FLOW TRAIL

“You say it’s impossible, but you haven’t tried,” laughs Jérôme at Fred’s reluctance to launch his packraft down a staircase of waterfalls. The two Julbo-Mavic riders turn to me for an opinion plucked from my own whitewater kayaking experience. “You’ll be lucky to make it past the second drop,” I say in a fatherly tone, concerned that the word ‘impossible’ might not figure in an enduro world champion’s vocabulary.

We look again at the churning water and opt to play it safe, hauling our bike-laden rafts up the muddy riverbank and around the obstacle. It’s one of only four portages we make during our 50km river descent – not bad considering the high water level and that we’re all packraft virgins. We paddle on, our rafts bobbing through rapid after rapid, waves sluicing over the bikes strapped to their bows. “It’s the cleanest my bike’s ever been!” I shout as I