Two and Half Months in the Kimberly

You may not have noticed but recently I disappeared off the face of the earth for two and a half months. Well not quite but close to it. I just spent two and a half months working in Western Australia's Kimberly region.

The Kimberly is a pretty remote area so the only contact with the outside world was with a satellite phone that we used only to arrange evacuations. The only other people we saw were brief encounters with helicopter pilots that evacuated students or brought us more food.

 

The first 40 days we spent canoeing the Drysdale River. The Drysdale River is a challenging river in very different ways from what I am use to paddling. First of all we are paddling tandem canoes loaded with 40 days worth of gear which is really heavy in the boats, and makes them sit very low in the water. We put on the river at the end of the wet season when the river is dropping off from when it peaks. In the dry season the river all but dries up making it a great place for trees to grow. So that means that when we put on the river is flowing through trees. This year the river was very low after an unusually dry wet season so we also had a lot of rocks to contend with. If that isn't enough the river is also full of crocodiles, snakes and spiders, isn't Australia a wonderful place? So basically we set off with complete beginners, in boats that barely float and travel down a river full of strainers and deadly creatures for 40 days!

Even the Grasshoppers are scary

I was lucky (?) enough to end up working with an all male group of 10 students and another instructor who was of course male. However that is a challenge that I am pretty use to paddling.

 

There is abundant animal life in the area from the fish that bite you when you go swimming, to the frogs that are everywhere just after it rains, and you can't forget the birds with flocks of parrots squawking from 5.30 am onwards. There is also a lot of incredible human history in the area with a lot of Aboriginal sacred sites a rock art.

The canoeing section went well with the group being frustrating at times but always entertaining. We had to do a couple of evacuations one for appendicitis and one for a rotten wisdom tooth but they all went smoothly. 40 days is a long time to spend lining and portaging with only a couple of runnable rapids however it is such an amazing place that it is still a great expedition.

  

After 40 days we ditched the canoes and packed our gear into backpacks and started walking back upstream. It was awesome to see the Kimberly from a different perspective other than the river. The flat landscape made navigating challenging at times as there is no trails out there and there were some days that we spent just walking on a bearing through cane grass with no land features at all. The heat also makes hiking challenging and there is always the danger of running out of water. To get around this we got into the habit of waking up at 4 am and starting hiking at first light. That way we got into camp, which was usually at a beautiful waterhole, by midday and we got to spent the rest of the day relaxing and exploring. Also teaching some classes of course!

 

After 26 days of hiking we arrived back at Drysdale Station where we started 2 months before. The Kimberly region is such an amazing place and I am sure I will be back again one day.But for now I have two months off kayaking in California!!!!!!!!!!!

Photos - Rob Hughes Games

Kayaking Back in New Zealand

January started off very wet in Hokitika with fronts continuously moving up the west coast dumping rain. This meant that the rivers were pretty high for that time of year. This was nice to start off with as it meant that we could paddle a lot of the drive in and walk in runs such as the Kakapotahi, Totara and Styx.

Curt paddling Airmail - Kakapotahi

Photo - Warren

Upper Kakapotahi is a commiting gorge with some awesome boofs and this year after the floods it was made even better as the sieve in the mandatory portage has filled in creating yet another fun drop.

Warren paddling what use to be the portage

Photo - Curt Joyce

The Totara is a great flood run that gets huge very quickly and drops off again just as quick. When we got to the river it had flooded the fields and was going over the road. It was a fun highwater run and by the time we had done the run and the shuttle afterwards it was almost back to a normal level.

Flooded Totara

Photo - Curt Joyce

The Styx is a classic walk in and an hour of walking gets you into a great technical boulder garden section.

Styx

Photo - Curt Joyce

After doing these runs a few times we began to wish that the rain would stop so some of the upper heli runs would drop into a paddlable level. Luckily it happened eventually, it can’t rain forever even on the west coast. Heli boating really is an awesome experience and the fact that kayakers come from all over the world to pay about $100 NZ dollars for a days kayaking really says something about the quality of the runs.

Inside the chopper

Photo - Curt Joyce

From the moment you arrive at the pick up point and hear the chopper in the distance you know it’s going to be an awesome day. You load your kayaks on the skids and squeeze into the chopper with the pilot. As you fly up the valley and look down at the river, you try to see what the day has in store for you. It can be hard to see but one things for sure if it looks big from the chopper it’s going to be huge. Then theres the moment that the chopper leaves. Your left in the middle of nowhere with your kayak and only one way out.

Flying the boats up

The first fly in I did this season was the Toaroha. We had our boats flown in as high as possible slinged under the chopper then we paddled and portaged into the bottom of Toaroha Canyon where we paddled the last waterfall of the canyon before paddling out.

Bottom of Toaroha Canyon

The Arahura was the next on the list and as always provided an awesome day of paddling. For the first time I ran both Billards and Cesspit which went well with the exception of hitting the rock on the right in Cesspit with my paddle which in return punched me in the face. However it was a probably a good thing as it snapped me out of my ‘oh my god I’m in Cesspit’ moment into realising I needed to paddle.

Ken smiling for the camera on Curtain Call

Photo - Curt Joyce

Bottom Drop of Billards

Photo - Curt Joyce

Bottom of Cesspit Gorge

Photo - Curt Joyce

Last but definately not least we flew into the Upper Perth for an overnight trip. On the first day the chopper drops you off right up in the mountains and the scenery is amazing as are the steep technical rapids. The water level was higher than the last time I was on this section and the rapids were a lot cleaner but a little pushier.

Danny - Upper Perth

Photo - Curt Joyce

Ken - Upper Perth

Classic ski jump 'peeeaaah!' - Upper Perth

Photo - Curt Joyce

Ken - Upper Perth

We picked our way through this section and made good time down to Scone Hut where the chopper had dropped our overnight gear. We stayed the night in the hut and loaded our gear into our boats for the paddle out. After a couple kilometers of grade 2-3 to warm up in the gradient picks up again providing another full days worth of steep technical boating.

Curt - Perth

By the end of the day I was feeling pretty mental exhuasted after two full on days of kayaking and was happy to get to the end. The Perth is an awesome two day run and definately worth the flight.

Danny - Perth

Now I’m back at work doing a month long canoe expedition in New Zealand. Hopefully I will have some time afterwards to get back to the coast and get in a couple more heli flights before I head overseas again...

2009

2009 was a big year for me and will be a tough one to beat. I was lucky enough to travel through 10 different countries over 4 different continents. 2009 started with a bang in Chile. We brought in the New Year Chilean style not going out till 2.30 am and partied until it got light. I spent six weeks in Chile and Argentina starting in Santiago and travelling and boating our way south all the way to Coyhaique. Chile and Argentina are beautiful countries with amazing Rios.

Rio Palguin

Highlights of this trip for me include the Rio Claro, Rio Fuy, Rio Palguin and of course the incredible Futalafu. Chile is definitely an awesome boating destination and with the amount of planned dams if your thinking about going you should make it sooner rather than later.

Inferno Canyon - Futalafu

Next it was back to New Zealand and back to work spending 18 days on a canoe expedition on the Clarence River. It was a great time of year with fine weather most of the time with a little bit of rain to keep the water level up and provide us with an afternoon entertainment of watching a flash flood in a side stream. The Clarence is a great trip and I was surprised at the huge gorges that you don’t usually find in New Zealand’s rivers.

Clarence River

After leaving the field in New Zealand I boarded the plane the next day and flew to Australia for more work. This time it was a 40 day canoe expedition in the Kimberly on the Drysdale River. This is an amazing expedition; we flew into the Drysdale Station in bush planes fully loaded with 40 days worth of food and equipment. Luckily however the canoes were already in there as you can drive in there in the dry season. As you can image packing 40 days worth of gear into canoes and heading off down a monsoon river full of trees and crocs with complete beginners is no small feat.

Drysdale River

However with a bit of sweat and struggling we did manage to set off and make it work for the next 40 days. The Drysdale is an incredible river and very remote, we didn’t see another person for forty days. The Kimberly is a harsh and amazing area with a lot of wildlife and allot of untouched aboriginal sacred sites and paintings.

Drysdale Local

The river itself defines expedition canoeing with not many runnable rapids and a lot of very technical lining and portaging. Also a lot of just walking the canoes down the river on very slippery rocks that make you feel like you're wearing roller skates; this ultimately results in very bruised shins and feet.

Where to next?

Lining?

Monsoon hits camp

It really is a trip you have to do to really comprehend, there is definitely moments that you have to learn to laugh instead of cry.

Evening Campfire

After working for 2 months straight it was definitely time to take a break and unwind and what better way to do that than head to Cali in spring time and go kayaking. This was my second season boating in Cali and I managed to get in a lot of new runs as well as some of the old favourites.

Skyscraper Rapid - South Silver

 I love boating in California with the warm weather, huge granite slides and plenty of partying that is almost as epic as the boating.

Bald Rock

Unfortunately I had to leave Cali after only a month to go back to work and as always I was left knowing that I needed to return to Cali as there are so many rivers I still want to do

University Falls

I then headed to Alaska for 2 contracts both a month long with 2 week s of hiking and 2 weeks sea kayaking. Alaska is an awesome place and I was blown away by the beautiful scenery and wildlife.

Home

Nellie Juan Glacier

Sunset

Hiking

I finished up my time in the States in the South East with 6 weeks of kayaking. It was a great season in the south east with a lot of rain that meant that we were able to get on a lot of rivers that don’t run that often.

Horse Pasture

Photo - Curt Joyce

The highlight however was finishing the Green Race in one piece and managing to come in 3rd in the women’s short boat category. Which I was pretty happy with for my first time racing. Who know maybe next year I will be back with a long boat....

Gorilla - Green Narrows

Photo - Curt Joyce

The day after the Green Race I managed to somewhat organise my life and pack my bags to fly out to Africa the next day. First of all I spent 3 weeks on the White Nile in Uganda. It is a fun river and it was great to do a very different style of kayaking, big volume in a play boat instead of creeking.

Nile Special

Photo - Nini Bondhus

Kalagala - White Nile

Photo - Nini Bondhus

 I then headed to Zambia to paddle the Zambezi River. The Zambezi is an awesome river with some huge rapids. The highlight of my time there was doing a multi day trip starting at Victoria Falls and going all the way through to Lake Kariba.

Victoria Falls

Photo - Nini Bondhus

Zambezi

Photo - Matej Fabianek

Watch out for the Hippos!

Photo - Matej Fabianek

 I also travelled through Zimbabwe and went to Botswana to do a safari in the Chobe National park. After 4 weeks in Zambia it was time to get back on the plane and head back to New Zealand. It’s great to be home and I am lucky enough to have a month off to go kayaking before I have to go back to work..............................

Photo - Nini Bondhus