August 12.
Diary Entry
We set up the boat and can paddle and treble the day. We make a route, but the water is tricky.
We capsize on a branch in the water as well as at another point with a high current, where a tree across the river forces us to exit.
Three streams with high currents come together here and when trying to reach the other accessible bank the boat tips in our hands and lies upside down in the water. It’s a good thing that everything is stowed and secured waterproof.
With my last superhuman strength, I pull the tipped boat out of the mainstream into a hairpin bend where we can turn it in peace. We decide together to bring the boat to the other side on a leash.
It works. We can get in and drive through the violent current. Nevertheless, we ram a dead tree with nasty pointed roots elsewhere and are glad that the boat only gets a few scratches. Then it turns into a very difficult point in a tight curve that presses us hard against sharp rocks – here we are lucky and nothing happens.
We often have to get out and treble because the water becomes too shallow. The river often divides and we can hardly decide which of the small arms we should pursue. Once we are out of luck and we only realize late that this arm does not immediately flow back into the Tara Sala. It becomes narrow and more and more dead wood is a problem for us. We have to dig through one part with a lot of adrenaline, because thick branches lie across and the water behind it has formed a deep, bubbling cauldron. We hardly have time to relax, so the next challenge is waiting for us.
Half a forest seems to have landed here and forms a veritable dam landscape. There’s no chance of driving through here. We go as far as we can, then we have to unload everything and carry luggage and the boat over dead burglary wood and deceptive mud. It is late and the mosquitos make our lives so difficult that we have to take all the defenses we have. Hat net, long clothes and neoprene gloves. I had lost our mosquito repellent due to an accident two days earlier.
We can do it, but we are completely exhausted. We take another smaller, harmless-looking side arm, land in a meadow surrounded by bushes and present ourselves to the annoying little vampires as a main course. We check our belongings for losses or wetness. Unfortunately, we lost two out of three water bottles and a few other things got wet, but nothing bad happened.
I build a bear alarm from a safety line, a cup and a tea egg. After a campfire and spaghetti we crawl into the tent and hope to be able to reach the main river the next day without further breakneck actions.