2004-07-30 - Between heaven and hell
Kulu, tributary river to Kolyma
E 520682
N 682097 (Old Sovjet Grid)
Johan Ivarsson;
At last, at last, we are on our way! After all this time of preparations and waiting, we´ve finally been able to get in the canoe. How well the first day ended is open for discussion!
The transport to Kulu took 10 hours. Our driver for the day Mr. Brown, a very pleasant person, picked us up at the institute at 07.30. A trip with a lot of nice views and interesting roads. Even if the roads was better than expected, there was still some parts that could easily be misstaken as something else than a road. But we made it to were we wanted, that´s what´s counts at the end of the day. The river is wonderful!
Perfect water for paddling, one can almost sit back and relax. So far, I should add. The packing of the canoe went very well. We are heavy, 360 kg;s, but everything fitted in the canoe.
We paddled a couple of kilometers looking for a good spot to pitch the tent for the night, far away from the road. As you all know, both me and Mikael is crazy about fishing. So the first thing we did when we found a good spot was to grab our fishing gear to try the luck. A bit to fast it turned out. Mikael got, after a short while, stuck on the bottom and when he tried to get it loose, we heard a cracking sound. The rod broke! We couldn´t believe it! It is supposed to be professional gear! The first day! Could it get worse? Yes, when pitching the tent, a Swedish Moskoselcot, we found out that it was totally impossible to get the poles into the ground. No big rocks close by so we had to use the saw. On top of is, the mosquitoes! I haven´t, ever, in my entire life seen so many mosquitos at once.
The day started good but ended in kaos. What will tomorrow be like? |
