Georgia trip/Chirukhistskali

The day the shit hit the fan big time... A quick blast down the Adjari from the campsite to the previous day's take-out brought us immediately to the confluence with a side river which according to Egor should be 'interesting' and 'fun'. Driving up the side valley, we did not notice too much special except for the road being quite steep. There was some debate on the water level which in the end was classified as 'not high' but more than 'medium', all a bit arbitrary as no one had ever paddled the river this high!.

Probably Egor hoped for Ward and me to bottle out like some of the Norwegian, French and Russian national teams but we decided that it was time to show a sample of true Nirjharian spirit... A bit closer to the put-in this river seemed quite fast and steep and once in our boats, this ditch felt like a Melach or Lonza on steroids. Still good fun in the beginning, hostilities really started at the entrance of the second gorge with a sequence of munchy stoppers that nearly stopped my Director dead and made me balancing way too long between being pulled back to a very unfriendly place or going with the outgoing flow. After this, I decided to pull my blades a bit harder but still had difficulties keeping up with Egor and co. The close calls with stoppers of all sorts continued as the river kept on giving and giving for about 8km in total...

Towards the end and after portaging an unrunnable section, Ward and I started having visions about the take out bridge, obviously not because we were tired but just to give the guys and girls that skipped this section the opportunity to paddle something easier later on. While Ward was contemplating a well deserved smoke, he somehow managed to capsize and end up in a small stoppery stopper (imagine t' Kapoentje in his Dourbie stopper last fall and magnify by 10). Impressive rescue work by Egor on a river that now ressembled an angry Gyr, including the rolling rocks, managed to secure the boat just before the take-out. What a river!

Just to top things off, we still paddled a lower section on the Adjari, 6km of big water in a very friendly package, excellent cool down.

After close to 30km of river running, we were happily informed that we would spend the night in a Georgian guesthouse. Dinner was excellent and people most welcoming. Tradition seems to be that as soon as a plate gets finished, they put on a new one until everybody is completely saturated. In the end, turned out that we would be spending the night in a neighbouring house. Sure enough, past midnight, we were again invited to join the owner for tsjai and cake...


The put in, not time to warm up...


Continuous...


Manky rapid


Small drop


Keep cool!

Medevaarders