18/07/12 - 19/07/12
It took us two days to make the long trip from the Pozuzo valley back to Lima in what was quite an efficient journey. Once in Lima phase two of our trip was put into action as we booked tickets for the bus to Cusco and got all the maps we needed from the Instituto Geographico Nacional in Lima. The bus took 22 hours and we were soon in Cusco for the second leg of our trip.
The Velille is a tributary of the Apurimac and to our knowledge only several kilometres of the upper stretches had been previously paddled. The information we had suggested that the part of the river that had been previously paddled was similar in nature to the Apurimac, but at lower volume. Fresh from the success of our first descent on the Mallampampa our plan was to run the 15 km stretch from the village of Occatuna to the confluence with Apurimac, completing this first descent. From here we would continue down the Apurimac.
Day 1
After studying the map we calculated that the river dropped 20 m/km over the 15 km. One 4 hour bus ride from Cusco to Accha and a half hour taxi ride to the river and we daringly put on. The first couple of km were read and run grade 4, but soon enough we encountered a large landlslide that had fallen into the river. Several hours of walking over huge boulders revealed half a km of unpaddleable boulder chokes and siphons. Before attempting this mammoth portage we decided to scout a further km or so down the river to see what was in store. Suddenly the river chaged character and entered an almost sheer sided gorge. This posed a real problem for us as we did not know what rapids lay down stream within the gorge. Once in, there would be little chance of walking out of the gorge if we came to an unpaddleable rapid. It appears that the gorge lasts for above 7 km before opening back out again. Due to the landslides that we encountered before the gorge and the possibility of further unknown landslides within the gorge we decided not to carry on with the river and turn back. This was to be an arduous task in its own right.
Day 2
We camped the night at the entrance to the gorge and the next morning began hauling the boats 2km back upstream over huge boudlers and constantly ferrying to the other side of the river to continue our journey. It was hard going but we completed the portage in half a day. Once back in Accha we chartered a cattle truck to take us to Tincoc that evening, the put on for the radical upper stretch of the Apurimac!
It took us two days to make the long trip from the Pozuzo valley back to Lima in what was quite an efficient journey. Once in Lima phase two of our trip was put into action as we booked tickets for the bus to Cusco and got all the maps we needed from the Instituto Geographico Nacional in Lima. The bus took 22 hours and we were soon in Cusco for the second leg of our trip.
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| Put on bridge at Occotuna |
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| Looking down into the canyon of the Velille |
After studying the map we calculated that the river dropped 20 m/km over the 15 km. One 4 hour bus ride from Cusco to Accha and a half hour taxi ride to the river and we daringly put on. The first couple of km were read and run grade 4, but soon enough we encountered a large landlslide that had fallen into the river. Several hours of walking over huge boulders revealed half a km of unpaddleable boulder chokes and siphons. Before attempting this mammoth portage we decided to scout a further km or so down the river to see what was in store. Suddenly the river chaged character and entered an almost sheer sided gorge. This posed a real problem for us as we did not know what rapids lay down stream within the gorge. Once in, there would be little chance of walking out of the gorge if we came to an unpaddleable rapid. It appears that the gorge lasts for above 7 km before opening back out again. Due to the landslides that we encountered before the gorge and the possibility of further unknown landslides within the gorge we decided not to carry on with the river and turn back. This was to be an arduous task in its own right.
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| Entrance to the 7km gorge |
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| Alex walking back after the landslide rapid inspection |
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| Alby paddling back up river to exit the canyon! |
We camped the night at the entrance to the gorge and the next morning began hauling the boats 2km back upstream over huge boudlers and constantly ferrying to the other side of the river to continue our journey. It was hard going but we completed the portage in half a day. Once back in Accha we chartered a cattle truck to take us to Tincoc that evening, the put on for the radical upper stretch of the Apurimac!
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| Travelling in style to Tincoc |
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