Hot Mess Productions

Last Stop, India

2011-12-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

I had a couple of days in Kathmandu (a fair bit of time was spent in Tom & Jerry's) before flying out with Louise and Clarky (who were working in Voss this summer in Norway) to Delhi.

We had a hassle free adventure to Rishikesh. The car Ganesh had organised to collect us from the airport in Delhi was on time, the driver had very good English (didn't freak us out with scary driving which is a bonus), and best of all we had a massive, air conditioned car!

We got to Rishikesh pretty late at night, maybe 2am so we just crashed at Arvind's house on some spare mattresses on the floor before finding a hotel the next day. We were lucky to get a cheap room in a very clean, modern hotel with hot water, a balcony and even TV!

I had only 5 days in India so I spent 3 of them on the river kayaking with the Red Chilli gang. I also got to meet up with 2 other Danish kayakers who were working in Evje, Norway this summer as well as old friends such as Flow (from Austria) and the Kiwis from the bungee jump.

It was a pretty quick visit to India but I was happy I got to see all my friends and was also very excited about flying out to spend the winter season in Whistler, Canada.

Marvelous Marsyangdi!

2011-12-08T19:44:00.000-08:00

Chris about to enter the first main rapid below the rafting put-in

Wow! The Marsyangdi was one of the most beautiful, breathtaking rivers I have ever been on. Apart from spectacular views of the Annapurna range, the Marsyangdi is easily one of most kayakers favourite rivers to paddle in the world because of the steep, technical rapids and continuous class IV whitewater.

Chris scouting 'Mammas Big Butt'. A rapid which was a lot easier than it looked when we scouted with a very intimidating hole at the bottom!

Chris entering 'Mammas Big Butt'

Making the move to avoid the sticky hole

Chris more than happy to get down 'Mammas Big Butt'

After a night in Besisahar (and recovering from the 'Magic Bus'), Daz (owner of Pure Land Expeditions), Chris and took a jeep with our kayaks up to the put-in (just a bit further up from the commercial rafting put-in). Our plan for the day was to paddle from here and down to the dam then get the local bus back to Besisahar so we could stay in the warm hotel again as some of the teahouses further down can be rather grim.

At first both Chris and I were a little apprehensive because we had been told the Marsyangdi was 'the river' to do in Nepal and that it was steep, technical, fast, pushy and that the water level was also at medium flow.

Because we had our river guru Daz with us we were able to take our time getting down the river and the stress very quickly went away. Daz spent a lot of time with both of us focusing on reading steep sections of river and choosing appropriate lines down the rapids without having to get out of our boats to scout. We had a few times where we did have to scout but the new approach to reading the river definitely helped me feel a lot more confident in not only where I was going but also in my ability with my skill level to run the river.

Chow Mein lunch stop with a lot of curious kids

Women cutting grass below the hut where we ate our lunch

One of our spectators at our lunch spot

It all wasn't so easy going all the time. There were a few occasions where I found myself having a small surf in a couple of holes and flipping upside down against undercut rocks but I was surprised at how friendly the holes on the river were and dealt with these problems as they arose.

At the end of the day Chris and I were so exhilarated at the fact we had finally experienced this much talked about river.

A very dodgy hat we found a Nepali boy wearing at the take-out of the first day

Daz unloading our kayaking after our first day on the river. Unfortunately 'Prince' wasn't available for this photo

We got the local bus back to Besisahar and found the bus boy had a close resemblance to Prince. We all decided to sit on the roof of the bus with our gear and sing through some of Prince's classics with a bit of George Michael thrown in there.

There was then a couple of hours to spare before dinner and due to being pretty much in the middle of nowhere we weren't quite sure how to entertain ourselves.

We decided to go for a walk in the village. Daz made friend's with a young boy and told him our names were 'Tony Blair' and 'Margaret Thatcher'. The young boy obviously had no idea what was going on and eventually lost interest in us.

Then came the idea from Daz about the Class 5 Street Eating Challenge. Pretty much we would walk along the street, find something dodgy and dare each other to eat it and then give the food a rating like you would in white water. We even made the challenge more complex in the way we could get each other to run it 'blind' with 'no portage' allowed.

We ate probably a kg in sugar in Nepali sweets before dinner then it was time for bed.

View of the Annapurnas on our drive to the put-in below the dam on day 2

The next day we put in below the dam and we had some exciting rapids to start the day off with. After about an hour the river calmed down a lot and we had some spectacular views of the Annapurna ranges.

At the end of the day we hiked out of the river straight to a local dhal bhat place where we had some of the best dhal I've had in Nepal before we parted ways (Daz & Chris heading onto Pokora and myself to Kathmandu).

Last day on the Marsyangdi with a beautiful view of the Annapurnas in the background

The Magic Bus

2011-12-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

A one-sentence summary cannot describe the bus journey I had with Chris and Daz on a local bus to Besisahar. Most individuals would have been complaining from the beginning, possibly before they even set sight on the bus or knew what was inside. I guess for me the only way to sum this particular bus ride up with one word is ‘entertaining’.

The bus first pulled up to where Daz, Chris and I were drinking chai and exclusively collected us before going to pick up the locals. While Daz was securing our kayaks and paddles on the roof of the bus I made sure we all got the good seats inside. I chose the front rows with ‘extra’ leg room and was pretty proud of my selection, especially after sitting next to Chris on the tourist bus before we got out to transfer where Chris had a lady recline her seat back so quickly it almost chopped his legs off! As she moved her seat 5cm forward and said ‘is that better?’ Chris replied ‘…uh not really, I can’t feel my legs’.

Our luxury moment of the front row with extra leg room was short lived. After about 5 minutes the bus started to fill up…..and up….and up. When we thought it was full, it wasn’t. I’m sure if you could stack people in the overhead luggage racks that would have also been an option for the bus company.

There were many things crammed into the bus, I could even hear a goat bleating from somewhere in the back (goats and chickens were expected). People then began to squish in the front around the driver, and in front of Chris and I, substantially narrowing our leg room and room in the aisle besides Chris to the point if the window of the bus was open we probably would have been pushed out.

Chris made a funny comment about the man sitting facing me trying to play footsies with me. I looked down and realised he had no shoes on and his feet were on top of mine.

We could hear Daz’s voice saying something but even though he was in the seat just opposite us we couldn’t see him anymore.

An elderly lady got onto the bus and I was in shock that the lady behind us wouldn’t move over to let her sit there. Chris thought she looked like the old Gypsy women in Drag Me to Hell. She could barely stand up along and it took a while for people to eventually move the young lady out and let the old lady sit down on a sit along with another aged woman.

When we thought the bus was at it’s maximum load the bus boy tried to haul a giant black steel chest onto the bus that seemed to have bigger dimensions than the door way they were trying to haul it through. It seemed incredibly heavy and Chris, Daz and I tried to guess what was inside. Possible explanations were: a dead body, Sinfrid and Roy/David Copperfield.

The black chest just allowed a few more people to be squeezed into the bus as now babies could use the top the chest to sit on.

It was around a 30km bus ride but it took well over 3 hours. Whenever the driver saw someone he knew he would stop and have a conversation.

After a few stops a man came on and was standing next to Chris. His body was against his shoulder and Chris leaned over and said to me “I think that guy is smuggling Mars Bars in his pocket’’ ‘

’Why?’’

‘’Because there’s something hard pressing up against my shoulder’’

After an hour he was gone and a lady with her baby took his place. Chris felt something warm and wet on his shoulder and our conclusion was the baby might have peed on his shoulder.

Every now and again we would hear Daz yelling out ‘hey are you guys okay?’. We couldn’t see his version of the Magical Bus ride but I’m sure it was something pretty epic like ours.

We stopped in one village and spent 20min there while someone went shopping for a tarp. I badly wanted to go to the toilet but the driver refused to let me get off. I guess he realised I would have to climb over him to get out and now it was raining and he didn’t want to get wet. I figured there might be some ‘other’ type of rain on the bus if he didn’t hurry up and go. The thought did pass through my mind about cutting up a bottle and use your imagination for the rest but I’m sure it would have been a disaster.

We had a few more passengers on the bus. When we got to the point where there was no more visible space one lady got on the driver’s seat and sat with him for the rest of the journey.

I was pretty happy when we got to Besisahar and so was Chris (because he got feeling back in his legs again and had no more Mars or Snickers Bars pressing against his shoulder). Daz just seemed happy he could actually see us again!

So that was the Magic Bus journey to Besisahar where we would spend the night and get onto the Marysandi River the following day.

We did have another (much shorter) bus ride the following day with a bus boy who we named Prince but that’s another story.

No this isn't our bus (we didn't have enough room to get our cameras out!)

Now to the Far East - Epic Trip on the Tamur

2011-11-29T13:02:00.000-08:00

*Flipped gear raft on the second scout first day on the river (all beer supplies lost, 2 lost oars and lunch down the river);

*Day 2 on the river: front tube of the customer raft exploded (we waited 2 days on the beach for a new raft to arrive from Kathmandu)

*Third day rafting: Garth dislocated his shoulder in class 1-2 water

*And….. too many ‘’big jobs’’ between the whole group to count!

Yes the Tamur trip was an epic but most of us found the carnage highly entertaining! The Tamur River is in fair Eastern Nepal and involved a 2 day local bus ride (some people flew which meant they had 1 day on a local bus), 4 day hike in and 6 days on the river (but for us it was cut down to 5 days on the river and 2 lay-over days on a beach).

So where to start? 4 of us decided to get the local bus with all the gear to the put-in (Karoline from Norway and Jesper & Garth who are kayakers who worked in Norway this season). For me I have slowly got used to insane driving in India but our bus driver was a maniac! He started the bus journey around 4pm and was still driving until around 2pm the following day before we changed drivers. He still stayed with us on the bus and kind of stunk of alcohol before he was relieved of his duties but once he finished driving he made a point of having his own personal rum party on the bus!

View just outside our mountain hotel the first morning of our hike in

One of the children absolutely fascinated by the fellow Canadian Cory

He was pretty fast for our liking and we broke down 2 hours before we were meant to pick up the other clients from the airport in a town who’s name I cannot remember for 4 hours. Luckily for the other Nepali staff on the bus with us the four of us were pretty easy going about the bus journey and saw the lighter side of things.

The night before we started hiking we stayed at a mountain teahouse that reminded me something out of a fairytale like Hansel & Gretel. We had the best Nepali dhal bhat I had tasted so far and each of the rooms we slept in were so small they only had enough room to fit the beds in so they felt very cosy and had a warm feel to them.

The following day we started the 4-day hike. Karoline and I stayed out front for most of the 4 days hiking which gave us a lot of experiences that the other part of the group missed (but I think they would have had special experiences of their own).

The 4 days of hiking were a lot easier than I expected. Nights were extremely cold though even in a down sleeping bad with a down jacket and all my thermals on!

Young girl sitting outside one of the tea shops on the first day of hiking with what looks like her own tea stall

One of the many Yaks we saw coming down the mountain

During the first two days Karoline and I made friends with two Israeli boys hiking who offered us tea and biscuits. Our paths kept crossing during the hiking trail. We were also extremely lucky on our last day of hiking. We were both out in front and passed a small village that were holding a polja. There were Nepali girls and boys dancing around the polja and then they performed a group dance for the village. We felt strange passing by but were really fascinated about what was going on. Some Nepali villagers invited Karoline and I to join in with the girls dancing, gave us chai then made a special spot for us to sit on the ground and watch the festivities. Some of them spoke English but Karoline tried to initiate all her conversations in Nepali, as she has been living and studying in Kathmandu the last 6 months. Locals usually appreciate a few Nepali words such as thankyou and hello but whenever people realise Karoline can speak Nepali they are so fascinated.

Goat line up!

Karen taking a quick nap on the 3rd day of our hike in

Corn stacked up to dry in the warm Nepali sun

Karoline and I were lucky enough to pass by a small village where celebrations were taking place. We both were invited to dance with the girls, drink chai and then watch a performance including dancing and singing.

Villagers watching the performance

The last day of hiking we arrived a campsite that backed onto the Tamur River and we were all able to wash in a side creek that was amazing! After 2 days on a bus and 4 days hiking it was such a relief to get semi-clean in the creek even if it meant putting smelly clothes on afterwards!

Onlooker at the put-in of the Tamur River

I was pretty nervous the morning of our first day on the river. I had been given so many different explanations of what the Tamur River would be like. I guess I had this image in my mind that it was going to be steep, huge and full on continuous! But I was surprised, it was all read and run and where there were more difficult rapids we stopped and scouted.

Garth on the first rapid of the Tamur River

Chris running safety down the first rapid of the Tamur River

I really enjoyed the second rapid (first scout) of the day but it was a little intimidating after scouting and choosing my line that when I entered the rapid there was so much water I almost couldn’t see anything but made it down fine.

First scout on the Tamur River

Garth styling the second rapid of the Tamur River

Clients with wide eyes after getting down the second rapid on day 1 of the Tamur River

Chris waiting in an eddy at the bottom of the second rapid of day 1 on the Tamur

Our second scout was one of the longest rapids on the river for the entire multiday trip. It also caused the most carnage!

I ran down first with Chris the Nepali safety kayaker and we stopped half way down and waited for Garth and Jesper to follow us in the kayaks. It was exciting watching the boys come down, especially when Garth hit one of the holes we were trying to avoid but he did a super job holding on and coming out of it.

Next up was Stan guiding the raft with all the clients. There was a moment when he got a friendly surf in a pour over parallel to me when I had a 5 second thought that there could be a possible flip but he was in control and gave the clients safe lines down the rest of the rapid.

Now we were about half an hour into the trip and this is when all the excitement began! Kumal and Umesh were in the gear raft and I saw them get spun out and hit an extremely big hole and got huge surf. All of a sudden the raft was upsidown and Kumal and Umesh were swimming like Olympic swimmers to the closest eddy. Because the guides were safe and I realised there wasn’t much I could do to help with the raft because it had already gone past me I tried to save some of our lunch which was floating down the river (bread in a plastic bag which wasn’t yet wet. The noodles had already gone past me pretty quickly!). I wasn’t really sure what was going on downstream at this stage but was later told that during the flip a rock fell on the bow line of Stan’s raft, slowing them down to get out of an eddy to chase the gear raft. Cory the Canadian then was asked to hold onto a rope which the other kayakers had attached to the gear raft and hold onto it (imagine a lot of weight and tension) while Stan was trying to push it into the bank. The clients had to paddle a lot and Chris the safety kayaker did a pro job of helping get the raft to shore also. Meanwhile Kumal, Umesh and I were upstream and I had to help them get down the river to where everyone else was.

Stan going hard over a pour over on one of the longest rapids on the Tamur. Our second scout and rapid with the most carnage of the entire Tamur trip

So with our first flip (and hopefully last flip) on the trip we had lost 2 oars, the pump, a load of cutlery and plates and we were lunch less for the rest of the day. And maybe what some people considered the most important thing……all the beer was gone! I can imagine there were a lot of lucky people fishing downstream who got those beers!

We finished off some more beautiful rapids then pulled into our first beach camp for the trip. We were pretty tired after a long day on the river and Stan once again did a great job of preparing us an amazing dinner.

The next morning it took a while to pack the rafts up. All of us in kayaks were kitted up and on the water ready to go then I heard what sounded like an explosion. I thought maybe something happened in a village over the hill but I looked over to see the entire front tube of the client raft had exploded!

Chris preparing lunch at our first beach camp

Curious young girl at our first beach camp on the Tamur

Carnage on the second day and we hadn’t even gone down the river yet. I was surprised how calm Stan remained but I think he was holding some frustration in very well. Within 30min he had arranged a new raft to be bought to us from Kathmandu so we spent the next two days relaxing on the beach, reading, sleeping and drinking some of the 28L of rum bought on the trip.

Our raft finally arrived and we were once again ready to go. We had 2 scouts on our second day of white water and one rapid which still remains in my mind was Dinosaur Rock which was a narrow rapid with a lot of water which was super fun but pretty powerful.

Stan charging down Dinosaur Rapid on the second day of whitewater

Chris giving one of the boys a lift to the other side of the river

A steep rapid which for me seemed to come out of nowhere. What a nice surprise!

The river then eased off for the next 2 days. There were still some great rapids but it wasn’t so continuous anymore.

Our last day on the river was the most intense. There were over 40 rapids and we had about 4 scouts on this day. All of a sudden I was told we had finished the section of the Tamur and I felt sad because I didn’t want the day to end because I was having so much fun.

We set up camp at the confluence of the Tamur and Sun Kosi rivers in the afternoon then Karoline, Cory and I wandered a little bit in the village (Cory was extremely happy to find they sold cold beers at one of the shops). We still had one jug of rum left and Stan made sure it was all finished before we went to bed.

Karoline enjoying the warm sun at one of our lunch stops

Jesper & Garth making it down one of the scouts on our last day of paddling on the Tamur

Brilliant whitewater on the last day of the Tamur

The next day was our last day before Karoline, Jesper, Garth and I had an overnight local bus journey to Kathmandu (everyone else was sensible and flew back). We had about an hour of paddling on the Sun Kosi River then we stopped half way down to see a temple. We then arrived at our take out point and crossed paths with a few other trips that had been on a multiday Sun Kosi trip.

We had a pretty good feed of dhal bhat before the bus ride back to Kathmandu. That was another story in itself (lets just say it involved a chicken in a bag which was kept on the floor of the bus……).

Our last lunch stop on the Tamur, with one day left down the Sun Kosi

Last Major Rapid on the Tamur

Garth resting after our last day on the Tamur River

Jesper and Cory stoked to have finished the section of whitewater on the Tamur River

Karoline deciding if she wants to support the local economy

The Tamur River was an epic but a good epic because now we all have a lot of exciting and funny stories to tell. I have been waiting for the day for some rafting carnage so one day I can tell these stories around the campfire by the river somewhere.

Wild Wild West

2011-11-29T00:02:00.000-08:00

Last year when I was in Nepal I went on the Karnali River and really enjoyed it. Karnali was on my hit list this year and I randomly bumped into Stan, a South African guide who I met the first time 3 years ago in Zambia then again last year in Chile.

Stan was trip-leading on the Karnali so it was a perfect option so I went with him and Equator Expeditions. Another factor which also shows what a small world it is was one of the kayakers called Patrick actually did some trips for the company I was working at this summer in Norway!

Young girls wanting their picture taken at the put-in

Most of us had a 2 day bus ride to the put-in and some others flew into which meant they just had less than a day ride to the put-in. The hotel we stayed in on the way was pretty dodgey but I actually expected it to be a million times worse as most places out in Western Nepal are pretty dire. I shared my hotel room the first night with an American girl who was absolutely mortifided by our room and all the bugs inhabiting it. I just figured if I closed my eyes and I couldn’t see them they weren’t really there!

The bus ride to the put-in took a little longer than usual because the last section of road was so muddy from the monsoon that the bus couldn’t really clear some parts of it. We arrived in the dark so we ate dhal bhat at one of the local establishments and slept on the beach with out thermarests and sleeping bags.

Small child watching us pack the rafts for the river

This photo shows the elder on higher ground

The next morning we had a large group of onlookers as we pumped up the rafts and got ready to set off for our first day on the Karnali River. The first day had a lot of rapids but is not as intense as Day 2 or 3 of the trip. The river was also higher than last year so some sections were more boily and others were washed out slightly. I guess compared to last year my kayaking has improved a lot without realising it myself because I was no longer apprehensive or uncertain of the river like I was last year and was able to stay out the front and enjoy the river without feeling nervous.

After the first day on the river Joel ( a 20 year old from Tassie) and I thought it would be hilarious to hide the jerry full of rum and pretend we knew nothing about it. We predicted the loss of rum might cause a state of panic and we were right. About 20min later after finding a good hiding spot Patrick came out asking everyone where the rum was and Stan and Patrick came to the conclusion that it must have been forgotten at the put-in. Joel then subtublly put the rum back with the cordial and water and the rest of us pretended that nothing had happened and it was priceless to then see the look on Patrick and Stan’s faces when they realised the rum was there.

Maybe it would have been better to have kept the rum hidden that night as we all drank a fair bit and pretty much all of the rum which was meant to last a week was drunk the first night camping on the river!

Day 2 on the river we started off with a substantially large rapid called Sweetness & Light. I remember running it down the middle last year but because the water was high we ended up all doing a sneak down the right (which wasn’t really a sneak as the line itself was fairly pushy). Jail House Rock was also another highlight for the day and had a few of our knees shaking but the rapid was way easier than it looked when we scouted it!

These 3 photos show Stan taking wicked lines down 'Jail House Rock'

Som preparing yet another great lunch on the river

Day 3 on the river was the most demanding. We started off with God House. This is the rapid last year where I got smashed in a pour over and broke my paddle! This year everyone went fine but Arun the guide of the gear raft decided to portage as he didn’t want to risk flipping and losing all the food and gear. To portage a raft like this it involves attaching a rope to the raft and then holding it from the bank and slowly letting the raft drift down the easier of the two banks of the rapid.

AK taking a sneak down river right of 'God House'

Entry to 'God House'

Stan taking a great line, missing the huge munchy hole at the bottom of 'God House'

Days 4-6 on the river were fairly easy water, a lot of flat which made the clients on the raft happy as they were able to lay back while Stan guided and Stan had even bought his speakers on the raft so they were able to listen to some music while they relaxed.

AK getting ready for another day on the river

Som relaxing before getting ready for a relaxing day on the gear raft

AK leading the raft down 'Stuffed Pig Surprise'

David boofing the bottom hole on 'Stuffed Pig Surprise', Day 4 of the Karnali

David relaxing on Day 4 on the river

At the end of the trip two of the clients from Scotland and Stan flew back to Kathmandu and the rest of us spent a night in Bardia National Park. We all had an elephant ride in the park but it was a little different to how I expected it to be. The elephants had wooden platforms in which 3 of us sat on top of on each elephant. We didn’t see any animals in the park apart from deer and the guides weren’t very informative about the park or talkative either which was a let down. I remember going to quite a few parks in Eastern Africa and even when we didn’t see any animals the guides would talk about the animals and also give a lot of information about the parks and plants in it which was very interesting.

Joel putting on a juggling act for the kids on at our last camp for the Karnali River

Little girls watching Joel juggling on our last day of camp on the Karnali

As you can imagine with the group we had on this trip we all went out and drank a fair bit in Tom & Jerry’s the night we got back to Kathmandu before we all parted our separate ways in Nepal.

And Back Again.....Nepal, Trisuli River and Kathmandu

2011-10-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

I am going to try and be more prompt with my posts from now on as so much happens then I get a back log of adventures to share. I had a impulsive end to Norway with buying a ticket to Nepal the day before flying out of Oslo.

I was unsure what I wanted to do and one of my good friends in India is getting married with a traditional wedding in Himanchal Pradesh at the end of October so I really wanted to make it to India for that. I applied for my Indian Visa and was told it would take at least 3 weeks to process...... I had 2 weeks left in Norway and 2 guides working at Troll in Evje (Jesper from Denmark and Garth from South Africa) were planning on going to Nepal so I decided I would join them if my Visa didn't come in time.

Put in to the Trisuli River (we put in a little further down as the water is still coming down after monsoon)

Put in to Trisuli River. 1 client was on a day trip and 2 clients were doing an overnight trip so we had to load a lot of gear and food onto the cataraft.

In the end my Visa came 3 days before I was meant to fly out of Norway but I was so hyped about Nepal I decided to still go ahead with plans and try and make time to enter India in November before going to Canada for the winter.

I had a pretty big trip over to Nepal. First getting the bus overnight from Sjoa to Oslo Gardemoen, flying into London and spending the night there before flying out of Heathrow the following night.

Trying to cool down the rafts so the air inside the tubes doesn't get so hot it expands

Local porter helping carry gear down to the put-in

I was lucky that Jesper and I were on the same flight to Kathmandu. We didn't think entering Nepal through very rationally. We had to get a Visa on arrival and both had forgotten passport photos and there was no ATM inside the airport to get cash out. I had Norwegian Kroners but the exchange wouldn't accept them (although they took Danish Kr and Swedish Kr!).

It was so nice to be in a pair. Jesper and I took turns of minding the bags while each of us sorted out photos and money.... but unfortunately the last flight came in for the day just as we were about to join the Visa que and we ended up spending about 3 hours inside the airport before we were collected by Nikki from Adventure Aves and taken to Thamel in Kathmandu to check into our hotel and relax.

One of the best freestyle kayaker in Nepal on the 2-day Trisuli trip washing dishes at our camp site

Bishnu the safety Cataraft guide preparing dhal for dinner

Jesper and I spent a couple of days in a daze in Kathmandu. We spent a lot of time with our friend Bishnu Gurung the owner of Adventure Aves sampling thali, local beer and having dinner at one of the local trekking guide's houses. We then got out of Kathmandu for 2 days on a overnight Trisuli trip (Jesper and I both kayaking).

Bishnu showing us how the toilet works!

Jesper and Bishnu setting up the toilet but

Our kitchen

Almost full moon

The Trisuli was pretty easy going. Some say it's comparable to the Ganga in India but I found it pretty relaxing but really fun and beautiful at the same time. We had a middle aged couple from Belgium on the trip and they found it very exciting and really were impressed with all the work that Bishnu put into the trip to make it enjoyable for them.

Ingredients laid out ready for dinner (dhal, mixed veg, pasta, sauce and rice)

Getting the camp fire started

Dried buffalo meat cooked in a tasty sauce that Bishnu bought from the village. Was super tasty and also the first time I have ever eaten buffalo!

The next morning we only had about an hour on the river until we reached the take-out. Funnily enough we missed the tourist bus back to Kathmandu so we took a local bus and the only place available was the roof! I was skeptical at first but it was so hot that we were better on the roof than the inside of a stuffy bus and the view was pretty amazing!

Take-out and lunch spot for the Trisuli 2-day trip

Some local boys playing on a tractor

Tomorrow I am off on an 11-day trip on the Karnali River. I did this river when I visited Nepal last year so have high hopes and am very excited about how the trip will turn out:)

All photos copyright Jacqui Whitehead 2011

Lower Rauma

2011-10-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

During the last week of August I went with Jono, Leon, Will and Nathan to take some photos of them kayaking Lower Rauma. It was hard with some of the water falls with all the spray but there are a couple of keepers in there. (All photos are by Jacqui Whitehead)

Mini Trip to Jostedal

2011-10-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

Nearing towards the end of August things started to quieten down in Sjoa..... by quietening down it actually I got a couple of days off as had pretty much worked all of July and part of August straight!

Toni pumping the rafts before a trip

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View of part of the small town of Jostedal

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

I got to get out on the river my first day in Jostedal and it was so much colder than Sjoa! This is because it is a glacier river so the water is around 5 degrees. Andreas and Toni kept joking about a massive hole on the last rapid of the trip trying to get me nervous (and it worked!). The river was pretty short and relaxed compared to the Sjoa River but the last rapid did have a big hole which managed to get another kayaker swimming but I was thankful I just blasted through the hole and had a lot of fun.

Gear shed for River Pig Rafting in Jostedal

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Toni and Ben fooling around while doing post-trip clean up.

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

My second day in Jostedal was pretty fun. I went with Mo's girlfriend to see more of the area. Jostedal has some of the biggest glaciers in Europe so there are a lot of tourists coming everyday to go trekking or on a kayak/trek combo to the glaciers.

One of the glaciers which you can view from the Tourist Information Centre in Jostedal.

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We both went blueberry picking then searched the forest for chanterelles and were lucky enough to find a big handful of them to make a pie for dinner!

Everyone in Toni's house decided they probably owe at least one bootie beer for a swim within the last year so we all did a joint effort.

On my last day Mo took me out on the largest glacier in Europe (apart from Greenland!). We took a motor boat out to the glacier and saw a few small ice-bergs floating on the way. As we approached the ice-berg we also heard a large crack. It could have been ice from the glacier falling in miles away as it is about 50km long!

Mo getting ready to take us out on the boat to the glacier

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Before we set foot on the glacier Mo ran us through some basic safety and we got crampons fitted to our shoes which would help us not to slip on the ice. We all were also attached to the same rope by carabiners. Mo was leading us so we were all essentially attached to him. If someone accidently falls through the ice the people either side will stop the person from falling down as we are only about a metre apart. I'm not quiet sure on our trip if this theory would have worked as there were a few kids which I don't think would have been heavy enough to fall but at least we didn't have to find out from experience!

Mo getting kitted up with crampons

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

A crevice on the glacier

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

A good visual showing the rope which we were all attached to

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Looks like Mo is telling his story of how the Smurfs make some parts of the ice that blue colour

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Mo using a pick axe to check the stability of the ice before we climb across

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

My Job.....Better than Being a Dietitian!

2011-08-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

So I never really talked about what I am doing in Norway this year. Well as the title of the post says 'better than being a dietitian' I now have the perfect job! This year I'm working in Sjoa again but instead of being a raft guide I am now a photo kayaker at Sjoa Raftingsenter (NWR). It's perfect I get to kayak everyday, earn money and keep creative by taking photos.

I'm planning on getting my own website up and running soon but in the meantime here are some photos I've taken from May and June on the Sjoa River.

Fun with Toys

2011-08-08T07:07:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Nina from GoRafting organised a ‘Floatila’. What’s a ‘Floatila’ you may ask? Well it’s basically a surfing competition with ‘anything that floats’.

So we all bought our blow up toys and tried to surf Faukstad on the Sjoa River. Becky and I aimed to get a tandam surf on our dragon but everytime we both tried to sit on it we ended up swimming.

There were prizes for longest surf, best effort on the river, best effort with the floatation device, best trick etc. Just a fun relaxed social gathering for a few laughs.

Thanks to Nina and Tallis for organising the evening and thanks to all my work mates at NWR and GoRafting for supporting the Floatila!

Sjoa Festival 2011

2011-08-08T06:53:00.000-07:00

A week to recover from Voss then it was the Sjoa Festival (in Sjoa of course!). We were super busy at work during the festival week (and basically all of July and even now in August) so I couldn’t participate in all of the activities but made it to the infamous annual Pimp and Ho party at Pensj and managed to convince my boss to let me have a day off work so I could do the Steep Creeking day course run by Gene 17.

My friend Jakub ran the Steep Creeking course and I was pretty lucky there were only 2 other men from Sweden on the course with me. We went to Upper Ula to practice some ‘boofing’ and then run a drop and small slide.

When I say ‘small’ they would have been baby size for someone like Jakub but for me and it being my first time really attempting to run any drops they were pretty intimidating. Once I got over my fear I realised that running drops is pretty simple but it’s just getting over nerves which is the hardest part.

I definitely took home a lot of lessions from my day with Jakub on the river and highly recommend Gene 17 to anyone who wants to improve their kayaking skills or has a particular goal they want to achieve.

Ektremeveko Voss 2011

2011-08-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

On the last week of June the Ektremesports Veko was held in Voss Norway. Luckily that week we were quiet at work in Sjoa so I was able to go from Sun-Thurs to Voss to kayak, party and do a few rafting races.

I stayed at my friend Anvesh’s house which is one of the 3 Voss Rafting guide houses. I must say the houses rented out to guides in Voss seem like mansions! Def a 5 star rating! Anvesh owns his own rafting company in India called Expeditions India (he trip lead the Sarayu/Kali expedition which I went on last October) so it was nice to see him after 7 months.

There had been a lot of rain so all of the rivers were super high and super fast in Voss. Unfortunately on my first day paddling it was my last day kayaking in Voss for the week. Misjudging where to be on the R lead to me getting beat down in a hole and swimming. Luckily I was okay but my boat and paddle went down the class 6 gorge below the section we were running. I never saw my paddle again but sky divers saw my boat floating in the lake about 3 days later so I got that back and surprisingly my boat only was missing a few screws and had a dinted nose.

The other days in Voss I participated in drinking sessions in the Festival Tent and entered the Rafting Adventure Race with 2 guides from Troll Active and 2 Norwegian men. Our team ‘Troll Mountain’’ came third so I was lucky to get a Bula beanie as a prize. Following the race we also had an amazing BBQ at Voss Rafting – it was the best burger I have had in Norway so far!!!

I had so much fun in Voss I didn’t want to leave but had to return back to Sjoa for the weekend. Good to be working an earning money but pretty gutted I missed Fat Freddies Drop and Swollen Members perform on the Saturday night in the Festival Tent…….maybe next year.

Flood on the Sjoa

2011-07-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

From the beginning of the season we were all complaining about there not being enough water on the Sjoa River. Suddenly on the second week of June we got a lot of rain and the Sjoa rose to above cut off levels for rafting with in about 2days.

At first my friend Erika and I were excited because we had a couple of surf sessions but pretty quickly all the surf spots got completely washed out and the river was one continuous rapid with huge waves (and holes!).

I had a lot of fun on the river but stopped paddling for a few days when I saw whole trees and stuff floating down the river! It was so amazing, the river came up to some parts of the road (and detroyed houses, sections of road, trees etc) and a lot of rocks got moved around in the river (you could hear the rocks moving and even feel the vibrations - crazy!). There is now one gianourmous rock in the middle of Chocolate Canyon!

Sjoa Rafting seemed to suffer a lot with most of their camp getting washed out. The guide house was evacuated but lucky the river started to come down before the river started coming through the door!

Now the river is back to normal and we actually are happy when it rains so we can hopefully have enough water to last the season!

From India - Sweden - Australia - Norway!

2011-07-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

So I am now feeling the shame of not updating my blog since November after seeing how fantastic my friend Toni's blog is. So instead of writing a long-winded post about what I've done the last 8 months I decided it would be easier to break things up into a few posts chronologically....

So after returning to Sweden after Bjorn and my adventures to India and Nepal things didn't exactly turn out as planned. My VISA to Norway took 7 weeks to process (about 4 weeks longer than the usual processing time) so I told my employer in Norway I had no VISA and a day later it arrived but my job had already been given to someone else.

I decided to return back to Australia and Bjorn and I took our own separate directions. It was pretty weird returning to Australia as the longest time I've really spent in Aus since 2006 is around a month or so in between travels, this time I was spending 5-6 months in Australia.

While trying to land back on my feet at home I did some bar work and then at the start of the year finally landed a job at Vic Uni lecturing in Nutrition and tutoring Nutritional Therapy students in clinics. It's a different aspect of being a dietitian that I am used to so it kept me interested and I really enjoyed my work in Australia. The only weird thing was sometimes teaching students my age or older!

In Melbourne it's also pretty hard to go kayaking (the main reason is it being a spread out city with very little nature!) so I kept busy by doing Swedish classes once a week and joining the gym and starting yoga and boxing classes. Yoga is something I've made fun of time and time again when I'm in India but I decided to give it a try to see if I could get any of the benefits people talk about and now I will do it for the rest of my life! I've never been able to touch my toes before and now I can wrap my hand over them, I sleep better, feel more peaceful and don't get as stiff from work and exercise.

It wasn't all work and no play in Melbourne. I did my fair share of re-living Melbourne nightlife, saw a few bands (which I haven't done in a few years and realised I missed live music so much!!!) such as Tool, Sparkadia and Dead Letter Circus and spent more money than I am used to on things which are not kayak related!

Boat shed at NWR

But in May my downtime at home came to an end and I flew over to Norway to work in Sjoa again for the summer. This year I've been really lucky to get a job at Sjoa Raftingsenter (NWR) as a photo kayaker which is like a dream job for me. Not many people get to take photos and kayak everyday AND get paid to do it!

NWR is a pretty great set-up and one of the best rafting companies I've worked at so far. We've got a proper guide-house all to ourselves with our own bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, drying room for gear, laundry room and a walk-in fridge (which is now turned off and used as the beer brewing room! It's okay we have 4 fridges in the kitchen, it seems like each morning I wake up we have another new fridge in the kitchen!). We've got it pretty good here and best of all our bosses are super nice.

View over the Sjoa River

I also saved enough money to buy a decent car this season. NWR is a bit further away from the river than the other companies so by not having a car you kind of leave yourself stranded. I was lucky in May and June that I had a lot of free time to catch up with old friends in the Valley such as my Norwegian friend Erika so I could go kayaking lots (for fun not work!). One of the best kayaking days we had was just Erika and I doing a Birthday run down Åseng (Sjoa River) with chocolate birthday cake in the back of Erika's boat. Nothing hardcore but it was nice just to have us girls on the river with a big slab of cake!

Start of our hike in Bessheim

Another thing which is a little different this summer is now there are heaps of female kayakers in the valley. I didn't realise until the other day that pretty much all of my boating this summer has been down with just girls. It's pretty awesome because usually it's such a male dominated sport.

So far I am really enjoying this season in Norway. So as promised I am going to update my blog so there is lots more to come including high water on the Sjoa, Ekstremsport Veko Week in Voss, Sjoa River Festival, running my first 'thing' and slide and more about Norway and my job!

Upper Seti River

2010-11-15T03:21:00.000-08:00

After all the Diwali celebrations had finished in Nepal Bjorn and I got the tourist bus to Pokora. The bus from Kathmandu to Pokora took about 7 hours but this time could have been significantly reduced as the bus stopped unnecessarily several times for 'breakfast', 'lunch' and a few pee breaks. The trip could have been managed easily in 3-4 hours.

When we arrived Pokora we found a hotel and then went straight to the Ganesh Kayak Shop, owned by a French guy called Charlie. Charlie was one of the most helpful people we met in Nepal. He has so much knowledge that he is willing to share, helps everyone find paddling buddies and even helped us with taxis to and from the river. Charlie helped Bjorn and I find someone to paddle the Upper Seti with the following day which was really nice.

Our first day on the Upper Seti we went with an Italian paddler who had come alone to Pokora. We were able to see a large amount of the river from the drive up to the put-in. Once we were on the river we heard a couple of people yelling out to us from the road above and we realised it was Caroline who we met on the Karnali trip and Mo. We waiting in an eddy for a long time hoping they would catch up to us but we eventually gave up and paddled downstream. Finally while we were scouting Caroline and Mo caught up and we were able to complete the rest of the river together.

The Upper Seti is class 3-4 and is fairly continuous. We all got a lot of boofing practice on this river which was very fun. The river is wide to begin with then there are 2 rapids which are gorged in (worth having a scout and probably the hardest 2 rapids on this section of river) before the river widens out again.

After returning from the river that afternoon we found an American kayaker called Preston who Bjorn and I met in Kathmandu and kayaked the Balephi River with. He was also keen to run the Upper Seti River so Mo, Caroline, Preston, Bjorn and I went to the Seti again the following day and kayaked the section of the river twice!

Pokora was a lot more relaxing than Kathmandu and we noticed that we did not get harassed as much for things here. Hotels were also cheaper, however food cost the same as Kathmandu. Bjorn and I decided to break the budget a bit in Pokora and splashed out on a few meals such as woodfired pizza, pasta, chicken sizzler etc. One of our favourite places to eat was Moon Dance Cafe which was reasonably priced and also had free wireless.

We followed our 2 days of kayaking on the Upper Seti with a rest day in Pokora (mostly spent by reading a book by the lake) before our long journey using the local buses back to Rishikesh, India. Surprisingly this journey went rather smoothly and took about 36 hours (including the time spent crossing to border and waiting for buses in Banbasa and getting a taxi from Hardwar to Rishikesh).

Bjorn and I really enjoyed our time in Nepal but would have loved to have kayaked some more rivers and possibly done some trekking. Unfortunately due to lack of time and money we will have to come back to Nepal another time to do these things.

Thanks to Preston for all of the photos from the Upper Seti and also to Charlie from Ganesh Kayak Shop for helping us while we were in Pokora.

Balephi River

2010-11-14T05:56:00.000-08:00

When Bjorn and I got back to Kathmandu we met a group of kayakers who were staying at Holly Lodge and Bag Packers in Thamel. Part of the group of kayakers worked for Pyranha who had organised a private bus to take them to the Balephi River and we were lucky enough to be able to go with them.

The Balephi was approximately a 3 hour drive from Kathmandu. We put-in where most of the rafting companies usually start their commercial trips and kayaked all the way down to the Sun Kosi confluence then along the Upper Sun Kosi for about 30min before taking out at Equator Expeditions.

The Balephi was class 3-4, pretty continuous boulder gardens and beautiful scenery surrounding the river. A nice thing about this river was that is was pretty gorged in and remote so we didn't have to listen to traffic passing on the road etc.

The Balephi was a fairly easy day trip from Kathmandu. We left around 7.30am and returned around 7pm that evening. If planning on doing the Balephi it can be easily combined with the Bhote Kosi or the Sun Kosi. Equator Expedition offer food and camping and would be a good place to stay in between running these rivers.

Thanks to Sara and Preston for their photos and to the boys at Pyranha who organised the day for everyone.

Karnali River Expedition

2010-11-07T04:22:00.001-08:00

Bjorn and I came off the Sarayu/Kali expedition, straight across the border and had a 19 hour bus journey to Kathmandu. We arrived really late in the night and ended up getting ripped off with our taxi to Thamel and having to pay premium price for a hotel that evening. The next day we met our friend Chitra who was working with us in Sjoa this summer and we decided to go on the Karnali expedition which Chitra was trip leading through Drift Nepal. The only draw back was we were leaving in the morning and going back down the same road we had just came to Kathmandu!

The following day we got up really early and met the other clients coming on the trip. We also collected some other kayakers and rafts guides who we worked with in Norway this summer (Mo, Barbora, Emil, Elisabeth and Marius) so it was a very 'Scandinavian' river trip! It took over 4 hours to get properly out of Kathmandu due to traffic and accidents. We were meant to stay in a hotel for one night but instead we drove all day, all night and until about 3pm the following day where we reached the put-in for the Karnali River.

Pee break on the way to the Karnali Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View of the Karnali put-in Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We set up our first night's camp by the put-in of the river. It wasn't an ideal spot because of the amount of people coming down from the village to observe us but part of the expedition was 'Project Karnali' where a small group of doctors were visiting certain health posts along the way down the river. Their first visit was to a health post close to this village which is why we weren't able to camp further downstream.

After breakfast, lunch and a safety briefing the following day we started our trip on the river. We did about an hour of paddling which were some nice easy class 3 wave trains before pulling over in the afternoon to set-up camp.

Put-in for the Karnali Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Drying clothes by the fire of our second beach camp on the Karnali Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our second day of paddling on the river was similar to day one. Pool-drop rapids and lots of fun class 3 wave trains. We finished off the day by scouting and running a large class 4 rapid called 'Sweetness and Light'.

Third night's beach camp on the Karnali Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We paddled for about an hour on our third day on the river before stopping at a village where 'Project Karnali' did an assessment of another health post. We spent a couple of hours in this village exploring and had some chai before continuing down stream. Again towards the end of the day we scouted another large rapid called 'Jailhouse Rock' which had 2 huge hole on the right hand side of the rapid. This rapid was pretty exiting and got the adrenalin kicking in before we pulled over to relax and set-up camp at 'Scorpion Beach' for the rest of the afternoon.

Village where we stopped for chai on day 3 of paddling Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View of the Karnali from the village Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Children form the village wondering where all these rafters and kayakers came from

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our 4th day on the river was the most exciting day with the most amount of large rapids and also provided the most continuous section of whitewater. The main rapids we were challenged with were 'God's House', 'Juicer', and 'Flip and Strip'. 'God's House' ended up with a lot of carnage. I ended up going into the top right hand hole and got surfed for a while in my creek boat which finally resulted in a swim. Unfortunately the fibreglass in my paddle smashed on my deck which was temp fixed with duct tape for the rest of the Karnali trip. One of the safety kayakers also swam in the eddy at the bottom of 'God's House' because he flipped and got pinned against a rock and said he kept hitting his head every time he tried to roll. The carnage made a lot of good footage for Mo who was standing on the bank filming and we were able to entertain everyone that evening by the fire doing our bootie beers.

Our camp at the end of day 4 on the river Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

The last 3 days on the Karnali were relatively flat with occasionally some very small class 2-2+ rapids. The only exception was a new rapid which had formed that we found on day 5. Most people were unaware of this large class 3 wave train (with a descent sized hole at the bottom). Funnily enough one of the gear catarafts were not paying too much attention and were caught off guard and flipped in the bottom hole losing the fried rice which they had prepared for lunch that day!

When we finished our last day of paddling we had lunch at the take-out and were back on the bus for another non-stop drive back to Kathmandu. Luckily I managed to sleep most of the way because we were so worn out after 7 days on the river!

Camp on our second last night on the Karnali River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Sarayu & Kali River Expedition

2010-11-05T02:21:00.000-07:00

On the 16th October I headed out on the Sarayu and Kali River expedition with Expeditions India in Uttarakhand. This was the first commercial descent run on the Sarayu River by Expeditions India and the second commercial descent by any rafting company. The Sarayu has been described as 'a little big river' offering some technical pool drop rapids with crystal clear waters. The best part of this river that it's relatively remote and untouched with amazing beaches for camping on. Even after the Sarayu runs into the Kali the action doesn't stop due to the big volume rapids.

View from our hotel in Kathgodam Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We started out trip in Rishikesh with a 2 day jeep ride to Sheraghat where we would put-in on the Sarayu River. We drove for about 10 hours the first day and stayed overnight in Kathgodam followed by what should have been a 4 hour drive to Binsar which ended up being almost 10 hours due to a road accident blocking the road on the way.

A little shop where we spent 2 hours on the way to Binsar waiting for the road accident to clear
Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

An army truck which had fallen off the cliff which officials were trying to lift back up to the road with 2 cables.... Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Watching and wondering if this one to one system was actually going to work lifting the truck back up to the road...... Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

........obviously not..... Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We spent 2 days kayaking on the Sarayu River. The first day we paddled for about 4-5 hours through some technical class 3-3+ whitewater. At the end of the afternoon the river had converged into more of a gorge. The second day on the Sarayu was a very long 7-8 hour day of paddling with some intense action moments. There were a lot of horizon lines with some exciting class 4 rapids. At one stage we thought we were going to lose the gear cataraft when it ended up being surfed on its side against a pillow wave on a huge rock, luckily Gaupo who was guiding quickly high-sided. We ended up giving this rapid the name 'Catastrophe'. After all the intense rapids had finished we arrived to the confluence of the East Ram Ganga and the river then widened out and things became a lot easier. We continued on until we came to the Kali confluence and kept paddling down the Kali a few kilometers before setting up for our 2nd night of camp.

View of the Sarayu when driving through Sheraghat Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

At the put-in for the Sarayu River

Camp the first night on the Sarayu River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

First day on the Sarayu River

One of the last rapids on the gorged-in section on day 2 of the Sarayu River

Second night of camping - Kali River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our third day of paddling was on the Kali River. We stopped twice to scout a massive but fun wave train (and to buy rum from the Nepal side of the river) and another huge rapid running along against a wall (on the left) with a creek coming into the right side of the rapid. The volume of the river was incredible and there were lots of impressive boils and crazy eddy lines. Shortly after these rapids we pulled over and had lunch on another beautiful beach and set up for camp for the night. This beach camp had a hidden waterfall which we were able to hike up to in 5 minutes with refreshing spring water we could bathe in.

Getting ready for action on day 3 Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Unfortunately I wasn't able to paddle on day 4 on the river due to stomach problems. I was able to tie my kayak to the back of the raft and lie down while we went down the river. Most of day 4 was fairly flat except of 'Chuca' Rapid. This was the biggest rapid on the river, a huge class 4-4+ wave train with many lines to take either in the raft or kayak. I was disappointed not to get the opportunity to kayak 'Chuca' but luckily in the raft we had a good line and kept the black side of the raft down! We camped on a beach on the right hand side of the river after 'Pillow' which is about an hour walk from Chuca Village.

Savitha with the catch for the day at our beach camp for our 5th night on the river
Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View of the Kali River on our hike to Jim Corbett's house Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Day 5 was a lay over day. We had a short hike (45min-1 hour) after breakfast to a house which is currently being renovated which is likely to be where Jim Corbett lived once. We hiked back to camp again for lunch then after lunch we hiked back up towards Chuca to explore the village and have some chai at the local tea shop. Chuca was very different to what I expected. It was a farming village and all the houses and crops seemed extremely well cared for. Day 5 was our last night on the river so we were surprised with a special dinner of dhal makini, mutter paneer, jeera rice and chapatis.

Chuca Village Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our last day of paddling on the Kali was very short (around 90min). The river had a lot of class 3 very fun wave trains and was a lot more continuous to the previous days on the Kali. We were met by our driver at the take-out in and had lunch, packed the jeep and then Bjorn and I got dropped off in Bombasa where we found a horse-rickshaw driver to take us across the border to Nepal where we will be spending the next month kayaking.

Chuca Village late afternoon Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

3 Day Ganga Expedition

2010-10-12T04:26:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend Bjorn and I joined on a 3 day/2night rafting trip with our kayaks on the Ganga River with Red Chilli Adventure. We started the trip in Devprayag and finished in Ramjhola. The first day of the trip we waited for over 3 hours in the scorching sun for the clients to arrive (they were delayed as they had been on a 3 day trek prior to the rafting trip). This didn't matter though as we only had about a 40min paddle down relatively calm water to our first camping spot for the night.

Bjorn and Rob at the Deprayag put-in Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Waiting for the clients to arrive Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

You can see the white wooden stakes in the background. These are measuring sticks for the river level. This year during the monsoon the river came above where I am sitting on the log (over 23m!!!).

So much rubbish has accumulated along the banks of the river from the monsoon. It is pretty normal to see plastic bags and other rubbish up in trees along the river Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our first night we helped the clients settle in and Harinder our cook made us a feast of tomato soup with croutons, vegetable momos, and even tomato, mushroom and cheese pizza! All of this was cooked with only a gas stove. Rob, Bjorn, Kumar and I all slept under the stars using the raft as shelter while the other guides slept in the kitchen tent while the clients had their own personal tents.

Day 2 we again woke up to hot chai and another feast made by Harinder consisting of omelette, toast and chips. After packing down camp we had a pretty easy day on the river. We only had to kayak about 20km in pretty flat water with some sizable boils and whirlpools to keep our interest. Along the way we were able to buy 2 fish from the local fisherman and Harish our safety kayaker stopped in one of the villages to buy some more food for the evening. After a couple of hours we reached our beach campsite for the second night.

Kumar rowing all of our gear down the Ganga Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Bjorn helping unload all the gear from the cataraft Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Bjorn and Rob searching for frogs in the ''swimming pools'' on our beach camp Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We had a pretty relaxing afternoon at the camp so Rob, Bjorn and I rowed the cataraft over to the opposite side of the river in search for a waterfall which Arvind had told us about. After heading back to camp we helped prepare the evening meal which again was another amazing feast this time comprising of Indian food - dhal, fish curry, aloo ghobi, chapati, rice and rice pudding for desert.

A donkey on it's way on the opposite side of the river we found whilst searching for green chillies, ginger and a waterfall Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View of our campsite for the second night of the expedition Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Preparing the vegetables for dinner

Arvind about to demonstrate to the clients how to make dhal Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Day 3 was all the action. We kayaked down from camp about 3km and met up with Anvesh, Flo, and Gapoo (also kayaking) and another client who was joining on with the trip. The first rapid 'The Wall' is well-known for a huge hole on the left which will 95% of the time flip a raft. As we moved further downstream we went through rapids such as 'Three Blind Mice', 'Return to Sender', 'Rollercoaster', 'Golf Course' and 'Hilton'. The Ganga is a pretty friendly big volume river, with huge wave trains and pool-drop rapids. It is the river which I learnt to kayak on and even though it's my third time back to Rishikesh I never get sick of it.

Golf Course rapid on the Ganga River

Now we are hoping to make it onto the Sarayu and Kali River Expedition which is leaving in a couple of days time, before heading into Nepal.

Searching for Eric Northman in Sweden

2010-10-12T03:24:00.000-07:00

Most people would have seen the TV series True Blood and fallen in love with Eric Northman. I didn't find Eric but I found a lot of wild mushrooms,beautiful scenery, and cheaper 'everything' compared to Norway. I spent almost 3 weeks in Järna following the rafting season in Norway.

Picking black mushrooms at Bjorn's parents summer house Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Cleaning mushrooms we picked in the forest. We first removed all the dirt, then cut the mushrooms into smaller pieces so they could be dried easily Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

My best friend Jo from Australia was visiting relatives in Austria during August and September and decided to fly up to Stockholm to visit me for a few days. Bjorn introduced her to typical Swedish past-times such as mushroom picking, the sauna and we visited the Tom Tits Experiment (a science museum similar to Science Works in Melbourne). After 2 days in Järna, on Jo's last day we tried to be 'tourists' and did some sight-seeing around the popular sights in Stockholm.

Almondy, a delicious Swedish cake from the frozen section of the supermarket

Jo out of control at Tom Tits Experiment Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Doing a tourist photo in Stockholm

Now Bjorn and I are avoiding the autumn rain in Sweden and Norway by spending the next 2 months in India and Nepal. We have already spent a week in Rishikesh, India kayaking on the Ganga River and plan on heading into Nepal towards the end of October. So far the trip has been off to a good start with lots of water this season in most rivers and we are looking forward to hopefully joining an expedition on the Sarayu and Kali Rivers in India.

Norway - Stories from the Land of Trolls

2010-09-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

Surfing Faukstad on the Sjoa Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

It's been a while since I last posted so it's time to give some news about my summer in Norway. I made a pretty random, last minute decision a couple weeks after returning from South America that I would try and get a rafting job for the summer. I was pretty lucky to be offered a job with a small company called GoRafting as I've been told that around a hundred applicants email the rafting companies each year and usually all of the hiring is done by the end of autumn (not in April like my case).

Road trip from Sjoa to Voss with Will and Oli

On the way to Voss, this tunnel went on for ~30km. We found the flouro lighting pretty entertaining.

I found out pretty quickly that Norway is very expensive. I'm not just talking about pricey beer but paying like $5 for a 500ml bottle of water or $20 for a small piece of steak! This meant that most of us had to stay in the region around Sjoa most of the summer and not much time was spent road tripping around Norway due to the expensive price of petrol. I did however manage to go to Voss with Will and Oli for 4 days and do some paddling there which resulted in 2 swims, 2 lost booties/river shoes, and the boys wishing they could stay in Voss due to the high number of good-looking women (which is not the case in Sjoa). We were also lucky to meet up with my friend Jacob who I met in Chile this year and also met a couple of British guys (Ted and Dan) who took us out kayaking on our last day in Voss. I really loved Dan's attitude that we would chose a river which suited all of our abilities and having the boys getting me over my fear and down my first (fairly small however) waterfall.

Will trying to fix his dry-pants with some duct tape Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Running my first waterfall in Voss

Will and Oli scouting Money Drop in Voss Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

The rest of summer was spent in Sjoa working on the Sjoa River doing rafting, safety kayaking, riverboarding and also canyoning in Tessa Canyon. The Sjoa River is a pretty friendly class 3 river where a lot of time can be spent surfing the raft in various playspots such as Microsurf, Bye Bye Baby and Faukstad wave. A lot of surfing usually means a lot of action such as swimmers and flips. As the river got lower towards the end of the season a lot of these surfing spots washed out but it meant that the river was low enough to run a big rapid downstream called Washing Machine (the first rapid of Amot section on the Sjoa River).

Diony and I wearing the same shoes, same wetsuit and same drytop! Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Running safety on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Myself surfing in Faukstad Wave on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Getting a big hit down the first hole of Washing Machine Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Myself in front with Will following down Washing Machine on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

I was able to meet up with Erika, Barbora and Nini who I kayaked with in Uganda, and regularly paddled on the Sjoa with Barbora practicing our 'boofing', and was lucky to check out the Bovra River with Erika (followed by a visit to the famous Lom bakery!). If you live in the Sjoa Valley life is usually pretty quiet and you need to be able to entertain yourselves (which is easily accomplished by kayaking!) but a few other activities I did were berry picking, brewing beer (way cheaper than buying it in Norway!), a few small hikes around the area and a lot of the guides met up weekly for a BBQ or a visit to the local pub Pensj.

Mike kayaking down the rapid S-Bend on Amot Section of the Sjoa River Photo Jacqui Whitehead

Picking wild strawberries along by the Sjoa River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Jonny and Bjorn content after a day on the river and taking photos while some of the boys kayaked down Amot

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Jonas getting over his fear of heights while doing the Bridge Swing Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Some of the highlights for the rafting season in Norway were our roadtrip to Voss, the Sjoa River Festival which included the infamous Pimp & Ho party, eating Chitra's fantastic flip dinners (whenever a guide flips their raft they usually pay a fine of beer but in Chitra's case he cooks dinners comprising of dhal bhat, rice and a curry), and our end of season bowling party in Vågå.

Some lessons I learnt in Norway were:

1) Alcohol is VERY expensive. Either get your friends visiting to bring lots of duty free alcohol, brew beer yourself or do a trip to Sweden as the Swedish Kroner is not as strong as the Norwegian as well as everything being a lot cheaper there.

2) Paying 2000NK a month rent for a grass hut with no bathroom and an outside kitchen is expensive. It helps to have friends in Norway who can help search for a good value room. 1000NK is a normal price to pay for a room with electricity, internet, kitchen and hot water.

3) In the Sjoa Valley you are pretty stuck without a car. A bike can help but it will still take about an hour to ride to the nearest supermarket.

4) Summer is like the Australian winter in Norway

5) Bring lots of food if you are driving from neighbouring countries....like alcohol food is cheaper in Sweden, also better and there is more variety. I found the fact that plastic wrapped vegetables in Norway lasting about 2 weeks is kinda scary (also the fact that fruit and veg is wrapped in plastic or canned, it's never really fresh)

6) Yes fish like Salmon is ''affordable'' in Norway. But it is frozen and vaccum packed.....

Myself kayaking down Golfstream on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

'Let the Slave Run' Wins Best Action Film at Waterwalker Festival 2010

2010-05-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hard work promoting the Slave River as a word class playboating destination is finally paying off. This year Let the Slave Run has won Best Action film at the 2010 Waterwalker Festival in Canada and has been included in the line up of films in the schedule for the 2010 Reel Paddling Film Festival. A lot of positive feedback has been received about the film and we are all hoping that it will bring more paddlers to the Slaver River Paddle Fest held in July this year. More information for this years festival can be found at the Fort Smith Paddling Club website through the link below. Thanks to everyone for all of their support!

http://fskayak.webs.com/slaveriverpaddlefest.htm

Slave River 2009 from Jacqui Whitehead on Vimeo.

South America - Part II

2010-04-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

Pako, he is a local legend in Porterillos Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

So with the ''serious'' paddling in Chile out of the way Sonny, Ali, Zac and I all made it up to Porterillos in one piece after saying goodbye to the Spanish guys (Aniol, Jordi and Pinto), as well as Carine and Arturo in Mendoza.

Trust that Jordi won the wine when playing Bingo on the bus ride from Futa!

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Bathing in the Lake our first morning in Potre Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Being completely wrecked from the journey we all expected an early night... I learnt very quickly there is no such thing as these in Porterillos! We ended up going to a big asado at Argentina Rafting our first night, followed by party after party, night after night! I met up with my good friend Diego (known to most Argentine's as Cindi) and spent 2 weeks living in my tent in his backyard with the Rios Andinos boys Emi, Oso (and ladies - Mili). Potre was such a different experience to Futa. The river was super fun, simple continuous class 3. I would go to work with the boys each morning and go kayaking with the trip then relax in the afternoon by the pool or go for a hike, hang out with my new friend Petra (a Dutch backpacker) and then we would start out night off about 10pm with dinner, drinks and partying.

Sonny relaxing and checking out the ladies Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Rios Andinos making their way down the Rio Mendoza

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Petra and I waiting for the boys to get off the river

'Bet you can't do this!' Diego watches Andrew show him the moves

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Enjoying the afternoon sun in Diego's garden

My first weekend in Porterillos was right when River Week was. This was another kayak festival which was fun, very well organised and had lots of really great prizes as well as dinner on 2 of the nights. My friend Ali from Slovenia did really well at this festival and won both the kayak slalem and down river kayak races.

Above: Boys from Tucuman in the rafting race Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Below: Sol and I at River Week

Fabian, Diego, Edgar, myself and Petra at River Week

I would have liked to spend a lot more time in Porterillos, but due to limited time I decided to go traveling alone for a little bit to check out Iguazu Falls then I met up with Edgar (a local from Tucuman) and Petra in Tucuman and did some canyoning and was shown how the locals in Tucuman like to party before making my way back to Buenos Aires and spending my last night with Sonny with 2 of his local friends eating a fine Argentine steak with a glass of Gancia.

Making the most of a rainy day at Iguazu Falls on the Argentine side

About to get completely drenched in a boat ride which took us right under the falls

The sun finally started to come out!

I really enjoyed my time in Argentina and was really wish I could have spent a lot more time here and learnt some Spanish as well as do some more kayaking in Mendoza, Tucuman and check out the Lakes District (due to the expense of traveling with a kayak on the bus it made it really hard to stop in Bariloche so that will have to be next time!). I will come back to this wonderful place one day!

Karen and Petra trying to learn some Spanish!

South America - Part I

2010-04-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

It's about time I updated my blog after some of the adventures I have had this year. In Feb/March I was lucky enough to make it to Argentina and Chile. The main purpose of the trip was to spend majority of my time down on the Rio Futaleufu, paddle some of the tributaries and if there was enough time left try to check out a bit of Argentina.

Hanging out in La Boca, Buenos Aires

The plan was to fly into Buenos Aires, Argentina and meet up with my good friend Sonny from Calgary who I did a lot of paddling with on the Slave and Skooks in Canada last year with. As per usual when traveling to a foreign country you will have your ups and downs..... I flew in a day before Sonny and as soon as I arrived I discovered the airline had lost my main bag with all of my camping equipment and clothes (lucky I still had my kayak and boating gear!!!). Getting from the airport to downtown Buenos Aires was a mini adventure in itself without being able to speak a word of Spanish and convince the shuttle bus, taxis etc to take myself and my kayak to the hostel. First thing when I arrived at the Millhouse Hostel was check my email. Bad news - Sonny had emailed me to let me know he was stuck in Washington DC due to extreme snow storms and he ended up being stuck for almost a week. After waiting for Sonny for 2 and a half days I received my missing bag and decided to get on a bus straight to Futaleufu and meet Sonny there.

Mural in Esquel Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Town of Esquel Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

After having traveled all over India and from Zambia to Uganda via bus (and been on some of the worst buses imaginable) I didn't have high expectations of my bus journey down to Futa, especially after purchasing a ticket for a Semi Cama bus and being told by the hostel that these buses are not very good. I was so happy to discover my bus was a proper coach with reclining seats, foot rests, a host, the latest movies in English, and included drinks, snacks, dinner, breakfast and lunch! In fact I got so much food on this bus I couldn't finish it all! The journey down to Esquel which is a small town near the Argentina/Chile border took around 24+hrs. I stayed the night at a small, friendly, family run campground before setting off the following morning to Futaleufu.

Rio Azul Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Town of Futaleufu Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

I was so happy once I arrived the town of Futa to see so many of my friends who I had met over the last couple of years traveling. The local boys were also so welcoming to me. If I was friends with one of their friends it automatically made me their friend too. I spent my first few days on the river with Aren and Sarah from RX Rivers and stayed in a little cabin on their property. We were able to check out the Rio Espolon (a nice class 2-3 stretch just outside the town of Futa), Rio Azul (a tributary to the Futa which is a nice technical class 3-4 run) and combined it with a couple of smaller rapids after the confluence of the Futa and Asleep at the Wheel (a class 3 rapid giving a small taste of what is to come on the Futa), taking out just above Terminator section. My last day with RX Rivers we did the lower part of the Futa - Macal section (class 2-3) and then had a taste of the most frequently run section of the Futa - Bridge to Bridge. The entrance rapid (appropriately named Entrada) is the longest rapid on this section and can be very intimidating. There are so many different lines to take and there is also an easy straight forward chicken line on the left but to mess up on this rapid can have huge, unforgiving consequences. So for my first time down Bridge to Bridge we put in just below this and enjoyed the delites from Tobogan, Pillow and Magic Carpet, taking out at Cara Del Indio (a family run campsite which is the place to stay if you are a kayaker).

Carine and Zac cooking a Peruvian dish Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

3 hour wait for a ride into the town of Futa..... Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

The X-Men (Zac and Sonny) Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Figuring out where to go kayaking today at Cara Del Indio Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Over the next week or so the weather was not appealing. Constant rain and grey clouds so I decided to stay in town at ''Nate's place'' until the weather was more ''camper friendly''. Over this time I managed to finally be reunited with Sonny (he really looked like he needed a stiff drink by the time he arrived), meet up with two hilarious guys - Ali from Slovenia and Reiyner from Iceland, and my friends from Peru (Santi and Arturo), Montana (Todd, Meghan and Zac) was well as other kayakers who made my trip such an unforgettable experience. I had the full support from all the guys (especially Ali, Todd and a local Chilean paddler Marcus) to run the full Bridge to Bridge section multiple times, experience a proper asado (known as a Barbie or BBQ by us Aussies), get ridiculously drunk with Reiyner and Ali at a ''disco'' in Futa and most importantly experience Futa Fest!!!!

Thai enjoys the view from the top of the truck

That crazy Slovenian! Ali jumps from the bridge marking the entrance to the Bridge to Bridge section

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Futa Fest was run over 3 days and by the evening prior to the Festival 2 kayak schools, paddlers from Canada, USA, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Australia, and Slovenia had all pulled in. By this stage there were clear skys, constant sun and the river levels had dropped slightly making Cara Del Indio a perfect place to be for a few weeks (before this I didn't exactly want to face a cold shower after getting off the river freezing cold!). It was perfect, walking up from Cara Del Indio to put in for a session on the Magic Carpet wave, being able to tag along with rafting trips from Cara Del Indio and cooking over the fire in the honcho.

Morning at Cara Del Indio Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Rodolfo and his car have traveled all over Central and South America promoting Free Flowing Rivers

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

First day of the festival we had a kayak sprint down Mundaca. Carine and I were the only 2 girls to compete in this. Day 2 there was a downriver kayak race down the Bridge to Bridge section followed by a downriver raft race which Carine and I entered along with Lindsay, Paz, Ana and Isabelle. Our goal was not to flip. We were achieved this and came third so we were pretty excited and still managed to have a huge laugh whilst going down the river making the experience even more enjoyable.

Below: Finish of the down river kayak race Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Girls rafting team entering Munduca Photo: Ali

The day after Futa Fest finished pretty much all of us tried to leave town. At first things were proving to be a little difficult in Esquel with about 6 of us with kayaks trying to get them all on the same bus to Mendoza. In the end things had a way of working out and all of us were able to get on the same bus with several of the kayaks being sent up to Mendoza on the bus the following day. 12+ kayakers on this bus made the trip go by slightly faster than usual, especially when Jordi won a bottle of wine playing Bingo on the bus.

Rodolfo who I used to work with at Hyak, founder of Free Flowing Rivers speaking about river conservation.

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Winners of the female rafting down river race

Lessons learned from Futa:

- Stay at either Cara Del Indio (which is right by the river and the perfect place to stay when the weather is good) or Nate's place (in the town of Futa - far away from the river but warm, cosy beds, a huge kitchen, fire and HOT showers)

- If you want to hitchhike in Patagonia expect to be waiting a long time..... if possible buy a car it will make life so much easier!

- Empanadas (a street snack) are the best in Chile!

- Take all the money you will need as the ATM only accepts Mastercard (not VISA) and most of the time is out of service. Euros is the best currency to try to exchange here.

- Take all the food you think you may need if staying at Cara Del Indio..... it is hard to hitch a ride to town but if you are in need the owners bake fresh bread daily (very good) and you can buy eggs, beer and soft drinks.

- Most importantly the Futa is a really fun river but safety is the most important thing. Remember to respect this river as the consequences can be unforgiveable.

Slave River Playground Video

2009-12-11T02:27:00.000-08:00

During my stay up in Fort Smith a film crew came up to take some footage of the Slave to show during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver to promote other parts of Canada as tourist destinations. Here is a nice video of the Playground (also features ''English Channel'') which shows the Slave River is for kayakers of all abilities.

The Holy Ganga, Rishikesh and the land of Old Monk....

2009-11-28T21:09:00.000-08:00

View outside my room early morning in Rishikesh Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

At the end of October I returned to Australia after spending almost 2 months in Rishikesh, India. What was meant to be 2 months of raft guiding actually turned into 2 months of video boating for Red Chilli Adventure! Fortunately this opportunity was offered to me so I was able to do what I love - kayak everyday, make videos and earn a little bit of money to put towards rent and food!

Loading the jeep for rafting at the Red Chilli store Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Marine Drive put-in on the Ganga Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Relaxing after the major rapids of the day on the Holy Ganga River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Packing up and getting ready to re-load the jeep Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

This was my second visit to India (my first being in Jan - March 2008). I saw many old kayaking friends there (Flo from Austria, Eamon from the UK, Vipin, Anvesh, Arvind all from Red Chilli Adventure and many more!) and made new ones such as Polly & Paul from the UK. The thing I love about this place is everyone is so enthusiastic about life, being on the river and the outdoors. People not only care about their bodies but also their minds which is why I guess Rishikesh is one of the main hubs for Yoga in the world.

One of the many monkeys which inhabited my balcony! Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Luxman Jhola bridge - one of the main tourist sights in Rishikesh Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View from the Red Chilli office of the beautiful Ganga River at sunset Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Yet another monkey with what looks like a stolen apple from an unsuspecting tourist Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

This man sells really nice snack mix at the rafting take-out Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View of the Ganga outside Den-ascent Expeditions Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

There were a few disappointments in India such as not being able to kayak the mighty Siang River but these dissapointments were replaced with being able to paddle with good friends on the Ganga everyday, experience India's main festival Diwali (basically everyone just throws around a bunch of fireworks and a lot of sweets are eaten), take part in a yoga class, and be invited to many birthday parties and dinners hosted by my local friends.

Paul holding the mother of all fireworks! Photo Jacqui Whitehead

Busy streets during Diwali Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

It was also fantastic to see a few trainees from my first visit to India (who had that stage never even been in a kayak or guided a raft) be trip leading or safety kayaking down the Ganga River. I can't wait to see how they have progressed next time I go back.

Another view of the Ganga and Luxman Jhola bridge Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Celebrating my last trip on the river in India with Balam Photo: Bheem Sing

I will be posting a video with the highlights from India on my blog soon but I really need to thank my dear friends Arvind, Vipin & Anvesh and all the boys at Red Chilli Adventure - you guys truly made me feel part of the family!

No Dam on the Slave!

2009-09-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

With the White Nile being dammed kayakers will be looking for alternative rivers for playboating. The Slave River in the NWT, Canada offers world class play spots, river running, and even creeking with first descents still to be run! This video shows the 4 sets of rapids on the Slave and the features each set of rapids has to offer as well as making people aware that this unique river is at threat of being dammed.

Slave River 2009 from Jacqui Whitehead on Vimeo.

Return to Skooks and High Levels on the Ganga River

2009-09-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

Micha going for a blunt with Drew on surfer's right Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Last week of August John and I decided to hit the Skook one more time before I left BC. The levels ranged between 12.0F-12.97F which meant we had hours on Skooks without it greening out on us. The other advantage was there were very few boaters at Skooks this time around which meant on most days the wave out-surfed us! Like always we had a big adventure with our second Skookumchuck trip - beginning with the ferry ride!

John Rathwell on 'the Skook!' Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Micha & Drew competing for the wave behind Skooks Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Micha going for an aerial blunt Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

BC ferries wanted to charge us an extra $30 for being 4cm ''overheight''. John really didn't want to pay this so he forced his creekboat inside the jeep and only minutes after I stated we would probably crack the windscreen....the windscreen cracked! When we left the Sunshine Coast again like always another adventure to be had, this time we made the ferry with only about 2min to spare, being hungry kayakers like most we were so desperate on the ferry to eat anything that we ended up eating re-fried beans out of the can on the hood of John's jeep with wholemeal wraps and cheese.....it tasted so good at the time!

Moments after I told John we would probably crack the windscreen! Photo: John Rathwell

The first week of September I flew out of BC and landed in Delhi, India. The following day I braved a long car journey to Rishikesh where I will be spending the fall guiding/safety kayaking at HRR on the Ganga River with strong possibilities of also doing expeditions on the Saryu, and Kameng Rivers. Another possibility though is the Siang River Festival in November which I am looking forward to (especially after seeing some of the footage in The Last Descent!).

So far I have been out kayaking on the Ganga River which is at it's highest flow for the season. I've seen some ridiculous looking boils so far and opted to borrow my friend's creek boat for the first 3 days of paddling so I wouldn't get completely smashed and gave the Project 52 a go in high water yesterday which was both exciting and fun!

Although I am sad to have left BC I'm looking forward to the next 3 months of big water boating in India. I have met so many great people in Canada this season who were always willing to go out of their way for me and will be people who I will call friends for the rest of my life. Those people know who they are and I can't wait to see everyone again next year season!

Photo: John Rathwell

Epic Tofino & Victoria Road Trip

2009-09-15T01:32:00.000-07:00

After spending 4 days paddling at Skooks last August my mate Sonny and I decided to head over to Tofino and Victoria to check it out. Somehow we managed to miss the ferry in Powell River over to Vancouver Island by 5min and had to wait 5 hours for the next one. This meant we drove into Tofino sometime after 11pm and in the dark had a lot of trouble finding the campground. We decided to turn back and as Sonny made the U-Turn we somehow found ourselves in a massive ditch!...no way to get out except with the assistance of a tow truck! We thought all was lost and after an hour a tow truck eventually came and we were able to have some sleep.

The town of Tofino itself was just mainly cafe after cafe, all the real surfing is down back about 20km. We decided to surf with our kayaks at Long Beach. Usually you have to pay for day parking here but the cost was covered with our camping. Unfortunately we didn't take the camera with us surfing but it was pretty fun and a new experience surfing in the ocean.

Before heading back to Vancouver we stopped for one night in Victoria and had some really nice Mexican food and indulged ourselves with ice-cream and bakery goods. A nice reward after a week of kayaking a Skooks and Tofino!

Main pier in Tofino Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Sunset at Long Beach Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Victoria Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Skookumchuck Narrows

2009-08-23T01:39:00.000-07:00

Tues 18th August - Friday 21st August a small group of us paddlers who met at the Slave River Paddle Fest went out to Skooks for 4 days. Thursday Skooks was at it's largest level 15.6F with some pretty impressive boils and whirlpools in the wave train behind.

Link to tide-chart and viewing times:

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/skook_narrows/

2nd Annual Slave River Paddle Fest 2009

2009-08-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

The August long weekend (31st July-3rd August) saw the 2nd annual Slave River Paddle Festival held in Fort Smith. During the week prior to the festival groups of paddlers arrived from Calgary, Jasper, Canmore, Yellowknife, (also Leif from Colorado, Larry & Shane from Golden, and myself from Australia). During the Sat there were at least 100 spectators on shore at Playground at any one time. During the Sat those of us wanting to compete in the advanced down river race did a training run through the English Channel/The Edge (a channel left of Mailstrom). There was also a kayak rodeo, kayak beach ball race, canoe rescue competition, kayak rolling & hand rolling competitions, swim race through the Playground, and river rafting for whoever wanting to go for a surf in the Playground hole.

Opening ceremony at Playground Photo: Jon Blyth

Rafting in the Playground Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Sunday saw the Advanced downriver kayak race through English Channel & The Edge which was won by Shane Kroeger and also the intermediate & beginner kayak river races.

By Monday numbers had dwindled slightly but that didn't matter as most of us headed out to look at Pelican & Molly's, which some brave boys ended up running. Although with the water level still at 4200cms a couple of kayakers had their arse handed to them in Molly's with the green tongue that usually forms the 'preferred line' only just forming at this water level.

The Slave River Kayak Festival was a great success and with potential companies such as ATCO and Trans Canada looking into hydro-electrical projects for this river it's important for kayakers to keep utilizing this river. With the dam on the White Nile being near completion kayakers will soon be looking for alternative playboating destinations to go to during summer, and the Slave will definitely make the top of the list (Leif Anderson has listed the Slave as one of his top 5 'must do' rivers). Despite the Slave being 'far away' it is pretty easy to get to by car and once you are there the cost of living is relatively inexpensive (surprisingly supermarket prices were not inflated). There are camping grounds with hot showers and electricity or you can camp for free down at the Mountain River Portage Rapids. Shuttles are pretty easy as only at Cassette and Rapids of the Drowned a shuttle is required and there are usually local boaters wanting to go kayaking so if you come with only one vehicle you will be bound to find someone to share a shuttle with.

For more information about the Slave River or the Slave River Kayak Festival you can visit the Fort Smith Kayak Club website at www.fskayak.webs.com

Slave River Road Trip-Part 2

2009-08-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

With only a couple of days left on the Slave before the long drive back to British Columbia I thought I'd use my chance on the 'inter-web' to complete my report about the Slave and try to provide as much information as I can about the sets of rapids on the Slave and the rapids within the sets of rapids!

Rapids of the Drowned

This is the final set of rapids in the 4 sets of rapids. The Rapids of the Drowned were named so as 5 paddlers from a Northwest fur trading company came by these rapids in 1786. The 5 paddlers eddied out above the rapids, 2 of them going downstream to check if they were runnable. The story goes that they were meant to fire one shot if the rapids were good to go, unfortunately the 2 people downstream saw a duck and fired a shot causing the 3 paddlers to come down the wrong channel and resulted in them drowning, hence the name The Rapids of the Drowned.

These are the rapids most tourists can see from town and appear very big and intimidating, once you have seen Pelican, Cassette and The Mountain Portage Rapids they look nothing more than easy wave trains or as some paddlers call them the Garbage Rapids!

We put in on river left above the rapids and walked down a trail leading to a large eddy, we had to run one wave train before eddying out on river right then ferried across to the other side of the river. This was a pretty tough ferry as the water was boily and it was quite a distance, my arms were burning by the time we got to the other side.

We were however rewarded with a nice wave/hole which was unnamed. Shane later named this hole Brown Star. It was a great sticky wave for clean spins, blunts and Leif even did a pistol flip in there.

Jacqui Whitehead on Brown Star Photos: Jon Blyth

After a couple of hours here we walked over some rocks to get further upstream on river right and found yet another steep wave which only a few people were game to surf. From here we worked back across to river left and went down another channel with 2 waves called Rough Stuff & Tough Stuff. We then ferried out into the main channel into the middle of the river and all tried to hit a large wave called the Monster Shitzer Wave but it was so hard to see once we ferried out that most of us missed it and were trying to avoid the numerous large holes in the main flow.

Rapids of the Drowned is really like one big circuit as we were able to get back to Brown Star and do the hole run again!

Mountain Portage Rapids

During the time we spent on the Slave we pretty much experienced a whole season of water levels - starting at a whopping 5400cms dropping to below 3700cms in our last days on the river. We were fortunate to experience the thrills of Sweet Spot and as the water levels dropped other waves such as Hang Over Cure (located on the rapid Chico) came in.

Leif Anderson surfing Sweet Spot Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We also explored a variation of lines down this set of rapids such as instead of going far left after Avalanche we went slight left down a rapid called Land of The Giants. This rapid definitely lived up to it's name with gigantic waves and very boily eddy lines. It is still possible to make your way over to Chico after finishing this rapid by eddying out on the left and portaging over the island.

Scouting Molly's Photo: Larry Sparks

Other variations instead of going down Avalanche was Sambucca (a nice little shoot with some waves), followed by Flipper (you will approach a horizon line with a play wave on the right and a hole on the left and it all feeds into a wave train here with a few whirlpools at the bottom). Again from here we ferried across Land of the Giants in the next channel on the left and portaged across the island to get back to Chico.

We also explored another channel called Turn Pike instead of ferrying over to Molly's. This is a class 3 drop which feeds into a couple of breaking waves. The preferred line is to then go right, behind the island to the right of these waves. If you continue down this wave train instead of going right it will feed into another rapid called Maelstrom, this rapid is rarely run as it runs close to some of the protected Pelican islands (which are protected islands which you have to stay 100m from as they are breading grounds for the endangered White Pelican).

A couple of other alternatives to Molly's and Turn Pike include Rocking the Hard Place (a 4 foot drop located between Pony Monster & Molly's), and the English Channel (located far left) which can then be followed by Pre-Edge & The Edge.

Pre-Edge is similar to Avalanche but the Edge is the one that will make kayakers weaken at the knees. The Edge gets it's name because it is a massive hole and at certain levels a shoulder forms on river right allowing kayakers to surf the edge of it, once in a while playboaters may find themselves in this hole for a beating!

Cassette

Cassette is probably one of the most 'Slave-like' sets of rapids in the sense that some sections of the river could be as far as 3 km wide and there are so many channels on this section of river offering everything from big water boating to river running to creeking (yes there are a couple of waterfalls!). The first 2 days on Cassette we explored the rapids Carborator Cleaner (a steep tongue that feeds into a nice surf wave), TSN (a small wave train which we ferried over to river left of), Can of Beans ( a playhole which is possible to loop, cartwheel etc in). From here you can continue downstream or hike over a few rocks and paddle into the channel on river left, followed by a ferry glide into a large eddy below an island of river left of this alternative channel to get to a wave called Outrageous (below outrageous you can either go river left to Dave's Demise - a hole on the right, or down the right of the island through a set of waves). We explored the right hand line (right of the island) and later downstream came to a channel with a rapid called Rock Em' Sock Em'. This rapid contained a retentive hole on river right (which I was allowed to name Face-Rape after getting recirculated pretty violently in it) at the entry of the rapid, the 2 holes (one river left, one river right - called Rock Em' and Sock Em'), there is a small window in between these two hole. Below this is The Bitch - a large hole in the centre which a few people had the guts to surf (some controlled but most uncontrolled!). The alternative to Rock Em' Sock Em' is to either go down the next channel to the left (Snooze Button) or the next channel over to the left (Alarm Clock). Finally below all of these channels is the prize: Roller Coaster!!! A great wave train with a wave called Roller Coaster which give surfers huge air and possible to do any type of aerial move. You can either sit on the island rocks with out being maimed by mosquitos!! The only downside from here is the take out is about a 45min paddle out (ferrying to the left) mostly through flat water but the scenery definitely makes the paddle out worth it (and also the rapids!!!).

Jacqui Whitehead on Rollercoaster Photo: Leif Anderson

Leif Anderson on Rollercoaster Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

For a more exploratory route instead of going down the channel which leads to Carborator Cleaner you can also take the next channel over to the right which leads into a labyrinth of narrower channels which are more river running, creeking rapids. There is a lot of flat, slow water then steeper rapids consisting of a single drop or if you get to 5-Ways there are 5 channels which meet together, most of which are class 4+ boating such as Split Rock, Petrice Falls, & Rumplestiltskin. It is then possible to hike out on the river left bank of Rumplestiltskin to below Carborator Cleaner and either go the normal route through the rest of the rapids or take the channel below TSN - Information Super Highway which will take you to above Rock Em' Sock Em'. There are heaps of channels to explore and we would have spent a good 5-6 hours navigating and exploring through 5-ways and the surrounding rapids.

Shane exploring Rumplestiltskin Photo: Larry Sparks

Pelican

The Pelican rapids are located above the Mountain Portage Rapids and is one of the biggest wave trains I have seen in my life! The wave train is a very huge class 4-4+ wave train with a simple enough line (down the middle!) - the main problem is to get to these waves one needs to do a huge ferry above (starting in the eddy on river left) and fight the whirlpools and boils to avoid a large hole at the entrance of the wave train on river left. If you are unable to run this rapid you can always put in below the entry of the wave train (below a ledge) and try to ferry out lower in the wave train into the smaller waves (although these are still very large).

During our visit to Fort Smith & The Slave River we were fortunate to experience the Slave at super high water (5400cms) and at lower levels (below 3700cms) - and these water levels were only over 2 and a half weeks! We also got to see most of the playspots at varying water levels, many of which those who came up to the Slave River Festival missed out on as they only stayed a maximum of one week on the Slave. Also big thank you to Jon Blyth & Leif Anderson also for showing us around the river as without them we would have been totally lost and would have missed some of the gems this river has to offer.