The Paddler ezine WW kayak collection 2013 | Page 182

ThePaddler 182

We had to make a decision
there and then to leave the
boats and hike out!

So we scrambled up the gorge walls and secured
the boats about 10m above the waterline. We
then slipped; grappled and grovelled up a 300m
steep sided jungle gorge and unfortunately we
had to get out on the wrong side of the river, as
the other side was too steep to climb. We
eventually came out the jungle into a coffee
plantation and Greg knew the general direction
of the main road, which ended up being an 89km hike to a small village where all the
plantation workers lived and waited for our
driver to find us.
We were not looking forward to the next day
knowing that we needed to hike in and carry on
with the new descent and that’s if we found our
boats again. The trek back in didn’t seem that
bad being more refreshed and we got to our
boats within two hours.
We geared up and put back in but after another
150m on the river – yet again another portage
but this one would be an hour mission to get

hardest graft

It took us two hours of the

I have even done in my life
to haul our boats 300m up out of the gorge

around. We had to make a hard choice again
there and then – either struggle around the
portage and carry on knowing that there was
going to be more portaging further on or haul
our boats out the same way we escaped the day
before. I hate being beaten but the latter was the
right choice.
It took us two hours of the hardest graft I have
even done in my life to haul our boats 300m up
out of the gorge using ropes and pulleys until we
were in the coffee plantation at the top. Exhausted,
dehydrated and covered in mud and jungle fodder,
we were very relived to get the boats out of there
and started the hike out knowing it would be all
over in a couple of hours.