In the last article I said I drifted to sleep. Wrong! Reading my notes on the trip I see my rubber arm was twisted to go and drink some beer so off we went. After many beers later we made our back to the house, I felt a bit drunk, and was not the only one. Good times! Lucky was sleeping on Hugh’s shorts in his room and Celliers is allergic to cats so I took Lucky to my room and let him sleep on my laundry, the poor, skinny little thing. At 03:45 I woke up with a bladder about to burst and Lucky was still peacefully in cat land.

Dawn arrived - Sunday 22 November 2009. I felt hung over. Breakfast was fish, rice and aubergines. I was weary of the fish, but took some scraps and fed them to my new friend in Sumatra – Lucky. Sigit (‘Billy’) also fed him some morsels. My heart truly went out to that bag of bones canvassed in a rough skin, with the potential of surely being a loving little kitten given enough love, and food. Wonder what happened to him. In a joke, Andrew later said maybe he became Unlucky. I hope not. Shame…

A lady washing her clothes at the put in.  Andrew unloading his boat at the put in.

Shortly after the put in. Photo by Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera) Another fishermen plying his trade. Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera)

Andrew (orange boat) and me in the green somewhere along the line. Photo by Celliers Kruger. (Celliers’ camera) Hugh du Preez hitching a lift with a local! Photo by Celliers Kruger. (Celliers’ camera)  

River left side.

Entry, and some locals. The hot spring was just a short walk upstream.

Sticky hole and the undercut rock at the top left of the photo. 

Undercut, not good… Looking back at the rapid from my vantage.

The pocket. Don’t want to hang around in there. Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera)  View from the river right side. Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera)  

It was time to rack up yet another first descent! After breakfast we took a drive to the put in the Bangko. It was the only river with a short drive and I think this one took only 5 minutes. The take out however, was quite a long one. The river was broad and slow flowing and for the first time in the trip we noticed some pollution, which was a real shame. All the other rivers had been 100% pristine. But it really wasn’t too bad at all. Within a kilometre we came to a spot on river left where a hot spring flowed into the river. The water was extremely hot!!! Within a few hundred metres we came to a serious rapid which we scouted from the left. I had a look and it looked quite nasty. A stepped drop which wasn’t very high but with a very retentive hole and an ugly undercut directly downstream. I decided to portage on the left. Andrew had gone to the right and called me over but my mind was set. Looking back I should have listened to him as he could see a nice line on the right but from my angle it was hidden by a huge rooster tail. Oh well, next time! Hugh and Andrew ran the drop on the right and the rest of us portaged. Celliers and I regretted not running after seeing the video footage of it but oh well it’s one of those things. I should have gone back up to look. It was a relatively easy(ish) run but obviously not a place you’d want to mess up! Exiting the little pocket was interesting too.

Andrew Kellett running the first descent easily on this rapid! Nice!!! Celliers Kruger. (Celliers’ camera)

My photos of Andrew from a bit further down. First photo is bad, not much light…

Hugh du Preez not really boofing but making it no worries and then eddying out for a bit, before leaving the pocket easily enough. Very nice too! Celliers Kruger. (Celliers’ camera)

Celliers Kruger below the rapid. Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera) 

From here down there was an assortment of rapids, in the class 2 to 4 range but mostly quite chilled and easy. The rocks on this stretch were truly horrendous. Forming some nasty pockets and undercuts that were razor sharp – to be avoided at all costs. This river was one of the longer trips we went on during this trip and we dropped into an extremely thick jungle that had sides towering up above us. At a spot we saw some sort of orange coloured monkeys and at another two spots we found the guys mining for gold. Have a look at the photos, some very hard and dodgy work.

This man, just ducking under some branches, was actually pulling some thick logs behind him, to get upstream. Possibly one day ending up in somebody’s lounge as a fancy piece of furniture. Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera) 

Hugh approaching some miners along the way. Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera) 

Mining for gold on a raft tethered to the bank! Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera) 

Scenery along the way! Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera) 

Me, cruising past. Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera)  DEEP in the jungle. No chance of walking out! :) Andrew Kellett. (Andrew’s camera)

Our group on the Bangko. What a place! Celliers Kruger. (Celliers’ camera)  

CONTINUED TO PART 2, CLICK HERE!