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.