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First descent of Mekong river has begun

May 12, 2004 21: 32 EST
Aussie Mick O’Shea plans to be the first person to navigate the Mekong River from the Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea. Currently at the source of the Mekong, high in the Himalaya, he is dispatching to wetdawg.com, and has begun his four-month solo paddle.

After a six day four wheel drive ride across China and Tibet to their trek starting point in Southern Qinghai, and some horseback riding, Mick and his team reached the source this past Friday:

"As we climbed throughout the day I began to notice the affects of altitude and fatigue on the team. Everyone started to get more lethargic and irritable. Our lips and noses began to blister and peel from the icy wind and sun glare. That night was cold and long. As we made our way up the final valley it was with great anticipation that I awaited the sight of Lasagongma Glacier from which the Mekong trickles. We tied down the horses at around 4,900 meters and trekked on foot for 30 minutes.

Small thread of water trickled from the ice

Finally we came over a ridge of glacial gravel and rocks and there was the Lasagongma glacier right in front of us. I was ecstatic. I headed over to the base of the glacier where Doujie and Jimmie were busy prostrating in front of a large dark rock located by the point where a small thread of water trickled from the ice. Here, the Mekong began.

The final leg was straight up the side of the snow covered glacier and was hard going. At times I was trudging through knee deep snow gasping for breath. After 15 minutes and six checks of my GPS there I was: at the geographically declared source of the Mekong River 5224 meters above sea level.

The journey of a life time

I turned around to scan a breathtaking view of the Mekong valley rimmed by glaciated peaks and rugged limestone and to spent a few moments there by myself. A feeling of joy and anticipation surged through my veins as I looked down the valley that I would explore over the coming months.

Two years of work had brought me here and 4800 kilometers of paddling would take me on the journey of a life time down this valley. It was a fascinating thought that the river catchment that started as a trickle at the base of that glacier would expand to become the lifeline for some 60 million people from over 100 different linguistic and cultural groups, that its waters would come to support more aquatic life than the Amazon basin and that its environments would house well over half of the world's biodiversity.

What a great privilege it will be to travel along this incredible phenomenon from source to sea. With that thought in mind I trudged back down the glacier to where the team were waiting and the descent of the Mekong began. From our planning and observations we estimated that it would be a trek downstream of 140 kilometers before the frozen river would defrost enough to start paddling."

Check out Mick's full dispatches on WetDawg.com.

The Mekong is one of the world's major rivers. It is the 12th longest in the world, and the 10th largest by volume. From Tibet it runs through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls have made navigation extremely difficult.

The river's source, is uncertain, due to the existence of several tributaries in an inaccessible environment. Chinese researchers believe that the source is located in the Jifu Mountains in Zaduo County, Yushu Tibet Autonomous Prefecture of northwest China's Qinghai Province, which is some 5,200 meters above sea level. An earlier expedition, led by Michel Peissel, placed the source at the head of the Rupsa-La pass (further west, at an altitude of 4975 meters).

Approximately half the river's length is in Tibet and China. Much of this stretch consists of deep gorges, and the river leaves China at an altitude of only 500 meters.

The river next forms the border between Myanmar and Thailand for 200 km, at the end of which it meets the tributary Ruak River at the Golden Triangle. This point also marks the division between the Upper and Lower Mekong.

The river then divides Laos and Thailand, before a stretch passing through Laos alone. The Lao stretch is characterised by gorges, rapids and depths of as little as half a meter in the dry season. It widens south of Luang Prabang, where it has been known to flood to 4 km in width and 100 meters in depth, although its course remains extremely inconsistent. The falls are all but impassable to river traffic. In Cambodia, the Sambor rapids are the last to impede navigation, before the river ends in Vietnam.

Members of the French Mekong Expedition of 1866 ascended the river from its mouth to Yunnan between 1866 to 1868. Their chief finding was that the Mekong had too many falls and rapids to ever be useful for navigation.

The Mekong flows North to South for over 3,000 miles, passing by dozens of different ecological biomes from the Polar Desert of the Tibetan Plateau through Pine forest, Tropical Evergreen Rainforest to the marshes and mangroves of the Delta. The Mekong Basin has a biodiversity as rich as the Amazon’s. the river system boasts an estimated 1,300 different species of fish. Mega Fauna include endangered Irrawaddy Dolphins, Crocodiles, Snow Leopards, Clouded Leopards, Tigers, Sun Bear and Asian Elephant.

The two most controversial current issues are the building of dams and the blasting of rapids.

Mick is a co-founder of Wildside Eco-Tourism Company and a pioneer of paddle sports and eco-tourism in several countries of East Asia. Mick began toying with the concept of paddling the entire Mekong River after navigating several un-boated sections of the river in Laos and Cambodia in 2000/2001.

Image of the Mekong river courtesy of mekongcruises.com. Dispatches on Wetdawg.com. Info on Wikipedia.org.

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