Yangtze River Adventure

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The Cold Wet Night

The three rafts had gone ahead, carrying only three oarsmen. Left behind were two Chinese oarsmen, Zhang, and Xu; a Chinese news photographer and writer; four members of the film crew and their gear, and Paul Sharpe, the kayaking cinematographer, and myself. The idea was to load the remaining raft and float down to the camp that Ken, Ron, and Chu were establishing. It was late in the day, however, and our first attempts to drag the raft out of the eddy were not successful so we decided to wait until morning of the next day, having exhausted ourselves.

That night we found caves among the boulders where we huddled for warmth, as most of our personal gear had floated on with the three rafts. It began to rain and the temperature dropped, but we were able to stay dry. The next morning we loaded the raft with a little of the gear and Zhang and I took the oars, with John Glascock along for ballast. We pulled on the oars, trying to get into the current, only got loads of water over the tubes, making it more difficult to get up speed to join the current. Then, as luck would have it we popped into the swift current, pivoted on a submerged boulder, and my oar snagged on my life jacket, dipping into the river at a steep angle, lifting me off my seat. John grabbed for me and the raft was levered over.

Upside down now, the raft a roof, I remarked to John that at least the raft was emptied of water. We ducked underwater, got on top, and spotted Zhang floating downstream. The current was still swift, but there was no whitewater in sight, so we were able to get the spare oars off and use them to row, sort of, until we came to where the other boats had pulled over. The three oarsmen were dismayed to see us, arriving upside down, knowing that the others were upstream without a paddle or raft.

Paul Shape filmed part of the capsize, but our flip happened just as we went behind a boulder from his standpoint. So there it is, a raft, and then an upside down raft. He ferried film equipment from the eddy to camp several times, filling the small space is Campkayak afforded. Then it came time to tow and guide the others, who had to jump into the river with only their lifejackets for aid. The river allowed them an uneventful float, and soon we were all drying off around a fire near an old stone hut, used by yak or sheep herders.

The raft flip had consequences we did not foresee. Our base radio was packed in a waterproof Pelican hard case. A thin rubber ring serves as a gasket and must be in place to keep the water out. This case was lashed to my raft, the one that flipped. The last person to pack the radio away neglected to put the gasket in place, and we did not know until too late that the radio no longer functioned.

 

First Descent
Death on the Yangtze
Yushu
To Dege
Three Boat Rapid
Cold Night
Dege
River of Doom
Bigger Better
Aftermath
5 Day Camp
Meanwhile
Adventure's End
Overland
Map

 

Continued