Welcome to my Rafting adventure
Note: I’m aware that some photos on that page are too dark and about to rescan them in the near future
This is the story of my participation in an expedition to the Churou river that gets snow melted water from the Catchcar ridge, which rises as high as 4000m, streaming to the Black sea crossing the border of Georgia.
Yes that’s me and here (I’m the second on the right hand side of the boat) during a rafting expedition at the end of June, 1999 along the galloping rapids of the Churou river, North East of Turkey. That expedition was organized by “NEHAROT”, an Israeli based rafting specializing at many of most raging and challenging rivers around the world. It was very unique, exciting and thrilling experience I ever had.
Actually, I appear in that company ad. Look at the close up. I’m on the left boat, extreme right.
Look at the marvelous sights! In the two pictures below I’m in the middle of the right hand side.
While one might consider rafting to be a kind of activity designed for “sissies”, The CNN of Turkey which was making a special reportage (Those were days of hardship the Turkish tourist industry had at those days due to Kurdish up rise at those regions – ant authorities wanted to show that business is as usual). So we had a filming backup that got us got us (alive!) as our boat capsized (turned upside down) while rafting across rapids rated at 6 (which means you take out the boat from the river and bypass those rapids). Those hair raising experience made an Israeli reporter of a major newspaper, who saw some of us as our boat turned upside down, and trying, quite desperately, to float and reach a safe haven on the rocky banks of the canyon, including me, to announce the nation that seven Israelis were rescued from death by drowning!
Actually, our boat turned over once more, on that same day at another hole. The feeling is like a shirt in a washing machine and each second looks like hours of turning in the water helplessly until you are thrown out (if you are lucky) to the canyon rocky walls.
As you probably noticed before, I was on the boat that had red helmets, for quick identifying. Notice another boat that capsized, now floating as if innocently unmanned in the white waters, as we struggle to catch it up and collect the “survivors”….
One of the rules we had to break. Each member of the expedition, that falls out of the boat, is obliged to bring a wine bottle to the After rafting party. Reasonable if you consider that it summed up to 36! bottles for 17 man.
Our rafting went along some 160 km of white water rafting with many rapids and is rated as 5.5 (On a scale of 1 – 6 -actually, a 6 rated rapids, you pass on land). We started at the “Stairs of Ispir” through the canyon of Yusufali and down to the “King Kong rock” – a killer rock and a big murderer hole.
The rafting went along seven days of which five days of actual rafting. Sleeping in tents, cooking and eating outdoors on the river banks
enjoying the local cuisine cooked by our self.
Hope you enjoy browsing this page. It’s your Captain
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Email me: lorbhaim@yahoo.com
