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At the Bottom of the Deepest Canyon in the World
The Rio Colca canyon, the deepest canyon in the world, twice as deep as the famous Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in the US, was first navigated by members of the Polish Canoandes '79 expedition.
Beginning their adventure through the canyon, the right wall of which rises 4,200 meters above the water level, the left 3,200 meters above water level, and the altitude difference between the beginning and the end equals 1,100 meters, they knew that after entering its narrow mouth they would only be able to count on themselves. They set off from Cabanaconde in two hand-made kayaks for Piotr Chmieliński and Andrzej Piętowski, as well as a raft with the crew consisting of Jerzy Majcherczyk, Jacek Bogucki, Stefan Danielski and Krzysztof "Biczu" Kraśniewski, plus equipment and food supply. They navigated the mountain stream, passing extremely difficult class V and VI rapids. Oftentimes, the average grade drop per kilometer exceeded 50 meters! They struggled against whirls, waterfalls, narrows and stoppers, which could suck the boat under water; they navigated around underwater rocks and waterholes. They had to portage their equipment over rock boulders or lower it down on ropes. They kept patching the ripped raft bottom and gluing their kayaks.
They gave geographical names to places they discovered. That is why one can now visit the Cascade del Condor waterfall, the Chocolate Canyon, John Paul II falls and the Canyon of the Poles. After 33 days of hard struggle, the expedition was successfully completed. The kayakers refused to return to Poland after the martial law was established - they opened a Solidarity office and organized a protest march attended by 10 thousand people. The importance of the Colca Canyon exploration was stressed by the editors of the Guinness Book of World Records, who published a photograph taken by the Poles on the cover page of the 1984 issue. In addition, American Paddler magazine included this achievement among the greatest kayak expeditions of the 20th century.
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