Madamax

Quite a bit going on these days.

Reco on one of the numerous rapids encountered.

A strong team of US kayakists + film crew (including madagascar veterans Brad Luebben and Rush Sturges) have just completed the first kayak descent of the upper Betsiboka river.

Brad swings around holes

The river had been paddled by Sobek old timers back in 85 but that implied a whole lot of portages around major drops.

This time the boys have paddled most of the 275 kms section excepted three very short portages.

Garden of boulders, a typical channel navigation on the Betsiboka

Water was fairly low the first day, then rains on the plateaux kept feeding the river till the last day and levels rised considerably over the 12 day trip.

They dropped over 3.000 feet somehow concentrated azround short sections and crocs were gentle to them.

Josh, Rush and Brad contemplating a small specimen in a remote village

Accidentally we also had a raft who struggled to follow and took considerable risks to paddle most of the rapids.

The team on a flat section on day 2

Numerous strenuous portages were necessary to keep up with the boys, leaving plenty of time for the film crew to document the expedition and plenty of work for Sylvain (a french kayakist from Lyon/Hawaî sur Rhone).

Tags: betsiboka, kayak, luebben, madagascar, raft, rush sturges