Logistics
The trip took 10 months of planning, a lot of inspiration and just as much
stupidity to turn a dream into reality. We realised it wasn't all a dream when
our hosts, Sasha, the manager of Silk Water Rafting, and a local adventure guide
named Vadim greeted us at 4am in the arrival lounge of Bishkek airport. To our
surprise- thinking that we had arrived in a ‘virgin’ kayak country- we were
met by another western face. This belonged to an American kayaker who was a
member of team Liquiodlogic that had been capturing their own kayaking experiences on
video in preparation for a forthcoming release. Great minds think alike!
The Americans’ sense of camaraderie meant that they were more than happy to
lend us their maps and share their experiences and information from their
travels so far. After a well-earned rest we oriented ourselves by examining the
first detailed map of the country that we had seen. This new information
resulted in a slight refining of the team’s original plan. The Americans had
spent some time around Lake Issy-Köl, and it was in this region that they had
paddled a number of first descents, described to us as ‘steep and in-your-face
boating’. The revised route was to take us east of Bishkek then further east
to Lake Issy-Köl for some serious exploring. This area sounded like the ideal
place to warm up for the main aim of the trip, the multi-day descent of the
Naryn gorge.
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The Road Trip
The first port of call was a trip down to the local market for a spot of bartering. This provided enough food for three weeks, a petrol stove and three sandwich boxes as plates/pots.
The vehicle that was to be our home turned out to be a small Subaru 4 X 4 van, comfortably cosy and large enough for all our kit once the boats had been strapped onto the roof rack. The first river we wet our whistle on was known locally as Boom Canyon, aptly named due to the noise the river makes as it bounces off the canyon walls. This was a large volume blast in the park, read-and-run grade four with huge holes that were visible from a distance, thus giving enough time either to avoid them or drop in for a play.
Juji-Suu and Kyzyl-Suu
The following day we set off early to a second descent of a river suggested by the Americans called the Juji-Suu. Relaxation time was spent that morning in the one of the many hot springs found all over this region of the country, followed by a brisk dip in the eddy of the glacier-fed river:
This river certainly matched the description first given to us by our
American counterparts: steep and in-your-face. Within one hundred metres of
launching onto the river we rounded a blind bend to find a tree fallen across
the river. Needless to say the convenient eddy was missing! Craig and I managed to scramble out, leaving
Matt clinging to a rock on the bank. Needless to
say the rock soon became detached from the bank, resulting in Matt having to hand-roll
under the tree. From beginning to end it was mind-blowing white water, ranging
from steep, technical, powerful class five to more relaxing and straightforward
class two.
This river style was to become a re-occurring theme: hard steep starts, with
limited straightforward sections, trees in those most inconvenient of positions,
and of course, not enough eddies! As we descended the valleys the sections
flattened off allowing us to enjoy the scenery and the sun (a rare commodity in
Scotland)! Over the next three days we were to paddle four different sections on
two rivers that we believe to be been first descents. Due to the
unpredictability of the rivers and water levels, we opted for the safer option
of walking the sections last thing at night before paddling them at their lowest
water level the next morning. After four days of paddling, inspecting during the
day and biviing at night at about 2000 metres (in inadequate sleeping bags) it
was time to visit Karaköl for a re-supply of fresh vegetables, and a few beers
for Craig’s birthday.
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Ak-Suu
The final river before the proposed multi-day trip on the Naryn was a river
called the Ak-Suu (literally translates into ‘white water’)- another first
descent. The Ak-Suu is everything you could want in a river; a first descent on
a river with a cool name, a hot spring at the get-on and somewhere to buy
chilled beer at the bottom (only kidding!). The river broke down nicely into
three sections, with amazingly steep grade 5 at the top, a
fantastic tight technical grade 4 section, and finally a section where the
gradient appeared to flatten out. Having all cleaned the first section we made a
quick portage around a broken weir, and continued down the grade 4 gorge. At
this stage we looking forward to running the final grade 3 section and finishing
the river with that imaginary chilled beer; unexpectedly the rest of the trip
was not to go to plan. We had intensively inspected this lower roadside section,
only 50 metres of the section was not visible and was unanimously decided to be
run.
We rounded a blind corner with Matt up front, and were faced with the unexpected
danger of metal pipe work across the river about 30cm above the water. Matt
ended up broached upside-down between one of the metal uprights and the bank. As
Matt was fighting to free himself, he managed to pop both his shoulder and his
deck before disappearing under the pipe. He was quickly followed by
Craig and I who rolled under the pipework spanning the river, and after a quick
"You OK mate?" headed down the river to chase Matt's boat, not
realizing anything was wrong. Thirty minutes later, after having walked two
kilometres down the road Matt had caught up with the rest of the team.
Unsurprisingly priorities changed from rescuing the kit to a trip to hospital:
however in Kyrgyzstan there are only two hospitals. One we knew was three days
drive away whilst we thought the other was back down in Karaköl, only a 45
minute drive away!!
Vadim, Matt and I headed towards Karakol, leaving Craig at the riverside with the abandoned kit. Matt was obviously in a lot of pain, controlled by biting down on my buoyancy aid (leaving teeth marks!). I was feeling deeply sympathetic: every bump in the road was followed by a loud groan. Craig was faced with the challenge rescuing the kit and flagging down some sort of transport. Needless to say we were very impressed that he managed to flag a lift for him and the remaining boats to the hospital in a Lada!
After a painful wait in the hospital Matt’s shoulder was finally relocated, and we could reflect on ten days of awesome boating. The remaining week was spent on the beach, bargaining with the airlines and the insurers, and (for me and Craig) another first descent on the Chong Ak-Suu (Big White Water).
Reflections
We never planned this as a huge expedition with safety cover for all the rivers, merely as three friends and some boats! Although faced with several dilemmas, we never lost our camaraderie or our sense of humour. Our successes were celebrated by a cuppa, our mishaps by a shrug and a reflection on what we could have done better. We cannot thank the Kyrgyz people enough for their understanding, hospitality and generosity on our visit (even though they probably didn’t have a clue what we had been up to!). They are an amazing people - deeply traditional, yet willing to welcome anyone into their midst. Would we go again? Yes: the experiences and memories are priceless. We're still hoping to go back; maybe next year!
The Kyrgyzstan 2003 team were: Matt Brook, Craig Dearing and Martin Higgs.
We would like to thank Perception and Nookie for their continuing support, and the SCA and Canoeist magazine for publishing our articles.
