How can words sum up an emotional journey to paddling your friend’s final adventure? 20th January 2018 a huge flash flood hit the Abanico River at the very time five highly motivated and expert kayakers were making history by taking on the 1st descent of the river. Tragically three beautiful souls never made it out of the river that day, Adam Vaughan (England), Alex McGourty (Ireland) and David Higgins (Ireland). Shockwaves cut through the British and Irish paddling communities, threatening to take away their love of the sport in the wake of tragedy.
For me, that accident played over and over in my head with a whole heap of what-if variables changing each time it replayed. But one thing to come from this was the strong urge to visit my close friend’s final adventure. Just months before Adam Vaughan set off for his trip to South America, Adam and I sat around a campfire, on a sunny rock, by the side of the river in Norway. Discussions between us were had each evening on where to explore next and the endless possibilities on this earth. Asia attracted us a lot, but Adam had spent a year before studying abroad for his University course studying the Spanish language in Colombia. Adam talked very highly of his time there, experiencing adventure like no other, scouting with machetes through the rainforest, sleeping in the jungle and the unlimited amount of adventure potential the rainforest could provide. It had us both hooked on spending time there, I made a deal with Adam, if I didn’t have a job when it came to November we would go to South America together.
Alas, as summer 2017 progressed I secured a dream job in slalom coaching that would be flexible allowing me to carry on pursuing my dream of travelling with my kayak and coach a bunch of up and coming kids from Wales. As winter approached Adam headed to South America on his own to carry on exploring, leading to his final expedition exploring the Upper Abanico section of river.
Eight years on and it felt like the time was right to go and visit this pristine place in memory of my friend, although there were plenty of other friends interested in joining this trip it was Oli Cooper who joined me for this adventure. Oli was eleven at the time of the accident and a part of the slalom group I was coaching when the shocking news hit. It felt incredible to me to come through the grieving process where I had so much self-doubt about pursuing my own kayaking as well as introducing and inspiring so many young people into a sport that with one wrong decision can take life away from us. Over the years of coaching and mentoring Oli, it felt incredible to be strapping our kayaks to our backs to start a five-hour hike over the mountain pass to get to the Abanico River.
Within fifteen minutes of hiking up the steep uphill trail, we looked at each other, sweat dripping, exhausted and the heat of the equatorial sun beating straight down on us both. Knowing we were locked into a few more hours of both uphill and searing heat we both lacked optimism but decided to keep plodding on one step at a time.
Four hours, 950 metres of elevation and a lot of sweets later, we made it to the top of the trail and got their first view of the Abanico Valley in front of us through the thick rainforest. A short hour later the horse track ran out and we made it to the crystal clear pristine river. A powerful influx of emotions rushed through me the second my boat hit the water and droplets splashed his face. A moment to reflect on the untouched beauty of the rain forest and we were charging down the class joy of the boulder garden rapids.
Although we followed in the footsteps of my friend, a later descent, documented with love as the second descent had completed the mission at low water in 2022 noting at low levels the rapids were not particularly hard, just fun weaving between big boulders in the scenic wilderness. This gave us the confidence to enjoy the ten kilometres of class joy kayaking to the main road bridge where we took out. Aside from holding back emotions through each rapid, we reflected on how good the quality of kayaking was throughout the whole length of the Abanico Canyon.
For me, as I floated through the final flat part of the canyon it gave me time to reflect on many decisions of the past eight years, most significantly continuing to chase his dreams of progressing his kayaking skills, adventuring off the beaten path and mentoring the next generation of paddlers to believe in themselves to achieve anything they set their mind too. The sport is humbling and beautiful, it gives us so much that without the sport we would not be the people we want to be and without the sport, we would not have met the incredible people in our lives. For me, reflection left no regrets, chasing dreams and inspiring the next generation and I will continue to do so for as long as possible.
In loving memory of Adam Vaughan, Alex McGourty and David Higgins.
