ADVENTURE! RUN OF THE RIO GRIJALVA

ladies and gentlemen versus mr. Bob Moran of Reno Nevada a young man who appeared once before on our program with the films of his solo Safari an exciting punishing journey that took him from the jungles of Burma to the burning deserts of the Middle East now here's Bob to introduce his latest adventure how do you do what Jack has called my adventure is really the story of 16 men who spent 11 days challenging a stretch of river 17 miles long that's right 11 days to travel just 17 miles but these were 17 miles that none of us who participated will ever forget this is our story run of the Rio Greek olive Oh [Music] to Jack Douglas true television series in association with Bing Crosby productions across the seven seas combining two different worlds of travel and adventure and presenting tonight adventure the fascinating exploits of modern day Marco Polo's this is our first destination the city of Tuzla capital of the state of Chiapas Mexico Jack curry the leader and planner of this expedition is first off the plane jack had recruited the rest of us 16 and all from throughout the United States except for myself they were all expert River Rats at the airport terminal we were greeted by a marimba band we checked in at a local hotel in Tuzla but the very next day Jax set out on an aerial reconnaissance of the Rio griffin's as the unofficial photographer for Jax outfit western rivers expeditions of Salt Lake City I was invited to go along the Rio Bravo cuts through the sumidero canyon and at this point I'd like to make this clear except for 17 miles of deadly Rapids the real credible een Avot addenda Splore but those 17 treacherous miles have defied all who have tried including the army of cortez any of the world's best-known River Rats who come here and after one look have left without even making a run Jack curry was determined not only to make the run but to see it through to the finish that same afternoon Jack and art singleton of Los Angeles took a closer look from the rim of the canyon it's typical of Jack curry that at no time during these preliminary explorations did he deceive himself or us from whatever altitude everything he saw spelled trouble and he knew and so advised us he was able to chart the first few miles of Rapids but no more the sumidero canyon doesn't lend itself to walking weeks before Jack had sent one of his trucks from Salt Lake City - tuxtla loaded with all of our necessary gear and supplies we drove the truck to a sort of beach just outside tula and a few miles upriver from the canyon this would be our starting point this rig would be used to support the oar locks as we'll see in just a moment now if my terminology isn't 100% perfect I hope you River Rats in the audience will forgive me I don't pretend to be an expert I'm just a guy who went along for the ride and what a ride it turned out to be we would use three giant rubber rafts for the run as the greenhorn I was drafted to inflate the rafts fortunately art and some of the others took pity on a greenhorn and chipped in otherwise I'd still be on that riverbank pumping inflated each of these giant rubber rafts weighs about 900 pounds that's right 900 pounds without any gear it took a lot of manpower to carry the raft to the water this helicopter signaled the arrival of the governor of the state of Chiapas he had known of our plans to challenge the 17 mile stretch of Rapids and he had arranged to have this helicopter maintained daily contact with our expedition here's the governor wishing Jack Godspeed on our journey on the right our newspaper reporters from tusla naturally our expedition had generated considerable local interest the mayor of Tuzla also came to see us off and presented art with a rifle and shelves as a token gift each of the three rafts had been christened the crocodile misspelled by the way l sumidero and Grijalva once the rafts were in the water we loaded our gear and supplies we also carried one small raft for emergency purposes here's that Orlock break chained into position lifejackets were a must and there would be no exceptions those were Jack Curry's orders and they were faithfully carried out contrary to what a few people may think River Rats are not a bunch of nuts anxious to get to heaven at last we shove off and Jack takes the orders of the lead raft [Music] we'll pass under that bridge she offered a course abridge even the bridge was lined with spectators more spectators along the banks of the river all of them wishing us luck and most of them thinking we were crazy we drifted downstream and under the bridge and we drifted slowly the current is very mild at this point and we had all we could do to stay awake instead of dozing off later in the afternoon we had whitewater and this was my first taste of it as far as the others were concerned all of them experienced men this was kid stuff but being a novice I thought it was a big thrill the first of the really dangerous Rapids lay ahead and Jack had us pull ashore to make camp figuring that this would give us time to reconnoiter the rapids remember we were pioneering this stretch of the Rio Bravo therefore we were not able to benefit by someone else's experience that first night we just loafed around physically we were as fresh as daisies all we had done was drift down river about two miles but the tensions of the weeks of waiting and planning were still with us and making early camp helped to quiet us down early to bed is early to rise too early if you ask me because it was mighty chilly around 6 a.m. and even the tantalizing aroma of eggs on the griddle didn't stop the shivers but by the time we had sandpaper the dishes that old mr. son just poured out his warm blessings gratefully received by all so we're on the river above the first Rapids which we named Deadhorse Falls because of the skeleton of a horse we had found near camp the night before we had to bypass Deadhorse falls not only because it was mostly a giant cataract but also because it was almost immediately followed by another Falls as I was to learn when two major Rapids are too close to each other there isn't time in between to get the boats squared away properly they're totally unmanageable so we had to line the boats past the rapids by lining I mean that we had to empty the boats then attach lines to them and have the empty boats go over the rapids meanwhile I had crossed the opposite bank to take pictures of this churning mass of water which we named Paul's Falls you'll understand why in just a moment all right the rafts have been emptied the lines made secure and the first of the rafts is allowed to go over the rafters [Music] the second graph also makes it [Music] now our first major setback watch these slow motion films and you'll see the raft smash against the rocks losing its Orlock Ricky [Music] it never rains but what it pours the next incident might have taken three lives and here's how it happened after losing the third raft Jack and Paul seven and crossed the stream in the small auxiliary raft in order to pick me up I got into the raft and suddenly in midstream the rapp turned over all three of us were swept toward the falls Jack latched onto a rock and pulled himself ashore the raft got caught between rocks just above the falls and although I lost my camera in the rapids I was fortunately pushed against the raft these pictures of me were taken by another member of the expedition who also had a camera but here this all Feminine had been carried over the falls and miraculously had managed to make the opposite shore of course I didn't know this at this particular moment once I had been pulled safely ashore we went after Paul you'll see him big his life in just a second and how he managed to stay alive we'll never know his forehead was viciously gashed he busted an eardrum and he was battered and bruised but good Bob Preston did his duty a big dose of penicillin after first attending to his Scialfa near the hand of death has passed his body now we turn again to the first disaster the crocodile is useless eight of her air compartments are smashed beyond repair we salvage what we can impact our gear aboard the two remaining rats [Music] more lining at Matterhorn falls this time with one of the boats Rams against the rocks and watch art Fenster maker waving frantically from war line to release the raft before it swamps he got the line then we quickly pull the raft ashore to make sure that it are had a lot of failing to do and he was mighty disgusting and rightfully so later the chore of bringing out his clothes and only after he had taken off his t-shirt did he realize and we realized that he had a severe rope burn a good eight inches long there's one consolation about river running there's always enough water for the Saturday night ritual this is a luxury I could rarely afford in the deserts of the Middle East in camp that night there was a great deal of horseplay more than any other night of the trip it was strictly a front each of us trying to hide from one another our discouragement and the fear that we might not make it we worried about the loss of crocodile and how it might our chances so we worried and hid our worry with horseplay silly things perhaps but it lets off tension and keeps men going not until the sixth day did we reach Rapids that we felt we could shoot with at least a 50-50 chance of surviving so we named these Rapids first ride Rapids these are slow-motion films showing the first draft running the rapids [Music] here's what the ride looks like from the rack [Music] now the second graph takes the same Rapids [Music] [Music] the exhilaration of sweeping over her stride rapids soon vanished the next Rapids were impassable not even a fish could have survived this meant portaging and if you've never been on a river run with two 900 pound rafts plus equipment you can't possibly imagine what it's like to portage through the sumidero canyon these scenes will give you some idea why we dreaded portaging it's a living hell after busting our backs inching the rafts up the cliff this almost seemed like fun the assembly line that gets our equipment back in the rafts on the seventh day more trouble Alan Webber sprained ankle has swollen and we now fear a serious leg injury the helicopter that has checked us daily is signaled in and Alan is taken to to Scylla for treatment we have no way of knowing whether he will be able to rejoin us to finish the run and indeed even we don't know how the adventure will end the copilot gets out Allen painfully stumbles in and later the helicopter will return for the co-pilot incidentally the pilot of the helicopter did a tremendous job of getting in and out of this narrow steep by now the strain was beginning to tell some of us were physically sick a few were mentally depressed but all of us were determined to conquer that 17 miles of river and Rapids in a moment part two of our story always the ever-present River and more Rapids without a name later we named this stretch of Rapids rainbow Rapids [Music] this one was a fun rabbit we took on a little water but it was a very easy rapid to shoot Jax big smile here is the site of the nicest and cleanest stretch of beach we had seen since leaving to slough yes we gave this Beach a name to Rainbow Beach incidentally these names will now be officially designated on the maps of the Rio Grande although by long-standing tradition this is the honor and courtesy extended to all trailblazers just a few feet from the river's edge we could look up way way up and see a veil of water falling in a spray and in just the right time of day this spray from the waterfall reflects a rainbow unfortunately I couldn't catch the rainbow with my camera but these rainbow reflections are were prompted us to use the word rainbow in naming the rapids the beach and in fact the waterfall itself here I'm savoring the delicious taste of fresh rainfall water washed down from the limestone cliffs now here's an interesting natural phenomenon created by the rainfall spray the miniature city of sand skyscrapers here's what happens the falling drops of water wash away the sand from the sides of pieces of debris such as a twig for example the twig or leaf or stick stays on top and the sand underneath assumes the same contour and so mother nature plays architect and designs a model city by the banks of a remote Mexican river to the right of the miniature city is a stretch of sand that we named crocodile beach we saw five different trails left by the Crocs and here clearly defined in the sand the resting places of the departed reptiles this churning twisting torrent of white water was our introduction to gorilla gorge we name these Lee's Rapids in honor of Tom Lee one of our boat men this is fast water very fast and we debated the wisdom of making the Jack curry had final responsibilities and he decided the rapids could be had here's the Gorge just a slit in the rock and here comes the first raft the film is slow motion [Music] [Music] now the second draft also seen in slow-motion which will give you an ideas to the speed of the current [Music] this shows how little room we had to go through the opening a matter of a few feet to spare [Music] we look back at gorilla Gorge and glad that is behind us once through the opening the river seemed to calm down but not for long more of our most experienced River Rats including Big John cross and our Fenster maker decided to shoot Fenster maker Falls they took both rafts over these Falls and in so doing saved us a full day of portaging [Music] the calm after the storm and lucky for us the river had turned Placid and allowed us to make for the beach one of the rafts was badly torn up and had to be patched up as you can see it was quite a patch job a section of the Orlock frame had also been shattered fortunately we hadn't lost the shattered fragments so that Jack and art and Ralph Whitford were able to accomplish a terrific repair job we made an early camp but very little being more tired than hungry incidentally Jack had planned our food rations well we have plenty of Chow the next morning we shot Preston Rapids it's more of a fall than a rapid but we didn't have much time to debate the point here we go [Music] one of the oars was lost but quickly and skillfully replaced by one of the oarsmen in order to keep the raft under control [Music] we had good reason to make for the shore a breathtaking waterfall which we named Preston Falls one of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen a foaming yet silky sheet of water dropping in stages some 200 feet down the mountainside again we asked ourselves as we had so often who else has passed this way before us if anyone we have no way of knowing for certain but I am fairly certain that these are the first films ever made of these Falls or for that matter most of the other Rapids are Falls the spray falls into the river in fact after we shot Preston Rapids the current took us directly under the spray of the Falls we spent several hours here admiring the Falls from every vantage point in the next 48 hours more Rapids more trouble more cordage more Rapids by now we were a beat-up Bunch this is dead-end Rock where the opening is only three and a half feet wide less than half the beam of our rats so more portaging the helicopter checked us out but couldn't help however the pilot gave us good news this was the last obstacle we had made it once past this point he told us we would reach the village of chico san it was almost a pleasure to portage we had made it 17 miles of Rapids in 11 days whitewater ahead but very mild and soon signs of civilization a native dugout and a friendly wave [Music] this would be our last beachhead and the native grapevine didn't take long villagers began to gather just as soon as we reach the beach we were glad to see them the women and children seemed puzzled and were quite reserved but the men apparently understood what we had accomplished and read it as warmly the men led us to the village and of course we had to tell our story over and over again they were spellbound and we on the other hand found it strange to realize that these people who live on the banks of the Grijalva had never seen the 17 miles of it just above their village in the afternoon we returned to the beach to start packing our equipment and attender our bruises and injuries doc Preston was certainly kept busy that whole afternoon none of us really realize just how battered we were my only wound came from patching my pants the governor flew into town to greet us landing his helicopter in the center of the empty village square he was genuinely pleased with our success and gratified there had been no loss of life in connection with the expedition Jack's Western expeditions truck which had remained at too slow was directed to the village by the helicopter pilots we put our gear in the truck and bumped our way back to the capital city where the governor was again on hand to greet us this time in his official capacity they had quite a reception committee including the airport marimba band men will be boys especially when they've emerged from tension and pressure so we put on a show of our own this was more like it and I sure hope that our wives or girlfriends will understand that evening we were treated to a folk dance exhibition at a dinner by the governor in our honor [Music] finally urged on by the governor and the other officials the River Rats took to the floor you know as I took these pictures I remember thinking to myself are these smiling clean-shaven well-dressed guys the same man I knew the day before blessum they were indeed and I'll remember every one of them as long as I live homeward bound and a last look at the real grit Alba from this day on no River rat could say there's a 17 mile stretch of Rapids in Mexico that's never been taken we won't be the last but we'll always know that we were the first [Music] during our 11 days on the Ryoga halva I saw many examples of inspirational courage and fortitude but in the final analysis I'll have to tip my hat to Jack curry who planned and led the expedition he's all man and every inch the born leader my thanks to Jack curry for including me in the expedition and thank you very much ladies and gentlemen boys and girls [Music]