Adrian Tregoning

The morning of Wednesday 18 November arrived very early and still raining. Breakfast consisted of noodles and fried eggs, which did the job. We idled around a bit longer as the rained eased and then it stopped. All 8 of us clambered into the vehicles to explore higher up on the river we had paddled the previous day and knock down another first descent. It was bound to be an exciting day.

We arrived at the bridge again and this time did not carry on. This would be the put in. With gear assembled, it was decided that I would walk up with Hugh, Sigit (aka Billy), Toto and Agus (aka JoJo). Celliers would take photos from the bridge, and Andrew video. The walk was interesting as we stepped carefully along the narrow paths amongst the rice paddies. I remember walking past a large water buffalo that had its offspring next to it. It eyed Hugh out, a lot! It was a good thing that this wasn’t back in Africa as those buffalo wouldn’t like to be approached like that. Still, it stood its ground and I kept a beady eye on the beast in case it should change its mind about these invaders carrying largest plastic items through its home. Luckily it didn’t. Running away through a soaking wet rice paddy would result in a bad loss.

An ornament inside the house.

Three beers Andrew and Hugh managed to secure from somewhere.

The Batang Liki. View from the put in bridge looking downstream.  Looking upstream. Lovely place!

Andrew Kellet. Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera.

Adrian Tregoning. Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera. 

Hugh du Preez. Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera. 

Toto Triwindarto. Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera. 

Puji Jaya Haryanto. Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera. 

Agus Hermansah. Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera. 

Celliers Kruger. Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera. 

The view from the put in. 

Quick break in the rice paddy before hitting the river. Sigit Setiyanto just before hitting the river. (AKA ‘Billy’)  

Coming down the steepish top section. More water would be pretty intense… Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera. 

And almost under the bridge. Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera. 

Hugh du Preez getting vertically pinned with me just behind him. It was quite funny. Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera.  Downstream of the bridge. The fun never stopped. Photo by Celliers Kruger – Celliers’ camera. 

The walk wasn’t entirely pleasant and my right shoulder, which had gotten nicely sun burnt the previous day was not enjoying the abuse, but getting up there was well worth it. The river was low volume, very technical, and the first bit quite steep. It was a little piece of heaven. It was also the first time we were all paddling something a lot more difficult to the previous day so it was going to be interesting. The top section was great fun and we bombed down to the bridge which was not far anyway. Just after the bridge, Hugh managed to get vertically pinned on a drop and because we were filming and taking photos, I was quite close behind him. I managed to get sideways on the rock above him, and hold my position while he got himself out, it was quite funny. Check out the photo.

For most of this trip, I’ll let most of the photos and their accompanying captions do the talking and I’ll write a little less. I apologise already now for splitting up the article, but the latest edition of Joomla has a bug in it which no one has found the cure for yet. It won’t allow me to publish articles with a certain amount of photos, and because there are so many here, I have to split this one again! Sorry.

Shortly downstream I stopped for a quick self portrait while waiting for Andrew, Celliers and Puji to come down. 

Hugh and some kids waiting on a rock. It was hot. 

The view looking up, just down from the bridge. 

Opposite bank. Big trees, as you can see.  My trusty boat for the trip!

The three of them coming down. 

Easy, no problems.  Celliers cruising past.

Andrew taking video footage. He took several hours worth on this trip. Still waiting to see the end result…  :-)

Agus with a nice run. Celliers coming through easily too.

I stopped at another random spot to take photos. There was a house next to the river.

Note the bridge across the river.

Toto coming through under the narrow bridge.

Toto busting through a hole.  Hugh probably trying to boof this rock, then getting briefly pinned, again and finally wondering what he was doing in the first place. Me too, I also wonder :-)

Agus heading down the middle. Photo by Andrew Kellett. Andrew’s camera.

Our driver Johnny, giving the thumbs up! Photo by Andrew Kellett. Andrew’s camera. 

Hugh coming down too. Photo by Andrew Kellett. Andrew’s camera.  Toto under that dodgy bridge. Photo by Andrew Kellett. Andrew’s camera.

Agus on a particularly ugly little rapid with some bad strainers.  Photo by Andrew Kellett. Andrew’s camera.

Random spot, shortly before our lunch stop. Photo by Andrew Kellett. Andrew’s camera.  Puji swimming… Nooooo… Photo by Andrew Kellett. Andrew’s camera.      

The river was just one continuous rapid. Not difficult but it was technical and you had to be fast to keep going with a smooth line. Although this was made challenging with the low water levels. Higher levels would have been dangerous, given that this was a first descent and we had no idea what was happening downstream. It was amazing to see how this little stream grew and grew in size until there was quite a substantial volume. It must have gone from two or three cumecs right up to around fifty or more. The going was slow as we took a lot of photos but it was great fun. We hardly saw any people and just paddled this little creek through the jungle. Andrew and I went ahead to try to speed up the process and we leap-frogged ahead down small channels. Occasionally the river would steepen up and we’d just keep bombing. Then look back after a straight section and wait to see someone coming. This worked for a quite a while.

Toto making headway. Photo by Celliers Kruger. Celliers’ camera.

Puji leading the way, with Toto close behind. Photo by Celliers Kruger. Celliers’ camera.

Toto overtaking. Photo by Celliers Kruger. Celliers’ camera.

Agus flying down. Photo by Celliers Kruger. Celliers’ camera.

Hugh setting up for a boof off the rock. Photo by Celliers Kruger. Celliers’ camera.

Puji swimming, not a good place. Photo by Celliers Kruger. Celliers’ camera.

Me on the left, Andrew on the right. Photo by Celliers Kruger. Celliers’ camera. Hugh getting Puji’s boat out. Photo by Celliers Kruger. Celliers’ camera.

Puji had had some bad luck in the beginning of the run, taking a swim. Then later he took another and shortly after another where his boat got pinned. Shame, I felt heart felt sorry for him. But he seemed to be ok and carried on no problem. After we got his boat out we stopped for lunch. While sitting on the bank we suddenly saw this wild boar swimming into the eddy next to us! It must have swum down the rapid above us and once in the eddy it climbed onto the bank and bolted up the side and away. Everyone made such a noise I thought we were under attack from some Viet Cong and my heart almost stopped! Quite a funny and strange moment that was over before it had even started.

CONTINUED TO PART 2

Photography by: Adrian Tregoning. Unless otherwise stated.
All Words by: Adrian Tregoning.