Sri Lanka paddling

I have started the research and thought I'd put up some links and whatnot. There have been several trips out there

some russians who went in nov/dec and said it would have been better to go one or two months earlier

http://playak.com/article.php?sid=1135

and andy sommers also wrote an article about it, who has a website detailing lots of rivers lots of places so he might be a good one to contact about seasons. have we had any further news about the season of the place seth suggested (i can't spell it)?
http://playak.com/article.php?sid=519
http://treknepal.eu/page/THE%20RIVERS/Rivers%20of%20India/UTTARANCHAL/The%20Tons-132.htm

it looks pretty good and andy sommers wrote on UKRG that as it's a small country it's fairly easy to get around and you can just rent cars/jeeps/van etc although the local companies aren't very good apparently. There is a lot about surfing and i'm struggling to find much more about the rivers having done the usual google, UKRG and youtube searching! there is one video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrYz8disPB0

it seems to be a lot of waterfalls and a lot of slides, rather than bigger volume stuff, what is it that people generally want?! i have to say that i have also been sidetracked watching videos of paddling in argentina (argentina anyone?!) and the bigger volume rivers/ a general mixture does appeal to me much more than all i've read/watched on sri lanka.

as or prices, flights without boats or anything are looking to be about 500 pounds and cost of living out there is cheap, so middle ground price i would guess, but i'll try and contact a couple of logistic companies/ the airline and get an actual price estimate.

after having considered my finances post christmas spending i'm gonna have to echo dave in that the cheaper the better!!!! woo!!!

Hmmm...I guess you're right - slides and waterfalls.
Big rapids may be better but I think we just need to find somewhere thats the right season! Turning out to be quite difficult.
The report by the Russian may have been more positive had it been higher water levels.

I have been paddling with Andy in Nepal, and was in touch with him about Tajikistan. I'd easily be able to fire an email his way with some of the usual questions.

RE Argentina? It does look like an amazing place to go! Definitely one for the hit list, but I think it's had quite alot of paddling done over there recently by Americans. Also (generally) for the majority of SA the season is more November time. Not sure about Argentina though.

Dave

I've sent an email to Andrew Van Pelt and have asked him about contact details for Andy Mac too so hopefully i'll have some more info about sri lanka soon!

I've been looking at the raft companies in sri lanka and there are quite a few
http://www.srilankaecotourism.com/rafting_home.htm
and some pictures of bigger volume stuff
'If you're looking for an action-packed adventure on the water, why not go for a white water experience in the numerous rapids found in Sri Lanka ?'
i wonder if they mean actual rapids.... but still, numerous is good!

Done a bit for my proposal deadline tomorrow:

There may be cheaper stuff if we have a more detailed look but this should do for the proposal

Emirates- £517
30kg checked baggage + 7 kg hand luggage
weight includes kayak though which they will take if under 10ft... are they?
not a huge amount in the way of luggage but should do

Etihad flights were £20-30 cheaper but couldn't find out if they took boats without ringing a chargable number so i figure this will do for the proposal and if we decide to go there it may be worth the call.

also a rainy season in the south west according to lonely planet which ends in August and that seems to be where the mountains are? looks promising

Visas
30day on entry
3 month- $54

accomodation £2.50 a night
everything looks cheap as chips once we are out there

The following bar chart for Colombo, Sri Lanka shows the years average weather condition readings covering rain, average maximum daily temperature and average minimum temperature.

Colombo at sea level, but is south westish.
With June/July/August at our choice we can play it by ear what time we go when we have more information.
Earlier roads will be worse and some rivers may be too high.
Later and some rivers may not be running.

Andy Sommer

Hi Dave,

good to hear from you..Sounds like a great trip in Tadjikistan..

For the Sri Lanka idea..

roughly said, there is some paddeling there (fills 2 weeks).

Overall, it is steep.. as it starts from high hills (2000+m) and crashes down steep to the beaches.. so aim for waterfalls..unfortunately, many of them are 100+feet. but ppl do run it.. for the rivers, I think we checked and paddeled most of the southeast/west..because of the tamil troubles have we not looked (and I do not have a map now in front of me either) up north. I am not sure, if there is some further north of the Nurwa Elyia mountain range..

For August.. hm.. as much as I remembered, the Monsoon is on the east and west in different times of the year..google it out if you havent yet..the rivers we ran are from the Nuwara Elyia region but were the one´s to look for. Mainly "pool" drop..but not too much water and controllable..Make sure you got your bearings and exit routes, some big waterfalls in the middle with slippery rocks to abseil..so (we did) take the pre scout and get off the river early enough to take the jeep around the falls..

Watch out for snakes after the rains...be loud enough.. sounds funny..but, snakes are plenty in Sri Lanka..leeches..wont be able to avoid it.. the rest.. keep your head down : )

For the summer paddle..

Will likely be only the Ladakh Region for some monsoon paddeling..not sure if you have been already.. All other regions wont be doing any good..apart from the big big rivers to float and punch the waves..

PPl have told me of a standing tidal wave south of GOA.. I went there in the winter (December).. it showed up only ones..so I enquired more.. and the local fishermen told me it would form solidly and regular in Monsoon time.. I know..vague.. and travelling through south india in the monsoon and that with boats sucks....but damn.. not much left to be found for virgin paddeling..

Andy

...sounds like we'd need to brush up on our climbing skills.
Hmmm...
Maybe we all need to buy a belay.
Lets see if Minnies contacts come up with similar information.

hmmm, climbing isn't really my strong point (as i found out at BUKE). Andrew hasn't got back to me yet other than a promise to get back to me so we'll see, hopefully soon!

it looks doable then........ish.... hmm, wonder how easy it would be to get hold of some more surf orientated boats out there as the surf is meant to be pretty good so would be a cool few days perhaps?

looking at the map there is a fair amount of mountain north of Nuwara Eliya, will have to look into whether it is safe and it may be a bit dry

Yeahhhh..
I had a talk a tutor of mine who did his elective in Sri Lanka (a while ago now), aparrently eveything is now good in the north.
I recs he may still may have a contact or two out there if needs.
He also says its the size of Ireland. Should be enought to explore but still get around easy enough??
Appararently there is a sacred place (maybe in the north?) where Buddha's tooth is buried.


(Ignore - for future missions)
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=kanyakumari+india&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Kanyakumari,+Tamil+Nadu,+India&gl=uk&ei=y544TcuxHYq3hQfBiNnECg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCYQ8gEwAA

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=kanyakumari+india&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Kanyakumari,+Tamil+Nadu,+India&gl=uk&ei=y544TcuxHYq3hQfBiNnECg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCYQ8gEwAA

http://www.colombopage.com/archive_10A/May18_1274192532JR.php
Flooding seems to be a bit of an issue in Sri Lanka.
It would be useful to know if they are completely sporadic, or if they tend to be concentrated in similar places at similar times each year.
There are a couple of reports of floods in May timeish, suggesting maybe we should head out August time.
Would someone be able to collate some reports of flooding; when they are and where abouts they are in the country.

From what Will and Andy say the monsoon is different in different parts of the country.
Can anyone find any exact data of when the major rainfall is in each area, and whether it is different in the North and South (as Will suggested) or East and West (what Andy suggested).

i have emailed wade who owns borderlands so hopefully he will get back with some good info.
the actual meeting is the 2nd of feb so won t know until then

I'd like to feast my eyes on some of the 'Shyer Beauties'


Down stream of Ramboda falls looks good!


This is Devons waterfalls, picture taken on the 4th July.
No idea where it is, but by the looks of it (if 2006 was a typical year), July would be too early (in this area) because things will be too high...

Anyway, back to work.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Devon+Falls,+Central,+Sri+Lanka&aq=1&sll=7.873054,80.771797&sspn=2.894507,5.410767&g=sri+lanka&ie=UTF8&hq=Devon+Falls&hnear=Devon+Falls,+Talawakele,+Sri+Lanka&ll=7.00549,80.532532&spn=1.382084,2.705383&t=p&z=9

relatively central (to the highlands)- will be interesting to see what august/ September is like

Seems the East (in particular) of Sri Lanka is currently suffering from the effects of flooding this month:

http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-life-after-the-floods

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12180411

I've made this report (A-Level geography project style, it's only written slightly stiffly so we can re-use it for presentations or whatever) on the risk of flooding to a kayaking expedition going to Sri Lanka in August. The conclusion is the only really important bit. I reckon that the possibility of flooding (which appears to be a habitual problem if you're Sri Lankan) isn't enough on its own to discount Sri Lanka as a possibility: as long as we stay in the central highlands and to the east of them we should be good. But that's not to say that there's not still a chance that everything may be too high, to work that out we'd have to look at some hydrographs or something...

I can't paste in the whole report because the pictures and maps don't come too, but here's the conclusion. I'll send the whole report as a document to the email thread.

Conclusion:
To ascertain true viability of an August paddling trip to Sri Lanka a close analysis of the major drainage basins on detailed topographical maps would need to be carried out to ascertain drainage densities, numbers of suitable tributaries and available road access. However, weather conditions themselves, i.e. the heavy annual rainfall on the South and Eastern sides of the country, and their related flood risk, are not on their own cause to discount an expedition to Sri Lanka.
I would suggest that the next steps are:
-To acquire detailed topographical relief maps and calculate drainage densities of relevant river basins, and generate a list of tributaries with good road access/acceptable trekking access.
-Contact Sri Lanka’s geographical survey (or equivalent) and request hydrographs for the major river basins that have estuaries on the East coast.
-Cross-reference this information with beta from previous expedition (which was in November)

These steps should hopefully leave us with a detailed picture of some river basins on the east side of Sri Lanka that should hopefully be of a suitable level for an explorative kayaking expedition in August.

some good background on rivers:

http://nature-lanka.blogspot.com/2009/07/rivers.html

hmmm... i was assuming that the monsoon wouldn't cover the entire of the highlands which your diagram suggests it does..... could be a problem

http://www.colonialvoyage.com/asia/eng/srilanka/climate.html

this has several tables of rainfall, Kandy seems to be central to the highlands

Things seem to be pretty quiet on here!
Will, Tom - how did the Exped Board Meeting go?
Minnie - Heard anything back from That Van Der Vaat fella?

From the FCO

•You must have permission from the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence before travelling to the northern districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaittivu and Vavuniya. You should not attempt to travel to these districts without first obtaining the required permission and exercise caution in line with Safety and Security - Local Travel.


•The Government of Sri Lanka has announced its intention to suspend visas on arrival. We are awaiting confirmation of the date of that this will come into force. See Entry Requirements - Visas.


•There is a general threat from terrorism in Sri Lanka. Although the LTTE or “Tamil Tigers” suffered a military defeat in May 2009, the Government maintains its State of Emergency, under which it has extensive anti-terrorism powers and increased security measures including checkpoints and a highly visible military presence remain throughout the country. The last reported LTTE attack was in July 2009 but isolated attacks cannot be ruled out and could be indiscriminate. Foreign tourists and visitors have not been targeted in the past but attacks have occurred in places frequented by foreigners. See Safety and Security - Terrorism.


•Although the conflict is over, extensive military operations are still ongoing, clearing minefields, unexploded ordnance and locating LTTE weapon caches (hides). The security forces are also involved in the resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Always obey orders from the security forces or signs warning about the danger from land-mines. Do not venture from the roads or cleared footpaths and if in any doubt, contact the local security authorities for local advice.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/asia-oceania/sri-lanka

Tamil Tigers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Civil_War

had the meeting on wednesday, didn't go as well as i hoped, they were unimpressed by the lack of an itinery but should know on monday
It was one of those things where 20 mins after the meeting you have all the perfect answers

Unlucky Will.
Maybe just put down an itinary and we'll deviate from that without them knowing! (...next time / for our next application)

http://www.climatetemp.info/sri-lanka/
Strange. Have a look at the pink tables on here.
It says that there is ~15 days in August where there is more than O.1mm of rain and an average rain fall of 124mm
Whereas in November (when the Russian & Andys group was there) there is an average rain fall of 342mm for 19 days of the year.

Andys team didn't go up north mind you. So this could be the average rain in the north?
Or because it is fairly equatorial the weather system just does its own thing?
If anyone finds anymore rainfall data for specific towns and cities in Sri Lanka post them on here, and I'll collate them.
Hopefully then we'll get an idea of where the rain is.

My student house is still sadly internetless because we owe the nice people at Virgin a whole lot of money. I've been doing what I can when in coffee shops and the like with wi-fi.

This site has some extra information on rainfall, makes it sound more positive in terms of rain occuring outside of monsoon seasons, as in it suggests it doesn't happen, whereas other things I've read have said just to expect rain whenever.

http://www.mysrilanka.com/travel/theland/rainfall.htm

Seems to be the main problem researching these things, you can always find a source that contradicts another source if you look hard enough. The general trend I seem to be finding though is that during August the south-east is our best bet. I'm really not getting very far doing an hour or so at the time, I'll spend tomorrow in Starbucks trying to work up some really reliable data on region-specific rainfall.

Did find some bargain flights for August, £475 return to Colombo (although I seem to not have bookmarked it and I'm struggling to re-find it, bear with me.

Changing the subject, I enjoyed your article about California, Dave, it looks amazing!