Page 56 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

situated close to the Italian border. We arrived late morning and settled into our accommoda- tion, which was an apartment above an elderly lady’s house, who was very accommodating, but never told us her name and couldn’t speak any English.
The first morning saw us meeting up with our pro- fessional guide, Matt Tidy, who had flown out to Slovenia via Italy, especially for our little trip. Matt proved to be an invaluable asset due to not only his experience on the Soca itself, but also being one of the best-travelled kayakers in the world. He has explored new and remote rivers all over Africa and Southern
America, and has guided on some of the biggest commer- cial rivers such as the Zambezi.
The craggy, rocky features presented new challenges for the group...
There was not much
experience in the
group, which meant that everyone on Ex BEAT- ERING CADET got a great learning experience. In one week, they progressed from simply learn- ing how to paddle in a straight line on the flat, to nailing breakouts and sending steezy boofs. Every OCdt took a beatdown from the river at some point, which is always a valuable learning experience.
We would like to give a big thanks to the Sand- hurst Trust for their contribution to the funding of our AT expedition. Ex BEATERING CADET wouldn’t have happened without all who helped to fund and organise it.
54 SANDHURST