tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244779852011-08-14T13:42:45.311ZNews and reports from the build up to the 2006 Kayak Taiwan expedition. James Farquharson, Tim Trew, Greg Nicks, Aron Davauld and Pete Cornes are spending three weeks exploring the rivers of the country's remote Eastern mountain range.Pete Cornesnoreply@blogger.comBlogger221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1171114291169658662007-02-10T13:26:00.000Z2007-06-23T18:33:09.337Z

Kayaktaiwan Global Premiere. See it here first!Its also on Youtube (search for kayaktaiwan) if you have a slow connectionAt this rate expect a full BBC style documentary by around 2050http://www.timtrew.co.uk/videos/kayaktaiwan_ipod.m4v

Tim Trewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03242452238434826934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1155213500956310782006-08-10T12:33:00.000Z2006-08-10T12:38:20.970Z

This article appeared in the Maidenhead Advertiser today. It shows a picture of Greg, not me. The copy was mostly taken from this blog and put into context with bits taken from the previous Maidenhead Advertiser article.Nice though.

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1154710826207012682006-08-04T16:49:00.000Z2006-08-04T17:04:08.820Z

Over the next couple of weeks i'm going to be crushing down some of the footage from the tripHere's a (very short) taster until then..Subscribe to our RSS feed and videos can pop up in iTunes as we upload them.

Tim Trewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03242452238434826934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1154463692663121932006-08-01T20:15:00.000Z2006-08-01T20:21:32.686Z

Tim Trewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03242452238434826934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1154327321922609542006-07-31T05:49:00.000Z2006-07-31T06:51:43.440Z

We ran a couple more rivers after the Nan-ao Pei, without incident (apart from the snake), and are all safely back in the UK. We would like to thank our hosts, Club 222, the Adventure Club and the people of Taiwan. A happier and kinder bunch of enthusiasts it would be hard to find. The trip was forced into a few duck and dives due to the two violent weather systems that swept the country during

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1153746916270697532006-07-24T13:02:00.000Z2006-07-24T13:15:16.306Z

Just a short note - Three days ago we walked in to the Nan-Ao Pei river, previously unrun. We carried our boats, gaining 700 metres of altitude, along a hunting trail and then down 100 meters, through landslides and jungle, all in 36 degrees heat with 100% humidity. The first day was mainly class 5, in a series of boxed canyons. The second day was mainly class 5/6, again in boxed canyons. We did

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1153403543085560912006-07-20T13:38:00.000Z2006-07-20T13:58:13.786Z

We carried/hauled/lowered the boats 500 meters vertically downwards into the Upper Tai-Gong canyon. It was a bit of a struggle.The gradient of the run was 20 meters/km over a length of 5km. It started off as 'read and run' easy IV, then turned into class II/III after a few kilometers. Strange, where did all the gradient go? A lengthy class V, leading off round a blind bend between vertical canyon

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1153231907619960602006-07-18T14:06:00.000Z2006-07-18T14:11:47.630Z

Wow, it has rained a lot. We've struggled to find rivers that aren't high velocity liquid mud. The roads have struggled to stay where they were put - some have not. Though we've run some very high volume class four (with one heinous jungle bash put in), we've done lots more driving and looking. Hopefully the rivers will drop off soon and we can get back on track. All safe. All well.

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1152801586180962722006-07-13T14:16:00.000Z2006-07-13T14:42:19.920Z

We're in hiding. We heard that a typhoon was coming in - 200km/hr winds and "super-torrential" rain - so we ran.It turned out that as the weather system approached Taiwan's east coast it moderated to a mere tropical storm. Anyway, we made the best of it.Eating is one of the best things, ever. There is nothing Team Taiwan can not eat.This is the head honcho of the stall whose food you see above.

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1152765324328235852006-07-13T04:01:00.000Z2006-07-13T04:35:24.353Z

We got to run our second river yesterday, the Tai Gong, a few hours out of Taipei and close to Baleng. during the four hour, grade IV-V run, we really started to realise some of the implications of paddling in Taiwan's mountains.As we rode to the top in a flat-bed truck we were made acutely aware of the implications of the run. The road looped away from the river, separated at the very least by

Pete Cornesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1152507180262933732006-07-10T04:31:00.000Z2006-07-10T05:08:22.193Z

On our first river trip yesterday we were hosted by club 222, the local paddling club from Taipei. Arriving in the stifling heat and humidity after a lengthy flight it was good to dip our paddle into our first Taiwanese river. The river feels like something out of the the NZ west coast with big boulders jumbled into the bottom of extremely steep ravines. The reception by the local paddlers has

Greg NIckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00563706830987364465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1152457223722038952006-07-09T14:55:00.000Z2006-07-09T15:00:23.740Z

Take a look at this...

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1152214557639117042006-07-06T19:01:00.000Z2006-07-06T19:38:55.266Z

We're flying out tomorrow so now's the time for some frantic packing. Plenty of last minute purchases and some frantic boat padding and I'm about ready to go. My boat (a brand new yellow Medium Burn - thanks Pyranha) only arrived this week so I've been a bit rushed getting it sorted. I got it afloat last night to sort my trim out and I've crash-proofed my footrest as well - always a good

Pete Cornesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1152188823185420762006-07-06T12:25:00.000Z2006-07-06T12:30:14.663Z

My local paper, the Maidenhead Advertiser, has gone mental and covered the trip.

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1152099372864629592006-07-05T11:31:00.000Z2006-07-05T11:36:12.876Z

We are going to have to walk in to a lot of the rivers in Taiwan, carrying our boats and all equipment. We asked Palm equipment if they were able to create a custom backpacking system for us. They did! Have a look at the photos...

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1152099460433864802006-07-05T10:56:00.000Z2006-07-05T11:37:40.460Z

Two days to go and my spanking new Dagger Mamba should arrive in any minute. Then i'm off home to pad it out, saw my toothbrush in half (Check out BA's new baggage allowance) and worry about the typhoon dubbed "god of storms" building in the Western Pacific...Keep checking back for news on the ensuing carnage!

Tim Trewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03242452238434826934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1152011971211989922006-07-04T11:17:00.000Z2006-07-04T11:19:31.223Z

Congratulations to KayakTaiwan team member Greg Nicks who won the squirt boating category at the European Championships on 2 July!

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1151682518543577612006-06-30T15:26:00.000Z2006-06-30T15:48:38.556Z

Just over a week until we travel and preparations are stepping up. Lots of people have been asking me about how we find rivers to look at so I thought I'd post up the process I've been following here.AccessibilityFirst, is it accessible? If there's no way in to the river then there's not a lot of point in including it in the itinerary. While roads or 4x4 tracks are ideal, we're resigned to the

Pete Cornesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1151597752486957862006-06-29T16:06:00.000Z2006-06-29T16:34:54.466Z

I had a long conversation with Aron today via Skype. Aron and Bear are going to pick us up at the airport and find us somewhere to stay for the first night. The next day (unless England make it to the World Cup final) we're going to head out to the Taroko area where there is a free campsite that will make a good basecamp for a few days.The general plan is to spend the first five days on rivers

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1151496578164948902006-06-28T12:05:00.000Z2006-06-28T12:09:38.186Z

I've made contact with Cheese, Head of Marketing at Palm, and have been assured that our kayaks will arrive before we leave. This is a relief. Cheese also thinks that Palm will be able to make a carrying system for the kayaks so that we can hike along the jungle trails into some of the remoter rivers that we plan to run with the kayaks as backpacks. This too will be a good thing.

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1151408776344801222006-06-27T11:45:00.000Z2006-06-27T11:46:16.360Z

Are you interested in KayakTaiwan? Do you have the time to check http://kayaktaiwan.blogspot.com/ every five minutes to see if we have written anything new? Do you really want to visit a whole load of kayaking sites everyday to see if they have been updated? Would you rather something just told you when updates had been made, gave you a summary of the new content and left it up to you to

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24477985.post-1151397857905145642006-06-27T08:39:00.000Z2006-06-27T08:44:17.916Z

I'm starting to worry about all the things I should have done to prepare, but haven't. Jobs for this week include making sure my boat (large Nomad) arrives from Dagger and reading the Lonely Planet Taiwan to make sure we haven't overlooked anything of strategic importance - like we need a visa to enter the country or something.Bear has sent us some photos of a river they ran near Taipei and I put

James Farquharsonnoreply@blogger.com