Craig Rivett (RSA), Lachie Carracher (AUS) and Sean Bozkewycz (AUS) traveled to Lao PDR during September 2008 to unlock the country’s southern whitewater potential.
Music By Salmonella Dub

September 2008, Southern Lao PDR.

Music by Pitch Black - pitchblack.co.nz

For the first 2 days after my impact on running a new line at Tad Lo I was unable to walk, very worried I had re broken my leg, luckily after some time off my leg and some rest I am walking again and getting back to average.

Lachlan Carracher after a month in Laos and some big hits

With the rainy season coming to an end we hoped that the 4000 islands section of the Mekong would drop enough to open up some different lines and or new channels.

Check the photos, I went first down the channel we had ran in the past and the first top hole got ALLOT bigger, after becoming complacent I was soon slapped back by the river and had a horrible but pain free run. Sean’s run’s improved dramatically each time down. Sean has a very strong “dame I stuffed up back I go attitude which I am trying to follow.
Good times though and thankfully for me bad luck didn’t get me three days on the river in a row.

Entry Lachie

After returning to Bangkok with Sean and sending him off back to Australia I headed to a hospital in Bangkok to get the large gash’s on my face looked at.

Sean Giving 'er

Waterfalls are fun, snakes are scared of you, spiders you can kill with a newspaper, BUT hospitals scare the pants off me, especially in Bangkok.

With an hour long operation with my eyes covered, some stitches, a couple of big needles I was on my way.

I found it very funny when the placed a tight leather belt around my torso and the operation table, witch was used to restrain me and to keep me from falling off.
The nurses found it very amusing how I over hung the operation table by about a foot by width and length, at 6 foot 4 I kinda stand out in Bangkok.

Sam and Benji arrive in the next couple of days while I will return to Australia for the Teva Lea Extreme - www.kayak4play.com.au and some recovery time.

A large monsoon hit Bangkok early this morning with the loudest thunder I have ever heard. This monsoonal rain hit from the Laos region so Benji and Sam just had a MAJOR amount of water put into the catchment of the Mekong.

Stay tuned for more info from Laos

Sun Set on a boat ride back to our hammocks after a day of world class whitewater

Lachlan Carracher

Spot Lachie

Tad Lo was first run by Lachie Carracher earlier in this trip, but a lack of media and a desire to find new lines brought us back. It’s got a sliding entry drop of around ten feet that makes hard work of timing your stroke at the lip of the falls proper. Ideally you’ll be soaring horizontally during the next twenty feet of freefall, and that’s exactly what Lachie did again.

Lachie Entry

Lachie revisiting his first descent of Tad Lo

I followed with a slightly improvisation on the ideal line, but no dramas. I shouldered my kayak quickly and hiked back to the top – there was another line I wanted to drop, hard near the right side of the falls. The lead-in was shallow and uneven, but there was just enough water at the lip to allow the control needed. I slid down the entry and waited for my right stroke at the lip, pulling it through slowly into a forward tuck for impact.

Sean First Descent right line

Next up was the more intimidating Tad Hang. Not as large as Lo, but the tight line required precision and a big boof to avoid the shelves of rock bordering the landing. In similar fashion to Tad Lo there was a weird little entry drop here also. Lachie opted to run first and ended up farther left than anticipated.

Lachie

From my vantage downstream it initially looked like he’d plugged the only ‘Plan B’ line without incident. Upon resurfacing it was obvious his deck had imploded again. He swam to shore with the paddle and hatch cover while I jumped in and retrieved the kayak. It was only when I returned to shore that Lachie informed me he’d actually pitoned at the bottom and was fairly sure he’d re-fractured his leg.

Sean Entry

Always the trooper, he limped to the photo spot and dutifully filmed my two descents of Tad Hang. I got a stroke at the lip both times but still reconnected barely under the surface. One of the gnarliest drops on the trip for sure.

Sean - Tad Hang

Lachie returned to his kayak and we paddled downstream to our doorstep. We’ll chill here tonight while we contemplate the next few days and attempt to work out whatever it was Lachie did to deserve this.

His negative Karma tally of late:
•    Stung repeatedly by unknown insects causing excruciating pain,
•    Deck implodes running 45 foot Tad Champi,
•    Runs first twenty footer in Champi, breaks paddle and disappears,
•    Falls twenty feet narrowly avoiding re-breaking leg but smashing in his face,
•    Runs super funky 25 foot Tad Hang, pitons, likely re-breaks leg, deck implodes.

Wish us luck in Attapeu.

Sean Boz

After a successful reconnaissance mission a day previous to locate a take out before the unrunnable drop, I had Lachie convinced. We put on to Upper Champi River with confidence and spirits high, despite knowledge of the inevitable jungle hike out. It was to be my first run and for Lachie, a chance to recapture the river on film.

On the Way to the Put In

The first 35 foot falls at the put-in is as yet unrun. There are two possible lines apparent; one that involves reconnection after 20 feet and one slide into boof line whose pools appears shallow. In either case, we left them for another day – preferably one with a little higher water.

We put in below and cruised down through fun, creeky class 3 with a couple of funky shelves until the first horizon line loomed. Getting out to scout I was stoked to see a perfect, super friendly 7 metre drop. Lachie remembered the line so went first, opting to drop off an angled lip with a correcting boof. From my vantage at the lip I watched him nail his line and disappear. Seconds passed and I started to weigh my options for rescue. Maybe ten seconds after leaving the lip Lachie appeared, upright and okay, from behind the left side of the falls. His paddle had snapped on impact and without the power to escape he’d been sucked in behind the falls by the eddy. From the top, I had seen nothing.

Sean in The heaven Canyon before HELL

After I ran the falls and subsequent slide drop below, Lachie and I began hoisting boats up the muddy escarpment for another run. With the boats up and just his paddle to reach, Lachie’s footing gave way. LC slid seven metres down the near vertical wall and landed softly on his feet, taking most of the impact with his face. Two deep lacerations were the result. Champi strikes again.

Mid Canyon First Aid

I patched Lachie up and we ran the rest of the creek, being very sure to catch the take out eddy. It was easy to see why the boys continued on from here; nothing sinister appears to be lurking around the bend, and upstream is just perfect.

The end of Heaven

Following our markers left behind during yesterday’s recco, we struggled up the muddy ridge. The clay soils give no grip whatsoever and most plants that would work for handholds are thorned or prickly. It truly is hell, even without a broken leg.

From the top you’re treated to a teasing view of the valley downstream and it’s a short drag through the coffee trees to our waiting tuk-tuk. I wonder if I can convince Lachie on a third descent…..

From Hell

Back on the road this arvo, heading east again to Tad Lo.

Sean Bozkewycz

On the day Craig and I completed the first descent on the Upper Champi he lost his camera with our only shots of the white water. It was not described in much detailed but this section of river between the abseil and the horrible hike out was some of the best creeking I have ever done in my life.

Hiking Back into "Hell" - Upper Champi

I promised that I would never return to that eddy I sat in and truly wondered how I was going to get out alive. Today I saw it again, Sean and I hiked in through the jungle where Craig and myself spent 6 hours trying to escape, in hope that we could possibly return to the Upper Champi and get some media from this amazing river.

Last eddy on river right is where Craig and I found ourselves on the first descent

Tomorrow we plan to do just that.

On our hike out just when things looked like they were going well I stood both legs in some kind of wasp or flying ant nest, it was the most I have screamed since I was two I think. I was honestly in more discomfort then when I shattered my ankle and broke my leg. The jungle always has surprises!

After our hike out we travelled further upstream to look at the 45ft waterfall that Craig had run earlier on in the trip. The decision was easy for Sean and I, feeling good after spending a couple of weeks back in out creek boats.
I went first hitting my line but unfortunately my deck popped on impact, too proud to swim I paddle my full boat of water to shore.

Lachie Tad Champi 2nd Descent

Sean ran the drop twice and stomped his line both times.

Sean on Tad Champi

Our plans for the next few days are to run the Upper Champi again, head to Tadlo to get some good quality photos of these drops. From Tadlo we plan to head to the wild west town of Attapeu, near the Vietnam border. From here we are looking at a couple of first descents; 30 and 60 foot waterfalls.

We may be away from the Internet for a while so wish us luck,

Lachlan Carracher

There was a guy fishing out there, don't ask how he got there though because we have NO idea

Yesterday we both paddled a big water channel down the section that is known as The Four Thousand islands. We found big waves and big holes that are formed from the tops of 15m  waterfalls (in the dry season).

The river its self is amazing, the biggest river by volumes I have paddled before  (much more volume then the Nile) and the crazy thing is the river  changes up to 4ft a night.

Today Sean and I paddled the biggest rapid that has been fired up on the trip. (In terms of volume and length)

The line down this rapid something like punch giant hole on the right, Paddle, paddle, tuck and hope for the next hole, Then HARD right, then HARD left.

Lachie feeling very small

Sean Resurfacing after "Paddle, Paddle, Tuck and Hope"

When rain hits Paradise

Bomb Saftey 101

Committing Jungle

Lachlan Carracher

Riding a Tuk Tuk through a remote school near Sekong

We took a four-hour journey from Pakse to a small and remote town of Se Kong, This area was heavily effected by the bombings from the Vietnam war and there is no real “old buildings” for that reason. Signs in building of cartoon characters playing out situations of what to do when you find a bomb or mine were not uncommon.

Craig finding between waterfalls, food and sleep for a quick hit

In Pakse we have contacts and found a good group of people that we can easily communicate with. In Se Kong this was not the case, we would take turns in passing our phrase book around and doing our best to communicate that we need a vehicle that can carry 3 kayaks and we want to pay some one to take us to water falls or “nam tok taat”. This proved difficult to say the least but I think we did well.

Roadside common view

The first two drops we found were very high volume and were formed from igneous rock shelfs stepping there way down the Nam Se Noi. The first was possibly there scariest looking death hole I have ever seen. It was river wide – over 100m, and the boil line was over 10m behind the drop. We obviously did run this drop.

Death Hole

The second of the two was the was huge horizon line with one line that went about 40m in to the current, a very scary ferry and you sailed off the top hoping that you got your marker right. All runs went well.
I brought a pair of IR dry pants out with me to Laos, I didn’t really think I would need them but they have proved invaluable for a couple of reasons
First, Allot of things wants to bite you while hiking through the jungle, plants sting, snakes are everywhere, spiders bugs. Everything wants to take a piece of you.
The second reason came at the waterfalls on the Nam Se Noi, at the bottom of the drops there was puffer fish know as “pa pao”. According to the locals the pa pao can home in and sink their razor sharp teeth into the human penis with ridicules accuracy.
Swimming was not an option but I felt a little safer with my splash pants on.

Craig on a hectic horizon line

After these drops we were ready to call it a day and were only 10 minutes from our hotel, randomly looking down stream of a side creek that feed into the massive Se Kong we a large horizon line. After a quick scout we soon realised that we had just found the most perfect looking 40ft waterfall I have ever seen.

We all ran this drop a number of times, rock jumped it and even abseiled beside the falls for an amazing camera angle. Enjoy the photos!

Lachie running, and Sean filming

Sean Snagged the first descent of this perfect 40 footer

Photo by myself of Sean from mid drop angle

Sekong River

Cheers

Lachie Carracher

The next morning Lachie and I went back to Tad Champi, the 45-foot waterfall we had scouted a couple days earlier. At the falls we met up with one of the only tourists we had encountered, a Frenchman who offered to hold a camera for us. After a quick scout I geared-up and walked the forested-in path to above the lip. As I arrived I had one last scout from the river left bank while Mr. Slick walked out on the rock island in the middle of the river for a look too.

Burning off a leech

I had to pull a hand-full of leaches off and then rested my Solo on a rock above the entry rapid. A couple strokes later I was in the main current, one hole later I was at the lip. I saw the horizon line moving below my bow. I could feel my bow beginning to drop and as soon as I felt I was vertical I took a gentle stroke. My bow lifted a little so I smoothly leaned forward stretching my arms out to keep my angle.
The landing was soft and I rolled up with a smile on my face.

Craig on the 45 footer

After packing up we headed to TadFan. Tadfan is a magnificent pair of waterfalls, which stands in the middle of the rainforest creating a pristine photo opportunity. For this reason buses full to Thai tourists arrive at the waterfall everyday. Lachie and I stood at the look-out point getting pushed and bullied by the tourists in bright shirts for a couple of minutes until we could get a set of photographs.

On out walk out Mr. Slick pointed at a crater on the forest floor and with broken English said that is was “a present from out friends in America”. This crater had been formed by an exploding ordinance. Again this made us consider the huge danger of walking around the forest, caused by the Bombings. More Bombs have been dropped on Laos than any other country and thus unexploded ordinances litter the countryside.

Crator in the forest floor

With relief Sean arrived that evening. The second Australian has decided to join us after the end of the rafting season in Canada.
As an introduction to him, the next morning, we took him to kayak the waterfall at the end of the lower Champi section. Lachie and I had run this 20 footer earlier in our trip and it was a great “welcome to Laos” waterfall for Sean. With an array of cameras catching our every move we paddled the waterfall a handful of times. We even found a pretty forgiving line on the far right which fell spectacularly under to a dead tree.

Sean being welcomed to Laos

Lachie amongst it

The log run - Lachie

During our lunch at the falls we spotted photos of a new waterfall and following a brief enquiry we worked out that the falls were 400 meters downstream. We followed a well-marked path to find that the new waterfall was actually about 150 meters away and on a completely different river. Laos has so many different rivers and creeks holding thousands of waterfalls waiting to be kayaked.

Sean on the lip of the 20 footer

This 20 or so footer had a sketchy entrance over a man made weir and looked very shallow at the bottom. I went first and after a bad line in the entrance I had a hard landing at the foot of the falls. Sean followed with an awesome run of the drop showing me how it was supposed to be done. Good lines.
Feeling a little upset with my poor first run I walked up again and proceeded to have a better descent of the falls.

Craig on the 20 footer (2nd attempt)

Mr. Slick who had been wanting to get into a kayak finally got a chance as we sat him into Sean’s boat and set him out into the pool at the bottom of the last waterfall. After a couple missed stokes he fell over. Seconds later he surfaced with full eyes and a crab in his hand.

Mr Slick and his crab

We all (including his crab) headed back to his Tuk-tuk and started packing all our gear. Next thing, out of nowhere Mr. Slick took off like a bullet after a shadow in the road. He chased the meter long monitor lizard until it beat him up a tree. He explained how monitor lizard is one of his favourite meals and that they fetch a huge price in the local restaurants.

Lachie, Sean and I are heading east today in search of new waterfalls and the daunting Se Kaman River. Hopefully the rest of the trip will be as successful as the beginning has been so far.

The evening view from our hotel

Good Lines

Craig Rivett

Yesterdays plan involved running the1st descent of the upper section of the Champi River. The maps we had purchased suggested that the river would be gorged in and not too steep.

About to put on the Champi River. We did not anticipate such a grueling day

The section of river below the falls was low volume and provided relatively boring boulder gardens. On two occasions we had to portage trees which had been chopped over the river to form bridges.

After about and hour and half paddle we ended up staring at a fierce horizon line. We climbed out on river left to find a resort being constructed. We left our boats to take a look; the waterfall below was a massive double drop which bares much more interest to tourists than kayakers as it is a very difficult obstacle get around. Lucky for us, the developing resort had a flight of steep stairs running down the cliff face. The climb down took much longer than anticipated and left us tired at the bottom.

Next up, just below the stairs and viewing platform on the river, stood a 40 footer landing onto rocks. There is a line that could be attempted in the correct circumstances where a spout clears the rocks by a couple feet. In order to get around this drop Lachie and I had to abseil down the cliff between the two channels of the waterfall. This hiccup was not an issue as we had brought climbing gear along in case of similar scenarios.

Abseiling into the gorge.

Soon after the abseil we set out into the gorge. The first 500 hundred meters or so held some of the most spectacular rapids I have ever kayaked. There was on 20footer in particular which will remain as one of the most amazing rapids I have ever seen, it consisted of a spout between two walls landing in a magnificent pool. A couple rapids later Lachie and arrived at another terrifying horizon line. This time there was no path for us or any people around to give us assistance. We were stuck on the right bank with forest and cliffs in all directions.

We climbed out on the river right bank and managed to get onto a ledge in the forest about 10 feet above the water. From here we realized where we were. We were stuck on the river right with a cliff above us and a 50 or so meter waterfall below us and almost no way of getting across to the other side where we could climb out.

Our knife was needed. Over about an hour and a half Lachie managed to cut a path along the ledge upstream to a location where we were able to ferry glide to the river left. In this time I was organizing the roping of boats onto the ledge and across. I must admit, the moment where I realized where we were and what we had got our selves into. It was one of (if not the) scariest moments of my life.

Lachie feeling just as scared as me on the ledge above the waterfall

We managed to get the trail cut and both managed to complete the seal launch and the extremely high pressure ferry glide across to the left bank. We gave a little “high five” as we had completed step 1.

Pulling the kayaks along the Lachie made path. Very scared at that point

Step 2 – here we had to walk upstream to find somewhere we could climb out the gorge. Stumbling along slippery rocks above a waterfall is not a mentally relaxing thing to do. Only a few meters up we found a gully that looked navigable. We opted to climb out the river left side because we knew, with the aid of the inaccurate maps, that there is more farm life and a road that runs parallel to the Champi.

The first 150 or so meters of our climb was done individually with both of us dragging our kayaks. It was at this moment that I realized the importance of us wearing long pants. Long pants, not only protected us against the harsh scratching from the trees but also helped prevent snakes and spiders from biting us. We saw hundreds of spiders and one snake on our climb, but I am certain that there were many more.

The hill became even steeper so, at times, we ended up crawling up the face holding onto vines and small trees. At one point Lachie found an old used drinking straw. I can remember the hope it gave as it suggested that people have been there before and hopefully meant that people live around there.

Despite all our objections and cursing, the climb got even steeper. Here we could not drag the boats any longer so we tied roped to the boats and ascended higher to setup a “Z drag” system (A Z drag uses leverage to pull a rope with greater force than one can give, it uses pulleys and staps. This technique is used globally by whitewater kayakers as a rescue technique).

This system is not that effective when it comes to pulling two kayaks up a mountain where trees and vines cause the kayaks to get STUCK. So one of us, usually me, would run up and down freeing the kayaks.

We slowly started to see the crux of the mountain through the trees. This site gave us a second wind as we started speeding up our, nearly perfected technique of attaching the kayak to someone while the other one pulls from an anchor uphill.

At around 6pm we were at the top of the hill. It was getting dark soon and, despite bringing a tarp along, I really didn’t want to spend the night with what Laos has to offer. We were in a coffee plantation and so knew that if we walked in one direction we would find a road and some people. After about 2 or so km of dragging our kayaks along paths and plantations we found a little hut with two Lao teenagers in it. We managed to get them to give directions to our driver on my cell phone.

The hotel managers expression told a story as we arrived in the darkness covered from head to toe in mud. We were cut and bruised and were clearly not keen to talk to anyone. We dumped our gear on the balcony and after short shower we went out for a cold been and lots of food for all we had eaten throughout the day was a small breakfast and 3 Oreos at the start of our Z drag efforts.

Due to our exhausting day yesterday we unanimously decided that we are not going to do anything more strenuous than climbing the 18 stairs to our room. Hopefully tomorrow we will feel like boating a little more.

Portage around the first huge waterfall. Spectacular

Good Lines

Craig Rivett