In Zongdjian we located an enthusiastic local lad called “Young” to be our translator through Northern Yunnan and our driver who wore a pair of immaculate white gloves whenever he got into the support vehicle. He became known as “Mr. Hands”. Mr. hands was a cool character and possessed the amazing ability to turn any 3-point turn into a 33-point turn. He loved singing and crashed his car twice over the next 10 days while we were with him. Fortunately I was on the river most the time and I had best get back to that side of the story because this entire dispatch could easily end up being devoted to Mr. Hands.

The four of us, and the project coordinator Yutah (Also my beautiful fiancé) squeezed into the Toyota 4×4 and begun the drive back up towards the Tibetan Border. The drive from Zongdjian to the Mekong near Dechin is magnificent. After crossing the Yangtze valley we steadily gained altitude through thick stands of old growth pine in the 3 parallel rivers world heritage site before eventually passing above the tree line and over a 4200 meter pass into the Mekong valley. The snow capped Tibetan spiritual mountain of Melei Xeu Shan could be made out through the clouds on the opposite side of the immense valley and far below the Mekong raged through canyons as deep as 1500 meters.

We spent the evening in the town of Dechin perched on a steep sided valley carved out by a Mekong tributary. We headed off early the next day, our destination was the exact same place I had taken a life threatening swim only a week before. The first priority before challenging that rapid again was to pop in and give a special thanks to the lovely old couple who had taken me in during my hr of need.

“Amma” (Mother) as the granny preferred to be called was over the moon to see me safe and sound and I greeted her with a gift of chocolate bars, something she had never tried before. We had a chat over a pot of Yak butter tea via our translator Mr. Young and eventually I invited her and her husband to come and watch me re-run the rapid.

As we approached the drop I noticed that the river had risen several feet over the course of a week and the hole that had thrashed me almost into oblivion was now semi flushed out. It was transformed into a huge crashing wave. It could be run right down the middle.

We geared up, Brian in his new Bomber Gear radiator dry suit and me armed with an awesome new “AT IV” bent shaft paddle from AT paddles. In the Himalayas there is no room for equipment failure and we are fortunate enough to be sponsored by some of the best manufacturers in the adventure industry. Special thanks to Bomber Gear and AT paddles!

I had no idea that Amma would be so distraught when I tackled the rapid. She had obviously never seen a human being place himself in such obvious danger and was convinced I would die. Apparently when the crashing wave slammed down on me (flipping my kayak momentarily before I casually rolled up) Amma screamed loudly and started crying. I looked across and spotted her 72-year-old husband running along the bank in an attempt to rescue me. I eddied out and tried to explain that I was fine and there was nothing to worry about. He tried to get me to pull my kayak out and looked baffled when I explained that I wanted to continue down stream to take on the other rapids. They were such a sweet old couple. It is heart warming to experience the genuine kindness and concern displayed towards a stranger who simply turned up on their doorstep one day in need. I felt terrible for making them worry so much and look forward to sending them a copy of the documentary when its finished so that they can rest assured I made it.

Brian and I proceeded to paddle down stream through a succession of class III-IV rapids. We encountered one particularly chunky class V rapid that managed to flip both of us at exactly the same place. We called it “double take”. The days paddling was a great introduction to the Mekong for Brian with plenty of action yet nothing too gnarly.

We were now firmly in the 3 parallel rivers world heritage site. This incredible area where the Mekong, Salweeen and the Yangtze flow parallel with each other through some of the deepest gorges on earth is also one of the most diverse bio-regions on the planet. It is estimated that half of the world’s biodiversity can be accounted for in the reserve making it one of the worlds most important in terms of conservation.