Rollalot's Blog

The Hypothesis

Rumour has it that, here in the Northern Hemisphere, water vortices down a plug hole anti-clockwise owing the Coriolis Effect of the earths spin. Using the same principal I will always favour taking the right line through the gnarl. Of course, paddling in the Southern Hemisphere going left seemed to work for me, and water drains clockwise. Obviously, this is all rubbish – but we had to have a scientific quest to justify a paddling holiday in Ecuador didn’t we?. Bang on the equator, surely the water drops straight down and the safest line will always be centre – well, that was the hypothesis we went out to test :- ) Dave Surman, Andy Newell and I

The Laboratory: Wet and Warm

Tena (about 4 hours drive South East of Quito) and capital of the Napo Province, is arguably the most popular kayaking destination in Ecuador. Tena was originally founded by missionary explorers and retains a wonderful frontier atmosphere – A real jungle town that lies at the confluence of the Tena and Pano rivers. These rivers soon join the Misahualli and flow into the Napo River the 9th largest tributary to the Amazon. The city sits at an altitude of around 500M – it is hot, steamy, wet. We paddled at the beginning of the ‘not so wet’ season (Dec to February) the main kayaking season. The heaviest rains come in April, May, and June. But don’t let the weather put you off – it is invariably hot and sunny for part of the day – thunder storms bubbling up in the afternoons. Wet and warm – a kayakers dream environment.

Tena lies one degree South of the Equator but we reasoned that this would have minimal effect on our experiment, particularly in view of the good selection of cafés and restaurants offered and the opportunity to enjoy Coco Ron cocktails at Spiders bar – a time honoured way of finishing a paddling day

Lunch

A couple of hours drive North of Tena, the adjacent Quijos catchment, at around 1500M altitude, offers some cooler boating. Both Endless Adventure and Small World Adventures are based here at San Francisco de Borja (Borja). Most kayakers visiting Ecuador sample the rivers in both these catchments

The Logistics

On all previous paddling adventures I have managed to fly with my own kayak. However, flying American Airlines through Miami we elected to hire boats from the good folk at Endless Adventure who have a fleet of decent (although somewhat battered) creek boats on offer. To make things even easier, and to appease Chris Ryman at Endless Adventure who was probably concerned about our losing / trashing more precious boats, we elected to purchase a ‘Gringo Warm Up’ – three days where Endless Adventure provided guiding, shuttles, lunches and, perhaps most importantly, wisdom and knowledge – all at a very reasonable price.

Jondachi Put In

We enjoyed the hassle free boating so much during these three days that, having counted the dollars, we elected to continue with guides for the remainder of our stay. For us three gentlemen, no longer in the flush of gnarl boating youth, with limited time, and even less savvy, this proved perfect – No faff, good company,  maximum paddling time and great value.

Dave S on the Quijos

Guiding isn’t essential – Transport to put ins and get outs is comparatively easy to arrange with taxi drivers in their 4wd pick-ups. Many of these drivers are familiar with the runs and know all the access points. Some, like Elluardo seem to have an infinite knowledge and can describe the character of the river, grades, lines, levels, etc. etc.. – But pick your taxi driver well to avoid getting lost in the jungle. However, if you want to maximise your time in a boat and minimise time spent planning, scouting long drops, waiting for transport etc. we would highly recommend talking to Endless Adventure.

Andy on the Piatua

The Rivers

This region seems to cater for every kayaker – big water playful runs to low volume steep creeks and everything in between (I even spied 4 sea kayaks on the top of a bus heading down to the Napo for a jungle float trip). We were looking for the grade 4 runs and there were plenty of these to choose from

Sandra on the Jondachi

Eight days paddling over a two week holiday ticks my box (and made my ‘Over 50%’ rule). Particularly considering it takes two days travelling each way from the UK.

We paddled

Rio Jatunyacu – a 30 km grade 3 warm up on the first day – A Big volume, wide, bouncy, playful run

The Upper Misahualli (Lodo and El Retin sections) from san Francisco to Archidona about 20 km of continuous grade 4 creek boating – a Boof galore run that we enjoyed so much we just had to return later in the week for another run

The lower Jondachi /Hollin). The long muddy walk in was rewarded by a stunning 38 km of grade 4 pool drop paddling through thick jungle with waterfalls cascading down the steep valley sides.

Rio Quijos (Borja and El Chaco sections) 20 km of powerful and steep grade 4 pool drop fun

Rio Cosanga: After a night of heavy rain a 10km beating of continuous busy grade 4 with powerful hydraulics – fast, furious and brown

Rio Piatua: 22 km of grade 4 low volume cruisy creeking. Being chased by menacing thunder clouds down to the confluence of the Rio Anzu.

Rio Tena (Upper section to the Town): A Grade 2 and 3 bimble float in the sunshine stopping for a few beers on the way and to play with the river kids – An excellent chill down before the long journey home.

There were lots of runs that we, either, didn’t have time to fit in, or, for the grade 5s, the inclination and balls to run. Our one regret is missing the Overnighter on the Hollin – one of my passions in kayaking is journeying and spending nights on river beaches. However, we arrived at the Hollin put in to find it already high and the sky black with thunder clouds. The risk of a flash was very real and we moved elsewhere. However, this does illustrate that there are always options. Rainfall is usually very localised – while one river is full, tanking brown an adjacent river might be running low and clear.

The Hollin

This is South America

Bear in mind, this is South America, and a degree of flexibility and tolerance always helps. If the taxi driver insists that you crouch in the well of the cab to avoid detection as he negotiates a police check point with dodgy paperwork, so be it. Rooms in lodges and hostels might not be entirely free of tarantulas and other creepy crawlies. What you get served up in an eatery might not necessarily be what you thought you ordered. And if you have an aversion to Avocado or bananas you might struggle. If a sloth hangs down from the rafters and grins at you while you are trying to enjoy a steak – live with it!

But, in the main things work out just fine. Our taxi drivers invariably turned up at the get-out within a few minutes of our arrival, with a case of cold beers (even on Sundays when new laws prohibit alcohol). And for a few bucks you can hire a little old granny to carry your boat down a muddy track to a river for half an hour (oh the shame :- ).

My little granny Porter

The locals are great too – children treat the rivers as their playground. It is not uncommon to find yourself being shown the lines through a boulder choked river by a bunch of ten year olds riding tubes.

The Hypothesis Proved?

So back to our scientific quest then, did we prove that water goes straight down a plug hole when on the equator? Did we establish that the middle line through the gnarle works best? Hmmm we did find plenty of holes to experiment with and, I for one, was most diligent in my studies of these features. But, no, we didn’t prove the centre line (which seemed to get me into some of the larger holes) and we did learn that water and, more to the point, boats in Ecuadorian holes don’t seem to go anywhere. Indeed my coveted 9-year ‘no swim’ record was trashed by these equatorial waters.

Dave Surman on the Piatua

However we did prove, beyond doubt, that Ecuador offers some fine boating even for ‘soft core’ boaters like us. An abundance of quality grade 4 runs where the boulders are smooth, the water is warm and the beer is cold.

Information

The Guide Book

The Kayakers Guide to Ecuador –not all the runs are included and please remember the flash floods in this region are frequent and extreme the rivers can come up feet in seconds and rapids are constantly remodelled. Some updates to the published guide are included at http://www.kayakersguidetoecuador.blogspot.com/

But talk to Endless Adventure too, they are masters at sorting out logistics, hiring boats, fixing accommodation, problem solving and, of course, guiding

Thanks Chris Ryman and Andrea of Endless Adventure for your hospitality, flexibility and company and, of course, Dave Gore, Abby Dent, Abraham Herrera for safely guiding these three Englishman down some splendid jungle rivers

If that doesn’t convince you to head out to Ecuador for your next paddling holiday – perhaps a few more images will

Colourful Crickets

Dave S making friends

They eat guinnea pigs in Ecuador don't they?

Jungle walk in

Spiders (But not the bar:)

Kites and Kids

Big smiles

Pedicures

Plants of all shapes and sizes

Fine paddling

Dave S

Andy N

Happy Days

Even more images here

Exploring the mellow side of kayaking in Nepal

Back to one of my favourite places – Nepal. It was another Rainsley tour – this time with a large group of 15. The intention – to split into two teams. Team Thuli were the hardcore group intending to spend 5 days on the continuous 4+/5 Thuli Bheri. The Jungle Chill team principally comprised the SWAGS – Seniors, Wives & Girlfriends of Team Thuli. The Jungle Chill team was looking for something different – balking at the challenge of the Thuli and, owing to frailty, injury and/or inclination had elected for a more sedate 5 days on the Bheri. Both groups would then meet up at Surkhet to spend 5 days on the Kanarli river and a few days winding down in Bardia National Park.

Getting There
Driving direct from Delhi was, perhaps, a mistake. Delhi to Surkhet took close to 24 hours. The border crossing took 5 hours to clear  – with dollars and rupees exchanged to smooth the way and a considerable amount of form filling. Immigration (at just one of the half-dozen checks) involved a remarkably slow officer hand scribing all the details we had provided on Form FI1X3xd into a huge leather bound ledger. It took him 10 minutes per entry and with 15 of us we had to rely on samosas to keep us going. It was amusing to see the uniformed immigration staff receiving backhanded rupees from all rickshaws, carts and bikes carrying loads across the border. There seemed to be a recognised backhand tarrif that everyone knew. Approaching cyclists would watch the officers carefully and try to time their progress to best miss being collared for the charge.

We had all been travelling non-stop for 48 hours by the time we reached the dubious sanctuary of a hotel in Surkhet.

Bheri
Downstream of the ‘hard core’ Thuli Bheri, you find, in Pete Knowles words “One of the most scenic rivers in Nepal with golden cliffs, green jungle, crystal clear green water; white beaches, excellent fishing, good bird watching; coupled with a  powerful current and sparkling rapids of moderate difficulty”

We spent a relaxed 5 days enjoying the 140kms of this river, from Devistal to the confluence of the Kanarli and down to Chisapani. Pete’s description proved spot on – with a run through four beautiful gorges, punctuated by pristine beach camps, and some very mellow grade 3/3+ paddling.

We had read of boaters in this region of Nepal finding signs of leopards and tigers at beaches, and seeing pythons, crocs etc. We only had close encounters with scorpions and huge hornets. The latter objected to sharing my cag and gave me a sharp reminder to shake out kit at every opportunity. The birdlife on the rivers was remarkable

This was the ‘Wild West’ of Nepal – an area that sees far less tourism than the normal Nepal destinations. This was noticeable with the quality of the river beaches we found for camps each night and the reception we experienced from the local villagers and the constant and cheerful calls of “Namaste” and “Bye bye bye bye bye”

Tourism, particularly in this region, virtually ceased altogether during the Maoists ‘Peoples War’ from 1996 to 2006. While an uneasy Peace Accord and power sharing now exists, we had half expected to be collared by Maoists for a generous ‘gift to the cause’ to ease our passage. Indeed, on one occasion we were called over by a group waving the Maoists flag but carried on our journey with a wave from the sanctuary of the middle of the river!

We always chose camps away from villages and on the opposite side of the river to any habitation. This was not, so much, to avoid the locals altogether, but to give us some privacy and avoid village ‘latrines’. However, Dungas invariably enabled resourceful children to paddle across to us for a visit – to perch on rocks around our camps and watch our curious goings on. They were keen to try on our gear, sit in boats and watch our fire making and cooking skills.

Self-sufficient multi day paddling in creek boats implies severe restrictions in the clobber that you can bring along. We slept in bivvy bags and ate freeze dried high calorie expedition food packs – amongst the group we had a huge range of these – although, with few exceptions, they  all taste the same. Chilli flakes, tobasco and supplement Coconut Crunchies help – as did the Kukri Rum

We arrived at Chisapani on schedule to find chaos. Having carried our boats and gear up the steep stone steps, and through (literally) a pig sty to enjoy our first cold drinks (we had been living off filtered river water for 5 days) we learnt that the Maoists had called a two-day ‘Road Strike’. We had intended to bus to Nepalganj, pick up our ‘resupply’ gear and join Team Thuli at Surkhet. The police, however, warned us that Nepalganj was blocked off, “too dangerous, fighting in the streets until 5pm tomorrow” (how they could timetable the cessation of violence was beyond me). Anyway, to cut a long story short, we ended up piling our boats into a couple of ‘Press Jeeps’ and headed for a lodge in Bardia National park. As luck would have it, we ended up at “Forest Hideaway” – the very lodge that we had booked to visit a week later – and Mohan (the owner) proved a great ‘fixer’. After a morning trekking through the park looking for tigers, a bus was waiting for us, and we arrived at Surkhet, a day late, but within an hour of Team Thuli (who had their own story to tell)

Kanarli
The Kanarli is one of finest big volume rafting and kayaking trips in Nepal – and normally a 7 to 9 day excursion. We had allowed 5 days – which seemed optimistic, considering the fact that on the first day we didn’t put on until 5:30 pm and we had some 200kms to paddle.

There were 14 of us now – the two teams joined – less one that we had lost in Bardia (not to Tigers, but wrist injury). A huge group – but it’s a huge river, with huge beaches. The first two full days on the river provided us some fine Grade 4/4+ white water. The low levels experienced at this time of year seemed to give the drops added gradient, and some fun technical ‘hole-dodging’ runs.

By early afternoon on the second full day things began to quieten down. “Red Canyon” didn’t provide much action and we soon hit the flats. Occasional grade 2 headwall rapids offered some respite until we pulled over at what we affectionately called Buffalo Shit beach.

We had made remarkable progress, paddling over 100kms of grade 4/4+ water in a little over two days – but we now had 80kms of flat paddling ahead of us.

We elected to start early the following morning and make the most of the cool and the downstream winds (winds turn up stream in the afternoon). The Kanarli licks along at a fair old pace. I am one of those that need to know where I am at all times and I could tell how quickly we were eating the flats. When I reported on progress for some unknown reason certain team members started to consider going for the finish. I could see no benefit in this (as I would sooner be on a river beach than anywhere else) but cold beers were too tempting for others and we ended up paddling the 80kms in one day. And so, we had paddled the Kanarli in, effectively, 3 days and we were at Forest Hydeaway for some Ëverest beers a day early.

Bardia and Forest Hideaway

We enjoyed our 2 days at Bardia – a long jungle trek was rewarded by the sighting of one of the 25 one-horned Rhinos in the park, together with wild Elephant, Blue Bull antelopes, Swamp, spotted and Hog deer, wild boar, Langur and Macaque monkeys and a huge number of birds. We visited Elephant and crocodile breeding centres and danced with a local dance troop and Bardia staff – even demonstrating a poor rendition of Auld Langsyne. We never saw those Tigers though.

Volcation
It was on the long 24 hour bus trip trip back to Delhi that we heard rumours of a volcano eruption in Iceland causing havoc. Sometime overnight I received a text from Virgin telling me that my flight was cancelled and to please contact them to re-schedule or get a refund. On our eventual arrival at good old Hotel Lohias in Delhi we congregated to sort out our Virgin flights. We managed to book on 27 April (9 days after our scheduled 18 flight) – and only then by agreeing to pay for Premium Economy (an additional £110)

The Hindustan Times reported that Delhi was experiencing its hottest April in 52 years at 44 degrees. A smog haze hung over the whole city and the air was stifling and sultry. We spent our ‘Volcation’ days variously in markets, forts, temples, tombs, the United Coffee house and western Malls.

But we also spent four or five hours each morning, in queues at the airport, trying to secure stand-by seats back to the UK – being fobbed off by harassed Virgin staff and moved on by machine-gun toting security. I now choose to forget the details of the extended Volcation in Delhi!

Conclusion
Initially I had been keen on the Thuli trip – drooling over videos and images of such fine whitewater. However, I was becoming increasingly aware that I could no longer pretend to be a hardcore paddler. Hard continuous  boating and portaging 3kms along dubious paths with fully laden creek boats was no longer a realistic proposition, allowing for advancing years and a dodgy back. Several months before the trip I had battled with the idea of ‘downgrading’

However, there is so much more to expedition paddling than the thrill of hard white water. I enjoy such trips for more than the action – for the journey, taking you to different places, different cultures, the wildlife, the camps, and the camaraderie of river mates. This ‘Jungle Chill’ trip ticked all the right boxes.

In terms of the all too important Paddle-to-travel ratio that I always use to weigh up adventures, it was supposed to be a 17 day trip with 10 days of paddling (well over my 50% rule) – but, with the enforced Volcation in Delhi and the rushed job we made of the Kanarli, the ratio of 24 days to 8 days was  a poor 1/3 – Just as well the paddle days proved so much fun then.

My thanks goes to Mark Rainsley for putting it all together, and to my river mates for such good craic

Many more images are given here
And mapping here

And, when 15 Kayakers stranded on Volcation in Delhi hire half a dozen Tuk Tuks and have a race ….

Tuk Tuk Mania