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SIBERIA<br />
RUSSIA<br />
JOURNAL<br />
A journey to the<br />
Kitoi & Biluti Rivers<br />
Derek Murphy on his expedition<br />
to Siberia<br />
In January I got word from my friend Nini that<br />
she was planning a kayaking trip to Siberia<br />
with Two-blades adventures and I was immediately<br />
interested. Having done some<br />
researched on youtube, the Kitoi and Biluti<br />
rivers was the plan for the 9-day expedition. I<br />
had a mixed bag of emotions, I was apprehensive,<br />
nervous, excited and cautious to say the<br />
least.<br />
To sign up for the trip you needed to give a<br />
detailed account of your own paddling experience.<br />
After a few days I got word from Thomas<br />
of Two-blades that I was confirmed to join the<br />
trip in August. And so my training for the trip<br />
began that day. From my winter training in the<br />
gym, to flat water sprints, as well as running<br />
numerous rivers in Voss on a daily basis over<br />
the course of the summer. The training paid<br />
off, as I had my highest ranking finish in an<br />
extreme kayaking race during ekstremsportveko<br />
festival in Voss. I finished 14th and 12th in<br />
the two kayaking events.<br />
Planning:<br />
A good friend and expedition paddler Rob<br />
Wilson gave me a note book to record my<br />
experiences from the trip. I would use this<br />
notebook to log inventory for the trip, what was<br />
needed; gear, clothes, first aid, camera etc.<br />
What was luxury to bring, to do lists, my training<br />
plan, final gear list and also to use this diary to<br />
log my experiences from the trip.<br />
I had a 4 piece breakdown paddle, so I<br />
researched the best way to carry this in my<br />
Toro. I took out my centre pillar and cut in the<br />
form of the paddle in the foam. I hadn't done to<br />
many expeditions so it would certainly be a<br />
learning by doing experience, which I really<br />
enjoyed the idea of. I knew it was going to be a<br />
steep learning curve in boat packing on the<br />
first few days.<br />
The Trip:<br />
I flew out to Irkutsk, Siberia with Aeroflot<br />
airlines. It was expensive flying with my boat so<br />
Egor managed to sell it for me by the end of my<br />
trip there. That would save a lot of hassle but I<br />
would lose a bit money on the boat in the end.<br />
When we landed, Egor and Max (Whom I knew<br />
from a previous paddling experience in Italy,<br />
coincidently enough) picked us up at the<br />
airport. The first night, we went out for dinner<br />
and pre-packed our boats for the next day<br />
departure. Egor took our passports as we then<br />
found out we would be crossing the Mongolian<br />
boarder (which was a bit of an unexpected<br />
surprise).<br />
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