Day 10 - Tuesday - Tundra

Four hardy souls decided to try and tame the mighty Tundra (the guide lists this as continuous 4+). The egress seemed good in the guide: "you will instantly know the take-out when you see it, as the river ploughs into a six-foot wide gap in the cliffs and disappears underground".

In hindsight, the level seemed unusually high at the get-in. This was soon confirmed by the first grade 5 drop which looked truly evil (and was portaged). Not an easy portage either, pulling four boats across a side-stream on ropes. We put back in after a river-wide stopper and set off into a high volume heavy grade 4 with plenty to think about. We stopped again at a particularly steep section for Rich to inspect - 'it goes, but it’s the hardest section we've done yet'! He was right. From here on it got very hard and continuous, running long sections blind because no eddies were available. We managed to catch our breaths a few times and were on adrenaline highs. The pace did not relent, with boats being battered even on the good lines. Matt had a pin and three rolls, and Rich also got pinned, but not the place to be swimming.

We finally reached the end, and the consensus was a good 5. The epic was not over yet, with 300 metres to drag the boats up a fly infested gorge - not pretty - we all emerged 10 years older - we'd just lived them.

This was what Norway is all about.

Next -> Day 11 - Leira