Here is a look at our new cover for the DVD. We haven’t confirmed how we will sell or distribute this yet so please keep an eye on the blog for further details. Happy Paddling

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“Dude you seem pretty keen on doing some suffering, do you fancy doing the Yukon 1000?”

A home made raft also making its way down the Yukon River

This is how it all started………a facebook message from a friend whom I hadn’t seen in 6 years.  I was looking for my next challenge and a quick google search found the website. Immediately I was hooked!

“Yukon 1000

Do you really want to do this?

1000 miles/1600km

7-12 days of solid paddling, 18 hours per day

The annual race is the longest canoe and kayak race in the world by far”

It took me a little while to comprehend what exactly was involved. The race in previous years had been won in around 6-7 days. I thought that we could do it in 8-9 days. My brain started doing the sums. 1600 km divided by 8 days equals 200 km a day. It was then that is dawned on me.

I’m an avid paddler and probably spend around 250-280 days a year in a boat, but I’d never kayaked 200 km in a day. I can’t even remember paddling 100 km in a day.

By this point it was too late….. I’d committed, my flights were booked and I was entered.

Weeks past by and I’d started to increase my paddling activity, sea kayaking around Anglesey, Scotland, Lands End, wherever I could get in the mileage. I even went to the gym, assisted by the famous Pete (Mr Motivator) Catterall. I managed to pick up heavy weights and put them back down in exactly the same place, I must be getting strong and paddle fit.

That was a good thing because by this point my race partner had decided that he wanted to complete the race in less than 7 days (and reading between the lines he wanted to win). So did I by this point, I was psyched.

Christmas came and went, the weather started to improve and my training continued to increase. Everyone I spoke to was telling me I was ‘stupid’, ‘that’s crazy’, ‘good luck’, it was starting to dawn on me maybe I had gone just a step too far this time. I’d run some fairly knarly rivers all over the world, I’ve seen my fair share of epics in the outdoors, but was this too much. Was I fit enough?

I didn’t want to let my race partner down. An old friend whom I had met during university days and raft guided with in New Zealand.  Simon Coward, originally from Australia, had settled in Calgary, Canada from where he runs a very successful kayaking business having paddled all over the world.  On arrival in Calgary it seemed that Simon felt the same. The last minute nerves had set in.

On my arrival in Canada we flew to Whitehorse in the Northern Territory of Yukon, also the race start. Simon had done a blinding job of organizing everything; internal flights, kayak hire, food and accommodation in Whitehorse. Everything was sorted…….….except our journey home. We had no idea how long the race would take.

The race was going to be epic. It started in Canada, crossed the Artic Circle and finished in Alaska. Studying it on google earth I realized the race was longer than the length of the UK, and I wanted to complete it in 7 days. Argh………………..

Race day came and we met the other teams. Unfortunately some had dropped out, but that didn’t matter we had a competition. A team of New Yorkers had travelled across the States with a ‘Voyageur’, a massive 6-person canoe. They were serious, they wanted to win. The day before they had been timing their start off the line to ensure the perfect get away. The other teams had all entered the race in previous years. We were the gumbies in a rented kayak, who hadn’t seen each other in 6 years, how could we win?

Boom the whistle blew. We gathered pace hitting a wicked 17 km/h. One by one we picked off the competition and made chase on the voyageur. We were in first place 15 minutes into the race, but could we maintain such a pace?

Race day preparations

We were paddling a tandem sea kayak, the Seaward Passat G3, with a big hatch between us full of food and all the equipment we needed for the race.

The rules were we had to be off the water by 23.15 each night and couldn’t be back on the water before 03.00, with a minimum of 6 hours rest each night. We were going to camp wherever we were when the time ran out; dirty islands, full of mosi’s, no toilets… this was no relaxing float trip.

Our food was measured to the ounce, we had been sponsored my Mountain Fuels in the UK with their special endurance food, special sachets of breakfast supplements, energy drinks and recovery shakes. Simon had brought us all the really bad foods, full of calories. Each persons daily ‘snack’ quota came to 5 bars of chocolate, 3 flapjacks or powerbars, 125g cheese, 3 pepperami sticks and 1 boiled egg……oh yeah and 1 orange.

The food was loaded into bear proof barrels.  Bears are a common sight in the Yukon and, although race rules stated that every competitor must carry bear spray, we weren’t taking any chances. If a bear came into our camp we were stuffed, we would have no food, probably a trashed boat and no way of raising help, it couldn’t happen.

The race was anxious. We were rushing down the river, desperately trying to keep in the fastest flow, always keeping an eye out over our shoulder for the following boats. The first day involved a 3 hour river paddle before entering Lake Labarge, a lake 50 km in length and with such a fetch that waves 6 foot can be encountered.

Our boat, food and bear proof containers

We popped onto the lake; the Voyageur was the only boat in sight still behind us. With a tail wind the waves started to pick up, surfing us down the face of the waves, splashing water all over the place. We were 4 hours into the race now and we were starting to get hungry.

We couldn’t stop though. If we stopped we might loose ground, if we stopped we might fall in (this actually happened to one of the kayaks in the race). We would nibble on chocolate, flapjack and drink from a camelback fastened on our shoulders.

3 hours into Lake Labarge the tail wind eased and the place became eerily quiet. We sneaked 30 seconds with spray decks off to grab our lunch from dry bags tucked between our knees. A short while later we noticed the clouds drawing in and what looked like a storm coming. Within minutes the storm was upon us and turned what was before a tail wind in to a head wind.  Waves increased and being the bow paddler I started to get very wet. At this time I was only wearing a thermal and board shorts and the waves were now crashing over my head. Unable to stop for fear of falling in I tucked my skirt in and decided to suffer on.

Stuffing my face with food before the winds increased on Lake Laberge

An hour later the wind eased and the end of Lake Labarge was now in sight. We drifted in to the start of the river and made decisions on where to camp that night. Every 30 minutes our plans were changing. We were flying along, overtaking our planned stops.

Our final resting place for the night was an ankle snapping, tree ridden riverbank. After shoring up the boat and moving our bear barrels to safety, I joined Simon fighting with the tent. The rain had started to lash down and all our kit, including sleeping bags, was getting soaked.  Nevertheless climbing into a soggy sleeping bag was a delight after 12 hours of continuous paddling.  5 hours later the alarm bell sounded.

Day 2 brought us a day of fast moving water. The scenery was amazing; spruce and pine trees for as far as the eye could see and emerald green water. We were also lucky enough to see black bear on the riverbank, beaver and moose.

We had no idea where we were on the river in relation to the other teams. After passing them early on day 1 we hadn’t seen another person.  The other teams had race crews, friends and family with cars in pursuit; Simon and I were in this on our own.

7 hours into the day we were still feeling good. We came into Carmacks, a small civilization of 2-3 hundred people, and Peter Coates the event organizer was standing on the bank waving us in.

The race rules stipulated that every boat must carry a spot device, a GPS tracker, which would allow not only the race invigilators, but also friends and family, to follow the teams progress over the internet.

He told us that the previous night we had been 30 minutes ahead of the Voyageur team.  Now neither Simon, nor I, had any experience of Voyagers. We had no idea of how fast they could travel, or how they handled, but with 6 people on their team versus our 2, a 30 minute difference didn’t sound like very much. We motored on.

About an hour or two after leaving Carmacks we entered the famous five-finger rapid, a section of grade 2 water. We chose the driest line on river right. Although this was the biggest white water we encountered on the trip the line was easy and the navigation on the lower river sections proved to be trickier.

Our food intake seemed quite steady during the day and 18 hours was starting to pass quite easily.

Day 3 saw the river change in character quite dramatically. The Yukon started to swell in volume and with this extra water came extra silt. The river lost its beautiful emerald colour and drinking from it now lost its charm. We now had to pump the water through a filter and store this in 10 litre dry bags kept between our feet. Space in our cockpits was rather tight.

The weather was also starting to improve. The showers had stopped and our kit was starting to dry.

We had mastered almost everything on the move now. We used milk cartons to pee into and emptied the contents over the side of our boat and prepared hot food by boiling water on the front of the kayak with a stove fixed onto the deck with gaffer tape. Boiling water and paddling was easy. We could pour the hot water into the dehydrated food bags, we had previously stashed between our knees, and were able to eat hot food on the move. The only problem being that Simon and I couldn’t reach each other so we balanced objects on our winged paddle blades to pass things between us.

Boiling water on the move

Our biggest boost on day 3 came from another boat who brought news of the other competitor’s positions. The rescue boat for team 3’s solo kayaker came whizzing past late that night with news that Monique had withdrawn from the race at five finger rapids with a broken hand. More importantly for us though the Voyageur was given as being about 3 hours behind us.

We slept well that night, without the fly sheet on and with plenty of space to spread out, making the most of the late setting sun to dry our clothes and equipment, although the sleeping bags never completely dried out.

Day 4 was a massive stepping-stone. We past Dawson, a famous gold mining town, and approximately the half way point on our journey, at 09.15, just as the town was starting its day. We didn’t have time to stop though and instead made the most of the fast moving water reaching our maximum speed of 24 km/h.

An amazing Yukon sunset close to the Arctic Circle

Later that day we also past Eagle, the border town for Alaska.  We had to stop here to authorize our entry into the USA. This was the only time we stopped during our designated paddling time. We talked over the phone to the border agents and made use of their facilities. The whole process took 40 minutes. However passing Eagle also gave us an extra hour due to the time zone differences. This meant a total of 19 hours between camps that day and 18 hours 20 minutes of paddling.  I was cheeky and got the border police to check our positions on the internet. We frightened ourselves with the knowledge that the chasing team was only 26 miles behind (we later realized this was a straight line difference and the true river distance was more like 76 km).

On Day 5 we entered the Yukon Flats, an area famous for its wildlife, and I got my first sighting of a grizzly. The area resounded with the sound of gunshots giving the place a rather sinister feel. We later worked out that this was the sound of permafrost melting and crashing into the river on the overhanging river bends, not a place to be in your kayak.

The flats are an area of very low-lying ground where the river braids into hundreds of channels. Making the right decisions were crucial here, get it wrong and the river would either dry up or worse still run into a log jam skewering us like kebabs.

The penultimate day saw us leave the Yukon flats past the settlements of Circle and Fort Yukon. Interestingly Fort Yukon is the only first nation settlement that sells alcohol (good job Simon and I were athletes, and not in second place, we would have never left).

Again the river was growing in size. Now over 1 km wide it would take 10 minutes to paddle from one side to the other. This was a problem for us because we made better time staying in the flow on the outside of the bends, travelling at around 13-14 km/h opposed to 9-10 km/h on the inside of the bend. This meant lots of weaving around the river to find the fastest water. The Voyageur, however, with 6 people and therefore more power would be able to cut the corners, thereby shortening the distance, and potentially enabling them to start closing the gap.

I remember laying in the tent that night trying desperately to work out our finishing time. It was all so close. If the river was fast moving we were in with a chance of grabbing the record.  If the river slowed, it might take us over 7 days. Neither of us wanted an extra night in the tent but all we could really do was continue to race for the end.

After 6 days of paddling fatigue had set in.  Simons’ hands were badly blistered and I had developed tenosynovitis, a swelling in my wrists caused by inflamed tendon sheaves. The pain was unbearable stopping me from paddling full bore. I became chief water collector and paddled as best I could.

Simon Coward with blistered and swollen fingers

Just before reaching the finish line we wondered whether anybody apart from Peter Coates the organizer would be there.  To our surprise there was quite a gathering, including a local reporter and the Voyageurs road crew. The finish line was marked by the huge Dalton Highway Bridge, which carries the important Alaskan oil pipeline over the river.

The end in sight, the Dalton Highway, Alaska

We had won! Simon and I were the winners of the world’s longest canoe and kayak race paddling over 1000 miles, in a time of 6 days 8 hours and 50 minutes. Very shortly after, the Voyageur crossed the line just 1 hour and 25minutes behind us, closing the gap in the last day by about 1 hour.

We were presented our medals and quickly consumed huge portions of burgers and fries before a very, very long sleep.

The winners medals

Would I do the race again? The answer would be a certain yes. Being on the Yukon was a true wilderness experience, the only noises being Mother Nature and the sound of our kayak cutting through the water. Simon was the best partner too, 6 years was a lot of catching up to do.

I won’t lie, we had some real low points but they were always followed by massive laughs and extreme fits of giggles as we hallucinated and joked ourselves down the river, comparing ourselves to the original pioneers of the Yukon River and the early settlers during the tough gold rush years.

Adam

I have to say a massive thank-you to our sponsors Darren at Mountain Fuels of S Wales, Summit to Sea the kayak specialists on Anglesey, N Wales and Aquabatics, Canada’s premier kayak shop in Calgary.

Below is a list of information for anyone looking to compete in the race

Day 1: start – Whitehorse 135km

Finish -10km before Hootalinqua river confluence

total distance : 135 km

Day 2: start -10km before Hootalinqua river confluence

Finish -2km past Minto

Days distance 249km (total of 384km)

Day 3: start – 2km past Minto

Finish – 2 km past 60 Mile river

Days distance – 231km (total of 615km)

Day 4: start – 2 km past 60 Mile river

Finish – 3hrs past Eagle

Days distance – 270km (total of 885km)

Day 5: start – 3hrs past Eagle

Finish – 3hrs past Circle

Days distance – 236km (total of 1125km)

Day 6: start – 3hrs past Circle

Finish – 2hours past Beaver

Days distance 212km (total of 1313km)

Day 7: start – 2hours past Beaver

Finish – Dalton Highway

Days distance 164km (total of 1497km)

I’ve been meaning to write this blog update for some time but as usual my life never slows down and 2011 was no exception.

It started the way 2010 ended, climbing ice. Anne and I were lucky enough to hit the Lake District and Scotland in perfect frozen conditions climbing about 6-7 ice routes, these included Cautley Spout in the Howgills, Sour Milk Gill and Newlands Hauze, Lake District, and then Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis, Scotland.

Crossing Tower Gap, Ben Nevis, Scotland

I quickly got involved with the Fast Track Instructor Scheme after this back at PyB. The scheme allows potential instructors to embark on a 4-month process of obtaining experience and qualifications.  During this period I completed the MBLA’s Trail Cycle Leader Award and Mountain Bike Leader Training.

Another quick trip to Scotland saw me working for Ken Hughes on his BCU White Water 5* Training and Assessment courses in April again, but my year by this point was gearing up for lots of miles in a sea kayak.

WHY???

Well May saw me compete in the first Ocean Kayak Race on Anglesey. The weather that weekend was very windy  and was moved to the Menai Straits, but I acheived 3rd place in the Sea Kayak category. The following month saw me compete in the Windermere Kayak Race down the length of Windermere where I came 2nd in my class.

Adam out in front of the pack, Sea Kayak Race, Menai Straights

Later that week Anne and I then paddled out to the Farne Islands, off the North East coast of England, surviving the Terns was an unusual experience but perfect conditions allowed me to gain further sea kayak miles, again why?

The Farne Islands Lighthouse

Well back in 2010 I got contacted by Simon Coward of Aquabatics, in Calgary, Canada. Simon is a great friend and he suggested we entered the Yukon 1000 race. I quickly signed up for what I thought sounded like a wicked adventure.

Now for those of you who don’t know what the Yukon 1000 is, its the LONGEST CANOE AND KAYAK RACE IN WORLD, AT 1000 MILES LONG DOWN THE RIVER YUKON. Was I mad? thats what most people said….

I was therefore obviously in training for this race in July/August 2011. I won’t spoil the story, please see my following post; extracts from the Canoe and Kayak magazine article I wrote on my return.

Another stunning sunset on the 2011 Yukon Race

September saw me return to my work at Plas y Brenin, the National Mountain Centre. Although working at PyB doesn’t mean I slowed down at all, in fact every moment was jam packed, two of my highlights were working on a Mountain Leader Assessment and the last ever BCU Level 5 course the centre ran.

Tryfan in the Sun

I was also kept occupied in my evenings too. The Yukon race really revitalised my energy levels (after I initially recovered) and so 3 or 4 evenings a week I would escape the house and head off running or mountain biking.

The restful evenings were then left to plan my final expedition/holiday of the year. KENYA

November saw a team of 4; Adam Harmer, Dan Butler, Jon ‘Spike’ Green and Pete Catterall, head to Kenya to explore new rivers as part of the Below and Beyond Mount Kenya team, this was a similar team to the previous Below and Beyond Machu Picchu expedition back in 2009 to Peru.

Just like Peru, Kenya was a highly successful expedition, completing 6 first descents and also assessing Kenya and Uganda’s first BCU 5* holders.

More information on the expedition can be found at

http://www.belowandbeyondmountkenya11.wordpress.com

Team Below and Beyond Mount Kenya

So a very successful year, and again I here myself saying ‘I wonder what 2012 will bring’.

If you want to hear about one of these wacky and amazing adventures why not get a group together and maybe I’ll come present to you as part of my lecture tour.

On the other hand if you need some training, someone to assess an outdoor award or get out in the hills or on the water with then just drop me an email at- adam_harmer@hotmail.com

All the best for now

Adam

Some of you will remember back in 2009 I made a first descent of the Rio Concebidayoc with the Below and Beyond Macchu Picchu expedition, well the bug got us again and early this year I started to put plans in place to run an expedition to Kenya.

This trip was very successful with the completion of 6 first descents as well as signing off Uganda and Kenya’s first BCU 5 star holders. We also completed a WWSR and Adv WWSR course for the local river guides working for my friend James Savage at Savage Wilderness on the Tana River.

The first descents were remarkable and only touches the surface to the first descent potential in Kenya. If your interested in running a trip to Kenya please don’t hesitate to contact me via this site.

In the mean time I am editing a movie to  accompany our presentations of the expedition, again please feel free to contact  me if you would like to consider hosting one of these.

We have a blog attached to this expedition for further information please see

http://www.belowandbeyondmountkenya11.wordpress.com

Adam

Its been a while since I was last on the blog so I thought I would quickly round up my 2010.

From January to April I was tied into the Plas y Brenin Fast Track Instructor scheme, this is a four month scheme for 12 students run from the centre with the intent of giving them a clear platform to launch or continue their own outdoor careers from. My role was to mentor and organise the group facilitating with their various courses and qualifications but also working alongside the other part of the Brenin’s business. Highlights included a week of winter walking in the Lake District from their Keswick base, which also saw some very snowy mountain biking. The other point to remember was a week of rock climbing in the Peak District towards the end of their course.

Once completing the four months I headed North to Scotland for a week of guiding on the West Coast in sea kayaks. Assisted with Louise Beetlestone the expedition saw a day out from Arisaig and Ardnuish, and finished with a 3 day trip around the sound of Mull and up Loch Linnhe as the winds picked up and views of a snow covered Ben Nevis came into view.

June was action packed with two weeks of kayaking in the South of France, in the Briancon and Embrun areas. The short trip  saw 7 clients do battle with the classic rivers of the Durance, Guil and Ubaye sections. Whilst Spike, Sally, Ross and I made use of the abundant hours of daylight in the evening to run the Onde, Gyronde, plenty of mountain biking and even some valley cragging.

Some sunny whether followed back in the UK with plenty of evening cragging in the Llanberis Pass and out at Gogarth before July saw be back out in the Alps but this time in Austria with another two clients for a further week of guiding on the whitewater rivers around the Innsbruck area. We paddled most of the classic sections of the Inn, the Sanna and the Trisanna, before leaving back for the UK with super heavy rains forecast.

August was a wet month and started with some  summer paddling on the Welsh rivers before work, involving 6am starts and mad dashes into the staffroom still togged up in drysuits before the staff meeting. Anne and I then headed South with the intention of climbing and sea kayaking on the Hampshire and Dorset coast. Strong winds and the occasional drizzle made this hard work but we did still managed the classic trips out around Old Harry’s Rocks and along into Lulworth Cove, before long fell runs back to our vehicles.

September I paid the Brenin back for my long trips and extensive holidays with some further work back in Wales, before Anne and I headed out to Kenyain October for a 3 week holiday and James and Nikki’s wedding.

The trip was a non stop adventure, 6 days were spent on the Mombasa/Diani coast at James and Nikki’s amazing wedding and involved some kayak surfing, snorkelling and even a blast at Scuba Diving on the Wasini Island Heritage site. A short turnaround in Nairobi and we headed off to the Masai Mara for a few days game drive and safari, encountering cheetah, lion, hippo, giraffe, elephant and a many many more.

A further journey up country saw us have a few rest days at the Savage Camp on the banks of the Tana River before embarking on a very quick trip to the summit of Mount Kenya (4085m) with Anne. I also chose to propose to Anne on the summit making this holiday that little bit more special.

Our final day saw a quick paddle on the Classic stretch of the Tana and finished with us both running the 8m clean waterfall of the mission. A truly awesome holiday!!!

Two weeks back in the UK and then I have just returned from a week of winter sun and rock climbing in El Chorro, Spain. The warmth made such a difference and allowed us to climb hard at the various Frontales cliffs and Despomolandia crags. Running every morning was also great fun, before returning to the artic temperatures back in the UK.

The weather this week has been super cold and looks to be set for the foreseeable future. The rivers got so cold that icicles were forming on our helmet peaks and our buoyancy aids froze over in verglas, so off to set up my winter kit and hit some of the snowy mountains before Christmas in a few weeks and the head North to Scotland for New Year.

A truly brilliant year with awesome adventures and great to meet so many new friends, I just wonder what 2011 has in store for us……..

Hey sorry I havent posted for a while but copy and paste the link below for an idea of our trip in May to Peru.

http://www.belowandbeyondmachupicchu09.wordpress.com

Adam

Adam contemplating the Rugati slidesMuddy feet, inspecting rivers during the short rains

Wow its gone fast but the end of this friday see’s me done with the five weeks in Kenya. After fininshing with the Army work I got a quick go on the stick (a chance to guide a raft again) and take some clients down the Tana on Saturday morning

Colin left for the UK yesterday and today James and I have been making final preparations for our trip into the mountains. With plenty of rain falling on Mount Kenya, it looks like were gonna have great levels for a few sneaky first descents. A small team of us have been pouring over maps and checking levels and egress/access points over the past few weeks and all is set now for a few days left to explore before I board my plane on Saturday all being well

Back flipping in the calm section

Adam on the stick

Sphincter Flexer (grade IV/V)

Flip-tastic in Fisheye

Orgasmic Spasm

Adam contemplating the Rugati slides

Muddy feet, inspecting rivers during the short rains

Getting the Landcruiser stuck on inspection of the Thitha River

A map of Muranga District north of Nairobi

Once again life is super hectic over here in Kenya, although I did get up to a few silly adventures last week, whilst working with the British Army again.

Last weekend I was working as a safety kayaker on the Tana river in highwater. The two boat trip was super sweet with a quick blast on the Mission to finish (8m clean waterfall).

Safety Kayaking on a swollen Tana river

I then worked a six day straight with the army mainly running the climbing element to their adventurous training but also seeking the chance to run some professional development and updating procedures for Savage’s kayak staff.

The evenings saw a few of us get up to some mischief. One evening Colin and myself re-visited the bungee tower where I kayaked froma few years ago, to have a quick abseil and swing around on in a fabulous sunset.

Swinging around 60m up

Another evening we made a quick dash after work to the Mission for a quick boof session and for Colin and Camello to throw themselves off in a raft. All successful descents.

The Oregan Tuck

The following evening a small crew headed up the Tana for quick blast down the commercially rafted section. Unfortunately Kris broke his paddle on one of the first rapids Can of Worms, however it was highly amusing as we took turns to share the C1 style approach and James again ran the Mission but this time with only half a blade.

Colin and Camello rafting the Mission

Last week saw Colin Chick and I run an expedition to Mount Kenya for CLEAR International. The trip was 5 days and started with a two day walk in up the Chorgoria Path, out to the South East. A random camp one night was then followed with a night at Lake Ellis just in the heather zone, after passing the rainforest and bamboo zones.

The third night was spent at Mintos camp approx 4300m with our first glimpses of the twin peaks Nelion and Batian. Early the next morning (3am) we left camp to climb the scree slopes upto Simba Col before the final ascent to the summit of Point Lenana. The final push was slow yet amazing with a sucessful whole group summit just after sunrise.

This fourth day was long and hard, after a descent down to Shiptons and a 45 minute rest, the team then carried on for a further 6-7 hours reaching Old Mose’s campsite on the Sirimon route at 5 pm.

The final day was a short trip back through the Bamboo and Rainforest with a quick sight of baboons before hitting the park gate on the north side of Mount Kenya.

The trip was truly awesome and breathtaking. It seems there is plenty of snow on the mountain still and gives me plenty of room for future mountaineering trips both summer and winter in 2010 hopefully.

Chorgoria’s Park Gate

Our first glimpse from Mintos

Nelian and Batian at Sunrise

A cheeky rock hyrax

Mount Kenya was only really and inch high

After a relaxing second week in Kenya with very little real work, we took some clients to the river for some rafting although when we arrvied we discovered the river was truly high. All the rapids were chocolate milkshake brown.

I joined James Savage and Army James as a safety boater on a swollen Tana River and tried desperately hard to remember the lines on the continous rapids, Captains Folly ran straight into Can of Worms was deemed knarly. I ran Flexer (class 5) into a huge hole (Fisheye) with a good 10-12ft face and entry ramp.

The following rapids caused much humour and luckily no flips.  Spasm the last rapid was a big bouncy continous rock slide, with waves big enough to surf two rafts.

The afternoon we headed up country and explored the Rangati Slides but were unfortunately too low. We did however explore a new side creek of the Upper, Upper Tana. From the road above this gem looks to have

Below the sticky hole of Parking Meter

Better than a McDonalds thickshake

James dropping into the mix

several bedrock slides and a deep canyon section, lets hope the last week brings rain and a possibly first descent