Thomas Schillig from Airboard, together with Tony Bain, forms the reconnaissance team that tests the Madre del Dios river for navigability with stand up paddleboards. - Or are we perhaps the guinea pigs being eaten by the local animals? We will try to find out all of this.
At the briefing, Carlos and Freya from Amazon Canon Challenge presented the route, which is over 300km long, and explained to us about the wildlife and the upcoming encounters with the local communities.
Our vehicle is in front of the hostal on time, an hour late. It's an old, rusty, partially welded Unimog. We heave all our luggage onto the open loading area and sit on it ourselves. The bumpy ride takes us through the thicket of the rainforest. The path becomes increasingly narrower until we finally reach our entry point where we unload everything and prepare our SUP.
Meanwhile Angel has also arrived with the 10m long canoe. He accompanies this expedition together with Carlos and Freya from Amazon Challenge. Angel is from the Shipetiari commune where we will be visiting.
His job is to ask other communities whether we or future paddlers are welcome or whether we will spend the night on our own. A lot is still unplanned here, because we are on a reconnaissance trip and so far no SUP has strayed into this Amazon region.
How will we manage the river? We were told it was whitewater level 2-3 on the first day. We have very different boards and each of us will probably have our own advantages and disadvantages, because the river doesn't have a lot of water. There are gravel islands and shoals everywhere that have to be specifically avoided. If you don't pay attention, the board will scrape against the worn stones.
Tony Bain is an absolute river professional who knows this type of river from New Zealand.
For the first few kilometers there is one Airboard DISCOVERY certainly a good choice while in the following days Airboard ROCKET would be more advantageous. But you have to commit to a board. This happens again with Thomas Airboard Concept SUP for use which was specially developed for ultra-long distances on rivers.
The aim of this challenge is not to cover over 300km in a specific time. The main goal of this adventure is to get in touch with the local communities. To find out how they live, hunt and feed. We will visit the Shintuya commune and the Shipetiari commune.
But we are also confronted with the problems of the rainforest. The search for mineral resources represents a threat. Not only for the forest, but also for local communities.
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