Presented by the Idaho State Univ. Dedicated to the memory of Heather Leese . As far as we can ascertain, it was the first time kayaks had been taken into Uzbekistan and Kirgizstan, and probably the first time kayaks had been taken down the Chatkal and Pskem rivers.
First descents are really only worth claiming if they make the sponsors sit up and take notice.
As there were no sponsors involved and as the Russians have been hurling themselves down these rivers in a bizzare variety of home made craft, the above claim should be treated with the disrespect it deserves. What we did do was travel in Russia and the Central Asian republics at a time when the dust caused by the breakup of the USSR had still not settled and the Central Asian republics were struggling to find their feet. Unlike the journeys described in most travel books about Russia, we did not travel as guests of the state, chaperoned by nervous officials, nor did we travel as individuals only able to make random contact with passing strangers. We travelled with a group of Russian rafters whose attitude to the rules is best described as indifferent. In Moscow and St.