A new day on the Faravory

The view downstream

Rhod, thrilled while protecting an undercut in the gorge

Day 2 on the Faravory was quite different to day 1, with steeper and narrower rapids.  At one point we reached a deep gorge which was difficult to inspect.  We spent some time picking our way between the boulders beneath the towering rock walls.  This river had some powerful holes and this whole section reminded me of the Guardian Angel gorge in the French Alps, complete with the undercuts.  Amongst the many ledges and chutes was a small drop into a big hole.  There was a funky line which involved riding up onto the pile down onto the hole; getting carried right to avoid the undercut rocks blocking the left side.  We all got through with varying degrees of success.  Dory had an exciting moment when he pushed too hard left at the top and hit the undercut.  He managed to hold himself in the micro eddy the wrong side of the house sized boulder with water gushing passed him into the jaws of doom.  Rhod eventually got to him to hold him steady as he climbed out.

Dory entering the gorge

The rapids continued for most of the day with a variety of features.  After a short flat spell we reached another horizon line.  I jumped out on a rock in the middle of the river and saw an incredible view as the river dropped away in front of me.  The first waterfall was a wide, near vertical slide with two different lines.  Either sneak left of the entry hole and drop down at the edge, or punch the hole at the top and run it centre.  This was a drop we all wanted the first descent of so we used the classic method of “rock, paper, scissors” to decide.  Jo won and styled the first descent down the left.  We all paddled this one and both lines saw descents.

Jo's enjoying a first on the first waterfall

By now an audience had grown and looking downstream there were groups of people watching us as far as I could see, and I could see quite far because at the exit of the plunge pool the river crashed over a second, bigger and more jagged drop which quickly flowed into a long and horribly choked rapid.  The rapid was probably runnable but we didn’t take the time to properly inspect it, opting to portage instead.  The waterfall looked good though, and without any other contenders for the first descent I got to claim this one.  From the pool at the top I couldn’t see anything.  It was very difficult to recognise my line with only sky ahead and no markers, and hitting my line was important because on the left the river landed on sharp rocks and on the right it fed into a deep slot against the wall.  Between the two was a huge bump creating a perfect kicker, if you could find it!

As I got close enough to see over the edge I knew it was going well.  With a big right stroke I pushed the front up onto the peak of the bump then I took a big boof stroke, crunched forward and landed flat to the right of the rocks with enough momentum to carry me straight into the eddy.

Me, boofing it

Mandy on the waterfall section

Rhod ran it second, taking the same line with a big boof.  Next up Jo, who slipped off the side of the mound down into the slot and into the unknown.  Luckily the landing was deep and she resurfaced still smiling.  Mandy followed Jo into the slot landing hard on her side and wrenching her shoulder but luckily didn’t do any damage.  Nothing that a cocktail of painkillers and some scary rapids wouldn’t take her mind off anyway.  Last up was Dan with another big boof off the kicker.

Always an audience

The rapids continued past the cheering crowds at the village below, and onwards deeper into the jungle, gradually getting harder as the day grew longer, or perhaps as we were getting more tired.  We desperately looked for a beach to camp at, not wanting to get caught in the dark.  As the sun sunk in the sky we grew less fussy and kept an eye out for some grass, or mud or even somewhere flat.  At a sharp ninety degree left hand bend where the river plunged far into another deep gorge we gave up and pitched camp amongst the long grass and stick insects in a small clearing amongst the banana trees.  It went dark quickly.  We were exhausted which made pitching tents, cooking food or even sorting through our stuff difficult.  We watched the fire flies dancing in the darkness before climbing into our tents, collapsing with fatigue.

Me, somewhere on the Faravory

A hideous boulder choke

The third day started well with continuous grade 4 rapids.  After a while it eased off and there was a lot of flat occasionally broken up with short boulder rapids.  There was one very long boulder choke which took the best part of an hour to climb through and over until we reached the point where the river bubbled up again from beneath the rocks.  We paid local people 5000 ariary (about £1.60) each, more than the average Malagasy daily wage, to help us with our kayaks.

Dan, buried in a long rapid

Rhod on some slides

By early afternoon we were getting hungry and not wanting to risk running out of food we stopped to ask a man at some banana trees if we could buy some.  They took Rhod away, and he emerged twenty minutes later with a bag filled with hot boiled green bananas which tasted like potatoes.  They had taken him to a small house made of sticks with a palm leaf roof where the owner of the plantation had given him her evening meal and refused to let him pay.  We must have looked very weary!

Refuelled, we paddled the last few miles of easy water down to the Mananjary completing the second ever descent of the Faravory, with numerous first descents of individual rapids along the way.  I think it’s fair to say we were all pretty excited to reach this point and know there was only another seventeen kilometres to the takeout.

The Mananjary was very different in character.  It was enormous.  Over one hundred feet wide but deep and flowing through relatively open land it was far less intense than the Faravory.  It was also flowing much more quickly and we soon reached the first rapid.  We opted for a small channel taking us over a rocky ledge, rather than the enormous hole to its right, or wasting time inspecting the other channels.  The water above was pushing hard into the main line so it was difficult to hit the channel in the middle.  Dan scraped his way down the jagged wall jamming his paddle in a crack.  After paddling down Jo had to hold my kayak steady as I scrambled out and up onto the rock splitting the channels to dislodge it.

 

Soon we reached another rapid and I was glad of Jo’s big volume experience to pick a line, and Mandy’s big volume experience to go first.  It was HUGE.  As I dropped over the horizon line, staring down the green tongue into a crashing wall of water I was sceptical.  As I hit the hole I put all my energy into fighting left so as not to get swallowed up by the bigger hole further down on the right.  We had mixed lines on this one too; Dory emerging at the end with a split helmet.

Local transport

That evening we camped on a big sandy beach.  Again, the locals paddled over in their dug-out canoes to watch us.  In the morning we paddled another two hours.  The first kilometre had some grade two rapids, and then it was flat until we reached the take out at mid day. 

The road and village at the take out

 All the photos on this page were taken by Jo Meares