I am sorry that I am now out of stock for all versions of the DVD. The number of requests I get for copies does not warrant my reprinting copies. Leo Dickinson may have some copies of the UK version. Leo can be contacted through his website www.adventurearchive.com . Also there is a download site where you can down load the TV part of the film (no "bonus tracks) at Steepedge.
DUDH KOSI: RELENTLESS RIVER OF EVEREST. Remastered DVD of the original HTV film with bonus tracks.
At the beginning of July 1976 a team of ten including six kayakers and a ton of gear squeezed into a Transit mini-bus and drove the 7,500 miles to Kathmandu and then hiked the 180 miles to Everest Base Camp where the melt waters of the Khumbu glacier forms the head-waters of the Dudh Kosi. Here they launched their kayaks and started to Canoe down Everest. Mike Jones, who led the expedition, overcame the incredulity of the sponsors and the television company he approached by force of character and charisma to get them to back the expedition. Once backed the expedition team endured week-long breakdowns on the road overland, snow-blindness and sun burn, leeches and dysentery, high altitude swims and near drowning, but above all paddled some of the hardest white water tackled to date by any of the team. When they arrived back in Kathmandu after six weeks in the Himalaya they still had to drive the whole show back home. Four months after leaving the UK they arrived back in Dover at the beginning of November - the passport-control officer was non-plussed and on handing back the passports remarked "Been away long?" "Oh four months". "Well, if you're quick you'll make last orders". For the team members, however, it was, variously: a realization of 18 months planning, a life changing experience, a trip of a lifetime.
The original HTV film of the 1976 British expedition to kayak down the Dudh Kosi River that flows from Everest was filmed by Leo Dickinson and HTV. It was originally shown in Britain at prime time on Boxing Day 1976. The film went on to win over 50 international awards and was sold for broadcast in more than 25 countries. The original 16mm negative film and also a can of out-takes which were not used on the
original film have been transferred to a digital format and the flaws were fixed by the marvels of modern digital technology. This resulting DVD is a crisp, clean, and bright version of the film.
BONUS TRACKS.
The kayak team's own Super 8mm film has been digitalized and a commentary of reminiscences by the surviving team members added. This film shows the drive from the UK overland through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to Nepal as well as the kayaking on the Dudh Kosi.
2nd International Cardboard Kayak Championships 1981 Super 8mm film by John Griffiths dubbed with the BBC Radio 4 Today program piece on the Serpent's Tail rapids of the River Dee in Llangollen.
3rd International Cardboard Kayak Championships 1987 from the film shot by Roger Huyton for TransWorld Sports on a "Bleak mid winter day in Llangollen North Wales" as the American commentary puts it!
Pushing the Limits A Breath of White Water. S4C. The white water kayaking episode with Mick Hopkinson, Rob Lesser, John Wasson and Dave Manby paddling in Idaho. Filmed again by Leo Dickinson
Dudh Kosi - Relentless River of Everest.
At last the original Award-winning HTV film has been released on DVD!
Read more and buy it here
The Coruh Extreme Races were white-water events I was running out in Turkey
I'm not carrying on with these at the minute but if you're interested then please
let me know
Many Rivers to Run is a book of kayaking stories I have compiled
The book is available for £16. See more details about it and read some reviews
here
'If the stories aren’t enough to set the heart racing then the few black-and-white
and superb sections of colour photos will help. This book is far and away the best
and most enjoyable collection of “paddling stories” that I have read. An inspirational
read.' Chris Sladden reviewing Many Rivers to Run