I had a follow up interview with ITV Central which was aired today (Thursday 17th).

Have a look - http://www.itvlocal.com/central/news/?player=CEN_News_26&void=140832

Or you can see the full version at  http://www.itvlocal.com/central/news/?player=CEN_News_26&void=141048 - the actually feature starts at 22min 32 sec

The one they aried was actually longer but very similar! Its amazing how they caught me stuyding in my room.

So far we have done talks at the AJ weekend, Tyne Tour, Student Safety Symposium, River Rats and APWE. If you not sick of us already or would like to catch to see us, Lowri will be telling all at the Canoeexpo on Feb 16th/17th weekend.

 Happy paddling till then.

Apologies for the delay but we lost access to our photo for a while. We have been home now a few weeks and started our talks at the Wet West Paddle Fest last weekend. Hope every one enjoyed it. See you at the Tyne Tour.

After watching River Zoo’s DVD, Top Grade, we were inspired to go check out some impressive waterfalls on our way down the Chuyshman. We found the Kurkure trib with relative ease as a 30-meter crashing waterfall is visible from the Chuyshman. We hiked up with two boats to inspect this canyon of fun. We soon split up to find the waterfalls and it was not long before I found myself alone doing some rather sketchy climbing on the inside on the canyon wall. Every glimpse I got of this small volume creek made me want to push the traverse around the next corner. I did this until I got to a four meter boof landing straight into a six meter slide followed by heaps of drops some cleaner than others, I could climb no further……ummmm Did the Russians really paddle all this? The climb back was a lot tougher than the one there and I was relieved to meet up with the others who told me the waterfalls the Russians had run were just beneath us hidden in the gorge. We got on and did our stuff. A slide followed by two drops and then a 10 meter huck, I will let the photos tell the rest! It should be noted that a certain blond member of our team did manage to ’cod’ on the last drop and self rescue just before the 30 meter waterfall - nice one Ben.  Another exhausting but exhilarating day on the Four Borders Expedition. For anyone that fancies it, I would suggest a hike over the mountain to check out the yet unrun stretches of the gorge- climbing ropes are probaly a good idea! 

Check out their website at www.alpkit.com

We said goodbye to our guide Sarol and the two drivers; Sarol was presented with a team hoody and the drivers with a bottle of vodka each…  So we were back off to Russia! The team was excited for two reasons, there is plenty of water in the Altai, but more importantly no more Mongolian cuisine which we unanimously decided aas the worst in the world!

By lunchtime we were back with Igor and Tank and heading to our next Russian river - the plan, to paddle the Karagem into the Argut into the Katun taking around 6 days.   

Geting to the river it involves driving off road over the Karagem pass, over 3000m high.  As we started the climb up the pass it became apparent that our driver and Igor were having a bit of a lovers tiff, as Tank wanted to drive through the night up and over the pass, while drinking large quantities of vodka to keep him awake! 

We decided to kayak a very small tributary into the Karagem instead of walking 4km down the path, and split up into two groups of four.  A few kilometers in we realised that we were in a rocky, tree infested ditch that required many portages and my group decided that we should take the path which lead us over a hill directly to the Karagem. 

 We reached the river and paddled down to confluence of the creek/ditch but found no sign of the others.  Presuming that they were still ahead of us we continued down the Karagem.  By the entrance of the gorge we realised that the river was pretty high and started to doubt whether the other group would have entered without stopping to regroup - it was 7pm and would soon get dark.  We figured they must be behind us so we hung a boat a tree at side of river and wrote a sign on ground, before walking back upstream to the confluence. 

There was no sign of them at the confluence so another sign was left and we crossed the river and stayed in a mountain hut that we found at the bottom of the path. 

By morning there was still no sign of them, so we headed down river changing our signs to indicate that we had been here and were moving downstream. The Karagem was pushy with lots of trees and very continuous. After a few hours we came to a big portage looked around for any sign of the others, but found none.  It was clear that we were ahead of them so we set camp at the next good place and prepared to sit out for the rest of the day. 

After making a fire and stringing up another kayking we suddenly heard a whistle and found Graham and Sean chasing a kayak down the river! Action stations! It turned out the boat belonged to Lowri, who had fallen and dropped it while portaging a tree and was now walking down the river on the top of the gorge. This turned out to be quite an epic hike with scary moments that she recounted with wide eyes when she finally made it back to camp. It was a big relief to have everyone together with all the equipment as from this point it would take over a week to walk out over the mountains. 

 On the confluence between the Karagem and the Argout we stumbled upon a little village… 

 It is well known in the mountains that the currency is vodka and rope.  With that in mind we set off to buy some meat armed with a Russian phrase book and none of the above currency.  While Graham haggled a deal outside with one of the farmers, the rest of us were sitting in a house eating fresh bread and jam.  In the end we managed to get two large pieces of unidentified smoked meat for 100 rupees and that evening feated on a garlicy steak stew.

The Argot was higher than expected, after two days of continuous rain and we soon railsed this was turning into a spate run with no high water marks visible.

  These high levels made it quite intimidating as the rapids were long with some being several km in length.  The waves were huge and there were very large holes to navigate between.  Early on our forth day on the river, I missed a crux move and ended up in a monster pour-over! I was thoroughly beaten before being sucked out of my boat and swimming for about a hundred meters of powerful white water. Thankfully fast work from the team meant me and my kit were rescued before the next big rapid!

As the days went on the river got even bigger as it flowed through some beautiful gorges, into boxed canyons and must run rapids.  On the fifth day we reached a river wide hole that led into a box canyon. Lowri and Tom ran the rapid with style, then as the rest of us looked on Graham’s boat thought that it should run it solo! His boat fell into the river and floated through the rapid (getting a geat line) and the chase was on again.  After an hour or two and a fair bit of mountaineering by Graham, he was reunited with his boat.

No trip like this would be complete without some blood being shed and this came after Sean wanted to show his love to Ben’s kayak by giving it a Glasgow kiss while Ben was surfing in a big hole. Sean sustained a large gash above his eye, giving me a great opportunity to practice my first aid skills.

When the Argut finally flowed into the Katun, it was time to relax and reflect on the epic run that we had just had; with many highs and lows, all on an awesome, challenging, wilderness multiday river trip.

We arrived at the confluence of the Chulcha and the Chylshman mid-afternoon and proceeded to paddle across and carry our boats upstream. The carry up was tough but it gave us a good chance to look at the river on the way up and we were enjoying the exercise in yet another spectacular Altai valley.

As the evening followed we dumped the boats and headed back down to the confluence where the truck and our tents were waiting. On arrival at the confluence it was almost completely dark; this made the swim back across the Chulyshman rather more daunting. We all made safely to the other side and got our heads down, excited about the coming day.

We woke up early the next day, kitted up and yet again swam across the Chulyshman (a little easier this time!). We hiked to the boats where Dave and Graham decided to be purists and walk up even further to the highest boatable point. The rest of us were feeling rather lazy and lowered down to the river from where we stashed our boats. This lead to some unforeseen delay which meant that we only got on the river at 3:30 pm!!

With all the hard work behind us we finally could get on and enjoy kayaking the river which did not disappoint. 8 km of grade 4/5 pool drop in a spectacular setting kept us entertained all the way back to the confluence. An excellent river to finish the Russian Altai on.

For more Chulcha photos, click here.

With all this stigma surrounding the river we were rather apprehensive as we approached the get in. Thankfully we were blessed with low levels and beautiful turquoise water. Once again we set off early afternoon for the 20 mile float into the gorge with Igor ‘The Bod’ filming us in his ‘wonder pants’. As the canyon walls began to close in around us there were few places to camp, we pushed on with the aim of reaching a known campsite. A small tributary, the Onysh, joins the river and the canyon open outs slightly; the single previously mentioned escape route. At 7.30pm we were running the first major rapids of the gorge some nice class 4+ slaloming between large fluffy holes, or so they looked in the evening light. We reached the Onysh camp at 8pm pleased to have broken the back of the paddle in and leaving ourselves well positioned for the hardest section of the river the next day.

An early start next morning we soon hit the big rapids with a nasty looking 5+, The Key, clearly marked by a big metal reflector in the cliff, a memorial to catarafter who died there. Several km nice clean class 4, a boulder choke and another memorial to a deceased rafter lead to another long messy 5+ and a hard portage for half the team, The Meatgrinder. We were looking forward to lunch at “The Chicken Leg Tavern” a campsite under an overhang full of memorials and a guestbook, which everyone who runs the river signs. Unfortunately we missed the spot so we have given our message to Russian paddlers who will stick in the book next time they paddle the river.

Great clean class 4/5 continued through the afternoon with plenty of big holes and a few comedy lines. We bumped into the Russian kayakers dubbed ‘River Zoo’ (www.riverzoo.ru) who were looking for their lost friend. They informed us we had less than half a day’s paddle to the end of the gorge! We stopped to camp early at a nice campsite and phoned through to Igor on the SAT phone to tell him to meet us two days early at the get out!

Next morning we exited the gorge at the Chebdar confluence and were invited for tea with some campers who turned out to include members rock band from Omsk, we all got rather overexcited with a feast of fresh bread dipped in baked beans, coffee and of course vodka; a great end to a memorable river.

Despite our quick descent the Bashkaus should not be taken lightly and we could easily see how with higher water it would become significantly harder, a more serious proposition in such a remote gorge.

As always you can see the rest of our photos in our gallery here…

We crossed the border back into Russia at the end of July; we were met by our truck and taken straight to a river called the Karagem which flows into the Argut. This was a 6-day adventure, which Sherman will write about soon. Himself and Sean have flewn home to their respective jobs, while we continue to explore central Asia. Hopefully in the next few days, between us all, we can fill you in on all the adventures we’ve had over the past three weeks.

After getting off the Karagem / Argut, we bumped into a group of Russian kayakers who’d just endured an epic trip on the infamous Lower Bauskaus river which had flooded beyond recognition while they were in the remote gorge. One of their friends had decided to walk out and hadn’t been seen since… we were due to do the Bauskaus in less than a week’s time and their stories didn’t fill us with confidence!

The Russian group were on their way to a river festival on the Katun river and Tom and I decided to join them while the others paddled the Chulyshman – it’d be useful for information gathering, making contacts and if nothing else a good party. Besides I was missing “gayboating” as the boys call it (playboating).

The festival site was a beautiful, forested, free camping spot between the M25 road and the Katun river. The whole weekend was run by volunteers; cooking food for everyone, DJing and running the river events. There was a brilliantly relaxed and friendly atmosphere about the place and we were made very much part of the family!

The event kicked off with a big party in the woods, fuelled by masses of vodka. There was a DJ stand, lights and a projector showing photos from last year’s event. We were asked if we had photos to add to the show and soon our Mongolia waterfall photos were flashing up on a 4ft square screen. It was awesome!

Saturday hosted the “Fun Slalom”, held on a tributary which came in on the opposite side of the Katun. Everyone ferried across while the families, spectators and other non-boaters drove around to watch.

Tom decided to go for comedy points and took a creek boat down the course, pulling the first gate down to meet his boat rather than manoeuvring his boat to hit it then kissing the banner.

I don’t think it gained him all the points as he deserved though, finishing 8^th in the Mens; while despite doing half the course on my head and clattering my arm into rocks on my second run, I managed to come top of the Ladies event and not without stiff competition.

Sunday brought the freestyle leg of the festival, which was held on a feature called Captain Hole - usually a brilliant combination of hole and wave we were told, but the recent rain made the river unseasonably high and it wasn’t much but a flushy wave.

The top five paddlers (male and female combined) were taken into a final – myself and Katya versus three men, including the current Russian Cup holder and the guy who’d been hot on Tao Berman’s tail at a recent Russian extreme race!

Mitai came first place in both the freestyle and the slalom making him the overall champion for the Mens event. I was top lady in both events, but more proudly I was only beaten by Mitai in the freestyle – earning me second prize in the ‘Mens’ freestyle! Crowned king and queen of Captain Hole 2007, Mitai and I drank champagne from our trophies and lowered the event flag.

As usual, you can find more photos in our gallery.

A three day mission, including a night sat with our belongings outside a police station, finally saw us reunited with the others. It was time to take on the Lower Bauskaus…

We hiked up the valley for a good few hours to discover that what looked like a fairly steep valley on the map was in fact quite open and the water level fairly low. Dismayed, we trekked down the valley again to the truck. We were even more dismayed later after finding out from locals that the river had been at a much higher level after some heavy rain a few days before. At least now we had something to compare other rivers on the map to. Armed with this new knowledge and after further study of the maps it was decided that most of the rivers in the area would be very similar and we were forced to retreat back down to the lakes.

The next day we met up the equestrian enthusiasts who had quite a story, which has already been told. We decided that the best thing to do would be to head back to Olgii and try out a new area. Rather than take the bumpy road back we thought that it could be just as fast to float down the largest volume river in the area, the Khovd. This didn’t have much of a gradient to it; however rumours of some possible gorges and the want for the multi-day practice with full boats made us get on. As it was late in the day, it wasn’t long before we camped under the stars.

The following day proved quite eventful. We floated past a Ger, when the family came out and made gestures indicating that they wished us to come to the side. They were very interested in our kayaks and we let a few of them have a go on the relatively flat section by their Ger. The family returned the favour by letting us have a ride on their horse! After some tea and yak’s curd, we headed off. The river flattened off a lot until the flow more or less stopped and the river appeared to head into a marsh. Before we knew it we were in the middle of a mosquito infested marsh and the river seemed to have been swallowed up. Being late in the day we dragged our boats for about an hour across what was to be later named the marsh of delusion, to the side of the valley where we saw an abandoned settlement.

Myself and Paul got to the side first and continued up the hillside to see to what extent the marsh continued and whether there was a passage through it. We were horrified to see that it stretched as far as the eye could see. We then consulted the maps to see what had happened. It turned out that the river actually cut through the mountains in a not-to-obvious manner and we had in fact paddled up a tributary into this god forsaken marsh. We slept in an old cow shed, desperately trying to escape the mosquitoes.

The next morning we had to cross the marsh again to get back to the river. The rest of the river was very flat but very scenic. We headed back to Olgii for a well earned rest and determined to find some real white water in Mongolia.

Back in Olgii we laid a plan to look for some rivers in another area further east due to the lack of water in the area previously planned (with 80% of the country dry, rain-fed rivers were not an option). We drove for two days across what seemed to be desert. Feeling totally disheartened we made one last attempt to find a river we could paddle. What we found was beyond what any of us imagined finding in Mongolia; a near perfect creek with large drops, steep slides and crystal clear water.

After a good three hour walk-in with the boats over a mountain, the day started off with an impressive triple drop. A few of the team decided to test their mettle with some impressive results, that can be best described in the photos accompanied.

More sections of quality white water followed with some clean drops and smooth slides, earning the river the name mini Brandset, after the Norwegian classic.

The river finished off by flowing through a very scenic gorge, after which it was swallowed up by another river at a confluence where we camped. Our first first-decent of the trip!

The next day we headed downstream from the confluence into a very large, impressive and beautiful gorge. The water itself was a constant 6km long grade 4 boulder garden with one walled in section that got the heart racing. We were all feeling pretty pleased with ourselves on what was our second first-decent in as many days; a complete contrast to feeling like idiots driving around the desert with kayaks.

We have LOADS OF PHOTOS, check out our gallery to see some!

It was an early start for Sherman as he decided to wake up uber early and hike to the top of the big hill right next to the border and take pictures of the sunrise over Mongolia (see above). He took a few photos before realising that behind him was a border guard truck driving towards him, it drove right to him and put him in the back at gunpoint! He didn’t even get a chance to actually see sunrise! After an English speaker was found, he showed them lots of photos and was released… all before the rest of us had even woken up!

The early morning was then spent blagging our boats onto cars, vans and jeeps to get ourselves accross the border. It was all managed with a minimal charge of 500 Rubles (about 10 pounds). So everyone was split up and ready to cross the border. After being dragged around the many different border controls by my new non-english speaking Mongol friend and lots and lots of waiting, it was a nice scenic drive to the Mongol side.

At the Mongol side i was kicked out with my passport and left stranded at passport control as my driver sped away with my boat and all my kit into the distance. Sherman was dumped in the same way and once we had our passport stamped we ran out of the other side to find our Mongolian trucks loading on our boats. Apparantly they speed through the border to avoid paying tax and being searched - but boy did we poo our pants! Once at the other side we had a much needed afternoon snack with dumplings and noodle soup inside a Ger (mongolia tent).

Everybody had some amazing stories from one truck carrying 1.3 tonnes of beer, another getting a puncture in no-mans land and recieving tyres and pumps from other passers by but the most common being ditched at the border with all our kit left inside the vehicle.

We had a scary drive along tracks that didn’t even vaguely resemble roads to Olgi and that night we were fed and ewatered befored sleeping in a traditional Mongolian family Ger.

 The next day was the start of Nadaam, the famous traditional countrywide Mongolian festival; with wrestling, archery and horseback riding with an amazing market and opening ceremony.

We also took the opportunity to stock up on supplies for the next two weeks!

Today we split the group with half heading back into the altai to scout out some Mongolian rivers. The other half heading to the horseback riding part of the Nadaam. This was held on the top of a giant hill up amongst the mountains. It was a fantastic mongolian spectacle before we headed on to meet the others in the afternoon.

On leaving the festival our crazy driver Pakka almost ran over a few small children as we sped away. A little further on the needle on the speed-o was pushing the top end (not great as there was no real roads) and the van started to slide around and went over a large bump the van leaving the ground and taking some air before bouncing back down onto 2 wheels. Slightly further down the track Pakka managed to rear-end the car infront. After much heated discussion and a kid in the car infront telling us Pakka was drunk. We were almost left stranded as the car infront took our keys and started to drive away but Ben lept infront of the car to stop them getting away. We got the keys back and agreed that one of us would drive and follow them to the police station. Pakka negotiated and we ended up going home before the police came.

It looks like we might have to wait until tomorrow to meet the others! 

More photos… click here!!!!