Day 4

It rained quite a lot and was much colder during the night. I woke up as soon as I heard muted
voices in camp because I knew it would take me a while to get all of my stuff back together and
packed back into my dry bag, and I didn’t want to make them wait for me. The first day of
rafting was to be mostly paddling along the river and sightseeing, with a few rapids that might go
up to level 3, but nothing more serious. We needed to wear our wetsuits, life preservers and rafting boots because it was cooler and raining off and on, but we didn’t need to wear our helmets except when we were going through the rapids.

Before we got into the raft, both Bruno and Derek talked to us about plans for the day and safety in the raft. Derek told what to do if we fell out of the raft and how to handle it if Guilliame gave
us instructions or tried to pick us up in his kayak.

We had two rafts, the blue one which carried the rafters, and the white one which was the supply raft. Bruno rowed the supply raft, and Hugo accompanied him with a paddle so that he could
take photos. They had all of the equipment and supplies with them, as well as some of our dry
bags and the guide’s.

Adjacent to our campsite, the river was probably as wide as any part that we saw during the trip. Derek was our guide in the raft, and we spent the first part of the day learning to paddle properly and letting Derek re-arrange us in the raft to the places where he wanted us. After the first rearranging,
Roy was in the front on the left, followed by Jessica, Alex and Anne-Marie. On the right side, Christian was first, then Daniel, Eden and me. On the second day, Anne-Marie and I
were moved up, and Alex and Eden traded sides with one another and moved to the back, and Christian and Jessica traded places.

Derek went through all of the commands he would give us, and we practiced them over and over, with limited success at first. Derek was completely bilingual and always gave the commands in French first, followed by English, but we had to change directions or follow instructions quickly and couldn’t wait for the English instructions. If the raft was in danger of flipping on one side, we were all instructed to move over to that side to weigh it down. If a big wave was about to wash over the center of the raft, it was an “oh sh*t” and we were all to hit the bottom of the raft so the wave would wash over us. We used that instruction a number of times over the next few days. Roy’s paddling form was exceptionally good so Derek referred all of us to him to observe and learn.

Besides seeing the stars at night, I was also anticipating the silence that I expected in such a
remote area, like that I had experienced growing up. Not so. The two first nights in camp there
were close to 25 people, which made quiet scare except at night when everyone was asleep. In
the raft, it was hard because there were 2 or 3 people who talked constantly. At one time in the
morning after we had spent some time practicing rowing, we were drifting along and Derek was
rowing us with his huge oars. Roy said that we were in such a beautiful place that he thought we
should enjoy it by being quiet for a few moments. Everyone agreed, and we were quiet for just a
few moments but no more. Then the talkers started talking again, and that was the way it was.

The day before we arrived, Alexis and Nicholas had dropped their camera in the water.
Fortunately, they lost only a small amount of film, but the camera was wet and inoperable. Every night when the campfire was started, they would bring the camera and lay it by the fire to try to dry it, but it wasn’t working. Before we left the place we had stopped for lunch that day, there was a very serious discussion about what to do about the camera situation.

Roy had brought a new camera, very state of the art, which took both still photos and movies.
He had given it to Nicholas and Alexis to use when we arrived and found out what happened to
their camera. It wasn’t the same as their broken camera, but it was fortunate that they had his
camera to use because otherwise they would have had nothing. But, they needed a professional
camera and had arranged to acquire another one through their satellite phone contacts. To have
a seaplane bring in the camera would have cost $700-800, but we were now in an area of the
river that was too narrow for a seaplane. To have a helicopter bring it was initially quoted at
$2800, but the price kept going up, and it was eventually quoted at $4500. Several people and
groups offered to contribute to the fund, and someone negotiated a better rate, so it was arranged by satellite phone for a helicopter to bring the new camera to Nicholas and Alexis, but it would still be a while.

Until our first day in camp, I did not realize that the Romaine had probably never been rafted
before. The only maps in existence were made by canoeists and kayakers, and our guides,
although vastly experienced, had never been on this river until they came with us. As a result,
they knew fairly well where the rapids were but hadn’t had a previous opportunity to read them
and decide what was the best way to get through them. As we approached each rapid, they
would stop the rafts, get out and climb up on the cliffs or boulders overlooking the rapids, and as
a group decide how we should cross it. Sometimes we would all get out of the raft and walk
around on the boulders while they were conversing. The scenery was breathtaking.

That evening we stopped for camp at one of the most beautiful places I have seen. It was an
island covered with stones in a narrow part of the river. In front of us to the west was a sheer
cliff that went up probably 180-200 feet. Behind us were the mountains, and north and south of
us the river wound around through the canyons. To the south we could hear the rushing of the
falls which we would encounter first thing the next morning.

Since every square inch of the island was covered with rocks that were 4-6 inches in diameter,
we had to take a paddle and scrape a place the size of our tent floor to set our tents. We couldn’t
have slept on the rocks. There was only one plant on the whole island, a small plant about 8
inches tall with purple flowers, and I felt its perseverance was deserving, so I took a picture of it.
On the island we didn’t have access to the woods, so the guides dug a long trench and devised a
blue and yellow tent canopy that was open on three sides, which was our latrine for the night.
Another new experience for me.....

Nicholas and Alexis had been eating meals with us since we arrived, but Nicholas explained to
me that they wanted to contribute something to our meals each day to share with us since we
were sharing with them. This night Nicholas made two cakes for us, which are like Indian fry
bread, except thicker and somewhat sweeter. He mixed them in pans by the campfire and cooked them over the campfire. It seemed to take forever for them to bake, but they were delicious. One had chocolate and nuts in it, and Bruno melted dark chocolate over it before we ate it, and the other had dehydrated pineapple, cherries and lime peel in it.

When the moon came up, it shown on the rock wall in front of us and was an amazing sight.