We have just finished our first week in Russia and it has been quite an eventful one. We flew out in two groups from Heathrow to Novosibisk relatively hassle free. We were met by our Siberian guide, Igor, and our driver, Tank. After constructing our own roofrack, we made our way out of Novosibisk towards our goal, the rivers of the Altai Mountains.
After a full day’s driving we randomly picked up Tank’s family, including the family hamster, and camped at a lake which was also a Russian holiday resort.
After a bbq, lots of vodka and 98% ethanol from Igor, we headed up to the resort’s premier nightclub and needless to say… what happens on tour, stays on tour.
Another full day’s driving brought us to the confluence of the Chuya and the Katun rivers. We made plans for the next day, involving paddling the upper Chuya and tackling the mighty Mazhoy cascade.
We awoke bright and early the next day, full of excitement at the prospect of paddling our first Siberian river. On the way we survived a traditional water fight as part of a festival carried out by local children and retreated, resoundly beaten, to the upper Chuya.
This section proved to be a great warm up, a big volume grade 4 which reminded some people of paddling in BC. We eventually came to a bridge that marked the start of the impressive gorge that is the Mazhoy cascade. It turned out that the day had really only just begun! The short gorge section we expected became a five hour trip involving, some read and run grade five, much scouting and a portage. One powerful rapid led to a long swim and lost set of blades, Graham and Ben having an exciting time chasing said blades through walled out grade five. Eventually we popped out at the end of the gorge tired but chuffed with our first river of the trip. An awesome run.
We ran the river again the following day starting higher up and adding a tributary to the section.
Anyone been there before?
Lowri learned to pee like a boy (we’ll leave that to your imagination, but thanks go to Palm) and we reloaded the truck to head to a new campsite. Apparently it doesn’t do to stay too many nights in this particular area as the locals are not all welcoming.
We spent today travelling to the Russian-Mongolian border, although really we only made it as far as the Russian border, as there is a 35km no-man’s land between the two border points. We tried and failed to get a permit for our truck to cross no-man’s land and also tried and failed to hitch a lift across the border.
We’re now bunking down in a Siberian “Youth Hostel” (shack with beds) after spending the evening looking at maps to the Mongolian Altai and fraternising with the locals in the “kebab shop”. Fingers crossed for a more successful attempt at crossing the border tomorrow and for rain in Mongolia.
Stay tuned to find out whether we make it across the border and whether there is anything floatable in Mongolia after all!
For now, check out more photos here.
After months of planning, the first four of us have safely taken off and got all the boats on for no extra cost - some serious ‘check-in charm’!! Staying up until four o’clock sorting gear out at my house seemed to pay off!
We have managed to raise over £7500 of cash from our Universities and grants and still have £1000 worth of rafting vouchers to sell. We have also managed to get sponsorship from Palm, Pyranha, Alpkit, Vango, Blacks, Medi UK, Splash White Water rafting, Lyon and Run and Jump for various bit of kit we needed. We’d all like to take this opportunity to thank all the people that have helped us up to this point.
Congratulations to our four new graduates; Sean, Ben, Sherman and Patrick… Here’s Sean at his graduation, loading boats with his parents before flying down to London (from a bomb scared Edinburgh Airport).
Happy Days! Graham has recently had a huge box dumped on his doorstep full of equipment from Lyon Equipment.
A couple of months ago we applied for the “Lyon Equipment Expedition Award”. Apparently it is quite a competitive award with lots of applicants so we were delighted to be given £500 to spend on their equipment and for an added bones anything over this value we could get at trade price.
Thanks to this grant we are now fully stocked up on Dry bags, Sleeping Mats, Head torches, crabs, and most importantly of all, sunglasses (some styles of which are rather…”funky” shall we say eh Graham?)
Check their website for all their stock and products http://www.lyon.co.uk/
Cheers guys, especially Martin for your patience after all the changes and alterations and daily queries!
So, are there actually any decent rivers in Mongolia?
Answering this million dollar question has been my task for the past few days.
Using an Odometer to count the length of a river, and then counting how many contours it falls in this distance I have been jotting down the gradients of any river that looks as though it may have potential in the Altai region. It’s taken a long time! There are a lot of them out there, and a healthy number with gradients of between 15-35m/km.
The rivers generally aren’t very long, so there will be none of the multiday stuff like in Siberia, but there looks to be fair few cracking sections, fingers crossed the trucks will be able to get to them!
The next big question now though, are they going to have any water?? Let’s hope its raining as much in Mongolia as it is in
Doncaster!
Just as we head off, the international magazine Kayak Session has published this:
Kayak Session also said that they will print updates on our trip as we go, so keep an eye out in their next issue; and once we return, of course, there will be a full article.
Canoe Focus (the BCU magazine delivered to thousands of Canoe Union members across the UK) also printed this news snippet:
We will be touring the country giving talks about our adventures: the highs and the lows, the troubles and triumphs, the beautifully stunning and the ugly (Graham?). If you would like us to give a talk at an event, club or organisation, please get in touch.
Dates so far:
September 21st: Andy Jackson Weekend, Fort William, Scotland.
October 20th: Student Safety Symposium, Plas-y-Brenin.
November 2-4th: Tyne Tour
November 7th: River Rats, London
November 20th: Aberystwyth University
December 8th: Gene 17 Weekend, Dart Country Park.
February 16-17th: Canoexpo, Coventry.
March 17th: Cumbria Canoeists, Keswick
March 18th: Cumbria Canoeists, Staveley
We will also be giving talks to each of our Univerisities, dates to be confirmed.
Please come along to see our photos and hear tales of our adventures!
In the lead-up to our departure, many of us have been training in various places across Europe. For Ben and I, it was the French and Austrian Alps. Ben had said he’d do a blog post about it, but I think he’s been to busy sorting out important stuff before we head off! So I thought I’d take the opportunity to post pictures of him “training” in the Alps:
Of course, we did a lot of paddling too… to read my full blog about our trip to the Alps with Aber Uni Canoe Club, please see http://www.lowridavies.co.uk/
The Computer Science Department at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (where I study) have been kind enough to buy a refurbished Panasonic Toughbook for the Four Borders Expedition. This will enable us to store our photos and keep in touch with you all via the blog while on the trip. The Toughbook’s ruggedness and water resistance should prove very useful given the environment we’ll be facing!
I wholeheartedly thank Richard Shipman for putting in the time and effort to make this happen!
A big thanks to those lovely people at Palm equipment who have helped us out with some much needed equipment.
Check out their website at http://www.palmequipmenteurope.com for all the equipment.
Some of us have decided to go for the protection of the
Stikine dry suits and others have gone for the more versatile split kit option of Sidewinder Bibs pants and Sidewinder Paddle Top. Looking at some of the weather reports coming from the Altai it looks like day time temperatures are quite high at the moment but temperatures still drop at night and the water will always be cold……
One week to the day before we leave!!! Last minute preparations and gathering of kit are in full flow and we are all seriously pumped for the trip.
ITV were so impressed with our trip that they are lending us a small digital camera to take with us which Paul Sherman is picking up today!
Palm Equipment Europe are producers of top quality kayaking gear, including what we consider to be the best dry suits on the market for expedition kayaking. They have been kind enough to supply the team with any equipment required at reduced cost, so we will not only look spiffing on the water but be warm, safe and dry throughout our trip!
Palm also fully sponsor Lowri.
Please check out their range at www.palmequipmenteurope.com.
