The trip in question was a month long expedition to one of the remotest and inaccessible parts of the world – Indonesian Papua<\/a>. We’d heard stories before going about previous trips to Papua New Guinea (the other side of the island) and how they were fraught with logistical difficulties, and we accepted that we would have to deal with a number of these ourselves. The Indonesian side of the island is even less developed than PNG, and less politically stable, with many Papuan’s wanting independence from Indonesia. More obscure? Yep! More remote? Yep! We were on to a winner!<\/p>\n As such, using the well accepted approach of “if I can’t find evidence of it on the internet, no-one’s paddled it before” we bigged it up as a first descent expedition and raked in generous amounts of cash and kit from our awesome sponsors.<\/p>\n Unfortunately the expedition itself was not the very model of success as a catalogue of unlucky events saw us off the river only 2.5 days into what we’d planned to be an 8 day descent. Separated from our boats, with food and equipment stolen (do not underestimate the importance of shoes in the jungle), and police reluctant to let us even leave the police station for fear of capture by Papuan Separatists, we were forced to abandon our kayaks and return to civilisation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Still, we consoled ourselves that we can at least claim that coveted First D title\u00c2\u00a0for the section of river we did manage to paddle! \ud83d\ude42 Awesome.<\/p>\n Or could we…<\/p>\n Whilst on the trip we discovered that the name the locals use for the river is Kemabu, rather than Derewo as we had been using. \u00c2\u00a0Now back home, I decided to stick Kemabu into Google and see what appears.<\/p>\n It turns out that back in 1995, a Russian chap, Vladimir Lysenko<\/a> set himself the challenge of rafting down the highest peak of every continent<\/a>. His last peak to raft from was Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Oceania, and the source of the Kemabu\/Derewo river.<\/p>\n Interestingly, it seems he shared many of the same experiences we did, on our trip fifteen years later… except that he generally had it worse \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and was paddling solo, so had no one to complain to! Whilst some of our food was stolen, all of his was stolen (he survived off scrounged potatoes and tea). Whilst my shoes were stolen, all his rafting clothes were stolen (he still manned-up and got on), we both had issues finding a plane which would take us to the correct airstrip in the interior, Pete got ill as a result of infected cuts on his hands, Vladimir also got ill from infected cuts picked up on his walk-in. In short, I think we were schooled in the art of manliness.<\/p>\n Here are a few of Vladimir’s photos of his solo descent:<\/p>\n Brilliantly this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even the first time<\/a> I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve\u00c2\u00a0claimed a remote first descent, only to later find that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been beaten to it (again, by Russians). I guess the moral of the story is: no matter how remote your venture, no matter how unique your idea, no matter how gnarly the rapid; someone (undoubtedly a Russian) has been there before you and solo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d it in his one-man raft and homemade kit.<\/p>\n Respect is most definitely\u00c2\u00a0due to the pioneers of our sport!<\/p>\n Many thanks to the following generous organisations, without whom we’d not even have got anywhere near the river: <\/em>Transglobe Expedition Trust<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Welsh Sports Association<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Canoe England<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>RawCut TV<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Pyranha Kayaks<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Palm Equipment<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The kayaking world isn’t like the mountaineering world. Traditionally being gentlemen of high regard, mountaineers have always kept accurate records of their achievements. Kayakers, traditionally being scumbags, have not. This has led to much pub (and internet) based based banter over who ran what first. It’s getting more and more difficult to find that elusive … <\/p>\n![\"Our](\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Engan_Air_Sugapa_landed.jpg\")
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\nCessna at Sugapa airstrip. Photo: Pete Woods<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>
\nNegotiating one of the many obstacles on the jungle walk-in<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/a>
\nChris’s diary cam<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/a>
\nFirst rapid of the expedition<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<\/a>
\nKayak fashion vs Papuan fashion, Photo: Pete Woods<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n