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Have I never mentioned my bush trips before? I thought I posted some pictures on here one time, but maybe that was another forum?

 

If I haven't and anyone would be interested, let me know. Happy to share, but like I said, I thought I might have already done it. I'm hopefully heading out again in a couple of weeks - it's my absolute favourite time of the year. Just the river, the wildlife, bit of fishing, and me.

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Have I never mentioned my bush trips before? I thought I posted some pictures on here one time, but maybe that was another forum?

 

If I haven't and anyone would be interested, let me know. Happy to share, but like I said, I thought I might have already done it. I'm hopefully heading out again in a couple of weeks - it's my absolute favourite time of the year. Just the river, the wildlife, bit of fishing, and me.

 

Please do mate. That sounds like heaven.  Getting away from the relentless EVERYTHING of modern life. 

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Have I never mentioned my bush trips before? I thought I posted some pictures on here one time, but maybe that was another forum?

 

If I haven't and anyone would be interested, let me know. Happy to share, but like I said, I thought I might have already done it. I'm hopefully heading out again in a couple of weeks - it's my absolute favourite time of the year. Just the river, the wildlife, bit of fishing, and me.

Other Forums??? You cheating bastard!
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OK, lads. I'm trying to post all these pictures. I used to use Photobucket to upload pics, and then just link them here. Apparently, though, they've shut down or something.

 

So I used imgbb, which seems to be the same thing and uploaded them. But when I try to link the pics here, I just get a "you are not allowed to use that extension" message. 

 

What am I doing wrong? The first link looks like this: https://ibb.co/gwT3zJ  (the rest all have the same format) which doesn't have any file format that's forbidden. Any way I can post these pictures?

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OK, lads. I'm trying to post all these pictures. I used to use Photobucket to upload pics, and then just link them here. Apparently, though, they've shut down or something.

 

So I used imgbb, which seems to be the same thing and uploaded them. But when I try to link the pics here, I just get a "you are not allowed to use that extension" message.

 

What am I doing wrong? The first link looks like this: https://ibb.co/gwT3zJ (the rest all have the same format) which doesn't have any file format that's forbidden. Any way I can post these pictures?

You need to C&P the ‘direct link’ for each pic from Photobucket on here but wrap it inside the image tags.

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You need to C&P the ‘direct link’ for each pic from Photobucket on here but wrap it inside the image tags.

Or use Tapatalk. I don’t use it any other time but it is the easiest way of uploading pictures on to here

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Anyway, these are mostly from 2016 because last year I didn't go on the trip as I was in the US to be with my Dad for his last months (he died of cancer in the fall). In about 2 weeks I hope to repeat the trip again, it's always one of the highlights of my year!

 

The Yenisei, for those who don't know, drains a huge part of Siberia from almost the Mongolian border up to the Arctic Ocean. It's one of the 10 largest (both in length and volume) rivers in the world. I live along the banks in a small city but we head up to the headwaters and float down for about a week. 

 

The roads in the area are ... not great. Almost impassable if it rains.

 

j7xm6b.jpg

 

When you get there, though, it looks like this:

 

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This trip was me and my buddy Sergei. We loaded up everything into our two inflatable rafts (one for us, one for our gear, including tent, sleeping bags, etc.) and set out. The thing about this trip is that once you go past something, you can NOT get back (no motor on the boats). So once you leave, you're committed to going the whole 400km downstream. It doesn't matter if you break your ankle on day one, or whatever - the quickest you're going to find help is 6 days downriver.

 

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Sergei is a much better fisherman than I. Caught probably 4 fish to every one I caught, which was good because otherwise we would have gotten hungry.

 

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My gear included this lovely custom Ben Akins knife in CPM-125 steel. My favourite knife I've ever owned.

 

1z5j1o6.jpg

 

... continued in next post.

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The scenery along the way is unreal. There are places along the river where you're at least 100 km from any habitation, so it's pretty much absolutely untouched wilderness, some of the last in the world.

 

33ubnlv.jpg

 

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You might not be completely alone, though - there are bears roaming these woods. My hand here for size reference to the bear track.

 

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Every night we'd set up the tent, build a fire, cook supper and fall exhausted and happy into bed.

 

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... continued in next post.

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This is the one really dangerous part of the trip, the Yenisei rapids. They don't look like much from here, but believe me, this is completely impassable. You have to get out and portage around. Me and a buddy tried to run it back in 2011 and I almost got killed here. Flipped the boat and I went face-first into a rock. I was concussed and couldn't remember my name or what I was doing there for at least 10 minutes.

 

2pslv04.jpg

 

Like I say, it doesn't look like much from 200m upstream but some of those rocks that the water is going over are the size of buses. We took the long route around the side.

 

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Once you're past that it's smooth sailing, just relaxing in the river and fishing to your heart's content. Nice backdrop as well.

 

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Getting some of our catch ready to salt down to last until we get home:

 

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Eventually, the terrain gets drier as you get out of the taiga and into the steppe. This area is where the snow leopards live. 

 

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And then a week later you're home. Immediately wanting to head back out again.

 

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I would seriously encourage any of you who have ever thought of taking up bushcrafting to give it a go. It's such a great way to get out and enjoy the outdoors and get away from a screen. It's amazing what it will do for your psyche!

 

And don't feel like you have to go all Ray Mears like this the first time out, either. Start small, and let it pull you in if you enjoy it.

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