The Paddler ezine WW kayak collection 2013 | Page 183

the next place to go to would be the Lanquin area
where you have the Cahabon River, listed as one of the

10 best jungle rivers
in the world
However,
there was still
a final sting in the
tail. After hiking with
boats for a couple of
kilometres, I was at the front by
about 100m and needed to rest a
minute, so I dropped my boat and sat in it. As
I waited for the guys to catch up I noticed a man
approaching me from a wooded shack about
50m away – then I saw his gun! I didn’t move
and tried not to make eye contact, he said
something in Spanish to me then purposely
looked down at his gun and took the safety catch
off, here we go I thought game over just stay
calm, STAY CALM!
Just then Neils had caught up and saw the
plantation security guard and started talking
Spanish nervously to him, Neils then said
he wants to see our hands and by
now all of us had caught up and
knew this was a serious
situation. Greg having
tons of
experience
with

locals on this sort of thing started to cool the
situation and eventually got the armed guard to
speak to the plantation owner on his mobile
phone who knew who we were and why we were
there. With the situation diffused the guard let us
go and we were on our way out. After two days
we had managed 2km of a new descent, about
17-18km of hiking and nearly being shot! I think
although the Soledad had its moments – that
will be its one and only descent.
That evening back at the hotel Greg and Neils
said their goodbyes and left us. His final words
were, “Well done lads, we didn’t give up, we all
pulled through and you are all expedition ready,”
which we thought was a nice gesture from him.
He also suggested the next place to go to would
be the Lanquin area where you have the
Cahabon River, listed as one of the 10 best jungle
rivers in the world.

ThePaddler 183