Day 54: Ngapora Campground to Koriniti

Distance Covered: 38 km

And yet another beautiful day! The good times keep rolling. Like the great rapids we had to start the day. Just fast enough to get things moving.

We found a great little cave along the way too with a waterfall tucked in at the back. Pretty cool.

The river slowed down in the late morning. In fact, we at lunch on the shoal in the middle of the river. And then we were able to paddle upstream to get around them without much effort. 

And then, two wild rapids. Probably the best rapids of the whole trip. The Germans got lucky when they went a little left and ended up in the trees. They could have easily been taken out by all the low hanging branches, but they managed to just duck under them. (We heard later from another group who also ran into the trees, but they were lifted out of their canoes and could have easily been in even more trouble if not for some luck with the way the canoe stopped.)

Otherwise, the afternoon was a slow roll through the canyon. The walls are now steep, tall, grassy hills. There are all sorts of wild animals on them including pigs, horses, deer, and sheep. And goats. Hundreds of wild goats in every direction. Anyone is allowed to hunt them at anytime; just shoot them and collect them without a license if you want. You could live a year or more up here on the goats alone.

Tonight we are staying at a little campground off the river called the Flying Fox. It’s “off the grid”. The couple running it saved for years to find a little place where they could live green and free and host people like us. It’s a great little setup they have here. And once again, somehow, someway, we have the place to ourselves. 

Tomorrow we have our last full day on the river. The river is slowing almost to a crawl now. We’ll see how much work it is to get down it.