On the 19th Nov a team of bald explorers, including Shalabh Gahault, Mike Abbott, Sam Hughes, Zak Shaw, Sangrup (our driver from Ladakh) and myself loaded a jeep in Katmandu, Nepal and set course for Gauhati in Assam. 4 days later Andy Phillips arrived and they headed into the hills of Arunachal Pradesh aiming to complete several sections of un-run rivers and expecting to be challenged with situations requiring extreme bravery and ingenuity.

25 days later we are pleased to report that the team successfully completed sections of the Tawang Chu, the Nam Jang Chu and Tenga Rivers, along with another descent of the Subansiri river, which some of the same team completed a few years ago. 

The Tawang Chu became a mighty adventure in a deep, hard to reach valley, involving steep continuous white-water, several cataracts and sporadic rock fall from surrounding road building. The Nam Jang Chu proved to harder still to scout, hidden largely by steep sided canyon walls and thick forest.  After running only a day trip section high up, there remains a section down to the Tawang confluence for future explorers.

The Tenga River was an unknown entity; due to rather vague 500ft contour lines on our maps we were unsure if this would be a breeze or a breaker.  It turned out to be a worthy adventure giving us 3 days of narrow, steep, jungle canyon action delivering us to the Bichom and then the Kamen rivers down to flood plains of the Brahmaputra.

Disaster struck at the take-out of the Kamen river, as Shalabh slipped off the jeep, caught his foot in the bull bars, breaking his Fibula in two places with a gut-churning crunch.  Fortunately for Shalabh his network of relatives in higher places includes the Commanding Officer at Tezpur Air force base, where he was amazingly taken care of, x-rayed and cast. 

Whilst Shalabh enjoyed a few weeks of pampering the remaining team headed east to run the Kamla River but finding no road access and short of time to organize a foot approach they settled to a 4-day run on the upper Subansiri.

We would like to thank the Liza World Travels and the Commissioner of Arunachal Pradesh for granting us this chance to explore this ‘Paradise, as yet, unexplored’

This area of the Himalayas is one of the last sanctuaries for un-run rivers, but unfortunately these rivers are known to the Indian Government and National Hydro Corporation.  Be it for power requirement of financial gain it is apparent everywhere that there are huge projects under construction or being surveyed.  New roads are being pushed up mountains and down valleys to provide access not only for people, but also for machinery.  Ironically these roads provide us access to these wild valleys and rivers, making it possible to run some of the Worlds mightiest rivers.  The grey reality is that many of these currently un-tamed Himalayan arteries will be dammed.  This will not happen tomorrow, or next year as each year the Monsoon tries to blast everything clear, but more in the 10 – 15 year time scale.

By sharing our tales of adventure and working with people like Shalabh we hope to open this area up to more adventurers and thus strengthen the Adventure Tourism industry, which in the end may help preserve areas of magnificent beauty for future generations to enjoy and behold.

GALLERY Click the image below to go to the gallery for this article

TEAM

Shalabh Gahault        IN
Mike Abbott             NZ
Allan Ellard              UK
Sam Hughes            UK / NOR
Zak Shaw               NZ
Andy Phillips            UK
Sangrup                  Ladakh – Driver

RIVER INFO

Tawang Chu                 Tawang District       3 days        35km starting at Jang Bridge.
Nam Jang Chu                 “          “           1 day         8km starting below Zimitang.
Tenga / Bichom / Kamen                          4 days        40 + 10 + 60km Starting at Jimmi.
Subansiri                     Subansiri District    4 days        70km Starting at Mede