The student life.(+a video!)

So, my first term at Uni was not very productivel in terms of kayaking, but there was a lot of other stuff going on, including drama, rowing and climbing, the lack of a car in Oxford also meant I had to rely on other people.
By the end of term I was desperate for a white water hit, so on the day after the end of term I headed down to Exeter for the Sunday of the G17 weekend to paddle with Hugh Graham and got the Upper Dart at the perfect level and a cheeky run down the Erme.
After that I headed up to North Wales to meet up with Broadley and did a few runs of the Fairy Glen, a new river for me, and it didnt go smoothly with a deck implosion on Fairy Falls forcing me bail. We did it again the next day which went a lot better.
No photos of this, but I have made a brief video from some shots I got over the last year.
Wanderings:

Wanderings 2009 from Nick Roberts on Vimeo.

Wet West Paddle Fest 2010

I had a great time at the Wet West Paddle Fest, this was my first time to go there and I headed up with Jono and Chase
The Garry was fairly dull, but the party on saturday night was great, caught up with loads of friends and drank Slovenian wine.
The Morriston on sunday was fantastic, with a big first drop and some fun rapids, the organisers did a fantastic job with regular minibuses making it easy to do laps.
We stayed on the next day to paddle the Falls of Lora tidal waves which were at the best levels for the year and formed a really good standing wave.
Cant wait for next year!

Eurotrip - Austria,Switzerland,Slovenia

As summer rapidly came to an end an exchange of emails with Sandy Douglas led to a hastily made plan to head to Austria to try to catch the last of the meltwater in the Alps.
The plan was to first drive to Graz in the East of Austria via the slalom course in Augsburg where we would visit my friend Paula and subsequently to head west to the Austrian Alps.

Graz was the first stop, for some city surfing and sightseeing. There are two features created by the bridges in Graz, when we were there the top wave was working and the bottom feature was a tricky hole.
After leaving Graz we headed west to find some real white water. The first stop on our journey was Laussa falls, a nice 7 metre park and huck drop. All should have gone well until I narrowly avoided a swim after a deck implosion lead to me almost getting stuck at the bottom of the fall.

A few hours more driving later and the next day we found ourselves in the Oetz Valley.
The first river we paddled was the Lower Oetz, which was a dull easy wave train. Things improved dramatically with the Pitzbach, which we paddled with two Germans, a low volume technical run which started high up a beautiful valley. We also completed runs on the Upper Oetz, the Wolfs Gorge, anda fun bumpy run on the Upper Lanquart and the Venter Ache, though levels on rivers other than the Oetz could have used more water.

Sandy Cruising on the Pitzbach

After a few days in the Oetz valley Sandy had to leave and I made my way to Thun to watch the last weekend of the World Freestyle Championship, I managed to grab a sofa in the house of the Irish team thanks to Mark and joined in the last couple of nights of partying as well as getting to paddle the fantastic Weiss Leutschine with Julian and Mark, after doing laps of the waterfall at the top.
As the weekend ended I headed north to go home, I stopped at Bremgarten wave for a play. There I met a few of the guys from the British team and a plan emerged to make the journey to Slovenia to paddle the Soca river.

A combination of beautiful paddling, cheap wine, and sleeping by the river made for an awesome few days relaxation before the drive back home

Lamu - "A man without a donkey, is a donkey"

After a long time on the Nile, the urge to travel led me, Mark Leonard an Irish kayaker who is always good craic and Lizzie Fritts one of my fellow volunteer kayakers on an adventure to Lamu on the Kenyan coast in search of surf, culture and adventure.

The journey to Lamu took over 24 hours through Kenya via Nairobi and Mombasa by bus, with kayaks followed by a trip on the ferry before arriving in Lamu and renting a room.
We spent our time in Lamu looking for new surf spots, as we were as far as we knew the first people to bring kayaks to Lamu.

Dhow Trip - Photo by Lizzie Fritts

We had some success and found one excellent point break, unfortunalely I didnt get many good photos of the surf.

Lamu is one island in an archepelago off the east coast of Africa - it is originally Swahili town and still remains relatively unspoilt by tourism, the centre of the town is a maze of narrow allies and backstreets, transport around the town is by donkey and there are only two cars on the island, the town ambulance and the majors car. Outside the town we found miles of deserted beaches.

The Nile - Paddling

The first major rapid is Bujagali falls, its only a short distance downstream which means multiple laps after a day at the clinic.

Matt Roberts gets a Boda-Boda back from the Silverback section

Me, Sandy and Latif headed down for our first run of Kalagala - a game of scissor paper stone and I headed down pushing right to avoid an enormous hole.
Sunset Session on Nile Special - Photo by Mark Leonard

Good Times on the Nile

Once a week a group of us go down to Walakuba West Primary School where we run sports and arts and crafts lessons for a class of deaf children.

The fruit in Uganda, a million times better than at home. In this photo is Amina Tayona, who I have been teaching to kayak, she definately has a bright future ahead of her.

Life in Bujagali

For the last two weeks since I got to Uganda I have been living in Bujagali, Uganda, by the banks of the White Nile.

My home at the moment is a tent in the campsite is Nile Rivers Explorers campsite. When I arrived at NRE I had been expecting a packed campsite full of kayakers from all over the world. However it turns out that May is the low season and there are not a lot of people around, except when an overland truck comes through every couple of day, which always guarantees a lively night at the NRE bar.

It didn't take long to find people to get on the river with though, and I have had plenty of paddling on the White Nile. The first time I got on the river was with Nini and Erika from Norway to paddle the NRE-Silverback section of the river. It was my first proper experience of big water paddling, and very different to the rivers I've paddled in New Zealand and the UK. My first impression was that it was easier than I expected, as most of the rapids, whilst big, are fairly short and with few consequences, this was a major underestimation of the river, as I found out on Silverback, a slide into a massive wavetrain, which ripped my deck off my boat as I paddled through it. In the last two weeks I have managed to explore a lot of the river but there's still a lot of backchannels to paddle, there really is an amazing variety of rapids and I am looking forwardto finding some new lines and maybe trying some of the most famous and difficult rapids on the river, such as Itanda.

During the week I have been volunteering with Soft Power Health, they have a clinic in Bujagali, just a five minute walk away from the NRE campsite. The first thing you notice is how welcoming the Ugandan people are, walking to the clinic through the village all the children come up to you calling "Mzungu!Mzungu, How are you?" and I often end up with a crowd of children walking with me to the clinic. The clinic was set up a few years ago and employs Ugandan doctors and staff. They do fantastic work treating the local population for all kinds of diseases including malaria which seems to make up almost half of the cases, for prices they can afford, this kind of clinic didn't exist before in Bujagali and attracts people from many nearby and less nearby vilages. As a volunteer I have been based on the clinic, but also going out on outreach prograns into further villages where we sell subsidised mosquito treated bed nets and educate the people how to use them, this means going into villages where very few tourists go and really getting to know the Ugandan people.

Unloading a delivery of bed nets

Annie demonstrating the bed nets

There's also been a surprising amount going on in and around Jinja, including the Great Gorilla marathon, run on the banks of the nile from Jinja to Bujagali in baking heat and with muddy roads, I opted to marshall rather than run but did enter a 5 kilometer race which, run at the hottest part of the day and whilst I was the second place Mzungu (white person) was nowhere near some of the locals.

I have also been experiencing the local culture at a concert for the launch of "Bread and Butter"s new album in Jinja last Saturday night. After pushing our way in to what sounded like a massive party we found most of the locals sitting down appreciating the music (a mix of rap and reggae sung, horribly badly, in Ugandan, with the exception of "Say no to human sacrifice, say no to evil rituals") most of the people were drunken Mzungu's. Despite the music it turned out to be an awesome night out, and very different to anything I'd seen before in Uganda.

My new home in Bujagali

Over a week has passed since I left the UK and arrived, almost 24 hours later, at Nile River Explorers campsite in Bujagali, Uganda.

I am camping at the NRE campsite,at the moment it is very definately low season, with only a couple of kayakers, and a very small community of volunteers making up most of the semi-permanent population. Evwhich is the base from which raft trips leave to go down the White Nile. This means every couple of days an overland truck pulls up full of rafters.

Boda-boda's are the mode of transport both from the river and into the town of Jinja.
The Soft Power Health Clinic where I'm working

Off to Uganda!

The day has finally come, and I'm all packed up ready to go to Uganda, for three months, returning August 12th
I will be out there volunteering for Soft Power Health. Soft Power Health is a charity run by Dr Jessie Stone, a kayaker and doctor who was appalled by the effects of Malaria she found when on a kayaking expedition to Uganda and set up Soft Power Health to do something about it.
I found out about Soft Power Health in a kayaking magazine about this time last year and immediately knew I wanted to volunteer with them, its hard to believe that its actually happened and I'm about to leave. Since then numorous emails have been exchanged between me and Soft Power, many begging letters have been sent and in the last few weeks the details have started to come together, with flights booked, insurance sorted, tent bought and packing (almost) complete. I'm flying out with 1 kayak, 1 bag and 1 hand luggge bag, and despite ruthless culling am still over the weight limit
Soft Power Health provides education, prevention and treatment for Malaria, one of the bigget killers in Uganda. As a volunteer I will be involved in various aspects of this, though I don't quite know what to expect.
I will also hope to do some kayaking out there in my spare time as SPH is based close to the White Nile.



For more information check out
www.softpowerhealth.org

All soft power volunteers are required to raise the money themselves and adonation of $75-100 is expected per week
Thanks to a number of organisations who I wrote to who have helped me out financially:
The Haberdashers Company
Allan & Nesta Ferguson Trust
Rotary Club of Chepstow
Lions Club International
Old Monmothians Club

Back to Wales

I've had a good 5 and a bit weeks now since I've been back and I haven't been totally idle.
Its been great to catch up with friends and compare stories, of other people's travels and university life.
I've also managed to get a little bit of kayaking done, including a trip to the Bitches and the Teifi on a family trip to West Wales. The Bitches, a tidal rapid off Ramsay Island in Pembroke were a highlight. It was a unique experience for me paddling through a moving current with huge waves for half a mile, before surfing standing waves in the sea.
I also got myself on an instructors course at Llandysul paddlers in West Wales. I learned a lot about teaching kayaking, as well as gaining a few tips for my own boating. We were taught a lot about how to structure a kayaking session for beginners and coach towards intermediate level. All I need to do now is get my canoeing up to speed and I'll be a qualified UKCC Level 1 Coach, and so could be paid to teach kayaking.
I've also been kept very busy planning my trip to Uganda...

West Coast - And then the rain came

Eventually, the rain did come, lots of it. The rivers were flooded.
We started off with Blue Bottle Creek, usually the river is just a trickle, in flood in truned to a chocolate coloured torrent with no eddies to be found, and rocks invisible and it took our first casualty, Ross took a swim after being caugt on some submerged rocks, his boat carried on downstream, hotly pursued by Toni, and was rescued, his paddle also floated off, not to be recovered until a week later when we returned to the river, which had emptied by then. Ross then had to walk out through though thick bust to get out.

Charlie B getting some air on Airmail on the Kakapotahi

The Upper Kakapotahi was next on the hit list. Despite advice from Yan, who had paddled the river before and insisted it was too high, me Toni and Steffan were determined to paddle it. After waiting a day for it to go down (about a centremetre) we got on at late afternoon. On the first of seven drops, Toni swam after getting stuck at the bottom of a drop, all was fine and we carried on through the second and third drop sweet as. The fourth and fifth drop, Postmans Falls and Airmail are known to be the hardest. We got to postmans and realised it was impossible to pick a line down the rapid from the boat. We had to climb up the steep walls of the canyon to try to have a look but when even this failed, we were forced to haul our boats out with throwbags and try and make our way to the road. The next day we were back with lower levels and this time conquered the river. Success.
That week continued with an awesome paddle on the Toaroah and another walk into the Styx.

Toni George drops in
Into the tunnel on KakapotahiWaterfall on the Toaroah

World Famous in New Zealand

Me and Toni then left to the West Coast to head to Bullerfest, a kayaking festival held in Murchison, New Zealand. Which included a number of competitions as well as massive parties.
First up was the boater cross, a short race with 5 kayakers at a time going as fast as they can down a rapid of the Matataki river. In my first race I came second out of four, giving me a good heat for the second race. In the second race though I got off to a bad start which Icouldn't make up for and ended up coming 4th out of 6 and being knocked out. The big air competions was also a lot of fun, with a specially built ramp being used to pull flips, spins and airscrews before landing in the water, I went backwards, and attempted a flip, but it didn't quite happen. I also entered the slalom, and raft race, however our raft had a big hole in and we sank and had to be rescued.
Everything kicked off in the evenings first at the Commercial Hotel and then with a neon party hosted by Ultimate Descents and building human pyramids in the middle of the road.



It was now time to head back North for the plane on the 20th and for the legendary Fuljames trip the weekend before. Toni had a plane to catch ridiulously early in the morning, so we drove up to Nelson and camped in a park by the airport to ensure we could get there. I made my way North by ferry accomponied by dolphins and headed back to Auckland. On route I paid a visit to Katrina in the Wairapara and we raced sticks down a stream to get our fix of whitewater.
It was then on to Gisborne where I stayed with my cousin Celia, where I attempted surfing (its not easy) swam with a dolphin (he found the kayak really interesting, and tried to capsize me) and visited the Rere waterfall, and Rere rockslide. I then headed back to Auckland to sell my car

Rere rock slide - photo by celia

My final weekend in New Zealand was spent at Fuljames near Taupo and AUCC's annual trip and excuse to get excessively drunk and go kayaking. My mission was to run the famous Huka falls, where the Waikato river narrows into a steep gorge before finally dropping 25 foot.


Four of us were keen to run it, Me, Toni, and Pete from AUCC and Eric, a slalom paddler and friend of Toni and Pete. We waited till evening, as that as when the flow is at its lowest, before getting on. Eric and Toni went first, followed by me and then Pete. As I set off I could see Eric and Toni going down the gorge seemingly OK, I failed to boof the first weir and got, briefly recirculated, before coming out, shaken but fine. I then headed down to meet Eric and Toni in the last eddy before the drop. With a bit of effort I made it and watched Pete come down. Pete got rolled on a drop called Pencil Sharpener and got pushed sideways into a recirculating eddy. He tried to get out but every time he tried he got pushed back, he couldn't get out. I was watching from the eddy below, but couldn't do anything, and it was getting darker. The next 15 minutes felt like an age. I paddled down the falls, in fading light and came out at the bottom. Pete ended up having to be pulled out of the gorge by throwbags. Me, Toni and Erik then had to make our way thorugh bush for almost an hour in the dark, to get out of the river. In the end though everyone made it to the party that night and we all appreciated the power of the river a lot

A few more days to sort stuff out and it ws time to say goodbye to all the people I had met in New Zealand and head back to the UK to plan my next mission.

New Zealand is a beautiful country, with some stunning rivers. But it was thanks to all the awesome people I met and paddled with that I know I will definately go back, it was sweet as.

"I'm like gold...

"I'm like gold... ...I'm maleable, precious, girls like me and I can sometimes be found in rivers"

We arrived eventually in Nelson, in the north west of South Island after a relaxed drive and stay in Christchurch and up the East coast, where we picked up Toni George, and after a few days warm up in murch headed south to Hokitika where the plan was to paddle some of the challenging techinical West Coast Heli rivers.

Heli Tripping on the West Coast

River levels were low but we managed a successful mission on the Hokitika Canyon and me and Toni also paddled the Wanganui river which was a fantastic glacier fed river which turned from a tight technical creek into big water as it joined another river, made all the better by the sunshine beating down on us all day. We tried to walk into the Styx, but an hours hike with boats only gave a scrapey river, it was clear more rain was needed to make the rivers paddleable.

This meant a chilled out few weeks, hoping for rain whilst keeping ourselves occupied by builidng shelters on the beach, learning gymnastics, playing singstar, going paintballing and learning to slackline as well as a trip to paddle the freezing cold meltwater of the Franz Josef glacier, where you had to watch out for pieces of ice floating down with you.

Ross Whitome paddling on meltwater from Franz Josef glacier

Touristing up the East Coast

We left fiordland to head up the East Coast, via Slope point the most southerly point in New Zealnad (and furthest South I had ever been) and back noth. On the way north we did some sightseeing.

Dunedin was our first port of call, a famous university down based on Edinburgh, we visited Cadbury World (and found that New Zealand chocolates don't get close to British chocolates) and drove my old beaten up Subaru Legacy up the steepest street in the world, Baldwin Street, down which we also raced Jaffa's, hard red couloured sweets.

We continued north to the Maoraki boulder, amazingly spherical rocks which look the the eggs of some giant dinosour and seem to have been placed in a cluster on a beach.

Ross Whittome, Katrina Allen and Nick Roberts on Maoraki Boulders, photo by Victoria Anderson