The plan was to split in two.One team on foot towards the 4x4s, the other in packraft on the river. We prepared our stuff, Antoine and I packed the boats, we took a few things so that they didn’t have to carry everything and we attacked the descent at 8am.

A quick goodbye to everyone, they were quite happy to have seen us pass because it’s rare for them to meet people, if not exceptional. He reminded us that if we wanted to come back, we’d have to get the classic authorizations.

We attacked the descent; they had told us yesterday that there were some very dangerous rapids, and “many crocodiles” in the second part of the descent. They all seemed extremely worried about us. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, but you tell yourself it can’t be that complicated, otherwise the pirogues would never get in.

We started our descent, it was going well, and 10-15 minutes later we came to a sudden acceleration of the river, as it was tightening a lot, there was a lot of turbulence everywhere, drossages, abseils, lots of whirlpools, it was quite destabilizing. It was moving quite a bit, though, because there was a lot of water from there on in. So we made two portages to avoid the bulk of the rapids. These are things that can be navigated without too much trouble, keeping in mind that if you’re not in the right place, you end up back in the waterfall , looping around. As there weren’t many of us and no security team, we didn’t want to take any chances, so we just walked around. It was a bit tiring as it’s a pain to carry the boats, but safer.

We did do a few fast lanes, though, which were quite shaky and bouncy, with mega waves, which was pretty cool.

The descent after these rapids was quite fast: 8-9km/h on the water, and the GPS showed a 6.5km/h av. including the boat carriage. In 3h30 we had already covered 20km, a little more than halfway.

We came to another very big rapid, where we made a third portage. It’s a portage area because there’s a path beside it, and even a little shed.

The rest was very zen, so we let ourselves be carried along for a while. We saw a few illegal loggers, and a few camps appeared on the left and right of the river.

Then, miracle ! We found a boat. Two of the three that had disappeared were found. It was rather a joy to find that again. A floating lifejacket was also found. A backpack was also found in the boat. All we need are a few helmets, a few bags and a few shoes, but they’re so worn out by the end of this expedition that they wouldn’t have been of much use anyway. We’ll be taking inventory today.

We were very happy to find this boat again, it was a wonderful day. We arrived in Assera just before 2pm, well before the others. We were greeted by two youngsters watching us pack up, and by the captain we’d met at the “dua” camp, and his piroguier whom we’d met at camp 1 and who’d left on his motorcycle in the morning. It was weird because it was a bit like being followed everywhere. They were happy to see us, and took photos of us. The guy stayed with us all afternoon, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. We took the opportunity to have a nice meal with grilled fish and an iced tea, which was very nice.

It started raining pretty hard and the guys arrived around 5pm. We paid and left. It took us a while to get off the ground because we stopped every 500m to say a prayer, drop someone off, pick up stuff, buy fruit. We were sick on the road and dozed off. The guy was a pretty bad driver. We arrived a little after 9pm at the hotel and settled in. We said goodbye to everybody and they brought back a few bags, but we left the smelly, soaked ones in the 4x4s because we’re going to clean them up, sort them, etc., to make sure we find everything. And so that I don’t come away with dirty equipment and have to clean it all up myself.

This is the last voice message of this expedition. We’re safe and sound, but our feet will need another two or three days to heal . The most complicated thing is for Jamyl, who’s been in pain for 10 days and can hardly do anything. Yesterday he walked for 2h30 to get to the car, but he looked fine. Ithnikn everyone was very happy to go back home.

See you soon for our next adventure!