Thailand. The end of a mission.

This is the last blog from Thailand. Our mission is over. But what a mission it was!!

We spent six weeks exploring the Thai jungle, searching out rivers and waterfalls, driving thousands of miles up, down and around mountains. We got the car stuck more times than I like to think, we got lost on our way to places more than once. But that's what exploratory kayaking is all about. In our quest for first descents and waterfalls we mostly found unrunable stuff. We were often places too late for the rain, or sometimes the rain was so heavy our car wouldn't make it all the way to where we wanted to check out. We broke one kayak, one set of paddles, and had one serious incident.

But we were rewarded.

We've paddled 9 first descents, and 13 different sections of river, one of which was a 120km+ multiday. We are all stoked about our trip - and we merely found the tip of an iceburg. Thailand has sick whitewater. And there is much more still to be found.

Thailand has so much to offer as an international paddling destination. It's cheap - the food is AMAZING - the people are helpful and super relaxed - and there's heaps to keep you busy even when you're not paddling! We're going to be putting together an on-line guidebook to Thailand whitewater, so if you're thinking of a trip you can save some time and get straight to the good stuff - keep checking the blog for the latest on that.

Check out some photos I haven't put up on the blog until now - a few cool ones from the whole trip, and some from our train ride from Chaing Mai back to Bangkok.

-Our train back to Bangkok-

-Sunset out of the train-

-The cheapest form of transport in Bangkok. A tuk-tuk-

-Cool buildings up in Chaing Mai-

-The temple at Doi Suthep- -Photo by Josh-

-The boys make a fire on the multi-day down the Nam-Wa-

-Happy kids way off in the middle of nowhere-

-Josh hangs out with a cool old dude-

And a few photo's of Me, Josh and Sam...

-Josh checks out the biggest hole I've ever seen in a car tyre, on our way to Nan-

-Sam, all Hairy-Lemon'd up- -Photo by Josh-

-Me looking serious about something-
-Photo by Josh-

-Me behind the lens--Photo by Josh-

All that's left to do is to thank all the people who've helped this trip work out;

Big up to all the guys in Uganda who helped scrape together enough creeking gear for me and Sam. Especially Jamie at Kayak the Nile, and Davey at NRE. (Sorry Davey that your Creek boat now has a hole in it and we're leaving it here - hope you don't mind!)

Guys in Thailand. Wick for good advice. And Jason at Siam Rivers / Kona coffee shop (Chaing Mai) for awesome breakfasts, good coffee, great info and help in planning our missions, and for coming and drinking whiskey with us until the early hours. Pete Buick for inspiring Sam to set up a trip here in the first place, and then helping us out with logistics in Thailand from day 1.

Mum and Dad - for digging through my gear at home and sending it half way around the world to get to me in time. And everything else you did to help.

Fluid Kayaks - for making boats that don't break when you slam into rocks.

For me now I'm heading back to Uganda and the Nile. I've got lots of work lined up with Kayak the Nile as well as a few cool projects I'll let you know about if I get them off the ground.

At the end of November we have the 2007 Nile Freestyle Festival and it really is going to be the biggest and best yet, if you've got the cash and the time you have to be there - it's unmissable.

Happy Paddling and Safe Travels.

Will, Sam and Josh.

Upper Mae Klang. First descent number 9.

Our last first descent for the trip and an amazing long, long day of truly classic whitewater.

We put-in at the Siritan Waterfall, way upstream from the slides we paddled the day before. Sam found a line below the top drop, which itself was only a hundred yards from the lip of an un-runnable 70 footer.

-Sam lines it up at the top-

We put back on below the Siritan Falls and paddled around 4km of awesome read-and-run slides, drops and continuous rapids. With a decent flow we were stoked to be paddling with such a fast style and with a long way to go we didn't stop for too many photos. We already knew which shots we wanted.

At the first bridge we took out for an obligatory portage. The river goes down 500m of 30 degree slides and then straight off the Wachiratharn Waterfall (below).

-Me running the rapid below Wachiratharn Waterfall-

Immediately below this is an awesome rapid - which apart from the snakes we encountered on the river bank went super smooth. So we all nailed this one then continued downstream for more and more fun!!

-Josh below Wachiratharn Waterfall-

-Sam mid-boof-

Below the big falls we found heaps of drops, literally running into each other. It was tiring work scouting everything and still having to portage the odd drop, but watching the river continuously drop off the horizon for hours on end was an amazing experience and enough to keep our energy high.

-Josh boofs the same drop-

We had put on up at Siritan falls at around 11am. By the afternoon we had pretty much given up on filming and photos and were on a mission. The thing was, that even when we reached the take out, one of us faced a 11km run uphill to fetch the car- and probably in the dark! Not a fun thought. So we pressed on and after probably the best all-round run of our trip - in terms of class whitewater - some hefty drops and such a spectacular setting, we eventually reached the get-out point. As we got out our boats we met a family hanging out by the river.

We gave them a go in our kayaks...

And they gave us a go in their truck...

So luckily for us a few smiles and some friendly banter meant we didn't have to run for hours to get the car. Josh took a ride to the car and we were soon on our way back to Chaing Mai once more...

This river has been paddled before, but the upper section - above Wachiratharn Waterfall - is a first descent. Our last for our journey to Thailand.

Peace.

Will.

Mae Klang slides.

After a couple of birthday beers in Mae Chaem the previous night, were were up early and on our way to our next destination. The slides of the Mae Klang. Josh sat this one out as he was suffering from a migrane, however he took the chance to capture some awesome video shots as me and Sam bounced our way down river.

-Me on the main slide-

-Sam on the main slide-

After a hectic few hours in the kayak, what better way to cool off than an ice-cream. Especially one delivered to you off the back of a motorbike!

-Josh and Sam get 'em in-

At the end of the day we headed back to Mae Chaem for a second night, driving high over Doi Inthanon (the highest mountain in Thailand), and taking the time to get some pretty photos of the sunset.

Easy.

Will.

Mae Pan Waterfalls

When we first began planning our trip to Thailand we did a lot of research on what had already been paddled. As you might have gathered we didn't find much that had, and so our trip has really been an exploratory mission, rather than just your everyday paddling 'tour'. However, some of the little that had been done was by Steve Fisher, Eric Southwick and Ben Brown. The photos they sent us from their trip last year gave us all inspiration to come to this country and paddle. And one of the photos that stood out to us all was one of Steve running the Mae Pan.

-Josh Neilson on the Mae Pan-

So with the info from Steve, Ben and Wick, and the advice of Jason Younkin we headed to the Doi Inthanon NP on the 23rd October. We met up with Jason who was guiding a canyon trip further down the gorge, then started the mission to the top with our kayaks.

-Will Clark on the Mae Pan-

Just to get access above the fall was hard work, we hiked up, then hauled the boats up the cliff and lowered them into the pool above. Then we abseiled into the same pool. Below a 100 footer and above the 50 footer. It was an amazing place to be. Josh hit it first and took a pretty big hit but was fine. I went up after and came through with no-worries. It was my 25th birthday today - what better way to celebrate?

-Sam get's airborne-

Sam didn't fancy the big one because of a spinal injury he has. But he stepped things up by styling a line through the rapid below. A fast series of drops which literally sent you airborne!

-Me on the second rapid-

-Josh bouncing down the second rapid-

-Montage of the three of us on the lower triple drops-

Will.

Border-run and northern rivers.

-Doi Suthep Temple- photo Josh Neilson-

After four weeks in Thailand we were required to renew our Visa's by leaving and re-entering the country. We did this on Thailand's northern border with Burma. Whilst in the north (around Chaing Rai), we decided to scope out some more rivers.

Mostly we found rivers needing more water - ironic since only two weeks earlier the entire region had been devastated by monsoon rains which pushed north through Laos and Vietnam. However we found some good spots definitly worth a visit on the next trip. We also found some insane waterfalls which we went and stood under and fed off their energy. No paddling on this trip but lots of fun.

-Me and Josh under the power of the Khun Khan-




-Sam and Josh loving it-


-Rush hour in the Sunday Market-

After returning to Chaing Mai we continued to explore new parts of the city - like the Sunday Market (above), and planned for our last proper mission. Doi Inthanon National Park.

Peace.

Will.

Unknown River.

We have since found out the name of this river it is the 'Mae Raem'.

We've been here in Thailand for almost a month now and in that time we've managed to rack up 8 first descents. The process of finding these rivers is not that precise. Every day we have a plan for where we want to go and what we want to find. Often we have two or three areas of interest in mind for each place we go. Then it's a case of a bit of luck and good old fashioned hard work - hiking in asking locals - anything we can do to find the whitewater. Often we find nothing, but overall we've done really well.

-Me on the first paddlable drop-

This river was found on our way back from the upper Ma Sa. We hadn't heard anything about it, all we saw was a sign for a waterfall and the 'cascade resort'. Good enough so we went a checked it out. On the drive up we saw some drops and slides so the next day we came to paddle it.

-Sam on the first drop-

The river was hard work. The first four drops we came to we had to portage, they were messy as hell and with the water level real low there was no way down them.

-Josh testing the depth-

Eventually though we pushed on to a series of drops and slides - three of which we could run.

-Josh on the slide-

It was worth the slog for these drops, though this isn't a river I'll return to. It was so manky paddling in super low volume and the river and riverside resembled a sewer. The locals have taken to dumping all their trash over the banks and the result was a smelly river strewn with rubbish and waste.

-Sam on the slide-

-Me on the slide-

-Josh drops over the edge-

Happy paddling.

Will.

Upper Ma Sa. Big slides and scary moments.

On October 16th we headed out to do a recon of the Samong river - a easy class 3 section we wanted to scope for Sam's travel company LiLi. On the way we passed the Ma Sa river - the first 'first descent' of our trip. As we climbed higher into the hills we soon saw a whole upper section we hadn't run on our first visit. So after a quick lunch and some road side inspection of a few of the drops we kitted up and put in.

The first drop we came to we had to portage, there just wasn't enough water in the river to run this one. So we carried on. At a bend in the river saw Sam and Josh jump out for a quick inspection. It was an S-bend rapid with an tight but shallow run-in ending in a drop. Sam hit it first and made it ok. Josh went down next and didn't have so much luck - pitonning into the right hand wall and realising the drop wasn't all that nice, but he still made it through. I was last to head down and had given Josh some space. As I came around the corner into the drop Josh was out his boat trying to get me to stop. I tried to make it into an eddy above the drop, but the water was too shallow and there was no way to make it. What that did though was spin my boat backwards. The next bit went real fast. I went down the drop and suddenly stopped. I was wedged under water upside down in my boat, with rock pushing my back and shoulders forward. I reached up and could feel the air with my hand, sweet. Ok so next I had to try and get un-stuck which was pretty hard with the force of the water on me. I tried but just moved the wrong way. I got my hand back out the water and basically went through the options in my head whilst hoping Josh would be able to grab me and pull me out. Right on cue I was suddenly free - I remember pushing real hard with my back, and at the same time josh jumped in kicking my boat with his legs and grabbing my arm. Sweet!! I was out breathing good old oxygen again. And all was good. Cheers Josh!! A quick check and all I had was a slightly stiff back, so we carried on, hoping to paddle it out.

The next drop we came too Sam realised he'd put a hole in his boat and after that he got out hoping not to make it worse. So me and Josh carried on down. I'll let the photo's explain the rest of the river - but it was sick - especially the big slide!! And the best thing is there's still a middle gorge section of this river still to check out!!

-Me on the first big one - stoked not to still be under water-

-Josh on the first big one-

-This small drop linked the first drop with the next tricky one-

-Josh lines it up down the pin ball-

-Me on the last big one - a sweet slide where you go about 50mph!!-

-Josh styles it down the slide-

Me and Josh got out at the bottom of this run content. The day could have been so very different. I'd been stuck under water 2 hours before and Josh had had to jump in to pull me out. We'd both come away unhurt and carried on to paddle some awesome first descents.

Upper Ma Sa - first descent number 7.

Will.

Josh

Sam

Multi-day paddling. The Nam Wa.

-Packing up the boats at the put-in-

Looking to add a bit of variety to our trip and to make the most of the Nan region on the 8th October we put in for a multi-day on the Nam Wa river. The Nam Wa runs south from the Laos border and is usually paddled in 3 days. We spiced things up a bit by paddling it in 2 days and adding an extra 40km or so to the trip by carrying on past the take-out to the National Park HQ.

-Josh in the midst of one of the many gorges-

With a total of over 120km to paddle in two days it was going to be a bit of a mission. But not an impossible one and there was heaps to see on the way down, and literally hundreds of rapids, some of which wouldn't look out of place on the White Nile!!

We didn't put in until 1pm on day one, so after 3 hours of paddling we pulled into one of 6 riverside camps and set up for the night.

-Our riverside bamboo camp-

After a questionable nights sleep we woke early to strike camp and get back out on the water. Day 2 saw us with around 100km to paddle and we were on the water by 6.30am. By 9am we were at the take-out for the 3day section.

-Sam in amongst it-

After the normal take-out the river flattened out a lot, and certainly on the last stretch there were less rapids and more flat water, with a slower pace to keep us moving through. But still there was plenty to keep us happy, villagers on their bamboo rafts, fishermen and kids playing in the river.

The Nam Wa was a sweet river with heaps of character, some big volume rapids and plenty of options for paddling trips.

-A local child shows us respect with a traditional greeting-