“You can’t have creativity unless you leave behind the bounded, the fixed, all the rules.”
-Quotes in this post are all from The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell.
Marriott Gorge, upstream. The texture of the water, the clambering rainforest on the encompassing cliffs, the ever glowing light…. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 800, Nov 2024.
“In order to found something new, one has to leave the old and go in quest of the seed idea, a germinal idea that will have the potentiality of bringing forth that new thing.”
Yours truly, paddling through Freedom’s Gates in my Alpacka Gnarwhal packraft, aka Lucky Ducky.
Grant climbed quite a tall rock in the middle of the Gates to gain this vantage point. At this point my raft had a 60cm long gash in its floor, and the tape we placed on it earlier had peeled off. I portaged the rapids in the background for I feared I would tear the floor further if I got snagged on one of the rocks. Photo Credit: Grant Dixon, Nov 2024.
“The first requirements for a heroic career are the knightly virtues of loyalty, temperance and courage.”
Just a little gash on Lucky Ducky (wasn’t so lucky on this trip). We had to take a rest day at Roslyn’s Pool to allow sufficient time for the repair (about 200 stitches!) and the curing of the glue to make it watertight. Much credit to Grant for teaching me the ‘baseball- stitch’, a method of sewing involving one thread and two needles. This kind of stitch pulls the edges together. A tube of aquaseal spread over the stitching cured overnight and the raft was good to go the next day.
“The adventure is its own reward- but it’s necessarily dangerous, having both negative and positive possibilities, all of them beyond control.”
Grant paddling up the river from Freedom’s Gates. Note the ‘battle-stick’ paddle. We lost Grant’s original paddle near the entrance to Marriott Gorge. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 800, Nov 2024.