Indonesian Dreams

Ever dreamed about kayaking first descents every day for a week? Indonesia is known for its legendary reef breaks and island resorts, enough to satisfy any surfers dream. We too, were here as water men, but not water from the sea but rather the equatorial rain forest run-off, which creates some of the most remote, unique and challenging kayaking to be found on the planet. Because of the hype around the beaches and reef breaks, this area of West Sumatra was largely unknown. In fact the government, who coincidently invited us the region of Solak Seletan, had no maps of the area for us to scout from! To complicate things further – one month prior to our departure there was a devastating earthquake in Padang, 120 km from where we would be based, killing over 1000 people and destroying over 80% of all the government buildings. Because of the lack of excavators, some people still remain buried under the rubble.  A week prior to our departure we got word from Toto, the expedition co-ordinator, who said that roads had been repaired enough to make our way to base camp and that all was back on track.Indonesia comprises of 17 508 island and has a population of over 230 million, being the worlds fourth most populous region. This was definitely not the case where we were off to. We flew into Padang via Cape Town, Dubai, Jakarta and after 40 hours of flight time were left wondering if it was truly worth the cheaper flight. Regardless, Fluid Kayaks had sponsored our Kayaks our bags were packed and we were shipped of for another 4 hr drive into the mountains. We woke to the spectacular view of the volcanic mountain in our region and moved off to meet our host family and the rest of the team of kayakers for the expedition. Our mandate – to find and paddle as may rivers in two weeks to see which are suitable to market kayaking as a destination sport in the Solak Seletan region of West Sumatra. My first impression or the region was of the green rain forest surrounding the veins of rivers heading towards the coast. Much like Nepal, the roads often follow the rivers, which make scouting the main rivers around the villages relatively easy. Unlike Nepal, the locals had not seen Westerners before, or if they had, they had forgotten what we looked like? Shy stares turned into inquisitive looks. Travelling with Hugh Du Preeze, being 2metres tall, didn’t allow us to blend in seeing as though the locals were not much taller than pigmies. In fact, it’s probably the only time I have felt tall before!We met up with Toto, who was our expedition co-ordinator, as well as Sigit (Billy the kid), Puji and Agus (jo-jo) the rest of the Indo team. To save time, they  had done all the groundwork with regards scouting, access and speaking to the locals. We had 4 major rivers in mind, warming up on some class 3 on the middle and lower sections before heading up into the mountains to try and find the steeper stuff.

Bantang Liki

This is river is characterised by a steep low volume creek at the top put in. Locals gathered everywhere we stopped to get a glimpse of something they had never encountered before. At times traffic on the bridges came to a standstill! Although a low volume river, the banks have evidence that in rainy season – it can rise over two meters and would become a very intense section of river. There are little or no pools and the gradient is very continuous and you have to be fairly awake at times. In the middle section, the river collect various tributaries and changes it’s nature to a medium volume creek. You enter two gorges where the river goes away from the road leaving the feeling of total solitude surrounded by large canyon walls dripping with most laden foliage. The lower reaches maintain gradient but have less features to worry about resulting in great class 3 action. The river is followed by the road most of the way making put-ins and take-outs a pleasure and you can experience close up the life of rural Indonesians harvesting rice, hard wood from the forests as well as subsistence fishing.

Bantang Sangir

Below the impressive 60M high Rainbow Falls we came across this amazing river. The access for the middle section was still good with a short walk in to a swing bridge where, at first sight it was evident that this river was a definite step up from what we had encountered so far. The gradient was much steeper making the speed of the water significantly faster with fewer eddies and the banks we lined with dense rain forest making scouting difficult. We were a little concerned about some of the local central Java paddlers, as a swim here would most likely result in the loss of equipment and a lengthy walk out through the dense forest. The river was full of wave’s holes and pourovers making it a challenging run ending with a solid class 4 rapid just before the take out bridge. Puji, one of the local paddlers, took two swims but we managed to gather his equipment and set him on his way again. This River had huge potential – as we had only managed 20km of it! We came back later in the trip and paddled the lower section down to the confluence with the Bantang Liki. This section was a great class 3 section with amazing scenery and constant action. With these two sections behind us Hugh, Adrian, Argus and myself decided to head up to see if we could find a put-in further upstream. We managed to hook up with a local woodcutter who harvests Cinnamon in the area who managed to cut us a path to the water. The character of the river had changed, leaving more formed and challenging rapids, some long sections littered with holes and pourovers – resulting in a nasty swim for Augus close to our previous put-in. Luckily some swift rescue work saw both swimmer and equipment recovered. There still remains the section below rainbow falls, but this section has rarely been seen and has a 2 hr portage to a put-in through dense forest. There are stories about multiple waterfalls and overall it seems very committing….

Life in Indonesia

Our host family had evacuated their traditional house and made room for us to live over the next two weeks. Somehow they all fitted in to a smaller side room but not only that, they were able to provide us constantly with excellent meals 3 times a day! Rice is the main staple dish being served with side dishes of chicken, beef and vegetables. The chicken is cooked either in spice sauce or crumbed and cooked solidly. Spices, notably chilli, coconut milk, fish and chicken are fundamental ingredients to go with the rice. Noodles are often served at breakfast. Get used to this as every meal is pretty much the same variety! Also milk and dairy products are not big here, so cheese lovers, be warned! Outside the road remains constantly busy, the main road servicing the entire Region. The flow of motorcycles is only slowed reaching 12 pm, but starts up less than six hours later with locals bussing themselves throughout the day. Sites of six people on a scooter were not uncommon and the locals are incredibly innovative when coming to transport.Being invited by the Government meant that we had to make regular appearances at government offices, the more bizarre one being with the leader of the region. We were shipped off to his brand new government building into a conference room with various high level officials. Seated, Celleirs broke the news that I would be talking on behalf of the international paddlers leaving me with very little preparation and a vast audience of government onlookers. Things don’t happen fast in Sumatra, but eventually we were all ushered to rise and the leader of the region arrived and proceeding started. All seemed to go well as there were laughs as Toto was translating my tales. He did seem to talk longer than I did which implied that he was making his own stories up but with the smiles, all was good. It didn’t stop there though, we were then followed around by a reporter and photographer for the rest of the week as well as appearing on national television with over 200million viewers!

Bantang Bangko

This river ran through the village we were staying in. It started off as a real lame class two but coming around a corner, the nature of the river changed with a class 5 drop of about 3m with a tight exit followed by one of the most scenic class 3 runs available. This river is also the area of gold mining and migrant labourers searching for the reward surround the take out. It was amazing to see how driven the locals were with this so called ‘gold rush’. I have read about it, seen movies but here in front of us, locals were living in the rain forest miles from anyone, surviving on rice, diving 15 hours a day with make shift compressors and diving apparatus? Might make you think next time you buy you gold chain ..........This river carries on past our take out and eventually joins up with the Sungai Bantang Hari. It has not been paddled yet.

Sungai Lambai

We descide to look for something a little steeper, with more drops we could take photo’s on. The Sungai Lambai was where we had scouted the double drop waterfall, and we figured that there must be something upstream to work with. We paid a local to cut us a path to a put-in higher up. The River was very low volume but when it canalised it produced some great drops including running the lead up the double drop which was intensified by the largest undercut siphon I have come across ! Not the most difficult drop but the consequences were intense.Back on the lip of the double drop all the nervousness returns. In hindsight, we should have run it the day we scouted, as the levels were ideal leaving a soft landing in the pool. When we returned, it hadn’t rained for a week since arriving and the levels had dropped of leaving a rocky entrance as well as a pretty tight landing leaving little margin for error. Scouting the base of the falls we noticed the depth around the boil of the falls to be only half a paddles depth with only a deep section where the boil was. Mmm..Not ideal but this was the final challenge of the trip and we were well warmed up!Heading upstream to find the path we had cut to scout the drop a week previously, I am trying to visualise the drop in my mind, going through all the senario’s and consequences but more importantly, visualising the perfect run and what was needed to hit the mark. At the base of the first drop, the air was moist and there was a heavy forest smell. Moss left the rock so slippery that it felt like ice. In the middle of these two impressive drops, there was certain calm about my thoughts. I new what was needed and I was prepared. Slipping into the water there was a sudden wave of fear looking over my shoulder, I was face with an abyss. I picked my mark and committed. The sense of freefall is incredible, time standing still for what seems like and eternity broken only by the paddle shaft glancing off my lip on impact – perfect run.

In Summery

Indonesia is one of the few places in the world where you can paddle uncharted rivers at will, the locals welcome you with a warm smiles and a genuine interest and will help you in any way they can. Travelling needs to be pre arranged as there is very little if any tourism info structure. English is not commonly spoken so it is advisable to hook up with a guide to help with the logistics. The culture of this region is very evident with most people still living in traditional houses. Rivers range from easy to challenging, class 3 to class 6. If you ask Indonesia will provide… 

Paddlers:

South Africa : AndrewKellett, Celleirs Kruger, Hugh DuPreeze, Adrian Tragoning

Central Java - Indonesia : Toto Triwindarto, Argus Hermansah(Jo – Jo), Sigit Setiyanto(Billy the Kid), Puji Jaya Haryanto

To weiw Andrew's pictures, click below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ak4foot7/IndonesiaSelectionAKPhotoS#