Searching for Eric Northman in Sweden

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

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

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

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

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.