Loki Chicks - Paddle Like a Girl

Victorian Winter - Skiing continues

2007-07-16T10:02:00.000+10:00

Well, after being reminded that paddling is cold I decided to stick to the frozen water for another trip to the snow, this time to my old favourite Mt Stirling. It had absolutely dumped snow a few days earlier and we had to use chains (my brand spanking new $31 chains from ebay) to get up to the car park which is justabout unheard of. Then it was off into the Narnia-like winter wonderland full of fresh snow.
Despite a the weather forecast being gloomy the trip was great with awesome skiing conditions we set up camp at the cricket pitch and it began to snow on us as we cooked dinner. My bivy bag soon began to resemble an igloo and as always in the snow people headed off to bed straight after dinner to snuggle up in warm sleeping bags. Getting into the bivy while it's snowing is hard without bringing a whole heap of snow in there with you but once inside it's cosy and warm. During the night the snow stopped and the sky cleared so it was bright and clear when heads started poking out of tents in the morning. After packing up we headed up to the summit where the wind and cloud meant we alternated between beautiful views of the surrounding high country and complete white-out, then it was back to down past GGS hut to camp to pick up the packs and head back to the cars.

Victorian Winter - the paddling part

2007-06-27T09:43:00.000+10:00

It's been well over six months since I've been in a kayak but with water in the rivers it was time to get back into the flow of things. The trip was planned for the Jamieson, a beautiful remote river that flows out of the high country near Licola through pristine wilderness until it flows into Lake Eildon near the town of Jamieson.
Since the last time I'd paddled the Jamieson the bushfires had been through the area so things have changed a little, the water is no longer crystal clear as the rain runoff now contains ash and mud from fire damaged forest but the rapids are unchanged and the area is still pretty.
We drove up Saturday morning and I was brought back to the joys of Victorian paddling as sleet fell while we were driving to the put in. With a crew of nine on the river we quickly floated down the first couple of kms which are essentially flat before getting out to scout the first rapid - recent bushfires increase the risk of trees falling and logs across rapids tend to form nasty strainers. The first rapid was uneventful and as usual the gorge on this river crept up without warning and before we knew it we were between narrow rock walls negotiating closely spaced ledge drops and holes. The bottom rapid of the gorge is the hardest with the flow pushing into the right rock wall, I eddied out above it and Dan jumped out to scout - however at this point one of the upstream holes had got the better of Lincoln and his boat came floating down. I pulled out into the current behind his boat and followed it down the rapid, Grant followed me and a few hundred meters downstream we finally managed to pull Lincoln's boat to the side.
Everyone else paddled the gorge without incident and we continued down the 10kms or so of mainly flat river until the first 4wd access. Cold and tired, we took out and began the long uphill walk with our kayaks our to the car - part way up a few of us gave up on carrying out heavy kayaks - reasoning that either Grant could bring in his 4wd or we coulr walk back in paddle the kayaks out the next day to the road access closer to town.
Unfortunately Grantos decided on the 4wd option but the steep muddy road got the better of even Grantos' beast of a car and the whole trip started to take on slightly epic characteristics. And so we ended up camping on a muddy 4wd drive track overnight with the plan to get some wd enthusiasts to help us out in the morning. However even the random Hungarian 4wdrivers barely got themselves out with their winch when they attempted to help us and so we piled everyone and everything into the remaining cars and left the stricken vehicle there for a future recovery mission. (Grants car was retrieved with the help of a rather expensive winch two weeks later).

Victoria Winter - the skiiing part

2007-06-20T09:29:00.000+10:00

Well, after a whole semester of studying and doing nothing remotely fun June brought some decent snow to the Vic high country and I thought it was time to practice my faceplants in the snow after not being on skis for many years.
A weekend trip to Mt St Gwinear with the MUMC crew turned out to be a weekend of awesome weather and awesome snow .... perhaps not awesome skiing but that'll have to blamed on my ability rather than the conditions ;-)
I got to test out my new bivy bag in rather cold conditions as it was -10 degrees by 8pm and a perfectly clear night - the bivy stood up to the test although I've decided my sleeping bag probably needs a wash and down boost for future snow adventures.
The Sunday dawned cold and sunny and we set off exploring towards Mt Baw Baw although the trail soon got so icy that we decided to stop and play on a sunny slope instead, after a few hours of snow ploughing round trees and landing face first in the snow it was time to head back to camp and pick up the packs before heading back down to the cars.

January News

2007-01-17T14:31:00.000+11:00

Since being back from Africa nothing too exciting has happened in the paddling side of things… probably because we’re in one of the worst droughts in the history of the state. Oh yeah and there’s major bushfires in most of the river catchments which also caused a huge power blackout on a 41 degree day in Melbourne yesterday.... mmmm bring on winter!
However Kylie and Jas are still in Sth America and Jen is over in New Zealand so hopefully they’ll share some of their adventures with us soon.

Leaving Africa

2006-12-22T09:43:00.002+11:00

The last few days have been all about getting ready to leave and saying goodbye, the last few Silerback runs - letting the kids paddle round in my boat for the last time. Then finally it really was time to go.
So leaving Africa happened in true Africa style. As Ben was on my flight I hitched a ride to the airport in the back of Steve Fisher’s ute, after the car almost didn’t make it we turned up at Entebbe to find crowds of African Muslims blocking the departures drop off area. A police man parted the crowd for the car and we managed to unload while Steve went off to find that only passengers were allowed in the terminal building and “I don’t think they’ll let me in now I’ve told them to get f*#ked” he added.
A kayak makes a wonderful battering ram through a crowd and Ben and I made it into the terminal and into the check-in line where we stood for another hour. Africa time – nothing happens fast! At check-in we avoided paying excess baggage with some difficulty and managed to get seated together for the 7 hour leg to Dubai, then it was through the one-man immigration operation and across the tarmac onto the plane which was full of Muslims going to mecca in their ankle length white robes and appropriate head gear … and blankets galore against the plane air-conditioning and … in the case the guys behind us, sunglasses that make you look like the Ugandan mafia.
So taking off an hour late we headed for Addis Ababa with just enough time to sneak in a gin and tonic before landing. This made what happened next even funnier, taxiing to the runway in Addis and the safety video was playing when all of a sudden from the other side of the plane comes the hiss of compressed air…. One of the guys in ankle length white robes now has a fully inflated life jacket to add to the ensemble!
The rest of the trip home was uneventful and long, and I arrived home to a drought-stricken Victoria at 3am. The yellow and browns here are a stark contrast to the lush tropical green of Uganda… doesn’t look like there’ll be any paddling here for a little while.

Last few days in Africa

2006-12-14T09:25:00.000+11:00

Since the festival things have been plodding along here in the same fashion as they have been for last three and half months. Andrea and I managed to go horse riding, which was one of her prizes from the competition, which was a lot of fun and also very entertaining and neither of us are particularly skilled at riding horses. It did mean we got to tour the little pathways and villages on the opposite bank of the river and see the back channels from the other side.
We’ve spent some time down at Hairy Lemon and some up at NRE but although it’s been raining a bit less the mud is still a problem on the road up near Bujagali. There have been trips into Jinja for souvenir shopping and to get clothes made by one of the local tailors.
I fly out on the 17th of December, the day after Andrea leaves to head to the Zambezi. It turn out Ben Brown is on my flight home as far as Dubai so I’ve got company for that first leg. So this is it - the last few days in Africa…

Combat Boating

2006-12-07T06:31:00.000+11:00

Location: Pucon, Chile
State of mind: Laja
Body: sprained ankle, sore neck, nose full of green goobas, hangover - too much beer (english boys are a bad influence.)
Favourite run so far: Combat boating down the Laja PUMPED!

Tick list:
Liacura - Cold water in the face after an overnight bus ride
Trancura Bajo - Probing the Pescador hole
Trancura Alto - 1 american lost in nasty eddy with volcano in the background
Coilico - Ditchin!
Sollipolli - Bumpin scrapin, flat tyre again.
San Pedro - Vortexes of doom!
Maichin - Pulling the moves! Stunning canyons and the woga tiga woga bird.
TrufulTruful - Into the corner with Luge speed
Cautin - Don´t miss the eddies Jasmine, messy horizon line madness.
Laja - Haulin ass!

Volcanoes and vortexes

2006-12-07T06:27:00.000+11:00

Jas and I at the portage on the Rio Truful Truful
Jas on the Maichin (above); Me heading for a horizon on the Maichin (below)

Location: Pucon, Chile
State of mind: Somewhere between woohoo and scared
Body: Showing the effects of too much good food, bruised knuckles, sore elbow, bruised ego
Favourite run so far: Rio Maichin

Day 3 - Boda Boda Boater Cross

2006-12-03T19:55:00.000+11:00

So the most dangerous event yet… the Boda Boater Cross or the Boater Boda Cross – not sure which but anyway the idea is a kayak race down Silverback and then back to NRE on the back of a boda boda.
So 46 entrants, 46 boda bodas and with all the recent rain the road was a little muddy and slippery.
So four girls in this race and we knew that there were really two races. Becky and Prossie were racing for first while Andrea and I were in there for third and fourth. We got to start 10 minutes before the boys and the moment we started paddling out of the eddy I felt that my muscles were tired from the day before. So at the top of the first rapid I made the decision to run Ribcage rather than the Hump, as Ribcage is easier although a little slower. I was at the back of the group coming down ribcage and somehow managed to roll on nothing at all, rolling up I could hear Andrea calling my name but I could see her, coming round the island I saw her – stuck on the rock of the left of the little island after ribcage. Eddying out just near her I could see the problem, if she leant upstream she would become pinned on the upstream side of the rocks, she could not got off the rocks downstream as they were high on the downstream side of her boat and she was sitting there stuck in the middle of turbulent white water.
Pretty quickly I realized the only way she could get out was to get out of her boat onto the rock – if she got out on the upstream side she was risking trapping herself against the rocks. I was aware of hundreds of spectators on the bank as we were at the most accessible part of the river to watch the race. It was a weird feeling being there with so many people but being the only person in any position to do anything as the other two girls were ahead and hadn’t seen and no one else was in a kayak.
Andrea hesitated but then pulled her deck and managed to get out of her boat pushing it over the rocks into the water below, then she and her gear were in the water – she was swimming above Bujagali. I yelled at her to swim to the right bank and when I saw she would make it with no problem I started pushing her kayak towards the bank as well. I got the kayak into an eddy just above Bujagali falls and then ran the rapid looking for her paddling, not seeing it anyway I started to paddle off downstream but then people on the bank started yelling and pointing at the local fishing boat. They had picked up the paddle and I collected it from them and got it back to Andrea who was now at the bottom of the rapid with her boat having walked around.
Realising there wasn’t much point racing now we started paddling off only to see 42 male competitors come charging down Bujagali behind us so we let the leaders of that pack over stake before cruising on down to Silverback. Then it was up the muddy path to the boda bodas and my trusty boda boda driver put on the back of a “faster” boda boda back to NRE – not far up the trail we hit a patch of mud and the boda boda slid out from underneath us I landed on my back in the mud with my kayak on the top of me and the boda boda (luckily not the exhaust pipe) on my legs. Unhurt and rather amused I got up and insisted on walking past the rest of the mud patch before getting back on.
The rest of the trip was great – there were kayaks on boda bodas left right and center – in front of me and behind me the road was lined with local waving at us and everyone was having fun. Arriving back at NRE – after watching the boda in front of me veer off into the house to avoid loosing control – we were confronted with an obstacle course that we had to complete with our boda driver before our time stopped. It was a jumping castle covered in dish detergent. My first attempted to get up the initial ramp failed and my second ended in the mud in front of the castle as I wiped out before I even reached it. Then my boda driver took a running leap up and made the top so I ran and jumped and he grabbed my hand. After a few seconds of hilarious and undignified hauling and wallowing in soap suds he pulled me to the top where I promptly fell over the other side on top of him before regaining some kind of co-ordination and slithering through the rest to the end where we each had to down a Nile Special beer (in an NRE style funnel) before the clock stopped…. Phew!
Unfortunately one boda boda driver was injured in the event, he has a broken leg but all his medical costs are covered and last night we passed a hat round and he will have 300 000 ugsh to see him through until he can work again (equivalent to about three months wage).
The festival was wrapped up with a prize giving and footage and photos on the big screen and again a weary paddler dropping off to sleep before midnight when I should have been partying.

Oppps probably should give some results here, the womens boater-boda was won by Becky, the I was second and Andrea third (Prossi was disqaulified) and the men's was won by Joffrey, Henry was second and I can't remember who was third.

Day 2 - 45km Endurance Race

2006-12-02T18:57:00.000+11:00

So day 2 of competition dawned at Hairy Lemon and it meant packing up everything in time to head back up to NRE at 10am ready for the toughest event of the competition – the endurance race from NRE all the way down to the Hairy Lemon which is a stretch of 45km involving serious white water and long flat stretches as well. We all had to race in pairs for safety the girls were being set off at 2.15pm and the boys half an hour later. A total of 10 teams entered the race, 3 girl’s teams, 1 mixed team and 6 boy’s teams. My partner was Rae and we had the plan that we’d just take things easy and see how we went. Becky and Chloe were favourites to win the women’s event – Becky is a sponsored paddler that I met in Norway a few years ago and Chloe is the video boater for the Adrift rafting company here. Andrea and Irene partnered up to be the third women’s pair and we all set off together past the huge crowd that had gathered to watch the start at Bujagali falls. The first half an hour or so incorporates the bulk of the rapids of the day one sections and is pretty fast, I lead the rapids as Rae hasn’t run that section of river since last year and we were pretty much paddling with Irene and Andrea while Chloe and Becky we not too far ahead. After Silverback rapid you hit a long section of flat water at the end of which is Overtime - a rocky rapid that a lot of people chose to portage. By the time we got there we were well and truly ready to stretch our legs so portaging was actually a welcome relief. After overtime the flat continues, and it begins to seem like the water is flowing back upstream, towards the end of this flat section I could see some of the men’s teams behind us in the distance. Bobugo Falls ends that flat section but straight away you’re back in a lake and it’s flat until Itanda. As we were nearing Itanda the boys were closer behind us and Rae and I forgot our own race and turned around to see which boys were leading. To our surprise they weren’t local Ugandan but Will and Sam powering along behind us. Just as we pulled into the eddy above Itanda they caught and we cheered them on as they ran their boats past the first part of Itanda before putting in and running bad place. We also portaged past the first part of Itanda before putting back in and skirting the bad place on the right, by now we could see Irene and Andrea in front of us again and a few local Ugandan guys were passing us but they didn’t seem to be in the their pairs- you had to be within 45 seconds of your partner at all times or you would be disqualified.
We began the day 2 section happy with the knowledge that most of the flat water was behind us and that Andrea and Irene weren’t too far ahead. After the first three rapids in day 2 we hit the flat water but unlike the sections before the flat water here was actually still flowing downstream, Rae and I settled into a steady pace gradually gaining on the girls in front. At the last rapids we were quite close and Irene was looking tired, we caught up to them just as they were getting out of their boats at the beach at Hairy Lemon and they started off sprinting the finish line which was the bar, unlikely to catch them on the sprint, Rae and I skipped up the Hairy Lemon to the bar to come in third in 3 hours and 35 minutes, 15 minutes behind the winning girls and one minute behind Andrea and Irene. In the end only two men’s teams finished due to disqualification and people pulling out so Sam and Will won in just under three hours and Anton and Adrian came second. (Becky singing at the Finish)
Then it was back to NRE again for a party… but somehow the day took it’s toll and collapsed into bed before midnight.

Nile Freestyle Festival - day 1

2006-12-01T17:35:00.000+11:00

The first day of the Nile Freestyle Festival kicked off with a truck load of kayaks and paddlers heading down to Itanda, one of the well known grade six rapids on the river. The morning was to start with an Itanda “expression session” where the paddlers familiar with the rapid would paddle down and “express themselves” through either the lines they chose or by the freestyle moves the decide to pull off in features that most of us would avoid going into at all costs.
Anyway the truck ride itself was great, we had about 25 kayaks and people in the truck I followed the lead of Becky and perched myself on top of some kayaks up the front of the truck. Because Itanda is far way downstream (I’ve included a map of the river for clarity here) of the dam and the water from the hydro only releases from 8am, when we arrived at 11am the water was still very low, lower than I had ever seen it and everyone jumped off the trucks and sprinted to the rapid to check out the rocks that are usually under water and the new lines that had opened up in the lead in to the rapid.
The rapid was still impressive and intimidating, over half a kilometer of serious grade five white water, only a few people entered the session the rest were on the banks with video cameras, cameras and just to watch. As I was going back up to the truck to get my camera I somehow got roped into being a safety kayaker for the event so I got into my gear and sat in the eddy half way down the rapid. Sitting there, I contemplated the logic of me being safety – after all the kayakers I would be rescuing were by far better paddlers than myself and rapid was not exactly one I would be happy to try and rescue someone in.... about all I could do is paddle down after them and pick them up at the bottom. But luckily no one got into any trouble so I just got to sit there and pretend I was about rescue anyone that needed it. After some impressive paddling at Itanda (including Becky who was the only girl to run it) we all headed on down the day 2 section of river to the Nile Special wave for the Big Trick competition, on the way down I managed to fall out of my kayak in a flat section while trying to stretch my legs and got rescued by Joffrey – who still calls me Sala – which was unnecessary but funny at the same time.
Down at Nile Special the 21 competitors were divided into three heats of 7, each heat having a 45 minute open session on the wave where competitors could have as many rides as they wanted to try for the biggest move they could pull off. The bank next to the wave was crowed with spectators, including many locals dressed up in their Sunday best and the Chapati Man from Bujagali who, complete with chapatti stove and table had been transported down to the wave for the event.
The six girls in the comp were spread evenly across the heats although we were judged separately from the men, the top 3 women and top 5 men were to go through to a final 30 minute heat to decide the winners. With this style of comp it’s all about how big you can go, getting your boat airborne while executing a freestyle move. With a few big names like Steve Fisher and Ben Brown in the comp there was plenty to make the crowd cheer.
The girls got out there and gave it a go but most of us don’t like using the rope to get on the wave, instead we walk around and drop in on the wave from the eddy above which meant we all missed the wave a lot and did a lot of running up the bank. Rae and Jessie used the rope and it was clear that they would both be in the finals. The rest of us were all pretty hopeless and in the end it was Andrea that pulled off some unknown move and made the final.
The men’s final was exciting with world renowned Steve Fisher almost being beaten by Sam, a UK boater in his first competition. Both of then pulled of combination moves however Steve’s ability to get airborne saw him take first while Sam well and truly earned second. Rae’s many days of practice on the wave paid off as she beat Jessie to take first in the women’s and Andrea showed guts by dropping in to the wave from a pitch black eddy above to secure third in the women’s. Then most of us paddled off the Hairy Lemon for spit roast pig while those heading back to Bujagali had the joy of getting the trucks stuck in the mud and getting back at 2am while we were all asleep on our island in the Nile.

Rain Rain Go Away

2006-11-26T00:18:00.000+11:00

Well the rain has been continuing, it truly is the rainy season – I wish I could send some of it home but it seems to be rather attached to equatorial Africa. We’ve been down at the Hairy Lemon, a few more kayakers have shown up with the festival now only a week away. Scott Lindgren and his brother Dustin are out shooting a film with Steve Fisher and Benji Hjort the Norwegian creek boater is here too.
We’ve been surfing mainly on the waves near the Hairy Lemon – I finally got up the guts to surf Nile Special but I’m still not brave enough to try getting onto it with the rope – I chicken out at the eddy line and let go. So I walk up each time and drop in from above - works fine until you run into a forest cobra on the rocks… rather large black and rather deadly snake… hmmm anyway one of the local kayakers threw a large rock at it hitting it in the back and it slithered off into the water. Great!! A large deadly and now very pissed off snake swimming around… however we didn’t see it again.
We headed back up to day 2 yesterday and I ran KalaGala again after that it was just a relaxed run down the river. I had another trip into the International Clinic in town, that makes it five now, as Adrian was pretty ill – they did the standard IV antibiotics and he seems to be on the mend. Apparently Thatcher has malaria as well, we haven’t seen him yet but Aliya is looking after him. Anyway looking forward to the fun of the festival…

Storms, Birthdays and Waterfalls

2006-11-19T21:25:00.000+11:00

Well since I last wrote we've been spending a lot of time down at the Hairy Lemon which is at the bottom of the "day 2" section of the river. We came back up to Bujagali for a few nights at the end of last week but camped at Eden Rock campsite which is about 500m away from NRE and hence a lot quieter - since NRE have got their speakers fixed it's rather noisy even with earplugs in. Wednesday night was a night of broken sleep due to the South African crew leaving at 3.30am and they decided to get Andrea (Switzerland) drunk so they carried her home at about 2.30am. Thursday night both Adrian and Kat suffered from Ugandan food hygiene or lack thereof - and Friday night was the biggest storm I have ever experienced from a tent.
Thunderstorms here are pretty common but this was something else - I don't think I've ever been scared of a storm before. It started with just the normal lightning flashes illuminating the tent and distant thunder, the rain started and as usual was a tropical downpour of large drops but instead of lasting a few minutes the deluge didn't seem to end. The lightning got closer until I was literally holding my hands over my ears and there was no time delay between the lightning flashes and the thunder cracks which threatened to deafen us. The rain intensified and started to force its way into my tent - but luckily only in small droplets - and the noise of the rain on the tent became deafening the noise of the thunder was the only thing louder. I pulled on some clothes, sure that my tent was going to leak enough for me to leave but then the noise on the tent grew even louder I pulled open the tent flap and in the bright light of the frequent lightning I was treated to the uncommon sight of equatorial Africa under a layer of ice - the ground was blanketed in at least two inches of large hailstones. At this point Scott (the one remaining South African) opened his tent which was only three or four meters from mine and I yelled over to ask if he was ok - even yelling at the tops of our voices we couldn't hear each other over the storm. After being hit by a large hail stone in the eye I withdrew into my tent but the noise of the hail was indescribable and I felt sure that at any second my tent would be ripped open by the hail so I did the only logical thing ... stuck my hands over my ears and pulled my sleeping bag over my head.
By this stage the storm had been going for around 40 minutes, the rain hadn't stopped and Scott had opened his tent to see his shorts floating past just in time to grab them. My tent was floating - there was basically several inches of water on the ground flowing under my tent and down towards the river. After a while the hail stopped and I pulled on my paddling cag (ooopps who didn't bring a rain coat to Africa???) and got out to check on the others. The termite holes in Kat's tent had let water in and she moved to the bar, it was only after she was settled and I was walking back to my tent that we discovered the trees - two trees, one only meters from our tents, had come down and we hadn't heard a thing. There was a tent under one but luckily no-one was in it. Needless to say it was a while before the adrenaline stopped flowing and we could get back to sleep.
So after that it was off back to Hairy Lemon (which had been totally bypassed by the storm). Hairy lemon is near one wave on the river (the turd wave - ie. "third" but named by Irish) that works in the low water levels of the morning and then Nile Special that works in higher levels when the power generation water reaches it from the dam. We broke up the wave surfing by a few trips on the day 2 sections, this involves getting a truck (and we mean truck!) from Hairy Lemon to a point in the river where there are three channels of intimidating rapids, Itanda, Hypoxia and KalaGala. Kala Gala is intimidating but simple - ie. keep right. The consequences of not staying right could well be permanent as it's a 4m waterfall and the left side looks like a giant boiling pot of recirculating water. I've been tempted by this drop for a while, but have been put off by the fact that the boys seem to paddle quite hard at the top to get over to the right. On Tuesday the 14th I made the decision that I was ready to run it so we back on Wednesday (my birthday) and Kat and I both made the call that we were going to do it. Tim, Adrian and Anton were also running it and Scott was standing next o it trying to decide, on seeing all of us int he eddy above he quickly jumped in his boat as well. Andrea was designated camera girl... Adrian went off first before i was even in the eddy above, then Kat followed Tim out of the eddy. Anton looked at me and said (in a Swedish accent) "do you want to follow my back?", I considered this but Anton being one of the strongest guys I've met I could see that only stressing me out as our paddling styles couldn't be more different, so Scott jumped in behind Anton leaving me in the eddy alone. Suddenly I wasn't nervous - the decision was made and I knew what I had to do. I pulled out the eddy and let the current ferry me over to the right side of the channel. I few paddle strokes kept me on line and as I came over the lip I tucked forward into roll set-up position to protect my face and shoulders from impact. The landing was surprisingly soft as I disappeared deep into the aerated water, popping up again after a second or two to see Kat in the eddy
below with a boat full of water because her deck had popped. Kat had made it into the eddy in her submerged boat before hopping out onto a rock. A bit further downstream we popped into the Adrift Rafting take out and local safety boater and freestyle team member Joffrey seemed as excited as us about the run "Sala" he yelled ( Ugandans have trouble with "r") "Sala have you been running Kala Gala?" he ran over gave me a Nile Special beer and huge hug - Yup it was a pretty spectacular birthday.
So now back in Jinja and staying at Eden Rock again for a few nights, Scott Lingren (legendary white water cinematographer) is showing his new film here tomorrow night so that should be great. Then it'll be back to the Hairy Lemon to hang out at the waves (and watch Steve Fisher rip it up on Nile Special).
Kat leaves tomorrow which is sad, it's also amazing that I've already been here so long as originally I was to leave as well but extending your stay seems to be the thing to do round here...it's contagious. I'll be sad to leave when my time comes but I'm starting to feel like I'll also be ready to catch up on things I'm missing at home.
Anyway till next time...

Halloween

2006-10-31T21:11:00.000+11:00

Well things are plodding along here, Adrian has now arrived, tassie paddler from home and someone I hung out with a fair bit last summer. Also a couple more American boaters and a Swede have turned up too so there are a few more people around.
We’ve been heading down to the Ugly Sisters rapid a fair bit which has a great surf wave on it, unfortunately behind the surf wave is a large hydraulic and you only have limited time to roll up and paddle back into the eddy unless you want to test the power of the pourover.

The first day Kat paddled it she missed a few rolls on the lead in and ended up in a eddy on the opposite side of the river to the rest of us, unfamiliar with the rapid she got out of her boat to have a look but from what I could see the jungle like trees were too thick to get through. She looked upset, washing her face with water and sitting partly in the water in the eddy. When the boys had finished surfing they all ran the rapid to the left of the pourover and I decided to walk my boat back up a way and ferry over to Kat on the right hand side – after all I wasn’t leaving her to paddle and unknown drop on her own. I misjudged the force of the water when I was trying to get into the eddy huge boils and whirlies threw me off line and I looked over my shoulder to see a nice green line down through the sticky pourover. I called to Kat that there was a line and dropped in, to the boys in the eddy below it looked like I’d just dropped into one of the largest holes on the river… unbeknownst to them the green tongue of water I paddled down surged into a wave right when I hit and I got stuck surfing. Kat could see me but I was out of sight from the boys who had just seen me drop into what they thought was a hole and simply disappear. Kat witnessed my huge bounces and I pulled my boat round into a front surf and attempted to carve off the wave – suddenly I bounced high in the air and the nose of my boat dug into the green water as I landed – the result was I was air-launched out of the back of the wave. Anyway Kat paddled the right without a problem … hehehe not really sure I did the best job of rescuing her but hey, at least I provided her with some entertainment. Turns out she wasn’t upset at all but that the trees were full of ants that left her with numerous red stingy itchy bites all over her arms, neck and back – that’s why she was washing her face.
Yesterday I had what Timmy would call sub-optimal river bed interaction – ie. I hit a rock with my shoulder and have a lovely scrape and bruise. It’s a bit sore today so I’m taking the day off, trying to upload some photos which is painfully slow of course.
I’ve now extended my flights, so I’m home for Christmas – arrived at 1am on Christmas day in fact ;-)
It’s Halloween and of course – like everything at NRE this calls for a fancy dress party. Luckily Jinja market is a goldmine of amazing clothes and various knick knacks that create the most amazing costumes. I’ve picked a wedding dress (somewhat 80s in style) for a mere 20000 shillings (about $15) … can’t wait to see everyone else’s costumes tonight, we had a bit of a practice run on Saturday – Thatcher looks great in a string bikini and Robin Hood and Pippi Longstocking were in the bar too.

Team Estrogen Goes to Sipi

2006-10-23T21:19:00.000+10:00

Well after getting a little bit of NRE overload Kat and escaped with Aliya, Megan and Philippa to Sipi Falls in Eastern Uganda near the Kenyan border. We just went for two days and stayed in a lovely cliff top camp right next to one of the waterfalls that gives the area its name.
It was a real girls road trip, complete with girly music. We did a walk to the base of one of the waterfalls – it’s a fall of about 90m down a lovely yellowy red cliff face in the midst of the lush green landscape – absolutely amazing.The road to and from there was quite amazing, clouds of dusts, trucks appearing out of no where and of course this the main road between Uganda and Kenya incorporating potholes that could hide a cow and random police check points as well as the usual bicycle and livestock traffic that you find on any African road.
Anyway we’re now back at NRE for some more paddling.

Sad News

2006-10-19T21:08:00.000+10:00

Well time for another update as the six are now down to two with Kylie having left for the UK/Spain and then on to Sth America and Ruth, Steff and Marj back in Melbourne. This week has been overshadowed by the death of a kayaker back home in northern NSW on the weekend, tragically the kayaker was Simon Vos, Steff's partner and someone I paddled with at Easter when I flew up to QLD.
Marj was on the river with Simon at the time, as were three other boaters whom I know from the Easter trip and Penrith. Despite CPR efforts until the helicopter came Simon had been under water for too long and nothing could be done. Steff was in the air on her way home at the time of the accident and so got met at the airport by Marj who broke the news.
Despite all knowing the risks, it's a shock when someone you know dies doing the sports we all love. Steff and Marj are as ok as can be expected – they and the rest of the crew and Simon's family are in our thoughts right now.
The scene here is quiet at the moment, there aren't many boaters around but that's kind of nice in a way as it was so busy when we got here. We've had a lot of runs down Silverback – a section that incorporates fives of the largest rapids on the river and the way to get back to camp is on the back of a boda boda (motorcycle) with kayak across your knees between you and the driver – hehehe – trouble is the kayak is quite wide so we accidentally nudged a cow the other day.
Kat and I are having a great time buying material and getting skirts made at a local tailor, and even more fun is to be had by riding the boda boda's sidesaddle when wearing the above mentioned skirts (all the African women ride this way).
Adrian (from Tassie) should be turning up tomorrow which is awesome – yay for more people to play with.
Kat and I are both toying with the idea of staying a few extra weeks to see the Nile kayak festival which is in early December but nothing has been decided yet.
Anyway our boda boda's are waiting outside to take us home…
Lots of love to everyone, please don't worry we are being very safe on a river that has a record of being very safe. Apart from minor ear infections etc we're all healthy and happy. And for everyone else doing those normal weekend trips to Araps, etc and paddling, please take care out there.

Malaria, staph infections and anything but clothes

2006-10-10T21:05:00.000+10:00

Well it's been an eventful week, Kat's had an infection from a cut in her foot and has been on broad antibiotics. On Saturday a group of us (minus Kat) went down to paddle the day-2 section organising a pick u from Hairy Lemon at 6pm. After five swims and a broken paddle and at least one T-rescue we finally made it back to Hairy Lemon at 7pm in the midst of a huge thunderstorm and buckets of rain which made for an interesting drive back to NRE and we arrived tired and hungry at 9pm to find Kat had taken a major turn for the worse and Thatcher was with her at the clinic in town.

They returned very soon as the clinic in town had not had power so couldn't do anything and had diagnosed malaria without any test and sent her home! I wasn't happy with that as I was worried about the infection in the foot, so I spoke to Aliya who runs the restaurant attached to the Nile Porch (another part of NRE) and she made some phone calls and convinced one of the international doctors to see us in town. So we bundled Kat back into a car, she was barely with us and not looking well at all, and it was off to the international clinic where we were met by a lovely Dr Charles and his nurse and they had a generator on so there was power.

A quick finger prick test told him it wasn't malaria and he diagnosed a staph infections from the cut in her foot. Pumped full of IV antibiotics and with a canulla in her hand in case she needed more IV antibiotics in the morning we took a slightly improved Kat back home a lot happier that we knew what was wrong. Aliya had also given us a room in the Nile Porch (a much classier style of accommodation catering to a cleaner, richer market than us paddlers) for the night so that Kat would have a bathroom close and bed rather than a tent. Luckily in the morning Kat had improved enough that Dr Charles decided that oral antibiotics would be fine and there wasn't any need for more IV antibiotics.

Add to this the fact that Josh has just got Malaria (Aliya was looking after him in her banda) - poor Josh they left at midnight last night for their flight to Zambia and he was not well despite the malaria treatment almost being finished.

And then as usual the parties have been fun, Monday was Thatcher's birthday and we celebrated with an "anything but clothes" party. I was wearing pages of Newsweek with gaffer tae to hold it on, Josh was in inflatable pool toys, Kylie was wear a cardboard box... needless to say it was a huge night.

Anyway today we're off to the Hairy Lemon again just for two nights before Steff and Kylie leave on Saturday and Monday respectively. That is, as long as Steff's passport has come from the Nairobi Australian embassy.

anyway so Kat is well and truly on the mend and starting to get bored, the rest of us are fine apart from the occasional hangover... hope all is well back home. Good luck in the Lea race this weekend to everyone who is going down, hope there's water for it.

Adventures, Passports and Stitches

2006-10-03T20:55:00.001+10:00

Well in the last week the group split up a bit for some adventures with Steff and matt heading off to see the gorillas, and marj, kat and kylie went to Sipi Falls but with my shoulder starting to feel better and also having had enough of traveling in matatus (mini busses packed with people, chickens etc) for a while I opted to stay at NRE camp.
A new groups of Irish paddlers turned up and Thatcher and Josh volunteered to show them down the river, Walker and I walked down to Bujagali falls to watch. Unfortunately one of the Irish girls whacked her head on the first rapid and I said I'd walk out with her, this then turned into a walk to the clinic and holding her head while she got three stitches as well - but she seemed to take this in her stride - apparently not the first time she's been concussed.
Steff also had her bag stolen on the way to the gorillas, so due to the fact that there is no Australian embassy or consulate here she now can't fly home today and has to wait for a replacement passport. The Canadian consulate acts as an agent for the aussie consulate in Nairobi - so everything has to be sent there and back again... oh well there are worse places to be stuck really.
The last two days I've been back paddling the river - so much happier now I'm paddling again. Another Irish paddler turned up yesterday (there seem to be a lot of Irish around) and we took him down the river, the first run down was uneventful but he had a swim on the first rapid when we did an afternoon run. It was just above Bujagali falls and there were a whole lot of tourists watching and one of the local guys threw him a 20ltr plastic Gerry can as extra floatation however he managed to swim into an eddy just above the rapid (after me yelling at him "let go of your boat and SWIM") - I chased the boat down the rapid and apart from a few new scratches on the boat we were no worse off.
At the bottom of one of the larger rapids a monitor lizard sat on a rock eating a rather large but also dead snake and there were monkeys in the trees overhanging the river - I love Africa!
Right now it's absolutely belting down rain .... hmm this will make the motorbike (boda boda) ride home from town interesting as the rich red soil turns to rich red mud and it's kind of slippery - oh well if it keeps raining like this I'll pay my boda boda driver and just get a taxi back...
anyway hope all is well back home, I hear there is no rain there yet - no rivers running. Fingers crossed there's water for the Lea race.

Mullets and Anti-Mohawkes

2006-09-25T20:53:00.000+10:00

Just a quick one to say that we're still alive, the team is down to
five now as Ruth has finished her paddling time in Uganda and is just
finishing off her trip with some volunteer work in Entebbe before she
heads home.
We've been down at the Hairy Lemon for the last little while along
with the Kiwis (Brendan and Josh) and the Americans who are called
(believe it or not!!!) Thatcher, Tyler and Walker !!! plus some random
pommy paddlers including Matt who's honorary girl on the team under
the alias Betty.

Anyway I didn't paddle because of the shoulder so it was lots of
hanging out, building dams in the little streams round the island,
swimming and reading. Oh yeah and Saturday night was a big one and now
nine of the boys have mullets or other interesting haircuts including
Walker with an "anti-Mohawk" with lighting strikes cut in…. hmmmm I
almost got a mullet ... kind of glad I didn't now as we’re back at NRE
and the reality of mirrors is hard for some hehehe.

At hairy Lemon we were treated to the most amazing lightning storm
which surrounded us on three sides and we sat on top of the hill in
the middle of the Hairy Lemon island watching the sky light up and
forks of lightning crash down.

I also had the pleasure of standing on the top of the picnic table on
the top of the hill (the only place with a hint of mobile reception on
the island) speaking to commonwealth bank in Australia trying to report my
visa card lost - the girl on the other end asked me about three times
where I was calling from ... I decided to just say Uganda rather than
"the top of a table, on a hill, on an island in the Nile... "

Oh and I realised that I've been paddling with a UK paddler who has
been tutored in maths by my aunt at Oxford! Small world.

Anyway love to all, I'm hoping to get back in my boat in the next few
days for some flat water paddling to see how things shape up. Although
drunkenly rolling down a hill on Saturday night may not have been the
best rehab… the shoulder is not so bad though, general range of
movement is pretty good and it's not particularly sore.

Hippos, Rhinos, Crocs and Shoulders

2006-09-18T20:43:00.000+10:00

Well we headed up to Murchison Falls national park on the weekend - hired a car and driver and set off (an hour and half later than arranged in true African style). Murchison Falls is in the north of Uganda where the Nile river is forced through a gap about 7m wide where is goes over two falls of about 50m each - very impressive. It's also a national park full of animals - there were baboons all over the road on the drive in and we had to stop for a tortoise to cross the road. Then at the campground we were warned that hippos had been grazing there the night before so toilet trips in the middle of the night suddenly became a little exciting (although we heard something munching we didn't see hippos in the campground).
The next morning was our game drive where we saw all sorts of gazelle type things, giraffes, elephants, warthogs, buffalo, squirrels and two lions in the distance. Then the afternoon was a boat cruise up towards the falls, with numerous hippos and crocs in the water it was a lot of fun then the view of the falls themselves were amazing - the monkeys in the trees seemed to be checking out the tourists as much as the tourists were checking out the monkeys.
On the way back on Sunday it rained loads and the other cars we saw were all bogged - luckily our driver was awesome and we stayed safe even though the windscreen wipers didn't work and the rain was torrential. We stopped on the way home at the rhino sanctuary where they are introducing a rhino breeding program to attempt to restore a rhino population in Uganda - they've been extinct since the 70s due to poaching. We walked to within 5m of the rhinos which was pretty amazing.
Now we're back at NRE - unfortunately I managed to dislocate my shoulder yesterday and it wasn't even while I was paddling I just tried over on the edge of the river and managed to throw my shoulder out somehow with no external force on it. It was out for about 5-10 secs (of screaming) before I remembered that last time it went back in when I moved my arm round to my chest - it went back in as soon as I did that but yeah... will have to wait and see what that does to the paddling plans. Not happy at all about it considering I've spent all year strengthening my shoulder hmmm looks like a physio visit or three when I get home.
We're off down to hairy lemon today so I'll just chill out down there and watch the monkeys tease the dog and read some books while the others paddle. Hopefully I'm not off the water for too long.

Chicks Team is Complete

2006-09-10T20:14:00.000+10:00

Just another quick update to say we’re all still alive. We just spent three nights down at Hairy Lemon, an island resort further down the river owned by an Aussie couple and their young son and wiry terrier. It’s very chilled out, no internet or phones and the supplies all come from Jinja township an hour away. Lots more paddling, the Brissy girls turned up last night – we were all in the bar drinking shots as it was Kat’s and one of the Irish girl’s birthdays… I got to bed about 5am with some mad frenchie paddlers pretending to be English trying to collapse my tent while whispering “I would like a cup of tea and I love the queen” in extremely strong French accents (one of these guys is European champ in freestyle).
Two of my friends from Christchurch randomly appeared in the bar last night which is awesome. It’s two of the polytech guys that I hung out with in ChCh last year and I had no idea they were going to be here so it’s pretty exciting. Can’t wait to paddle with them.
Half the Irish crew leaves today and tomorrow so the bar should be a bit quieter – the Irish boys Killian and Dave are on an all day bender at the moment because they are leaving, they’ve got Kat in the bar drinking shots too – it’s lunchtime.
On a sad note, one of the paddlers from the rafting company died last week in a traffic accident over here - I had met him briefly but didn’t really know him but obviously the crew over here are pretty close so it’s hit a few people pretty hard.
Hmmm what else – well this place is awesome, we’ve been boating a lot, seeing monkeys and amazing kingfisher type birds not to mention a few snakes and monitor lizards. We did the hokey pokey with the children at the take out after yesterday’s paddle – they though we were hilarious…

Africa - here we are

2006-09-05T19:09:00.000+10:00

Well, the internet is painfully slow here and is also a half hour ride on the back of a motorbike (the poor driver had to use “heavy gear” to get up the hill with Ruth and me on the back!) from camp so the updates might not be too frequent.
We made it safely to Uganda, had an awesome experience at check in where they only weighed one kayak so we weighed Kat’s which was empty rather than mine or Ruth’s which both had gear in them.
The flight was long but otherwise good, 13.5 hours to Dubai then a plane change and another flight via Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to Entebbe. I had my first marriage proposal from a Ugandan guy on the plane, although when he asked me how old I was his reaction to the answer was “bloody hell!” – he thought I was about 20. Everything went smoothly, Kylie’s plane had landed 10 mins before us so we cruised through customs and got picked up by a Kayak the Nile organized mini bus with roof racks.
We arrived at the Nile to be met by rather drunk raft guide who promptly got us to skull Zappa (think sambucca) out of the bottle before we set up our tents and had our first night in Africa. Waking up early I was treated to seeing monkeys in the trees just down hill of the tents and a beautiful early morning light over the river. That day we managed to hook up with another 11 paddlers making it 14 on a trip to “super hole” and the day 2 section of the river. Loads of fun and just a really cool feel to the whole boating thing where you just hook up with other groups. Everyone loves the T-shirts although the most popular is Dave's one that says "paddle like a girl" and then "official team pimp" on the front - all the boys we've been paddling with want one.
I managed to amuse the locals by getting stuck in a little sticky pourover in a non-descript rapid within the first five meters. Ruth thought I was about to swim as I was in there for a while but pride got the upper hand and I managed to get out. Then it was on down to Kalagala – one of the well known harder rapids. Just before it a little furry head popped out of the water in front of my boat. I had no idea what it was and yelled at the others “what’s an animal that swims?” they were like “crocodile, fish…” anyway turns out they have otters in Africa – never knew that.
Anyway after a few early nights and early mornings I decided it was time to break the jet lag cycle and stayed up drinking with an Irish paddler the night before last….. hmmm that’s the last time I drink shots with the Irish – man they can hold their alcohol. They also have some smooth pick up lines ;- ) hehe that don’t work on aussies it turns out!
Anyway so we’re all well, the river is amazing as are the monkeys, motorbikes, kids, etc etc. This afternoon we’re heading down to super hole – a cool play hole about 20km down the river. Dave Kneen turned up yesterday and is currently recovering from a duty free head ache – we took him paddling the moment he arrived but he did the drinking without any encouragement what so ever.
To all the boaters back home – we’re boating in rashies and shorts, it’s big fluffy waves and warm water – woohoo it’s so awesome. We were at Nile special yesterday but it's a bit huge and bouncy right now so we haven't got on it yet.
Mum – don’t worry we’re all being careful ;-) the boda bodas (motorbikes) don’t go too fast with three people on them.

Off to Africa

2006-08-30T16:36:00.000+10:00

Well... somehow it's here. Tomorrow we fly out to Uganda to scare ourselves silly on the White Nile in Uganda. Ruth, Kat and I fly via Dubai with Emirates, while Kylie is flying via Johannesburg as it's her first leg of a round the world adventure. In a week's time the Brissy girls will join us to make it a crew of six chicks on the Nile!
The T-shirts are printed, the passports, tickets and money all organised now I just have to work out how to pack everything into my 20kg limit when my boat alone weighs 15kg...
So stay tuned the next update will be from the equator.

Mitchell River - the joy of sick leave

2006-07-23T11:04:00.000+10:00

Well having suffered one of the driest and coldest Junes on record July wasn't shaping up to much better. Then the forecast suddenly looked as if the Kiewas would be up on a Sunday and everyone was on alert, only for the rain to fall too far west. Then the rain swung round and dumped in west gippsland... the Mitchell catchment. Being slow to respond, the Mitchell was set to peak mid-week and oh the joys of sick leave.

Leaving on Wednesday night we drove to Sale, meeting Timmy at a house full of Monash med students. We'd managed to assemble a group of 10 people, not bad for a last minute mid week paddle! We crashed on the living floor of the house in Sale and early the next morning I woke everyone up (despite Timmy's protests) and soon enough we were on the way with one of the med students in tow.

So 11 people, three cars, then we got to the take out and decided to save time by leaving a car there so then it was 11 people in two cars... oh and 11 boats as well. Good thing my roof racks are nice and wide. So we all got changed at the take out, always dangerous when Timmy is around as Jen soon found out! Then with six boats on my car and six people in Grant's it was off to the put in.

The Mitchell is a lovely river, mainly grade 2 with a couple of harder rapids of grade 3 and large pools between rapids making it an ideal river for inexperienced paddlers who are challenged by the harder rapids while enjoying the easier ones.

The first hard rapid is slalom rapid. A long rapid down a section of bedrock, where boat skills are required to avoid rocks and water features. Nick decided to test the temperature of the water here with a swim - the verdict: FREEZING! Jen was styling it - the Mitchell was her first real river (as the Yarra and Goulburn don't really count) and Macca was enjoying his new boat.

With Nick back in his boat we continued down the river's little grade 2 boulder gardens and chutes before stopping for lunch on a sandy beach. So much nicer than sitting behind a desk all day! Lunch was supplemented with the usual plethora of chocolate and even a "reduced to clear" packet of iced doughnuts. We admired Kate's homemade fleece hotpants that made her look like a ribena berry and Timmy tried to dack Jen and carry Bron off into the bushes.

Then it was onwards towards the most challenging rapid of the run - "Amphitheater Rapid". From the pool at the top of this rapid all you can see is a horizon line and the rushing sounds of water over rocks, so we all got out on the left bank to have a look. We discussed the obstacles that we could see and the best lines around them, then Timmy, Grant, Kate W and Jean set up safety and I had the video camera.

First of all came Nick, looking calm and relaxed he skirted the pourover, punched through the little hole and hit the middle of the green tongue. Then he was onto the second part of the rapid which was out of sight for me.

Along came Jen, cool calm and collected she cruised past the pourover and through the hole looking just slightly shakey down the last bit but recovering to head onto the second part.

Bron and Kate came along next, both coming unstuck in the same spot. They both styled it past the pourover - looking extremely relaxed and stylish, then got knocked off balance by the hole and ending up with some upside down action before swimming.

(Bron doing her best to stay upright)

Then I packed up the camera and joined Macca to scoot down the rapid, I was impressed with how everyone had done. It's not an easy rapid and it's long with potential for a freezing swim - everyone had given it a go which was impressive to start with, and then even those that had swum had paddled really well.

(Kate styling the top section of Amphitheater)

Down the bottom, Bron was on the opposite side of the river to her boat, Kate's boat was downstream somewhere with Grant and KateW and everyone else was gathered in an eddy. Timmy and I got Bron to swim down to her boat, however she was tired and cold and missed the eddy which meant that Timmy, Bron and I went down the last bit of Amphitheater in a muddle with Bron managing to grab my boat just at the bottom and we got into the eddy.

After regrouping, we pulled out the warm dry gear and Timmy took great pleasure in telling Bron to take her gear off ;-) we dressed her up in mountains of fleece and thermals that made her look like Michelin man then it was onwards through more little rapids and increasing amounts of flat water to the take out.

Everyone was tired by the time the take out came into view, and then it was the half hour up hill track to the cars. Up first I dumped my gear and headed back to help the others only to hear that Ruthy had headed off into the unknown on a different track! In the dimming light I called her name and finally got an answer, she'd been hoping for a short cut but had been forced to turn back. So soon enough everyone was back at the car and Nick, Grant and I headed off to do the shuttle.

Then it was the long drive home, the stop at Gypsy Pizza in Moe for dinner and back to Melbourne at 1am. At least I had an excuse for looking like crap at work the next day - I'd been sick of course!

Beach Weekend

2006-06-19T10:27:00.000+10:00

Despite the promising East Gippsland floods, Victoria reverted pretty quickly to it's unusually dry and cold June weather. So with no rivers running it was off to Aireys Inlet to surf, eat chocolate and sit in front of the fire at Jen's beach house.

After the usual disorganisation leaving Melbourne, and the phone call from Nick and Kate that let us know they were there already (unfortunately we had the house keys) we all finally made it down there Friday night and cracked open the Baileys, the Tim Tams and set up Grant's laptop with a good dose of paddling porn. The next morning was a slow one, Dave and Rob were coming down for the day and arrived bright and early while the rest of us were still looking a little bleary eyed. So off to Fairhaven where the waves were a decent size but pretty friendly.

For Jen it was her first ever time in the surf in a kayak, none other than her new boat Ted the Infrared. She cottoned on quickly, caught a few waves in the white wash, did her first ever live rolls before heading out the back to play in the big stuff. It got chilly pretty quickly so it was back to the house for lunch then some more chocolate biscuits then back to the beach. This time only Grant and Jen had the motivation to get cold and wet again, the rest of us played with cameras and video cameras which meant that Jen's carnage was on film - that girl showed her determination though with up to four rolls in a row and several good trashings.

(one of Jen's spectacular trashings)

Finally they got cold and came in and it was dinner time back at barracks... another evening of chocolate and alcohol while watching every last scrap of paddling footage Grant could find on his trusty mac. Timmy and Huw turned up and generally much fun was had, especially when watching the footage of Timmy 4wd-ing and drowning his car in a large puddle.

(The battle for the bed)

Off to bed and the action didn't stop there, Timmy has his sights set on the double bed Jen and I were sharing and so suddenly the pitch black house was pierced by screams as Jen and I were dragged out of bed by our ankles and Timmy claimed the mattress.

The ensuing battle lasted for over an hour as Jen and I attempted to claim back the bed. I do wonder what the neighbours though of the banging and screaming!

In the end we got the bed back but not before I'd committed to cooking bacon and eggs for the offending bed stealer the next morning. Neither Jen nor I slept well that night - half expecting a second attack at any second ;-)

After the bacon and eggs, it was back to the beach. The surf was smaller but cleaner and Timmy styled it in his C1 even nailing a flat spin!

Jen took over the video camera and I had some fun out in the surf getting some serious bounce going. Now I just have to work out what to do with it once the boat is airborne.... might have to pin Mel down for some blunt lessons.

(a beautiful set rolls in behind me)

(bouncey bouncey this thing can fly!)

All in all, a very enjoyable weekend...

First paddle of the Victorian season

2006-06-05T09:44:00.000+10:00

Well after numerous summer Penrith trips, beginner bum-scrape trips and surf trips it was pretty exciting to see the rainfall that was falling in far East Gippsland late last week. We were hoping the rain would fall in the alpine catchment and bring the Kiewas or the Mitta area up to paddleable levels but it wasn't to be, it stayed in the far east of the state and by Friday the Bureau of Meterology had issued a flood warning for the Cann and the Genoa rivers.
With the Genoa being a full on two day trip with an epic shuttle we opted for the Cann, no-one we knew had run either river and both are classed grade IV on the online guide however the Cann was slightly closer to Melbourne, a shorter run and a much shorter shuttle (a good thing as at this stage we only had one car on the trip).

Grant and I set about recruiting, none of the girls were free and the usual crew of guys were all busy as well. So it ended up being Emilio, a spanish paddler living in Melbourne, Grant and myself. And then Simon called and said he was up for it - a pretty awesome effort considering that meant a long drive for him from Wodonga by himself (and a sketchy drive over Hotham in snow).

So in the rain at 2am we pulled into Cann River and parked in the servo carpark. Luckily Emilio has an awesome van with a big fold out bed in the back so the three of us climbed into bed only to hear Simon pull up about 20 mins later, he bedded down in the back of his ute and we all tried to get some sleep before Saturday dawned, grey, wet and cold.

After breakfast in the town picnic shelter it was off to the river about 10km south of town. The rain was coming in showers but the large amount of surface water around told us the catchment was absolutely saturated. At the put in we were confronted with a very brown and flooded looking river, we found a gauge which read somewhere around 2.6m and we started to wonder we had too much water. This is where non-paddling girlfriends come in handy, Grant rang Pip to check the internet gauge and we were informed that far from being flooded the gauge read 1.09m - just at minimum level to run the river. The feeling of the group was summed up by Simon turning to me and asking "are you scared too?".

As the online guide had estimated 8-12 hours for the trip and we hadn't run it before, we packed overnight gear in our creekers. This seemed even more relevant as by this stage it was nearing midday, although only Grant had ever paddled with gear in his boat before so that left the rest of us feeling a bit nervous about how our boats would handle.

The grade three rapid right at the put in was a nice warm up, the feel of the river was one of big water - pushy and forming large waves and holes. My boat felt slow with gear in it and more at the mercy of the current than it otherwise would be. Soon we reached a horizon line and jumped out on the right bank to scout. There were some large holes and two possible lines both starting left, Simon made the call to walk the rapid as he was feeling rusty and not 100% happy with his boat control with the extra weight of gear. So it was the three of us in the top eddy and Grant asked me where in the group I wanted to paddle. Instead of opting for the safety of the middle of the group as I think he expected I though "hang on, I'm 100% happy with the line I've picked" and so I said "I want to go first" and ferried out across the current to the river left side. The first part of the rapid went smoothly but the pushy water and heavy boat meant I didn't make the eddy mid-way down but that was ok, I was still online to head right of a large rock down a little tongue to the left of a sticky looking hole. I got pushed a little too far right and caught the edge of the hole but a summer of playboating meant I was ready for it.

Grant followed, taking the left line at the bottom and getting backlooped before rolling up and joining me in the eddy. Emilio took the same line as me and saved himself with support stroke as he hit the edge of the hole. Soon Simon joined us and we were off downstream again.
Several solid grade 3 to 3+ rapids followed, we boat scouted these dodging holes and bouncing over waves.

Then ahead we saw a large amount of spray hanging in the air and large horizon line. Jumping out on river right we were confronted with the "waterfall". The river widened to 50-70m across and cascaded down a rocky series of drops totalling about 15m in height. The far right line was definitely runnable but the lead in was a little tricky and an error would have had serious (rocky) consequences. Although I thought I could run the line, I wasn't 100% sure and with gear in my boat, the remoteness of the run and it being the first creek boat run of the season I decided that perhaps it was time to err on the side of caution.

Grant walked the lead in and paddled the rest while the rest of us hauled our heavy boats up a mongrel of a hill and sweated our way round on dry land. That took some time but soon enough we were all back on the water.

The river flattened right out after that excitement and we floated along wondering when we would be encountering the "gorge". A few small class II and III rapids indicated we were picking up gradient again and soon the walls of the valley narrowed and river turned a rocky bend. I jumped out to scout on the left while the rest of the group stayed right, it turned out to be a straightforward rapid but we felt it was the beginning of the gorge.

Just round the corner we were confronted with something larger, from the river left bank we could see a large rapid stretching for a couple of hundred meters. Grant grabbed the video camera and Simon and Emilio went back up to run it. I watched from a rock near my boat waiting for Grant so we could run it in pairs. Emilio set off and got pushed off line early on, after a few seconds stuck on a rock he regained control and headed on down. A quick smile and wave for the camera then he had to make a quick decision - right or left of a big rock with a pillow wave forming on it. Hestiating for too long he went right, but not far enough righ, hit a hole and flipped. His first roll failed him and as he attempted his second his boat was slammed against a rock, he pulled the plug and washed down the rest of the rapid with his boat following.

Grant was signalling frantically and I yelled at Simon to paddle down because Emilio was swimming, then I jumped into my own boat and pulled on my deck. Taking a different lead in line to Emilio I found myself more in control, I eddied out opposite Grant and he yelled at me to go left where Emilio had gone right. Misjudging the water's strength I had to work hard to get left and only just made it skirting round the pillow wave, then a second rock and pillow wave appeared and just made it to the left of that one as well before the rapid calmed a bit and paddled down to the bottom where I could see Emilio standing on the left bank but Simon was no where to be seen.

Realising Emilio's boat had the tent in it, and also the remoteness would mean a bugger of a walk out if we lost a boat, I knew I had to follow Simon and the wayward boat. Another horizon line appeared in front of me and yelled at Emilio asking him the line. He misunderstood and thought I was asking about Simon and I realised it was going to have to be read and run - luckily it was a large bouncy wave train and I was soon in flat water at the bottom. Simon had caught the boat and was in one of the many eddies in amongst the trees on the bank.

Soon Grant joined us, he had videoed the goings on then paddled the rapid, losing a fair amount of skin off his knuckles as he failed to make the left line and managed to park himself upsidedown on a rock. Emilio swam down to us and boat and paddler were reunited. The call was made that we should look for a camping spot as people had had enough for one day so we paddled on keeping an eye for flat and clear spots... which proved to be a rarity on the river.

Suddenly we saw what seemed to be an island up ahead, from the topo map Grant and I knew what that meant: the end of the gorge which signalled the end of the major rapids. Armed with that knowledge we pushed on and took the right channel round the island. Suddenly we were dodging trees which became thicker and thicker until Emilio, who was up front, yelled to stop and Grant and I eddied out on the left losing sight of the other two. After some sketchy ferries and bush bashing we were reunited but the whole thing was pretty dangerous. Emilio had taken another swim but this one was a proactive decision while he was upright to avoid heading into a log jam in his boat.

After the island the river widened back up and the trees ceased to be an issue. The river was flat and we knew from the guide that this is the way it'd stay until the take out which was very close to the sea. However the guide lead us to believe that there was several hours of flat stuff and with the light fading we found a spot to camp and put up the tent - all piling in for our first real food since breakfast.

The rain came in showers during the night and with three in a two man tent it wasn't the best sleep but soon enough the dawn chorus of birds started up. I lay there listening to the multitude of different calls until it stuck me that the calls were all coming from the same direction and weren't overlapping - we were being to treated to a lyrebird's repertoir. I poked my head out of the tent and saw a lyrebird in one of the nearby trees although the calls were coming from across the river.

Luckily the rain held off and we packed up and were on the water nice and early and were suprised when we reached out take out only 50 minutes later after cruising past coastal wetlands and pelicans and hearing lots of bellbirds. So then it was back to the Cann River picnic shelter for coffee, stale donuts and then an early drive back to Melbourne.

Kat has a close call (but she's ok)

2006-05-25T10:27:00.000+10:00

Well getting to work at the start of the week is usually pretty uneventful but this week I had an email from Kat waiting for me. She said she had concussion and a broken boat after her weekend's adventures... no more details!! Today I finally got the whole story -

"Mmmm pretty serious carnage with a dent + hole in the nose of my playboat,broken helmet (well, it's cracked so I guess I need a new one),concussion, black eye & 3 chipped teeth for me, and I nearly lost my paddle... geez things can turn bad quickly, and I don't even have any photos to show for it! I was doing some park and huck off a 8m waterfall just by the sea which has a reputation for being safe (but not at low tide which I found out the hard way).

There was loads of water from all the rain we had so when Igot caught up on a boil and couldn't make the ferry all the way across the river to run the river right line I settled for plan B (left of centre) which I'd scouted and still looked good to run... My first run was sweet, I ran it clean, made my line, nailed the landing and walked back up to run it again...Second run... All I remember was ferrying above the drop going for thesame line... then waking up downstream out of my boat, I guess I was offline, hit a rock at the bottom and got thrown out of my boat (?).

Apparently I floated down the next bit of rapid and got some downtime in a pourover. My boat had floated into an eddy upstream of where I was and Tim was pulling it out for me once he saw that I was getting myself out,so I swam to the bank and ran off downstream to find my $$ AT2 paddle, my vision was pretty f**ked up (seeing stars) so I nearly didn't find it (it is black)... pretty damn scary in hindsight, but the crazy thing is all I was worried about at the time was finding my paddle, I guess that's adrenalin hard at work. So off to hospital to get checked out, thankfully the doctor had done some paddling and even knew the drop so I didn't have to explain what the hellI was doing.

I attached a pic of the drop at high tide, it's anothermetre or so higher at low tide with a pourover and more rapids downstreamthat would be in the same shot. Now I'm back in town with a sore head and thankfull I was wearing a decenthelmet - pity it was such a shitty end to an otherwise awesome weekend (Igot 6 runs in over 3 days)" - Kat

So we're all really glad to hear that our Kat is ok. While she was off trying to kill herself we had a huge trip up to the white-water course in Penrith. It was a great weekend with Steff flying down from Brisbane and from Melbourne we had the usual crew - Kylie, Myself, Ruth, Ruthy, Kate, Michelle, Kimmy and a couple of boys to make the group up to 10.

Due to the low water levels in the lake at Penrith the bottom drop was steep and kinda munchy which provided a fair bit of entertainment a few swims. I floated into the middle of it to see what would happen and ended up surfing for a fair while with about three power flips and rolls in there as well!

Didn't get any photos as I was too busy paddling but here's one from an earlier trip. (Check out that paddle twirl!).

Anyway so that's all the action for now, Uganda plans are on track with six chicks signed up. Marj and Steff from Brissy have been convinced so along with Kyles, Ruth and Kat it's looking like a formiddable team ;-)

:) Scarah

Easter Creekin' in Nova Scotia

2006-05-02T05:56:00.000+10:00

Well due to exams on Saturdays and the unseasonable lack of water, it’s now been 2 weeks since I’ve been paddling :( – but I guess I made the most of it while I could with last time being some of the funnest boating I’ve done :)

With a long weekend for Easter and no water in New Brunswick it was decided to head to Nova Scotia for some creeking. Sometime on Friday morning 7 paddlers from all over Atlantic Canada found ourselves sitting in Tim Horton’s drinking coffee and discussing the water levels & paddling prospects for the day. It was decided to run a branch of the Chiganois, a first decent straight up promised an exciting start to the weekend.

After a short bush bash in we found the river, and exciting was not what we found. After several kilometres of dragging ourselves over rocks, things weren’t looking any better. Then a few horizon lines appeared, some tributaries kicked in, and the water level picked up. Clean was not how you’d describe the lines though. Most drops were shallow slides that landed on rocks or turned abruptly at the bottom sending almost everyone who was game flying into the rock wall forming the opposite bank. Since I was already out of my boat to scout I ended up portaging most of these.

Just before the confluence with the other (previously run) branch was a clean, friendly looking 7m waterfall. I was a little nervous as I’d never run a drop that high before, but I couldn’t see any logical reason to portage, so I hopped in my boat, scraped down the lead in, put in a couple of strokes, and all of a sudden I was flying… then boom! The biggest shock of my life as I landed flat, cleared the hole and pulled of my first real boof! Lucky the water was nice and fluffy at the bottom

(Kelsey on the top bit of the waterfall)

After the confluence there was some fun continuous easy-ish stuff then there was a gorge that would be the last bit of excitement before the long, flat paddle out. The gorge looked challenging from high above and after a lot of umming and ahhing, 3 of us decided to portage. But then 2 of us had a change of heart and decided to run it. So we ran the first couple of drops, boof right then boof left – oops missed the boof, good thing that hole wasn’t sticky, eddy out and scout again. The view from the rocky ledge was a different story and all of a sudden we found ourselves in a grade 5 gorge with no easy way out. The slide-pool-waterfall became a slide with all the water pushing into a wall, with a couple of decent sized holes to punch through, then a 3m boily pool followed by a high, shallow slidy drop with a couple of piton rocks to avoid, again with most of the water pushing against the right wall, an abrupt turn, then all the water pushing up against the left wall at the bottom. We could then see another horizon line/ waterfall shortly after that.

I don’t know what possessed me, maybe it was a combination of the daunting portage, the awesome setting of cascading waterfalls sending mist up the high gorge walls, then green forest lining the skyline, and knowing that not many people get to experience this, but I was feeling pretty good and after a bit of thought I could see a tricky but doable line down the gorge and I was all psyched up and ready to face my first grade 5 rapid. I was actually gonna do it – craziness! But then I watched someone else go first, end up upside down in the 3m pool, then roll up just in time for the next drop. So after I decided to join in on the epic portage, something I don’t regret!

The long, flat paddle out made it a long, tiring day with us getting of the water late and doing the shuttle in the dark. One of the guys lives close by so we headed back there, ate dinner then crashed.

(The best 'walk in' ever!)

Saturday saw 5 of us off to run the Bass River, another long day with a big walk in & another big day on the water. After we’d walked for a while a friendly local on a 4 wheeler came along and towed our boats the rest of the way which was pretty cool.

The run started off a bit shallow, but unlike the day before we could actually float down the river so that was good. The first real drop soon came and beckoned inspection. It was a 3m narrow slot drop with a sticky hole at the bottom and a good few metres tow back. One of the guys missed his boof stroke, flipped on landing, couldn’t roll because it was too narrow, swam, then disappeared for a long time, getting a serious thrashing in the hole, never finding our throw lines. He eventually flushed and lost his paddle – good thing we had a split! Needless to say the rest of us portaged.

(Kelsey about to get a beating and lose his paddle)

There were lots of steep technical rapids on this river, plenty of big slides and lots of waterfall practice. Apart from the strainers which made for some big, steep portages, most of it was totally manageable, so except for the first drop, I only portaged one drop that the boys ran.

(Ian [left] and Erick [below] tackle waterfalls on the Bass)

There were a couple of interesting moments of the day for me. The first being one drop where we were told to go right, then told that right was no good so when I ended up left of centre after the first bit I thought that was a good thing. Turned out it wasn’t as I pittoned onto rocks spraining my ankle a little. The other was the second last drop. I couldn’t really see anything while scouting from high above other than a munchy hole on the left to avoid, which is where most of the water went, and that it was a reasonable sized drop. Part of me felt like portaging as I was tired, and couldn’t see the drop, but the portage would have been epic so I just ran it. I made the right line fine but got such a surprise at the lip to find a 10m waterfall that I managed to drop my paddle. So of course I went upside down on landing which made my only roll for the day an interesting one. Lucky I found my paddle again and rolled up with it backwards and upside down, the boys didn’t know what the hell I was doing!

The paddle out was a long and flat and for some reason we decided to take out after the bridge instead of at it so we had to paddle through a whole bunch of trees, strainers, log jams and even over a beaver dam – not fun any more!!

The next day everyone was pretty tired and sore so we opted for a nice short run on the Folly which we ran the weekend before – a classic run with easy access, some really nice rapids and practically no flat water. After portaging it last time I ran the first rapid this time. I felt a bit nervous about just jumping straight onto a grade 4 rapid with no warm up, but I survived the 2 rock slides followed by 6m clean drop fine. I did walk the last drop (ironically called Faceplant) after I smashed my face on it last time though… but that’s another story!

(Me on a random drop on the Folly)

(Ian on the drop part of the first rapid on the Folly [left], and then on Faceplant, the last rapid on the Folly [below])

All up it was an awesome weekend, but after 3 solid days of creeking I was absolutely wrecked, slept soooo well and could hardly move the next day! Unfortunaltely I didn't get many photos as we were often pushing to get off the water by dark each day, but there's a few there so you get the idea

Nymboida River - Easter

2006-04-29T11:57:00.001+10:00

I’ve recently been in email contact with another female paddler, Steff, up in Brisbane and so when I couldn’t get a Melbourne crew together for a trip up to the Nymboida River over Easter it was time to meet some new people. Steff paddles with the Uni of Qld crew and so does Paulie, a raft guide I'd met when he was working at Penrith over summer. So the Wednesday night before Easter I was on a plane out of chilly Melbourne to some warmer weather.

Steff and Simon picked me up from the airport and on Easter Friday the crew as headed south to the Nymboida national park in northern NSW. The Nymbo has several sections, we were planning to paddle from Platypus flat down to the Junction starting on the Saturday
but on the Friday a small group of us ran the first part of the section, from Platypus down to Cod Hole where there is car access again.

Paul and Simon had done the stretch before but for Will, Dan, Marj and myself it was all new. The section starts off with a few smaller grade three boulder gardens and warms up with a larger drop or two before the first major rapid Lucifer’s Leap which is affectionately known as Lucy’s. After a quick scout no-one was convinced so we made the call to walk it, the next major rapid was Rock Bar and it was just round the corner. Here we caught up the group in front of us and while they were getting their raft organised we quickly ran the rapid without incident.

Devil’s I appeared soon enough and the whole group walked as the consequence of stuffing up is ending up in Devil’s Cauldron, a rock walled bowl with undercut walls where you could quite conceivably disappear.

Devil’s II proved to be no problem as Marj missed the eddy above it and ran it blind without a problem. We paddled into the takeout through the mist which although beautiful was making it hard to see in the dusk.

The next day was the same stretch again this time with some more inexperienced paddlers and a raft. We also had more time up our sleeves so we got the cameras out. With more time to scout Lucy’s we decided it was good to go and sent Paulie off as probe. Dan ran it next with me close behind and then Will joined us in the eddy to share the elation.

With the video camera on I didn’t paddle Rock Bar quite so well but a quick roll in the bubbles at the bottom and a quick ferry out from the undercut wall ended well. The rest of the run was fun with the beginner-types portaging the harder stuff and we made it to camp just on dusk again. Hours of car shuttling ensured some cars at Monday’s take out and the next morning the raft was packed with overnight gear and we were off into a new section.

An interesting boulder garden left us in a short pool above a nice 2m drop known as waterfall. One of the first to run it, I nailed the boof on the left line and landed nicely in the eddy. I quickly jumped out of my boat and positioned myself on a rock directly down stream of the drop ready with a rope for anyone unfortunate enough to get caned in the hole. I didn’t have to wait long, Steff in her new play boat was about a foot off line and pencilled into the stickiest part of the hole which swallowed her whole so that disappeared out of sight for a few moments before resurfacing in a nice back-loop into a cartwheel which lead into a nice beating for about 10 seconds before she pulled the plug and swam. My rope hit its target and she was soon out of the water.

After a small boulder garden Duncan said he needed to empty his boat as there seemed to be water leaking in, in fact his boat was half full of water and we discovered a large crack below the seat in the old creeker. So it was time for lunch while the boat dried and was patched with sleeping mat foam and gaffer tape.

The rapids eased off somewhat until the S-bend an innocuous looking rapid which curved around true to its name. It was here that perhaps the scariest moment of the trip occurred. Fiona, one of the less experience paddlers, came down and got caught and a swirly whirly eddy line of the eddy I was sitting in. She had trouble rolling and swam only to get sucked down out of sight before I could reach her. For several seconds I sat there scanning the water until she bobbed up and I paddled straight towards only for her to pulled down again straight under my boat. The rope being thrown was useless as she kept getting sucked under before it hit her. Finally she bobbed up in front of me and grabbed my boat, unfortunately the rope caught me at the same time and pulled me in and when I rolled up she was still upstream of me. But at that moment, ignorant to the drama unfolding, the raft came down and Fiona was hauled into safety by the paddlers in the raft.

The next drama unfolded at a small rapid where the river was forced into a narrow channel by high rock walls. The rapid itself posed to problem, I ran it first and positioned myself in a little rock cave in the eddy below. Simon convinced Will that a seal launch entry off the 3m high rock wall directly opposite me was a good idea. As Simon pushed Will off, Dan and I had a great view, once Will had landed Dan started yelling "your boat, there's a hole in your boat". I though he was joking until I saw the nose of Will's kayak gaping open like a shark's jaw with splintered plastic around the hole. Luckily Will was already wanting to get a new boat before the trip and gaffer tape and sleeping mat foam (Simon's sleeping mat was rapidly shrinking) kept the boat afloat for the rest of the trip.

With the beginners moving slowly and people watching and taking photos at every rapid, not to mention the raft getting stuck on rocks I realised we were pushing for time. We tried to get the group moving fast but near the end of the day we came to a rapid with huge boulders and no clear path through. We all had to portage as the water in the river was weaving under and round the boulders creating sieves, with no path wide enough or safe enough for kayaks.

By the top of the next rapid it was getting hard to see other paddlers, we were very close to the campsite but we realised that we were never going make it down this last rapid before dark. A flat spot of rocks provided an emergency campsite, by the time we all got off the water it was totally dark. No one slept particularly well on our rocky campsite next to the river and I woke everyone up at 6am the next morning to ensure we got off the river in good time.

The last day on the river the rapids flattened out a bit. One large one was a Chute, a long rockslide with not much to it except to try and stay upright at the end which most of us failed to do. Unfortunately Simon hit his head on a rock and bled a fair bit but he was ok to continue.
The river continued to flatten out and the rapids became wider and easier until we finally reached out take out in the early afternoon.

Surfing

2006-04-28T18:06:00.000+10:00

I love the surf, especially when it’s big. In fact, I’m a bit of a mess & grumpy bum if I haven’t had at least a fortnightly dose of the surf. There’s nothing like a huge ride on a big clean reef break. You can’t help but be in awe of the immense power of the ocean. You feel a wave crashing on your back and hold on as it accelerates you forward like a bullet, out of the whitewash leaving your boat skipping down the face, spinning and spinning along the green, .meters in front of the crashing white wall of water. The wave quickly catches up engulfing you once more in the crashing whitewater, when once again you feel the thump on your back as you’re launched forward. This time the speed is not so great and you’re able to muster an essence of control. It’s time to try for a big aerial move, the boys have been pulling them off so it can’t be that hard, you just need a bit of commitment to the move. As you fly forward, you’re ready for the for the bounce, it’s all about timing and you manage to thrust your boat forward, pushing the boat down hard, with a slight angle towards your front left hand edge at the right moment.. You feel the boat rising up, becoming airborne as the water releases you. It’s now all up to being committed to the move now, as you fly upwards you need to separate the upper and lower halves of your body. Using your legs, hips, knees, thighs, you push your nose down a bit (still airborne) and using body rotation and a big airborne hip flick your boat seems to effortlessly rotate, and you come back to the water, now facing backwards with a satisfying ‘boof’’, heard as your boat’s hull slaps the water.

This is an artists representation of my first aerial blunt, it wasn’t exactly quite like that, I think it was more like, oh I’m airborne, what if I stick my paddle in and spin on it whilst airborne, sheesh, that felt really cool. I might do that again. Then being told it wasn’t vertical enough, and after trying over and over again, it finally clicked, becoming more like an airborne cartwheel rather than an airborne flat spin......

For many people, the surf is a place to take your kayaks when no rivers are running, but for me there’s nothing like catching a big wave and bouncing into some clean air. Plus it’s so much closer to home. Especially being in the later stages of a PhD, I can’t afford to take that many full weekends off anymore. Flinders is only an hour away and has a fantastic reef brake often coming up with big, gentle, bouncy waves. I don’t have to get up too early, have a great 2-3 hr surf, emerge exhausted with a radient glow (preferably not from sunburn) and still be home by four in the afternoon, ready for a well earned nap before dinner.

Loki Chicks on the web

2006-04-28T12:01:00.000+10:00

So I decided it's time the girls have somewhere to share our paddling adventures and photos. Not quite sure how it happened, but these days there always seems to be one of us off on overseas paddling missions or multiday wilderness trips here in oz. At the moment Kat's boofing off waterfalls in Canada, Kyles' has just been to the travel doc to get jabs for places like PNG and Sth America, Smel's off to places like Japan and some big wave in France and oh yeah... did I mention we're going to Uganda for some huge warm water boating. So here goes - let's try and make this the place for Loki Chicks to update on their latest epics.