind one of the waves just over half way down was lurking a rather sticky hole! I only realised this as I crested the wave and immediately dropped into said hole. As I was side-surfing the hole trying to work my escape I saw the raft crest the same wave and end up in the hole with me. Sound fun? Well it gets better! Four out of the five people in the raft were almost immediately thrown clear before the raft flushed a few seconds later. Not much later I managed to escape after digging my nose in and squirting free. After regrouping on the bank Jethro said that he was also stuck in a hole when he was joined by the raft. After a bit of confusion it transpired that we were all stuck in the same hole, but due to the shape of it Jethro and I were unable to see each other with the raft sitting between us!

Patrick despairing at the hole which surprised us all

The remainder of the river passed without further incident and by mid-afternoon we found ourselves back at the beach at the confluence of the Tamur and Sun Kosi, where we had camped two nights previously. We set up camp in exactly the same spot, although care was taken to ensure that the toilet hole was dug in a different place! As I wrote my diary entry for today, Partrick was lying in the shade of the raft reading his book whilst Jethro was playing a game of “throw stones at the little kids”, which I didn’t think was a particularly fair game – Jethro was outnumbered four-to-one with the kids throwing stones back at him!

Day 12 – Friday 29th
Setting off from camp at 0850 we only had 10km to paddle before commencing the long journey back to Kathmandu. An hour later we were on the beach at Chatra laying out all the kit to dry before we pack it up. With all our personal kit packed we left Ben, Ras and Rem to look after everything as Shankar took us to a bar in town for a cold drink whilst waiting for our bus to Kathmandu. It would later transpire that there was no bus to Kathmandu from here today so we had to make other arrangements. We took a lunch of Dhal Baat before getting on a local bus to Inaruwa. Ben, Ras and Rem had loaded all the gear onto the roof of the bus (including the 90kg raft – no mean feat!). This journey took a couple of hours and went through a lot of little villages along what can only be called rough tracks. The bumpy ride was worth it for the sights we got to see. This bus dropped us at the bus station (looked more like a road side to me!) in Inaruwa where we had to unload everything and wait for the night bus, due in three hours time, to pick us up. As we waited we witnessed that the Nepalese believe nothing is too big to be carried on a humble bicycle, as demonstrated by one man carrying some ten metre bamboo poles on his bike along a road shared with buses, lorries, trucks, cars, motorbikes, rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians as we well as animals. The fading light didn’t seem to phase any of the road users either as they carried on regardless, leaning on their horns.

On the local bus

The night bus arrived just as the sun was setting so we loaded all the gear on the rood (and discovered just how hard it is to load a 90kg raft onto a bus roof!) before settling down on board for the 14 hour journey. The seats had almost no leg room and the road was bumpy. The short tarmacked sections of road were worse than the un-tarmacked sections because the driver would speed up regardless of the quality of tarmac – we would just hit all the bumps and pot-holes faster! The bus would stop every few hours to allow everyone to get off, stretch their legs and purchase refreshments. During one such stop we were treated to our second helping of Dhal Baat of the day.

Day 13 – Saturday 30th

Sun rise as we approached the Kathmandu Valley

The above photo was taken as the sun rose during our last rest stop, approximately 25km from Kathmandu. The journey from here became more interesting as, during the long climb up and into the Kathmandu Valley, the bus lost the use of first gear!

The bus dropped us off on the Kathmandu ring road at about 0900, tired, battered and bruised. From here we took a truck into Thamel where we dropped off the kit at the Mountain River Rafting boat store before Jethro, Patrick and I set off in search of a hotel to drop our stuff at. Jethro and I then proceeded to wander around some of the other rafting offices in the Thamel district trying to find a trip up to the Bhote Kosi in the next couple of days which we could join. By midday we had signed up to join a two day trip run by Ultimate Descents Nepal leaving tomorrow at 0630. After collecting our kit from the MRR boat store and leaving at the Ultimate Descents office, we went for lunch with Patrick before going back to the hotel to catch up on some much needed sleep.

More photos from our trip can be found at http://Photos.AndyWicks.com/Nepal2010

To find out how the trip up to the Bhote Kosi went, along with the remainder of our trip, please check back soon

My kit bag weighed in at 13.2 kg, Jethro’s at 9.7kg and our paddle bag weighed in at 6.2 kg. In order to proceed onto the flight without incurring further cost or hassle, our boats had to come in at under 15kg each. Luckily for us the check-in staff decided that the boats would not fit onto their scales, instead opting to ask us how much the boats weighed. “About 15kg each” was my rather wishful response. Fortunately that is the value that was entered onto the system so we were home free!!

Next up we had to take our boats to oversize oversize drop-off, which entailed us escorting the boats through to a staff entrance where we handed them over to baggage handlers. With that, it was off to the bar for a well deserved pint or few.

The flight to Delhi was uneventful and we landed with about three hours until our connection to Kathmandu departed. We both took the opportunity to catch some shut-eye as we were struggling to stay awake. We were both amazed at the smog which surrounded Delhi airport like a heavy fog – you couldn’t see further than a couple of hundred metres.

Upon arrival at Kathmandu airport we went through the rigmarole or getting visas for our stay before collecting our boats and bags and meeting up with our pre-arranged transport to our hotel. After dropping off our bags and boats we traipsed along to the off of Mountain River Rafting to organise our first trip. We had initially planned on doing the Tamur, which was a four day trek followed by 6 days on the river, covering 130km. Following our discussion, we settled on a new plan to do the Sun Kosi. This is only a two hour drive to the get-in, rather than a two day drive to the drop-off point for the Tamur, as well as being 260km in length. We set off at 0800 tomorrow morning for about 8-9 days on the river, followed by a two day public bus ride back to Kathmandu.

Having just been for dinner (after spending about an hour wandering lost around Kathmandu), we are not off to bed to attempt to catch up on some of the sleep we have missed.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”

Well, the last 75 days have flown by. Jethro and I are currently sat around, twiddling our thumbs, whiling away the time until our flight to Nepal this evening. We start with a 10 hour flight to Delhi, where we will have a few hours before our short flight to Kathmandu. On Wednesday morning we set off for our first trip to paddle the Tamur

All we are left to do is hope that our baggage (boat, paddling kit and paddles) fits under the 32kg weight limit… it is going to be a close one.

Many, many discussions were had between the two of us about time of year, which rivers to paddle etc., and these were resolved relatively quickly. The one question which took us the longest to decide upon an answer to was which airline is most likely to allow us to take our own kayaks with us, without it costing us a small fortune. Discussions were had with a selection of airlines before we finally settled on Kingsfisher Airlines. According to Kingfisher on Twitter:

There will be no excess baggage waiver for the items Kayak and Paddle will be included in yr FBA.

On Monday 2nd August we finally got our flights booked and the countdown can now officially begin – 75 days and counting

Welcome to Slovenia

On Saturday 26th June at 0315 my alarm clock went off. Why was it going off this early on a Saturday of all days? Because I had a flight to catch. I was heading off for a week of paddling near Bovec, Slovenia. However, me being me, the journey to get there was far from the easiest…. drive to Luton, fly to Geneva, hire a car and then drive the 800 km to Bovec! We were meeting Steve and Anneleen, who both reside in Geneva, and travelling across with them to join a group from uni for the week. The drive across was long but uneventful, following an interesting start to the drive as we left Steve’s house in Geneva, drove across a pavement and then into a bus lane. With a police car sat behind us, we then decided to turn right at a ‘No Right Turn’ junction!

As we arrived at Kajak Kamp Toni on the banks of the River Soča, the rest of the group were doing their best impressions of ‘brits abroad’ at a local pizzeria!

The beautiful Soča valley

As we caught our first glimpses of the river the following morning we were amazed at its beauty. The river is a crystal-clear blue colour surrounded by tree-covered mountains. Our first stretch of the river was from Velika Korita down to Sotočja at the confluence with the Koritnica, back at the campsite.

Adam styling one of the rapids

Steve enjoying the gorge

Sunday afternoon was England’s final game in the 2010 FIFA World Cup which the majority of the group went to the pub to watch. As I really don’t have any interest in football I went paddling again. This time Nick G and I headed up to Kluže to paddle the Koritnica back down to the confluence with the Soča at the campsite.

Monday saw us paddling from Srpenica 1 to the end of Trovna 2 (Slalom Course). Followed by Otona to Napoleonov Most. The trek down from the layby at Otona to the river proved quite challenging for most. It is a steep, gravelly path down that takes about 15 mins. Add in the heat and we were quite exhausted by the time we reached the river!

Me catching a nice rock grind

Tuesday: Bunkerji to Sotočja. Following this we nipped across the border into Italy to spend the afternoon relaxing on the beaches of a lake.

Enjoying the Italian lake

Wednesday : Jethro and myself decided that we would venture into Syphon Canyon to start with before meeting the rest of the group at the end of the gorge to paddle down the remainder of the river to Start of Napoloenov Most. Jethro and I were particularly pleased with the decision to paddle this final section as it would mean that we would not have to carry our boats up the long, steep trek back to the road! Before entering the canyon we did the slalom site as a warm up. Syphon canyon is a beautiful section of river, but as the name suggests it is full of syphons, where water finds its way between gaps in the rocks that larger objects (including people and boats) would not fit through. As a consequence we had to get out at every horizon line and rapid in order to inspect. The canyon is only a two kilometre paddle which took us three and a half hours to complete. Paul (Muppet) very kindly volunteered to trek down the bank alongside the canyon to act as cameraman and additional safety cover. Without Paul it would have taken Jethro and myself even longer. Meeting up with the remainder of the group we all enjoyed a relaxing paddle downstream.

Me in Syphon Canyon

Jethro on the final rapid of Syphon Canyon

Thursday: Paul was determined to paddle as much as possible on our final day. He was joined by Adam and together they headed up to Bunkerji and we met them as they paddled past the campsite at Sotočja. Some of the group got off at Čezsoča and drove downstream to Srpenica 1 and got back on. The rest of the group, myself included, continued downstream from Čezsoča paddled all the way down to end of Trnova 2 (Slalom course). This meant that, in the five days of paddling I had in Slovenia I had managed to paddle all of the main sections.

We decided to treat ourselves on our last night in Slovenia as a group and headed out for a traditional Slovenian meal at a restaurant in Bovec.

Friday morning saw the group splitting up and heading our separate ways – Steve, Anneleen, Amy and I headed back to Geneva whilst everyone else headed of to Ljubiana to party late on into the night.

This was my first time in Slovenia. At the start of the trip I set off not really sure what to expect. Very soon after arriving it was clear to me that I really liked the place. The scenery was stunning and the paddling was first class. If you are looking for a sunny location for an intermediate trip I cannot recommend Slovenia highly enough.

More pictures are available at http://photos.andywicks.com/SloveniaJune2010

Further information about paddling in Slovenia can be found on UK Rivers Guidebook