Accidental kayaking
Wed 11 Feb 2009
Safely cocooned in my protective shell of a t-shirt and shorts, I hang
on to the back of a tiny scooter as we flip out the the left to see
past the truck in front, and back in to the right in time to evade the
pick-up coming the other way. I consider asking the driver to slow
down a little, but he's on the phone.
The previous evening I had booked an obtensibly relaxed trip that
involved wandering around a few caves and tubing down the river. So
long as I avoided falling off high platforms everything should have
been easy. They had forgotten which guesthouse to pick me up from,
though, and when I turned up at their office the offered to take me to
catch up with their (more expensive) kayaking trip.
A few near-death experiences later, we'd gotten off the main roads and
were negotiating the scooter over muddy paths slick after recent rain.
After almost going over for the second time the driver explained that
he was normally better but was hung-over from the previous night. On
some of the less treacherous bits I was able to enjoy the wonderful
surroundings: tiny villages with little streams with contraptions for
growing things and, I assume, catching or farming fish. Sadly, no photos.
We caught up with the group and a guide took me tubing through a
cave/underground river, which the rest of the group had already
done. In many places the roof of the cave was covered with webs and
millions of tiny spiders. I'm glad I saw it with just the guide,
rather than the whole group.
Following lunch and a short truck ride we were at the river with our
two-person kayaks. As I'd arrived late the rest of the group had
paired-up already. The one person left was a Chinese guy who spoke no
English. He didn't look confident. As the person at the back gets to
steer I decided to let him have the front seat. He boarded from the
left and in the same movement tipped himself out of the boat again to
the right.
I indicated that I'd rather pair with a guide, so I ended up in the
front seat with a guide in the back. At least, I thought, this should
guarantee a smooth trip down river.
The first few little rapids were ok. Then we came to a set with a hole
in the water caused by the current around the rocks on the right. The
other boats passed through on the left. Strangely, we were heading
towards the right. I gestured at the guide but he looked unconcerned.
Getting closer.
Really quite close now.
The guide suddenly seemed to want to be on the left too, and dug his
paddle into the water on the left to swing us around. Unfortunately
this changed our orientation rather more than our heading and we slid
sideways in to the aforementioned hole, whereupon the boat flipped
instantly and dumped us both into the water. I hung on to the upturned
boat, some bumps and scrapes later (how come fast flowing rivers have
sharp rocks?) we got to the side of the river and sorted ourselves
out.
We caught up with the group and, after the next stop, I found I had
one of the other guides in the back of my kayak. The rest of the trip
was relatively uneventful.
When the guide was sorting out the boat after our capsize he'd picked
some new foliage from the bank to stick in the back. "For luck," he
had explained.
Not a substitute for competence, really.
A few photos here.
