kayakstan.net :: Day 14 - A swim to wake up
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The morning after turned out to reveal most of the team a tad worse for wears. We were aiming to paddle the Karakol river, but at 250som per person for access up the valley (paying for access!), we decided just three would go. Tim (worser than worse for wears), Rob (not too bad) and myself (Phil C) loaded up and endured the truck ride up what was really no more than a path - cows, horses and couple of trekkers diving out the way. Feeling good at being one of the fitter of the three at the put in, (read a tad smug), we stopped at a particularly steep cascade, the close contours even showed up on our 1:200,000 map. Scouting it prooved it went, but with my instinct saying 'not today' and rationalising it with time contraints (setting up line markers on every turn) and not really wanting to write off my boat - we all got on below.
Boats precariously balanced, decks on, paddles ready - I slid in, a little to the left, a little to the right and then over I go (!). Knee high water with young sharp rocks is no place to be upside down, especially with a tree steainer 30m downstream (boofable on the right!) The roll wasn't happening quickly enough (I value my face too much!) - deck came off, out I came and away went the boat and paddle. Rob and Tim went in persuit whilst I found my way to the bank - so no real issues yet - shaken but not stirred.
Boat and paddle eventually stopped, in I got - deck on, paddle in hand and off we go again, except my lines seemed way too much effort (even for pinpoint accuracy piloting of a creek boat). And there's water sloshing around between my legs - this was after just 100m - I emptied it fully I'm sure. After eliminating spraydeck/cag seal, splits in boats and anything else - I realise the drain bung had cracked in my Jefe - it must have happened as the boat floated downstream full of water. Time to call it a day, the pain of humiliation, pride and swim beers in my mind.
Tim and Rob carried on with the river still as continious but not quite as steep. The only consolation being that we needed the beers for the hot springs we were staying at up the Arashan - better a bad day on the river than a good day in the office!
The other half of the team were feeling just as bad, if not worse, and had headed up the Ak-Suu river - the name itself means 'whitewater'. They drove up past a dodgy health spar, bribing an old woman to let them 100m further up a private road (lazy, lazy!). From here, they had to walk. Only three took up the challenge - Phil H, Wouter and Graham. They left the others to sleep. Walking in with boats while still recovering from a mean handover is not a pleasant experience apparently. It may have been the sight of a local farmer harvesting his crop of cannabis, or tiredness, or dehydration, but after an hour they stopped and got on the water. The run itself was an eventful grade 3+, and they got out just before all the metalwork in the river around the town.
Both teams then headed to the hot springs of Arashan to recover. After a rodeo ride in the trucks, abdominals actually aching, we found ourselves at something that resembled a farmstead in beautiful alpine meadow land. We'd been lead to believe there were hot springs around, and putting two and two together we figured the cluster of sheds must have pools inside. After a nice meal of buckwheat in soup, and lots of chai (tea), Rob, Tim, Graham and Phil C headed down to a shed at the rivers edge for what we later found was the hottest pool - 40-45deg. A slight man was already dozing in the pool which gave it a deceptive level of comfortablility. After greetings and introductions, his name was Buddha (sp?), he noticed that we weren't quite as tough skinned as he was - a bad thing. Thus followed a short, but repeated for our entire stay, lesson how to entire the water without hurting ourselves - a clasp of the gonads apparently helps, and it actually did!, we enjoyed my ice cool beers and then retired to bed - what a day.
