Northern Thailand Update 1

Hey everyone!

I am sitting in a small coffee shop in chiang mai in northern thailand right now and enjoying the air con! outside the weather is hot and about 100% humidity!
We have a nice appartment to base ourselves in and a 4x4 to get us to where we need to go!

-Visiting a temple in chiang mai

On the 20th of this month I met up with sam ward and will clark from the UK to explore the rivers of northern thailand.

From Bankok airport we caught a 14hr train to chiang mai where we met up with Pete buick who has been based in chiang mai who had sorted our accomodation and would be our support crew and part of the exploring team for the next 6 weeks.

-Bankok train station

After a few days of logistics and things we had our suzuki loaded up and we were off to check out a river called the mae taeng about an hour away.
With a bit of 4x4ing and 1 broken roof rack we were at the put in above a bridge in a small village.

-Road to the put in, mind the elephants

-Sam on one of the boulder garden drops

With a little over an hour of paddling we made it to a take out where pete had the car. An amazing experience to see elephants bathing in the river as we paddled past and over hanging lush jungle!

-Local transport

The river was a nice class 3 to 3+ and a good way to warm up and get used to the new team. On our way back we headed toward Sri lanna national park to check out some creeks and waterfalls. After finding 1 unpaddlable waterfall we found ourselves on a dirt road putting our little 4x4 to the test. We were in search of the Mae hon lae waterfall now known as the 'Invisible and really far away in the bush waterfall'. Needless to say, we never found the Mae hon lae after about 45 minutes of driving in the dense bush.

-Trying to find Mae hon lae falls

We made it out and drove back to Chiang mai in time for dinner.

-Buffalo cars

Over the next 2 days we are sorting logistics for a trip where we will head for a provence called nan in search for a bunch of cool creeks and waterfalls that we have some local info on, as well as a multi day run on the nam wa river hopefully.

-Thai Boy racers

Keep an eye out for more updates to come as we head for nan and then doi intanon national park.

cheers

Josh Neilson
Will Clark
Sam Ward