The night before around camp fire, Andy announced that he would attempt to go further upstream with his boat and propeller which was in better shape. He asked Zorba (outdoor man and strong as a bear) to go along as well as Apal with his cameras to shoot wherever possible. Then, there was a fourth seat still available. Both Misha and Armin wanted to and so the latter declared that this was his birthday gift for Misha (and almost regretted it later). So it came that after breakfast, Andy prepared his boat and Zorba, Apal and Misha got ready for an experience they are not going to easily forget.
While Armin and Albert packed up the camp, Andy took off, through the first rapids which had proven too strong for Armin the day before, up the river and through many more rapids that were becoming more and more difficult (class 3+). For the few accompanying him, it was a lifetime experience as Andy proved his skills at doing almost anything he likes with a rib.
Even Zorba as a kayaker called it “world class”. In this way, Andy made it upriver for approximately 10 kms before he decided to turn around. We loaded up all our gear and then went downstream, past Tuidang, the put-in place of yesterday and on to Longmasu, Mizoram´s southernmost village on the border to Burma. There being absolutely no presence of army or police, we continued a little further downstream but since – regrettably – we had not been given permission by the Burmese Government to travel down the entire stretch of the Kaladan / Kolodyne River all the way down to Sittwe, we stopped our descent and had a little celebration for what we had been able to achieve. Then, we turned upriver again and stopped near Longmasu, perched high above us on the mountain.
