Widowmaker, Nile Special and all the rest...

It has been five whole months since I have been on the red mud banks of the White Nile. I’ve missed the river, the people and the amazing lifestyle that this place offers.

It was exciting to be reunited with my carbon kevlar boat, fortunately it still remembers how to fly!

Here are a few shots that Ivan shot during a session on the wave yesterday…







After being reunited with an old boat, I was introduced to a new one!

I brought a shiny new Pyranha Burn out to Africa with me for various missions we have planned in upcoming months, but I couldn’t leave it sitting in its bag for long. Pringle, Davey and Tom were keen for a Widowmaker mission...

The burn looking very small dropping into its first ever rapid

As well as boating and general antics I have been running numerous coaching courses… big volume down river techniques and some Nile Special freestyle courses. Its great to get back into it all. The first LiLi trip of the summer has just started and all is well... bring on the rest of the summer!

Typhoons, big water and the end of another trip.

After paddling with the rafts one day, it started raining...

It rained A LOT.

The peripheral of a Typhoon had hit us and the rivers were going up fast.
The official gauge for the main river that morning said 28 cumecs as we went to bed it was on 500 and going up fast.

I am generally of the opinion that alarms shouldn’t be set for anything where the first number is less than a seven unless you have an early flight to somewhere very interesting. However, I am incredibly persuadable when getting up to kayak rivers in spate.

7am : We are already at the rafting base and the boats are loaded... the crystal clear water of the previous day is gone, what is left is something resembling liquid chocolate.

We head to the main river for some big volume play, with the hope that the rivers would drop enough to allow us a river we had scoped out the previous day.




The Yoshino river was totally different from the previous day. Many of the rapids would have not been out of place on the Nile or Zambezi!




We found some pretty cool playwaves on a few of the rapids, it was good to be back on a wave and playboating. However, the surfing was cut short by me snapping another damn paddle! It seems to be happening way to much to me recently, an expensive pass time.

After finishing the river, it was back to Yoshiko's place for a quick feed and to check the levels of numerous creeks.

Shitoshi enjoying some lunch on his front porch.

In the afternoon we headed to the creek we had checked out the previous day. A very alpine section with some continuous boulder garden stuff. It was a great few km of white water ending in an S bend rapid leading into a tight line through boulders and a small drop.

A good day of white water, ending in the train station and travel back to Osaka. Many hours in trainstations, buses and airports left me to reflect on a good trip.

If your determined to find it, Japan has some amazing paddling. Perhaps these photos will go a little way to convincing that there is awesome creeking to be had in Japan...

Teru dropping a big one in Shikoku

The big drop on Fox Canyon

So, the end of another trip, packed full of adventure experiences and paddling...

Thanks again to Teru and Shitoshi for the cool photos, for showing me around and putting me up!

New Places...

The time had come to travel a good distance across Japan to visit an entirely different area - Shikoku Island.

The journey itself turned out to be an incredible experience full of weird and wonderful things. Space age ‘Bullet trains’ that go at 250 kmph made the journey shorter than it should have been. We chose to stop in Kyoto and Osaka, to check out some of Japan's older cities. Two unique places, full of rich culture and history where the contrasts between old and new are everywhere...





These places were full of character and quirky things, we could have easily stayed for longer but time was pressing and we were on a mission for rural Japan. Check out this statue that was outside one of the restaurants.




We couldn't resist going in, when we did, it got even better. Not only was the food out of this world, but every table had Japanese models (manikins!) who sit next to you whilst you eat.

Trying my luck with the ladies… the conversation was a bit limited.

The walls were full of crude drawings like this one… if anyone can translate this I would be very interested to know what it says!

The whole place was completely crazy. We got back on the bullet train, after numerous take away sushi's, connecting trains and a night of sleep we woke up to the pristine beauty of Shikoku!

The view from the bunkhouse at dawn

Teru, local legend and head guide at Happy Raft met up with us and we got on for a paddle with the rafts on the Yoshino River.

Stunning river

Stunning setting

… and much better rafting than Minakami.

We had a few days on this river, a beautiful place and I really enjoyed sharing experiences with fun people. It was great to paddle and hang out with guides happy to be on the river, loving what they do and giving their all to share those experiences with the clients!

Thanks to Teru, Kanami and Happy Raft for all the photos and fun!