The Kayak Borneo Rolling Expedition
A rolling style expedition is something I’ve had in mind for a long time but have never found the right destination. That is until the idea of kayaking in Borneo came on my radar.
Dusk in overlooking the jungle. There’s a river down there somewhere!
It’s the 3rd biggest island in the world, 3 times bigger than the UK, got loads of mountain ranges and best of all – enough to put a smile on any kayakers face – the geology is mostly granite. The images we found on google searches and the number of rivers on google earth were enough to encourage me that the island would be the perfect size and place to have a 3 month expedition in the oldest rainforest in the world.
Rob Moffatt styling a nice bit of bedrock pool drop in the first week.
What is the rolling expedition all about?
Basically at the end of each month new kayakers join the expedition bringing fresh motivation and energy (and money!), and the departing crew leave behind all the contacts they’ve found along with transport, accommodation, and knowledge of which areas are best to paddle in different conditions..
There are 2 seasons in Borneo. The 3 month expedition will also mean the team started in the wet season and will finish at the start of the very wet season making the most of all the Borneo has to offer.
This is a roundup of the 1st leg:
The first leg has recently returned to the UK after making a successful start. Hari Raya celebrations for the end of Ramadan caused a delayed start to the trip because a 4 day public holiday meant organising transport was impossible. But with invites to loads of local parties providing copious amounts of delicious food and rice wine we made sure we weren’t wasting our time!
Kayak Borneo Blog:
http://www.kayakborneo.co.uk/1/post/2013/08/the-tortoise-not-the-hare.html
We soon managed to negotiate a good deal on transport for 3 months and were ready to hit the road!
We paddled loads of rivers that first week, and established another partnership with Sabah Parks which was a pretty sweet deal lasting the whole 3 months of the expedition. They have allowed us free reign national parks, gave us a shuttle driver and in return we give them suggestions on how they can establish environmentally friendly outdoor activities.
Dom surfing on a previously unrun section of river near Marcelo’s house, flowing off Mt Kinabaloo which stands at over 4000m.
Unfortunately, despite being in the rain forest, it didn’t really rain much…if at all! There were some awesome rapids which hinted at the delights Borneo holds, but the phrase that was constantly repeated was “Another foot higher”. These rivers really would be awesome continuous boulder garden fun with more water, but we’ll have to wait until the 3rd leg hits the monsoon season before the expedition catches these rivers at their full potential.
Finally on the road in the truck we’ll be using for the full 3 months
Eventually we realised we needed a change of tack and find some rivers with a better catchment.
That’s when Marcelo’s tip off came good. At his suggestion we had the upper reaches of the Padas river in mind. And Padas in Malay means ‘Spicy’…so we had high expectations for this river!
There are no roads heading to this part of the Padas, and the only way to get there is on the only train in Borneo. The Padas is actually another river that Riverbugs raft. It is big volume, dam release, and actually isn’t too dissimilar to some of the rapids on the Nile. But the big draw for us was actually the Upper reaches of the Padas, from directly below the dam down to the rafting get on. A section that has been inspected many times but never taken on.
Dom swamped by one of the Padas rapids
Expeditions generally make you have to get creative with transport, but this next 48 hours were some of the most surreal journeys I’ve made.
We ended up missing the passenger train, but fortunately we were able to jump on a small engine transporting sand down the valley where some building work was being completed….
Avoiding the train when inspecting the river on the tracks
This was all a bit rushed mind you, after negotiating this transport we only had 5 minutes to unload our truck, grab all our kit and get it on board.
The next morning there were more interesting transport methods. We had to punt on ‘trolley’s 8km back upstream – turns out this is actually very hard work!
Jonny having a surf on the raft run the next day while coaching some of the Riverbugs raft guides
The Padas river was unlike any the team had paddled before. We’d all paddled big volume, and we’d all paddled boulder garden. But this combination of the 2 was something new to us. And exciting. …and scary. It was very easy to get carried away eddy hopping downstream only to find yourself in the middle of the river with a terminal hole on one side and a huge strainer on the other.
Big volume boulder garden – a new style of boating for the team
We changed tactic and chose one side of the river at each horizon line in the knowledge that we’d be able to then walk upstream and ferry glide across to the other side of the river if that was the only line down.
Marcelo eventually got on the river and joined us when he felt he was more in his comfort zone, and on we went. More big volume boulder garden eventually turning into simply big volume wave trains with some huge holes to avoid – something we were all more accustomed to and something we all know and love.
Kayak Borneo Blog:
http://www.kayakborneo.co.uk/1/post/2013/08/spice-up-your-life.html
Dave having fun and games on the Ulu (upper) Padas
Curiosity soon got the better of us and we found ourselves asking ourselves where the Padas got its water from. This lead us checking out our maps and Google earth and our eyes were soon focussed on the Crocker Mountain range.
Another lovely rapid on the Ulu Padas
The Ulu Padas and Tolokoson river in particular captured our interest. We got a bit of local knowledge on the Tolokoson which really got our ears buzzing. “Air Terjun” was commonly repeated – waterfall. Marcelo, acting as our translator soon confirmed this. A 20 footer and a 25 footer apparently awaited our descent. We couldn’t wait!
Lovely read and run on the Tolokoson
We weren’t disappointed. 16km of continuous portageless grade 4/5 river with some awesome rapids and a bit of freefall thrown in. A non stop world class day run that wouldn’t be out of place in Norway. …except the thick jungle surrounding us offering no chance of escape.
Kayak Borneo Blog:
http://www.kayakborneo.co.uk/1/post/2013/08/if-carlsberg-made-rivers.html
Dom getting the first descent of a tricky drop on the Tolokoson
Rob Inspecting the 25 footer
Jonny on the lead out of another tricky rapi
The past week and a half had settled our expedition nerves. We’d found some absolute peaches that we were quite sure would go in most river levels. By this stage we’d paddled over well over 10 first descents and marked out many more that had a great gradient but we’d left of a wetter day.
Dave Burne loving life on the Tolokoson
We were satisfied…but with only a few days left there was still time for another!
It was marked CM18 on our Google Earth system, locals know it as the Kanayah, we simply refer to it as the Mission River…
A locolised thunder storm the night before the mission
To get more of an idea of what this river was about, the best thing to do would be to read Doms awesome blog post below.
Kayak Borneo Blog:
www.kayakborneo.co.uk/1/post/2013/09/the-adventures-of-three-boys.html
Dom takes on a beatiful clean slide deep in the oldest rainforest in the world.
But to sum it up. It was a mission of a river. There were some super smooth bedrock slides miles away from anywhere with only the sounds of the jungle to accompany us.
There were some intimidating horizon lines. One of which hosted one of the most bizarre bits of geology any of us had ever seen, unfortunately meaning our hopes of paddling the 20m fall were put to rest and the steep dense surrounding jungle meaning we had to put our rope skills to good use. Fortunately the palm BAs and throw rope stood up to the challenge.
Crazy crazy geology unlike any we’d seen before.
The great rapids continued for a few kilometres before the good times came to an end, and we had to spend a lot of time on with our boats on our shoulders. But that’s what you sign up for with exploration!
But all in all, an awesome river – just a shame it ended in a siphony mess.
Enjoying the good times on the mission river
Dom sums it up:
“The Kanayah was a truly epic river, not to be undertaken lightly, it requires a long day, good equipment and knowledge and most importantly a good mental state. The total time on the river was 10 hours, with stunning views, amazing rapids, tricky portages, annoying portages, fun slides and a real sense of exploration.”
Dom Burrow leading a coaching session for the Riverbugs raft guides. Hopefully Marcelo will have some play mates in the next few years!
We finished on a high coaching the raft guides at Riverbugs how to but their understanding of the river into use from a kayak. These will be ongoing coaching sessions for the 3 months also providing tips on safety technique. Most of the people we taught have a good understanding of the river and aren’t scared of water, they’re also fit and strong so they learn fast!
Kayak Borneo Partners:
www.kayakborneo.co.uk/our-partners
Hopefully by the end of our 3 months in Borneo Marcelo will have more people to go exploring with, and hopefully at some point it will be the Local boaters exploring first descents in their own country.
The strange nosed Proboscis monkey – an endangered animal that needs the Bornean rainforest to survive.
We’re also working together with the award winning Heart of Borneo charity, and the money that comes from the sale of our boats at the end of the trip will go direct to them. Check out the awesome work they’re doing exploring and the rainforest and protecting the species and lifestyles of the nomadic tribes who live off it:
Kuching – a beautiful city in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo
Keep your eye out for more posts from Leg 2 and Leg 3.
Can’t wait to see what they get up to!
Follow the blog or give our facebook page a like to find out more:
http://www.kayakborneo.co.uk/blog.html
Dave Burne
Pictures: Rob Moffatt and Dave Burne
Please Leave a Reply
TrackBack URL :
