Three weeks ago I arrived back to Germany from my 6-monthstrip to Southamerica. It was one of my best times I´ve ever had and here is the last report about my kayakingstories over there:
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| -Alpaca chilling, pic: Helga Lehner- |
Since my last entry I could finish my practical internship in Concepcion and so I had 6 weeks more just for kayaking. everybody of my friends were hanging out on the famous bigwater river so called Futalefu. I packed my backpack just with the gear I really needed and took a 24 hour busdrive down to the Basecamp Cara del Indio in Patagonia. The next morning we woke up early, cause we had big plans for this day. First I could paddle together with Flipper and Glenn my first lap on the bridge to bridge section on the Futalefu. The only word I can find to describe this section is paradise. Big waves to surf, to jump, big but fair holes to paddle around or to boof over and a amazing waterquality.
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| -Lap on bridge to bridge, pic: Helga Lehner- |
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As soon as we took off the early bird, the boys were waiting for us on the takeout with all our gear and the common goal: Argentina. Our plan was to go over the boarder by midday and heading up north to El Bolson a city in Argentina.
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| -On our way to Argentina, pic: me- |
The next day we called an Argentinen Guy Matthias, who helped us a lot
with the logistics. He knows all the creeks and the belonging put-ins
and take-outs. The first day we could paddle my favourite river on the
hole planet, so far. A really rich Guy from England owns a property of
more than 550000 hectars including the river we paddled. Of´course this
river is normally prohibited to paddle but with Matthias we had an
permission to spend a hole weekend in this National-Park.
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| -In the Property, pic:me- |
At the same day we were lucky enough to paddle trough this amazing and breathtaking canyon. In between a distance of 5-6 km the river is really steep and continous. It started with an slide-fall combination and till the end you have maximum a 20meter pool between the rapids. Double-combos, Trible-combos, Slides, big boofs, plugs... Just beautiful.
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| -Flipper on the first rapid, pic: me- |
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The next morning we had a delicious breakfast while the sun rised over the big mountains.
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| -Breakfast on the rock, pic: me- |
Blue sky and a perfect flow were the gradients for three epic runs on the Hiddencreek. The first run the day before took us round about three hours, the last speed lap was over in 47 minutes.
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| -Me on the triple-combo, pic: Matthias Stöckl- |
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| -First drop of the triple-combo, pic: me- |
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| -Me in the last slide of the triple-combo, pic: Matthias Stöckl- |
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| -Matthias Stöckl in the 13meter Plug, pic: me- |
After 5 days of pure kayaking and travelling we went back to our basecamp cara del indion on the futalefu. 6 hours drive and we were back at another classic river. The life on the futalefu is easy to describe. It includes a lot of kayaking where you can choose the different sections everyday. Playing football against the raftguides in the evening. Eating meat and last but not least sleeping. So simple but so good. In my last week on futa there was the famous futafest. A race and a demonstration against a dam on the futa. A lot of people came to visit and for taking part in the race. The race includes Downriver, Boatercross, Freestyle and Slalom on really tuff sections like bridge to bridge or casa de piedra.These 4 days were a lot of fun for me. It was one of my first races I took part in and I liked it to compete myself against my friends and also against kayakers I´ve never met before.
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| -Put in of todofuta, pic: Helga Lehner- |
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| -Downriverrace, pic:Helga Lehner- |
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| -Boatercross, pic: Helga Lehner- |
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| -Futastyle, pic: Helga Lehner- |
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| -Catch me if you can, pic: Helga Lehner- |
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| -Asado-time, pic: Helga Lehner- |
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This entry was my last episode of chile, but not the last for ever. I´am allready planing a trip to Italy and Swiss end of this week. I hope you enjoyed my pictures and my message I wanted to bring to you. Keep Kayaking and see you on the river.
