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Waterlevels: Low volume.
Accessibility: Good. Dirt track leads up the river from Saru, crossing it a couple of times.
Upper Juuka
Didn't scout this, but is likely to be steep, fast and continuous grade 4.
Length: As far up as there is water. The track crosses the river a number of times.
Grade: IV?
Put in/Get out: Take out at the first bridge which crosses the river from west to east as driving up the valley from Saruu. Put in anywhere above this (probably at a bridge)!
Description: Steep, probably class four ish.
Last Paddled: Guessing!
Middle Juuka
Classic steep section mostly continuous grade 3/4 with bits of 2 to give you a brief breather.
Length: 5km
Grade: IV
Put in/Get out: Drive up the road to the east of the river from the town of Saruu. The take out is the bridge just upstream of the confluence with the Juuka-Chak. Continue driving upstream to find the next bridge. This is the put-in.
Description: The section starts quickly. A few hundred metres of continuous grade 3 leads to a considerably steeper section of rocky class 4. All of this runs (well, it did for us), but it is probably worth hopping out to scout for trees round any blind bends. Portaging here would be tricky due to dense vegatation on the riverbanks. The river eases in gradient after a km or so of this, but does contain a few more steep grade four surprises. Towards the end, beware of taking the right hand channel round an island as this leads to a sluice (visible from the road) which marks the start of an irrigation channel.
Last Paddled: 28-Aug-2005
Lower Juuka
Not paddled by us, but seems to have a shallower gradient than the upper sections, but is still likely to contain a few nice rapids.
Length: 15km (ish)
Grade: II/III (?)
Put in/Get out: Driving up the river from Saruu, put on as you reach the first bridge over the river. Take out at the main road bridge.
Description: Higher water than our end-of august levels is probably required to enjoy this section of river as much of the water is taken and used for irrigation. The gradient is less than the upper sections, leading us to believe there aren't as many difficult rapids... We may however be wrong! As usual, beware of low bridges and wires crossing the river as this area is more densley populated than further up-river.
Last Paddled: Scouted only.