Mummy, please save me.

Let's get down to it straight away. This day had our hearts bleeding as watched a mother moose trying to keep her youngsters alive in the dangerous waters of the Tatshenshini river.

The moose was perhaps spooked by another rafting group, it for some reason decided that an escape route was on the other shore. The current was too powerful for the calves and so they were all swept a long way downstream in freezing fast water. Eventually they made it to safety on an island of sediment. The poor calves were exhausted and so were we in nervous anticipation.

I was also to be a day of mishap for my packraft. It was leaking air and I had to pump it up regularly. It is not easy to pull up on the shore with these waters running at high speed. Finally I found it was the internal anchor tabs, which are bonded to the pontoon and pass through a slot. More discussion on this and other issues on a separate review here.

Some tape provided emergency repair and we are on our way. As we progress, we stop to collect some fresh water. It is harder to come by here as the river is braiding and so it is mostly silty - mineral water ! My packraft handily makes a water portage easy.

Due to the every increasing braids and shallower water, along with the repair, the rest of the day for me was on the large raft. I'm glad I made this choice as it is not possible to see how deep the water is. So one minute you are in deep water then the next you are scudding rapidly over the river bed. These rocks were not exactly smooth either. Though the packraft has a rugged 800 denier floor I did not want to test it.