Gene 17 Adventure Paddler Weekend, Devon
Just got back from the 3rd Gene 17 Adventure Paddler Weekend in Devon, a gathering of paddlers from all over the UK to meet up, do some boating and talk about destinations. Most paddlers love to talk, and this gathering is no exception, bringing together a very experienced and knowledgeable audience and a late bar. A perfect mix.
I found this year’s talks to be of a very high standard. It can sometimes be difficult to sit through four hours of trip reports, but not with the variety and quality of these slideshows.
Frazer Pierce of the Poly kicked off the evening with a very professional talk on their recent trip to Madagascar. Frazer is a bit of an enigma in the paddling world. The guy has been everywhere. I mean everywhere. His career in academia has been combined with at least one big mission a year- Tibet, China, India….
From his slideshow Madagascar seems like a paddling paradise with first descents galore in an area bigger than France. The people seem cool, but, always a but, the access situation seems disastrous. No roads, 60 km walkouts and shoddy maps to be de rigour. But if you like your paddling sprinkled with its fair share of hardship, Madagascar could be for you.
Next up myself, Rosie and Ali gave an account of our little walkout on the Tsarap this august. Although we were in India for four weeks, and did plenty of boating, we concentrated on this as it was probably of the most interest to the audience. It seemed to be pretty well received.
Next up was Stuart Martindale and the guys from Cambridge Uni canoe club who explored deepest, darkest Venezuala, the remote jungle creeks near the Columbian border. Venezuala has been visited by paddlers before, but usually they don’t stray further than the Orinocco. This seemed like an awesome trip- pushy water, incredible hospitality and some wicked off the water antics. In typical student fashion these guys seemed quite laid back in terms of planning, but in the end they seemed to run some pretty full on, gorged in water.
This was runnable. Much to their relief!
Committing jungle boating in Venezuala
Delivered in a very chilled out and amusing style, this talk definitely showed that at the time, these guys were on the edge of where they wanted to be. Appearances on national Venezuelan TV, surfing on the Caribbean and lots of very attractive sisters summed up the rest of this trip. Experience of a life time. More photos here, photos courtesy of Stuart Martindale.
Next up was Kevin Francis who paddled the Magpie river in northern Quebec with a mixed group of UK and US boaters, the mainstay a group from ukriversguidebook. Perhaps less culturally unique than some of the other trips, Kevin nevertheless delivered an excellent slideshow on what looked like an incredible river journey. These guys ran some of the biggest white-water of the evening, including some of the runs done by Steve Fisher and Scott Lindgren back in June, interspersed with more than their fair share of flat water slogging- including a 28 mile lake, ouch. If you are going to this part of Canada, bring a mosquito net- the bugs look awful. There is also a segment on their trip in the next issue of LVM.
Last up, in the difficult late slot was James Farquharson talking about their mission to Taiwan. Together with Pete Cornes, Greg Nicks, Tim Trew and an assorted mix of local characters led by the fearless ‘Bear’, this trip seemed to encapsulate everything a good expedition should- completely unknown rivers, interesting locals and the mandatory unrunnable box canyons. It seemed like a super trip, not least due to James’s witty delivery and the big and bold antics of our hero the bear.
Images courtesy of James Farquharson More here
Well the rest of the weekend also went well, being shown around the classic English runs, the Dart, the Erme and the East Lynn, although unfortunately I had overexerted myself the previous evening so was unable to fully enjoy the last river.
Other highlights of the weekend include: group hugging the RDCP employee who tried to quieten us down on the Saturday night, somehow coming out first in the underground team event on the D with Simon and Dave Carroll despite having no idea where I was going, head ruddering the bottom drop and Steve Whetman boofing on top of me. It was a super weekend, good to hook up with everyone and get shown the great English rivers.Thanks to Simon Westgarth for organising the weekend.
Warning to all potential adventure paddlers- beware of a well-lubricated Dave Manby telling you to go boating in Iran. You might just take his advice…..
