http://www.chriseastabrook.co.uk/biography/expeditions/georgia-09

Love Chris & Matt!

We carried on up the Enguri realising what a big project it is, and turned off towards Mestia. Another tributary here was interesting as it entered bedrock gorges every few kms. However, all the gorges that we scouted and tried to paddle were blocked by fallen trees making them impassable. This ultimately led to a very sketchy 40m climb out, followed by boat hauling and belaying Matt up!
We did manage to do a section of the Enguri that was manageable in gradient and volume and was most enjoyable, with a brilliant boulderly gorge early on.
The scenery in the region was amazing and Mestia has lots of super old (10th Century) defence towers that stood out at the feet of the 4000m + peaks that rose around us.

The next river I had in mind was the Tskenistskali, but this was really as a filler in-between larger drainages, as we were hoping to find some quality white water and praying for no trees in the river. We came over the mountain pass into the valley, so when the river looked deep enough to paddle we jumped on. It was all straight forward continuous rapids with a few harder sections every so often. We paddled late into the evening and watched the sunset behind the huge mountains. It was on this section that we saw the only completely flat pool on any river in Georgia, we sat and enjoyed it for a few minutes!

Looking for a complete descent, we started where we had finished the day before and continued down. We had stayed overnight further down river so had a chance to road scout it on the drive up. I made some mental notes as to start of the walled in gorges, super stoked to be heading towards them. We jumped on and the pace of the river increased quickly, straight into IV+ & V rapids, lots of boulders, holes, boofs and nailed lines saw us make good progress. The river was so continuous it was really mentally challenging, just when you wanted a break, it wouldn’t let you stop. It was also difficult to scout, and because of the amount of wood we found in some rapids we made an effort to check everything before we ran blind corners. Despite some great boat scouting I had to get out often.
There were some classic moves, big volume and uncharted territory. After 7 hours in the non stop fun gorge, I was exhausted. We carried on, paddling some big volume class III as the sun set again behind the huge mountains, until there was no more light. This would ultimately be the highlight of the trip.

The next river on the list was the Rioni, which we knew we were going to paddle with the rafters and join their party. We had hoped to paddle the upper sections before the rafting started, however overnight a huge storm came in, creating a landslide, destroying an important bridge and ultimately turning the river a deep shade of black. We decided to give the upper a miss and document the raft trip well. The clients looked after us, fed us, made us drink a lot of vodka, and in return we supplied video and photos from 2 days of rafting. The paddle was easy enough to be a great chill out paddle after the gnarl on the Tskenistskali and a great way to end our paddling in Georgia.

We had a few more cultural adventures seeing caves, tombs, sulphur baths, pubs, music and eagles. All of which was really interesting and the reason I wanted to come to Georgia. It has more to offer than just the kayaking, it has a rich history and stunning landscape which makes it well worth the journey.

I would like to thank the continuing support of Pyranha, Streamlyte, Embers Merino Wool & Smiths Optics.

Having pieced together some last minute information on some of the rivers, our first aim was the Tergi river that flows out of and then north back into Russia. We stopped along the way for a couple of low, easy warm up rivers. The grade of these rivers, 4 sections of the Aragvis, was never more than class III but the continuous nature of these were unreal. There was certainly no stopping, which got me stoked for the hard grades.

The old road to the Russian boarder and the start of the Tergi was blocked by a landslide (alarm bells for the river?) and the truck with our kit went over a pretty long mountain pass.
Matt & I decided to walk up the last section and scout the Truso Gorge. After a friendly chat with the border guards we paddled through and entered the gorge. This first section was one of three harder section with a tricky flare into a boof avoiding metal, a fold and a wall of rock. The gorge was great with some really nice moves.

We carried on down into a head wind of mostly class II until after the Sioni gorge, where we entered sheer rock sides – very uncharacteristic of the river. The notes on this mentioned a waterfall but we paddled in and realised our mistake with no way of scouting, safety or portage. Blind leading the blind turned out to be OK, but was a gentle reminder to both of us to be a bit more careful in the future. We got out before the Dariali Gorge. This section of white water is unbelievable and still unrun. A winter mission with lower levels maybe required. We were extremely pleased with the 35km we had done and went in search of a beer.

Our next idea was to travel up to Shatili, my hunch was that it would be too low but decided it was worth the trip to see the 10th Century fortress at the world heritage site. What happened is a long story but involves gate crashing a big family dinner, being forced to drink beakers of vodka and sleeping on a roof! I did some boating up there, mainly park ‘n’ huck on sections that took my fancy. It was good fun, abseiling in, good camera angles, waterfalls general fun.

We then headed to the capital (Tbilisi) and began our journey east to the bigger projects.

Canyon on the Upper Soca

The evenings saw some of the guys on the course hit the bar fairly hard each and every night. They were very pleased with themselves when it turned out they had drunk the town dry of the local stuff – Valter.

The Red Stuff

Tom, David and I managed a couple of sneaky runs down the Canyon section after sessions had finished, just to check it was still there you understand!

Leading the way!

Before the course started I was out in France with Bristol Uni, and before that Tom & I found time for a road trip to Switzerland and Italy. It’s been hard to believe the levels of the steeper regions of Europe this year. After driving past the Goldeneye Dam we got on the Verzasca in short cags surrounded by hot young ladies sunbathing. It was great to ‘graduate’ from New Skool Graduation Drop a year after my actual graduation from uni! I’m not sure which was is more important!
After a pizza a large beer and a night in the van we got up to paddle the Euga. The first drop is great but I never remembered it being so pushy, until Tom & I realised it was significantly bigger in volume than the last time we paddled it, at the beginning of May!

New Skool Graduation Drop

Tom 'firing it up'

Iced Cream!

More photos can be found here!

NZ paddling 2009 Chris and Tom from Tom Strongman on Vimeo.

Chris Eastabrook coaching is heading up to Scotland for 3 weeks of coaching, including the Student Safety Course.  The Alpine Slovenia course is getting booked up, but there are still spaces on all Chris Eastabrook coaching courses!

See you at PaddleFest / NSR if you are going.

Chris Eastabrook, Coaching River Leading Paddling, has just put online a number of new courses to help you get that rush (Steep Creeking skills course), have an adventure (UK Touring) or get both at the same time (Turkey or Alpine Guiding).

For more information on these trips have a look through the website.

Cheers!

We arrived on the 2nd of July to a massive rain storm that didn’t stop for about 3 days. This did mean that the water levels were up and at a most enjoyable level, but it wasn’t the sunny skies the guidebook had predicated. The apartment was located a short walking distance from the centre of Bovec.

Madi at the Slalom Course

The water is fantastic, lovely continuous rivers that are never over the grade given on the guide sheet that comes with the river permits.

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w170/chris_eastabrook/?action=view&current=hammertime4.flv