Northern Thailand. Part 6.

The Sila Phect.

Two days after running the Tard Luang we found the Sila Phect river 30mins further North from the Tard Luang.

-Thai Village-

Our initial inspection didn't give us much to go on. All we could see were a few rapids coming out of a closed in gorge with no access at river level. But we could see enough that we knew there must be something to run further upstream.

We hiked for over an hour up a steep pass above the river - only occasionally getting a view of the river below. We were slightly apprehensive of dropping into an unknown gorge with potentially no access out, but we were drawn by the possibility of some classic whitewater.

After encountering my first Thai snake that decided to leg it across my foot on the hike in we soon found ourselves blocked into the jungle by bamboo and vines and we had to head down to river level.

-Josh deep in the jungle on the hike in-

What we found was actually two gorge sections and heaps of nice drops and technical lines.

-Sam boofs in the upper gorge-

The upper gorge was characterised by small technical drops and flowing rapids that gave us fast progress downstream.

-Josh in the upper gorge-

The lower section contained the nicest rapid on the river, which unfortunately for us had a tree jam right in the crux section. There was still some more fun to have though with a sweet double drop that just rolled you down and on your way.

-Josh in the lower gorge-

Will
Sam
Josh