Been there, done that...

[Rich P]

OK so I've done the French Alps at least a dozen times, Austria done to death, been to Italy (Aosta and Sessia), knocked off Cali, Turkey and Morocco but really fancy doing something new and one of the guys I paddle with is not allowed to go to Norway. So I fancied somewhere that meets the following criteria:

Guaranteed grade III+ to IV water
Clean water
Safe political environment (woman insists)
Multi-day trip in true wilderness
Sun preferred

I think I end up in north America due to criteria two and three but it seems hard to find information on rivers without first knowing their names. Any ideas which rivers I should be looking at ?

Cheers

Rich

[DaveBland]

Equador or Nepal?
Or of course, BC.

[justin-g]

Err new Zealand fits all those criteria.

Have we met - I live in bristol love heavy metal and beer as well??

[Mark R]

I think I end up in north America due to criteria two and three but it seems hard to find information on rivers without first knowing their names. Any ideas which rivers I should be looking at ?

Pretty well anything in here is good...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/River-Gypsies-G ... 0976605880

I've paddled in BC, Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, Vermont, New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, California, Washington, Oregon...all good, just at different times. Must get back and do the Rocky Mountain States...

[Rich P]

Err new Zealand fits all those criteria.

Have we met - I live in bristol love heavy metal and beer as well??

We've not met, have to get to NZ soon but I'd have to take the wife as well which means 6-8 weeks to get a decent amount of boating and "us" time. Don't think we've met, I basically paddle with Bristol Canoe Club, so we probabbly know the same people just not each other.

I think I end up in north America due to criteria two and three but it seems hard to find information on rivers without first knowing their names. Any ideas which rivers I should be looking at ?

Pretty well anything in here is good...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/River-Gypsies-G ... 0976605880

I've paddled in BC, Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, Vermont, New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, California, Washington, Oregon...all good, just at different times. Must get back and do the Rocky Mountain States...

Think that might be a purchase, any excuse to go to Canada

[banzer]

Not having been but Nepal immediately springs to mind. I presume the water's clean higher up??

If your trip is designed to appeal to the fairer sex, then you may want to investigate the bug / mosquito situation, certainly parts of Canada is renowned in the summer...

[nomorfkindhalbhat]

Definatly Ecuador if you want an adventure. Big plus to have someone who speaks the lingo.

[ion]

Idaho comes to mind if you want a lot of multiday at that grade...the issue being that the MF Salmon (7days) and Selway (5days) are permit controlled by lottery and so you likely would have to sign onto a commercial trip unless you have social connections in the US to get on a private trip ( you can apply, just poor odds) . SF Salmon is not permit controlled and is also amazing, but you would want to be on the low end of the flow to hit that grade (End of July). Idaho in July in general is a fabulous place to go paddle for class 3/4 and quality clean water (Payettes/Lochsa/Clearwater). With 6-8 weeks you could also explore some of the surrounding states, floats on the big desert rivers (Green/Colorado) through some amazing canyons in Utah though there is a lack of harder water except at the bottom of Cataract canyon.

[james fleming]

Been there and done a bit of that also, so a few years ago we elected to head to Japan. The following year was Kenya ( I have to say there is some world class kayaking in Kenya!) and this year it's Guatemala!

Break the mould and try and head off the beaten track to some where that's not a UK destination. I know that there is a cost involved but the fights tend to be the more expensive part of the trip.

[David Fairweather]

Break the mould and try and head off the beaten track to some where that's not a UK destination. I know that there is a cost involved but the fights tend to be the more expensive part of the trip.

A worrying insight James. Do you often end up with expensive bail conditions?

[mark Hirst]

hI
Iceland ticks all of those boxes plus its only a couple of hours away from the uk !!!!
good luck
mark

[Mike M]

one of the guys I paddle with is not allowed to go to Norway.

That'll be me then !!! I am allowed to go but as you know my other half was less than impressed by my last adventures out there !!

Ecuador !!! You know it makes sense !!! (Or Nepal !!)

[Dave Manby]

Tons and Yamuna Rivers in Northern India. River is clean, politically stable, filghts - Virgin take boats and fly direct to Delhi. Logistacally it is easy we left UK 4pm Sat and were drinking Rum and Coke in the Himalayan River Runners camp at 6pm Monday.

The Tons River.

Logistics:
Of our group of eight we had only one paddler under 50, so this was a bunch of mates off on a trip together. Over the years we had all done trips together Nepal, Corsica, Morocco, Costa Rica, USA New Zealand, Pakistan, the Alps but these have been fewer and further apart so when one of us had the idea of the Tons it was deemed to be a good idea. “Virgin to Delhi and then a couple of hours north by bus to the river” was how it was sold to me. So I didn't really do any research into this river and joined the general “someone else will sort it out” planning system. Eventually we worked out that it isn't a “couple of hours north” of Delhi – it is 18hrs(ish) so we decided to take the train and booked train tickets to Dehradun. Then we discovered that from Dehradun it still is 8hrs by road to the river. Sounds daunting? Impractical for a 2 week break to the Tons? Too much road time and not enough river time? Not at all; we contacted Yusuf at Himalayan River Runners and he arranged for a jeep to collect all our bags and kayaks from the airport and we then caught the train (1st class air-conditioned sleeper) for the over night trip to Dehradun where another minibus organised by HRR took us to the river. We left the UK Saturday evening and were at the HRR river camp by Monday and on the return journey we left camp Friday morning and were back in London Heathrow by Saturday evening. Eight is just about the best number any more and shuttles would start needing two vehicles.

The paddling:
We were there the last two weeks of April and so had low water – the rafting waits till May for the melt to start in earnest but for our group of slightly elderly paddlers we had great levels and also crystal clear water. For the majority of the time we stayed in HRR's river camp and “day tripped” it using the “Rafting Stretch” as a warm up run and then did a stretch from Hanol to Tuni. Then we did a three day self support trip down to Minus camping out on the beaches for a couple of nights. We need no have done it like this: HRR are set up to bring “expedition tents” down the river and road support us be we didn't want that, choosing to do our own thing. This lower canyon is beautiful; a must paddle trip with the road away from the river pretty well from Tuni onwards. Wildlife is more frequent and as we got towards the end of the run palm trees begin to arrive on the banks and we saw kingfishers, eagles and beautiful crested birds (along with monkeys as usual) as we drifted between the rapids of the canyon. Typical grade for the rapids was 3 + with some getting to 4 +. After the canyon we ran the upper stretches: less remote but with more rapids. All in all we ran everything from the Rupin and Supin confluence (some of it more than once) to Minus Bridge. Both the Rupin and Supin have been paddled but we opted against the scouting and possible portage fest. Instead the group went for a hike up the Rupin Valley to a beautiful mountain village. On the whole I would say - a great destination for a group of club paddlers wanting to move on from their annual Alps trip. A fitter more motivated team could paddle more than we did each day and so exhaust the Tons more quickly, but not a problem - head back over the hill to the Yamuna River where there is another week at least of paddling.

The River Camp.
HRR have a permanent camp from April to July right on the banks of the river and being the original rafting operator have the best camp on the river. Old canvas tent with camp beds and rush mat floors. Hole in the ground toilets are maintained by the camp staff who also cooked food for us. They did offer us “European food” but we choose to eat Indian, Nepali or Bangladeshian food. Every night there was a selection of meat and veg curries, birianis, dahl, rice, sag panir dishes along with chapatis and naans cooked in their Tandoor add to this fresh salads, fruit and rice pudding deserts. Then a camp fires at night to sit around and tell lies about the days paddling whilst this food digest. Breakfasts and packed lunches were also provided. Mori the local market village 5kms upstream of the camp provides the pretty basic foodstuffs, along with electricity and internet intermittently and mobile reception for some providers. A word of warning: the local shops seemed to stock only the 8.2 percent version of Kingfisher beer.

Contact.

http://www.hrrindia.com/what_expeditions_megatons.htm

This a raft based trip. We were kayak paddlers and basically we rolled up and the jeep and driver were placed at our disposal for the trip. If you want they can offer a river guide too – we just decided to have our own “explore” complaining that the river notes we had from Slime were wrong until we got to the end and discovered they were pretty good!

(OK I knew that Ruaridh Stevenson, who has worked for me on a building job, works for Himalayan River Runners raft guiding on the river. Also some time ago Green Slime (aka Pete Knowles) had said it “was one to do”. He had a paddle down the river when he started looking into writing a White Water Guide to India (shelved when he saw the number of India's proposed Hydro schemes).

[Mark R]

Both the Rupin and Supin have been paddled but we opted against the scouting and possible portage fest.

Rupin is outstanding roadside boulder creeking, Grade 4 and 5. Definitely not a portagefest. Kevin Francis declared it as the seond-best run he'd ever done (after Upper Cherry).

Supin (Upper Tons) has some epic gorges and waterfalls up in the National Park, which will be obvious from the road. Steve Bates has been into some of this, and enjoyed several days of portage Hell. However, the section down to the Rupin confluence is outstanding Grade 4+ in a wild valley (we camped and saw large cat prints...), well worth the walk/ carry down into the valley.

http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/albu ... rip-page-1
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13252

[Sickboy]

For me It'd be south America, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Mexico. Infact I'd fly out to Mexico just to run the barranca grande section of the Antigua http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjrHe7GvhHg