180km done, 30 to go

From our camp in an old quarry, we were well poised to launch and assault on the final 30km. 20km of this is committing whitewater and had not been paddled before.

Portage within the first kilometre, not a big deal, just get your boat on your shoulder and walk around it.


Sam Hughes aka Packman, feeling the effects day ten.


Sam enjoys one that just feels good to paddle, no stress.

Communicating via two way radio we progressed well. Despite the relentless nature of the river, we managed twenty kilometres in two days.
In the gorge we found a major surprise. Scouting in previous days had revealed open river bank alongside most of the full on rapids, rapids we believed would be mandatory portages. Early on day 11 we got out and scouted a class 5 rapid that flowed down into a canyon with vertical walls on its left side. Visually we had no information on the right.
Eden and jj probed first running the entry rapid well and catching an eddy river left. Climbing a sloping wall of rock they could see a uniform horizon line downstream and a huge river wide ledge hole stretching across most of the river.
Comitted to the left they were situated right above the huge recirculation with a must make ferry glide the width of the river in the gorge to avoid it.
Tension ran high as we communicated with some difficulty. JJ paddled first and almost got pinned, eden missed his line and ran the meat of the left line, held at the bottom of the 10ft ramp leading into the hole he was violently tossed about for a long time before being flushed out and rolling up. It was a close call.
The rest of the team having no positive beta cautiously paddled the drop and regathered within the safety of a downstream eddy.



Its all around me, Dave Kwant finding his way.