Dads and Lads on the Coruh 2005
(Graham Bland)
Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger image
Andy was now 17 – an age when his keenness to travel and his growing abilities
as a paddler were only matched by his inadequacy of funds and far too many
exams. I was looking for a suitable venue for a short ‘Dad and Lad’ trip –
a taster of foreign lands and big water. The Coruh (pronounced “Choroo”) in
Turkey
seemed to fit the bill.
The
Coruh is set in the remote rugged north east corner of
Turkey
– far away from the tourist hot-spots of the South. The river flows east,
along the Kacgar mountains, and into Georgia before breaking its way North
through to the
Black Sea
. I knew that the river offered some fairly continuous and high-volume class
3-4+ rapids in June - just after Andy’s exams were due to finish. I also knew
a few paddlers that had been out there and asked them what the likelihood was of
the two of us finding other paddlers to hook up with. They were doubtful, but
Water By Nature ran trips out there with everything laid on. More £’s of
course, but who cares – we are off paddling. Chas and his son Richard also
elected to join us – deposits were paid and we settled back to a few months
more work/exams. There were a few preparations to make too – Andrew needed a
ratchet back-rest retro-fitted to his King pin and Richard found he could no
longer get into his booster and had to purchase a new boat. The £’s were
already flowing.
Water
By Nature (WBN) warned us shortly before departure that Turkish Airlines can
refuse to carry kayaks. Despite having successfully flown kayaks to different
parts of the globe before, this put the wind up us on the way to the airport. We
had packed and re-packed to get everything (including kayaks etc) below the 23kg
weight allowance. We arrived
well before the check-in desks opened - better to leave plenty of time and catch
the check-in staff in good unrushed moods when travelling with kayaks. "I'm
sorry Sir, but there will be a small handling charge of £11 per 'surf board'.
That was it, no hassle, no worries and 3 hours to kill before departure (more £s).
We arrived at the Sultan’s Inn,
Istanbul
at mid-night. - time only for quick minerals on the roof terrace before turning
in.
The following morning it was a flight to
Erzurum, where we were met
by WBN guides. We loaded up the battered Morris for a 3 hour road trip through
the mountains – snow still on the peaks. Late afternoon saw us at the banks of
the Coruh, near Maden, some 30km’s upstream of Ispir. We (the four of us
together with 6 other ‘punters’) gathered around for the normal pre-trip
briefing – tent maintenance, camp hygiene and dunny protocol. Most of
Clive’s words were drowned out by the gurgling chatter of a thousand frogs and
the incessant whine of a million mossies. I did pick up a bit of good news,
though – the Coruh was running much higher than normal for this time of year
– a 10-year high that should provide for plenty of fun.
After 2 days travelling, listening to the sounds of the river (and
frogs and mossies) and anticipating some fine paddling in the days ahead we
drifted off to a sound sleep. We were blissfully unaware of the Brown Bear and
large Snake that visited 100m from camp during the night.
Clear blue skies and growing temperatures joined us for a mellow
grade 2 warm-up in the morning – a chance for getting accustomed or
re-accustomed to big-volume paddling. After a couple of hours paddling clouds
brewed up - then thunder, lightening and hail as we hit the lunch stop. We
sheltered under an old steel football stand at a long-forgotten and abandoned
football field - shivering.
The afternoon run (another 15K down to the steps of
Ispir) was great. The river soon entering a narrow gorge to provide fairly
continuous grade 3 with loads of nice wave trains and surf waves - all read and
run. A few paddlers pulled out and joined the Landrover but Andrew was totally
pumped - a huge grin on his face as he discovered the fun in volume.
Cold and knackered after a long days paddle, we pulled out just
before the Joan Collins set of rapids and wandered down to take a look at the
first 3 Ispir Steps (Joan/Alexis/Bitch). Easy to choose lines down these class 5
falls when sipping beer from the bank but, at these levels, no one was to run
them - the Landrover shuttled us around to a camp a few hundred metres
downstream (just above Dynasty and Stud). The clouds had disappeared, and the
evening sun was sufficient to dry out the kit and warm up our bones. Beers and
nibbles were out, a fire lit and the conversation lively. We had left the
mossies far behind (they were only ever a problem that first night).
The second days paddle was
a reasonably mellow 30 km grade 3 run. The
sun was shining and there were endless waves to play on. It should have been an
uneventful day but there were 5 swims in the morning. We soon appreciated the
advantages of having a road running alongside the river. We had a Cat raft but
this was purely for rescues (picking bodies up and getting them back in their
boats) and not for passengers. With the Landrover running along side us –
paddlers who found it all too much could hop out, sit on the roof and take the
photos.
With the numbers whittled down we enjoyed a fast and playful afternoon.
We must have spent over an hour at a single dream wave.
After a good day on the water, moonlight, Moussaka and a good Islay
Malt around a camp fire - followed by Turkish Delight - what more could you ask
for.
The following day saw more of the continuous grade 3’s –
floating through beautiful scenery, looking out for Rollers, Bee-eaters, Hoopoes
and red Kites, drifting past many Byzantine castles perched high on the hills.
We hiked up to one of these at Tekkale (“single-Castle”) for lunch –
trekking across the rice paddies and picking mulberries and cherries off the
trees on the way.
There were a few long 4+ rapids to run in the afternoon and
scouting the first of these (‘Perfect Portage’) I knew that this would prove
the biggest test for Andrew yet. It is one thing to run a long hard rapid
yourself, but watching your son take on the challenge is much much more
difficult!! I needn’t have worried – hearing his adrenaline-fired whoops all
the way down.
After
another long days paddle we clambered with our boats for a
few hundred yards up to Cemile’s paddlers pad at the end of the day. This is a
small pension in the tiny
village
of
Tikali
that has existed since the days when Dave Mamby first opened up this river for
paddlers back in 1982. Indeed Dave still frequents the place, and joined us for
dinner and the following days paddle. Photos of paddlers from all over the world
are pinned to the walls.
Sleeping arrangements are on simple wooden platforms.
We took over Cemile’s gardens, drying kit and setting up the kitchen etc. The
big farm house table was set and, despite being Wednesday, we declared it ‘Red
Wine Thursday’ and enjoyed a civilised dinner.
A long paddling day followed – in the morning we headed up to
Sarigol to paddle the river Bahal down to
Yusufeli. The Bahal made for a pleasant change – very continuous lower volume
alpine style grade 3 – with clear icy cold snow melt, running through a
beautiful valley with plenty of entertaining drops. We pulled out in the middle
of Yusufeli town and enjoyed hot soup and kebabs at a restaurant – still
donning wet kit.
After the late lunch around half of us elected to run the Coruhs
best ‘Yusufeli Gorge’ – a 1 hour continuous roller-coaster grade 4+ ride
with 5 or more major rapids. We spent almost as long scouting the rapids from
the Landrover first before returning to Yusufeli, paddling down the Bahal to its
confluence with the Coruh and running the gorge. The falls proved significantly
larger than they appeared from the road – but we enjoyed an incident free and
fun filled end to the day. It was gone 6:30 pm when we pulled in, loaded and
returned to Tikali
Sadly sickness hit the camp that night – and Andrew and I were
amongst others that missed a repeat run of the gorge the following morning
before the road trip back to
Erzurum
. A Hamam (Turkish Bath) and massage, followed by a gourmet meal that evening
finished off the trip nicely and prepared us for the flight home the following
day and a return to work/school
Info
Graham,
Andy, Chas and Rich paddled with Doug and John (a couple of pro’s from
Aviemore), Scouse (a QS with attitude), Ewan, Alice and Sarah – all well fed
by the WBN crew of Clive, Dougie and Gerard
The
Coruh provides an excellent first big-volume trip. A dependable roll will get
you down the river easily and anything you don’t want to run is easily
portaged. The continuous nature of the rapids ensures that you will never be
bored. The river runs from May, we went in mid-June. Dave Mamby writes “If you are a grade V paddler you will love this
river. If you are a good Grade V paddler go early; not only is the Coruh high
and powerful but all the side creeks are running as well. If you feel happy on
Grade IV then by the end of June the river will have dropped and the power
subsided and the fun starts. Grade III paddlers will find that by the end of
July the river is manageable though still testing at times”
The
landscape, wildlife, culture and people of this far corner of
Turkey
are the icing on the cake. If you
are a group it should be reasonably easy to organise yourselves and shuttles
independently – staying in Cemile’s lodge at Tikale or at the camp site in
Yusufeli. If you are short of time or numbers, Water by Nature put on a good
show and take all the organisational hassle out of a trip of this type
Graham B
Photos
are all courtesy of Water by Nature or Doug Cooper - unfortunately my brand
new digital waterproof camera packed in on the first day. But Clive, Dougie and
Doug all made a better job of it than I would have done anyway!! - a few
additional snaps given below
