The indisputable advantage of rafting over hiking is that there is no strict restriction on food. Of course, you can’t load the Auchan assortment into a boat, but there is no need to divide the crackers into four parts.
2. The main delicacy on rafting trips is, of course, the gifts of nature. In our case, fish. On Lake Mainitz you can catch Dolly Varden, which is incomparable in taste. The color of Mainitsa Dolly Varden meat is noble orange. When there is a lot of fish, you can practice fish cooking. In addition to the traditional baked in foil, I decided to cook fish with “smoky”
3. I put strips in the chimney
4. Dolly Varden meat is tender, after a few minutes the garlands begin to fall into the oven. Then we had to finish frying it manually directly on the stove. But the infection is still tasty, even if it doesn’t look marketable
5. Neroch caviar. Well, this won't surprise anyone
6. Not only people love to eat, but also animals. Eurasians raid the summer kitchen
7. Photo session with a piece of bread
8. Meanwhile, in the beam, the mouse is hamstering a chocolate bar
9. Let's go back to the rafting, especially since the most delicious thing, the hit of this trip, is already ripe...
10. Lightly salted fish. To achieve Michelin standard, the fish must be allowed to rest for a couple of days. We have two options: grayling and Dolly Varden. My dad salted the malma; before that I didn’t dare to eat malmo. Khariton's star faded that day. The divine taste of orange malma fish is beyond verbal descriptions. Although, believe me, malmo had someone to compete with, lightly salted chariton is incomparable.
11. Of course, you won’t be full of fish. Ordinary food, which miraculously turns into extraordinary food during a hike, was also present. Or more precisely, it was the basis of the diet. In the morning, porridge, in the evening, cereal (buckwheat/rice) or pasta with stew.
12. And for lunch, mashed potatoes with stew and peas. It's not so much tasty as it is fast. But who am I kidding? It's delicious, damn delicious, there's never any leftovers. As well as an assortment of tea and cookies, with chocolates. This time I took so much chocolate that I even brought it to the city.
13. Sacred afternoon nap.
14. True, people tried to violate his holiness all the time, either by mosquitoes or by those who wanted to discuss after dinner
15. With the appearance of pike in the river, the opportunity to cook fish cutlets appeared.
16. True, due to the lack of a meat grinder, the fish had to be finely chopped. But the women’s cutlets turned out great
18. Just like mushrooms
19. There are a great many mushrooms in the Chukotka tundra in August
20. There’s nothing to say about the berry. It exists by definition and there is a lot of it.
21. Prince
22. Blueberry and crowberry
An almost ideal way to cook fish kebab over coals. First, the fish is cut into fillets, then into portioned pieces along with the skin. Next, the lenok is literally marinated for about 15 minutes in onion, salt and black pepper, threaded onto skewers and baked until a beautiful golden brown crust forms. This lenka kebab is served with pickled onions.
Photo of the cabbage soup I cooked on the raft. The cabbage soup was prepared on the basis of stew, but on the basis of fresh vegetables - fresh cabbage, potatoes, carrots, onions and even tomatoes. The cabbage soup with fresh cabbage shown in the photo was cooked over a fire in a camp cauldron; the recipe for making this cabbage soup with a photo can be found here.
Recipe for shurpa, which I cooked on a raft. To prepare camping shurpa, you take lamb stew, a whole set of various dry spices and, of course, fresh vegetables: potatoes, onions and carrots. This stewed stew shurpa is of course not very quick to prepare, but the soup turns out very tasty and rich, just what you need for the day.
Photo of the grayling fish that I prepared on rafting. The fish was cleaned, gutted, and its fins were cut off. Next, the perverse stage of filleting grayling began! Well, what should we do if on the 8th day of our water trip, grayling had already been practically tasted in all forms and types!? The resulting grayling fillets were marinated with onion rings, black pepper and diluted vinegar for about 30 minutes, after which it turned out to be one of the best camping snacks I have ever prepared in nature.
Photo of fish khe, which I once cooked on a raft. In this case, it was he in Korean and was prepared from taimen, but any white fish will do for preparing the dish: pike perch, taimen, lenok, grayling, whitefish, muksun, etc. The cooking process is quite simple: you need to pour onion, garlic and ground red hot pepper with hot vegetable oil, combine this mixture with pieces of fish fillet, add ground coriander, black pepper, vinegar, after which the appetizer is served. It's especially good with a piece of black bread! In other words, if you haven’t decided how to make heh from fish, you can use this recipe; the appetizer is really very tasty!
Fresh grayling was cut into pieces, sprinkled with salt and pepper, after which all this beauty was doused with a solution of diluted vinegar. And to complete the preparation of this grayling dish, onions were poured into it, a couple of slices of lemon were added, and a little vegetable oil was poured in. It turned out to be a very tasty camping fish appetizer.
The grayling shown in the photo was baked on a poke over the coals of a normal taiga fire. Everything is done very simply. We cut the rod, sharpen it on one side, then string cleaned grayling onto it, sprinkle the fish with salt and black pepper and place it over the coals. This whole simple process of preparing baked grayling is described here.
Photo of the grayling we fried on the raft. We caught a lot of fish, ate it lightly salted, cooked fish soup and decided to fry it too. In order to get a flavorful dish, we decided not to just fry the grayling, but to marinate it thoroughly first. The fish was cleaned, put in a basin, covered with salt and black pepper, kept for about an hour, and only after that the grayling was dipped in flour and fried in a frying pan.
The photo shows a bowl of fish soup, and not just fish soup, but soup made from fresh grayling, which was caught in the upper reaches of the Yenisei in August 2011. Actually, there is no need to specifically describe here how the soup shown in the photo was prepared, because according to tradition, I have already done it here: grayling fish soup, but it’s nice to remember that the idea of cooking a real grayling fish soup was realized exactly this time. The thing is that when it comes time to cook fish soup on a hike, hungry tourists constantly reach out and try to convince the cook that they need to add potatoes and cereals to the fish soup and make it thicker and more satisfying! But the ear is a completely different topic! So I decided to use a little trick this time, and before implementing my insidious plan, i.e. cook fish soup simply from fish and onions (without other “hearty” fillers), fed my fellow tourists pancakes, and as soon as the vigilance of the well-fed tourists subsided, then I began to cook my fish soup. Eh, it’s nice to see her again in the photo!
Photo of grayling fish soup made only from fish and onions. The beautiful golden color of the soup comes from onion peels, which were used to cook the clear fish broth. After boiling the broth from the heads and tails of grayling, large pieces of fish were placed in the soup, well, after 10 minutes of cooking, the fish soup was completely ready.
Photo of fish soup cooked from the head and tail of taimen. The head was huge, so we barely managed to fit it into a five-liter cauldron! The actual preparation of the fish soup is very simple - we place the head of a fairly large taimen, freed from the gills, in a cauldron along with the fins and tail, add a couple of peeled but not cut onions and one carrot. We fill the whole thing with cold, clean water from the river, and put the cauldron with fish on the fire. We cook the fish soup, not forgetting to periodically remove the foam from it for about 40 minutes, after which we serve the dish to the table in the form of two dishes - a boiled head and a bowl of very tasty and rich fish soup. Of course, I understand that the simplicity of this soup is off the scale, but nevertheless, I was not lazy and wrote its recipe with a photo here.
Photo of a fish appetizer - taimen fillet marinated in soy sauce along with coarsely chopped vegetables (tomatoes, onions, bell peppers). The taste of the dish is reminiscent of Japanese cuisine (due to the presence of soy sauce and wasabi in the marinade), this camp appetizer is prepared very simply: cut fresh tomatoes into rings, peel and cut onions into rings. Cut the bell peppers into large half rings. Cut the fish fillet (and this can be taimen, nelma, lenok, grayling or any clean fish that is found in mountain rivers) into large pieces, combine with vegetables and season with a marinade made from soy sauce, wasabi and garlic, cut into slices. Now all we have to do is shake the fish and vegetables thoroughly, let it marinate for 15-20 minutes and the dish can be served at the camp table!
Photo of the final taimen dish, which I baked with potatoes on a rafting trip along the river. Kaa-Khem (Tuva). This time I took a camp smokehouse with me on the rafting trip and decided to repurpose it a little into an oven. To do this, it’s enough to place what you’re baking in the very center of the smokehouse, and put it on the fire so that the heat embraces the iron body from all sides... I won’t go into a very long story about how I cooked baked taimen with potatoes in the smokehouse, since the whole process is described with step-by-step photos can be found here.
Photo of cooked taimen, which this time was baked in aluminum foil. The recipe is simple, so it is most suitable for rafting or fishing. You need to gut the fish, rub it inside and out with salt and freshly ground black pepper, stuff the belly with parsley and dill prepared for the trip, wrap it well in foil and bake until tender on the coals of the fire. It is quite obvious that any fish caught while fishing can be prepared in a similar way, but nevertheless, I have dedicated a separate recipe to baked taimen, which you can find here.
Photo of taimen steaks, which I fried on a river raft. Kaa-Khem (Tuva) in the summer of 2012. Freshly caught fish was cut across the carcass into steaks, salted and peppered. One onion was grated on a fine grater, then the resulting onion pulp was salted, peppered and sprinkled with squeezed lemon juice. Well, then, pieces of taimen were rolled alternately in flour, onion puree and again in flour, and then the fish was fried in a frying pan.
The supply manager is responsible for food on the rafting trip. He controls the cost of food, manages the cooking process and is involved in this process to the greatest extent possible. Participants help him to the extent possible and willing.
Since food and all equipment are transported on ships, there is no need to set strict limits on the weight of provisions. This means that we can allow the use of such products that are considered a real luxury for hiking. For example, tomatoes, cabbage, canned corn and peas.
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The diet is compiled taking into account the features of the programs. So, in the morning we have porridge on our menu, and in the evening, when we have more time and unlimited access to firewood and water, we have soups. We pay special attention to the fact that we also have boiled food for lunch, and not sandwiches.
Indicative rafting menu
The indicative menu is designed for a 7-day rafting trip. If you plan to join for fewer days, then the following schemes will apply to your hike:
2-day rafting: 1st and last day of this menu
3-day rafting: 1st, 2nd and last days of this menu, etc.
day 1
breakfast
sandwiches with sausage and cheese, eggs
fresh vegetables
tea with cookies
dinner
rice with vegetables and meat
cutting fresh vegetables
tea with cookies
dinner
green borscht with egg and sour cream
bread, sausage, lard, garlic
compote with cookies
day 2
breakfast
macaroni and cheese and canned fish
cabbage and canned corn salad
coffee drink with halva
dinner
wheat porridge with meat
cutting fresh vegetables
tea with cookies
dinner
jacket potatoes with hunting sausages
bread, onion, garlic
green tea with cookies
day 3
breakfast
Mamaliga with cheese and fried brisket
hibiscus with cookies
dinner
cutting fresh vegetables
tea with cookies
dinner
Cossack-style kulesh (thick millet soup with vegetables and meat)
bread, sausage, lard, onion
tea with lemon and cookies
day 4
breakfast
vegetable stew with beans, zucchini and meat
cutting fresh vegetables
tea with kozinaki
dinner
rice with vegetables and meat
cutting fresh vegetables
tea with cookies
dinner
red borscht with meat
bread, sausage, lard, garlic
compote with cookies
day 5
breakfast
rice porridge milk with dried fruits
coffee drink with cookies
dinner
wheat porridge with meat
cutting fresh vegetables
tea with cookies
dinner
cabbage soup with peas and meat
bread, sausage, lard, onion
compote with cookies
day 6
breakfast
goulash (vegetable stew with peppers, potatoes and meat)
cucumber and cabbage salad
tea with sweets
dinner
rice with vegetables and meat
cutting fresh vegetables
tea with cookies
dinner
fish soup
bread, sprats, lemon, garlic
green tea with cookies
day 7
breakfast
oatmeal with dried fruits
bread with cheese
coffee drink with cookies
dinner
buckwheat porridge with canned fish
cutting fresh vegetables
tea with cookies
Drinking alcohol during the active part of the tour is prohibited!
Drinking alcohol is allowed only in the evening, provided that the participant is in shape in the morning.
The instructor has the right to drop off a participant with signs of alcohol intoxication at the nearest place suitable for departure.
The expenses of such a participant (for example, moving to the nearest regional center) are not covered.
The cost of the tour is non-refundable.
Buy ready-made tours or go rafting yourself
Tours organized by professionals are the most suitable rafting option for beginners, and if there are no tourists with experience among your friends accompanying you, then they are practically the only one. And although river rafting does not require special physical training (only endurance), it is recommended to test your strength on the water for the first time under the guidance of an instructor - this way you can get the most out of an extreme holiday without making stupid mistakes. An ideal two-day tour for a beginner costs an average of 5 thousand rubles per person.
The presence of an instructor who has memorized the particulars of the route significantly reduces the chance of getting stuck, capsizing, damaging the vessel, or being helpless in an emergency situation. In addition, the cost of the tour, as a rule, includes everything you need: transfer, rental of watercraft, vests and oars, camping food and equipment. Buying your own equipment will cost significantly more.
Independent travelers are limited only by their own wishes and capabilities. However, an independent hike assumes that the purchase of equipment and concern for safety precautions will fall on the shoulders of tourists. Water rafting is an extreme and dangerous form of recreation, do not forget to inform the Ministry of Emergency Situations about the timing of the trip and the details of your route! It is also worth considering that rafting requires team members to have special mutual understanding, cohesion and willingness to cooperate. For this reason, many try not to raft in the company of strangers: members of the tourist group will not only have to set up camp and relax together, but also - and more importantly - row and overcome difficulties on the water.
Water rafting is an extreme and dangerous form of recreation, do not forget to inform the Ministry of Emergency Situations about the timing of the trip and the details of your route!
Decide on a suitable watercraft...
For the first time (and calm water), professionals advise choosing a kayak, which can be a frame or frame-inflatable. The advantage of this type of water transport is its relatively low speed and moderate maneuverability, which make it suitable for an inexperienced rower.
The three-person kayak has enough space so that tourists do not experience discomfort, can arrange personal belongings and, if necessary, rest. Unlike both a catamaran and some other watercraft, kayaking, although it requires significant physical effort, is forgiving of imperfect control and rowing skills.
“A kayak is a vessel for lowland rivers and lakes, in other words, for relatively calm water. Compared to a catamaran, it is much easier to sail on standing or sluggish water, as well as against the wind,” says Ivan, who has been rafting on rivers of various difficulty levels for more than 30 years. “And vice versa, it makes sense to use a catamaran for rough water, but in calm water it will be much inferior to a kayak.”
If you believe in yourself and the strength of your comrades, it makes sense to choose a catamaran. At the same time, according to Ivan, the kayak gives beginners valuable experience, which can then be used on any vessel. “Those who switch to a catamaran from a kayak can see and read the water better than those who started from a catamaran,” he says. - On rough water, the structure of the flow is heterogeneous, and from the cockpit of a kayak a person learns to see everything in every detail. Those who immediately board a catamaran, as a rule, see only the course and direction of movement.”
Regardless of what kind of transport you prefer, it must be carefully inspected before starting a boat trip. When choosing a kayak, you should pay attention to the frame and shell, which can be canvas or plastic. Look for scuffs and poorly patched holes in the case. Study the list of parts necessary for assembling the kayak: if something is missing, be sure to notify the owner of the vessel. The catamaran must be checked for the integrity of the hull, cylinders, frame and rope harness that holds its parts together.
A catamaran, also popular among amateur tourists, turns out to be more difficult to operate and is more suitable for a well-coordinated team. Rafting on it requires a strict distribution of responsibilities and proper rowing. If you handle the catamaran ineptly, your vacation turns into complete torture. At the same time, a huge plus of some catamarans is a wide banner deck, which makes it much safer for children.
...and the duration of the trip
There's nothing unusual here. As with overland backpacking, rafting can be a weekend of fun or a serious summer vacation adventure.
Whatever you decide, any rafting consists of several stages: arrival at the beginning of the route (drop-off), assembling the floating equipment, the rafting itself along with all the stops and, finally, dismantling the floating equipment and delivering the group to the end point of the hike. If the trip lasts longer than three days, there must be an escape option in case the watercraft breaks down or the tourists’ health deteriorates.
Tour organizers often take on the hassle of finding and ordering a transfer, assembling equipment and planning a route along with exit points. The bad news is that their services are not getting cheaper.
How to dress for a kayak and what you will need on the water
Water rafting is a whole day of paddling with short breaks. Incorrectly chosen clothing will restrict movement and quickly get wet. Equip yourself simply, but wisely. You will need:
- wetsuit and wet boots
- life vest
Usually rented together with the watercraft
- loose t-shirt
- shorts or pants
- Panama or cap
On calm water in strong sunshine
- windbreaker
- thermal underwear
- cotton or Kevlar gloves
To protect hands from injury and staining
- waterproof shoes
For example, from synthetic rubber
- GPS and/or paper map
If you are rafting on your own
Once in the water, take care only of yourself, and not of your precious things: frantically catching them from the water, you risk drowning in vain. On rivers with a calm current, things that fall into the water will simply wash ashore. Once on land, immediately take off your wet clothes and warm up by the fire. And don’t neglect insurance: getting injured during rafting is easier than it seems, and you can easily pick up a tick.
Choose a body of water
within my means
The Federation of Sports Tourism of Russia divides water tourist routes into six categories depending on their length and obstacles: rapids, swells, rapids (places of fast current) and rifts (shallow rocky areas with fast current). Inexperienced tourists are advised to choose routes either without difficult sections at all, or with obstacles of the first category of difficulty. Simply put, it’s better to leave rafting on mountain rivers for later. It is also not recommended to choose lakes as a body of water. In an open space, the group finds itself at the mercy of the weather: a suddenly rising wind creates waves that can easily capsize the ship. For the first time, traveling on a flat body of water is quite suitable: there the chance of capsizing or damaging the ship tends to zero.
Professional tourists regularly prepare reports on their rafting trips. Such notes tell about the condition of the route and landmarks, and also explain how and where it is best to start the rafting and where it is easiest to evacuate. The official list of routes of the Federation of Sports Tourism indicates routes, the difficulty of which may vary depending on the time of year. Even during the summer months, some sections of the rivers become shallow, and the boat has to be pulled by hand. You can and should also learn from reports about what is happening along the route, where blockages of stones and trees are formed or dams and beaver dwellings appear. The fresher they are, the better. Negligence when studying the route can lead to damage or capsizing of the vessel.
Enjoy your day
On a long trip (usually a week or more), a day is mandatory - a day completely devoted to rest from rowing. In a large parking lot, tourists set up camp, repair boats if necessary, wash things and have fun.
With kayaks or catamarans at your disposal, it is difficult to resist the temptation to go fishing. However, do not rush to grab your fishing rods: in some areas or at certain times of the year, fishing may be prohibited. Alternatively, you can go to the forest to pick mushrooms and berries.
During the day, tourists who have had to wash in the river all this time finally get the chance to organize a camp bathhouse. Its construction takes on average four to six hours, and for some it takes a whole day. From large stones collected around the area, you need to build a stove and heat it for at least several hours. When the stones are finally warm enough, a pre-assembled frame of logs is installed directly above the stove. It is recommended to fasten them together with reinforced tape or ropes so that the bathhouse does not fall apart at the right time. In turn, the frame is covered with a special bath awning or several layers of polyethylene fabric. It’s too hard, but you want to take a steam bath? Get a camp sauna tent.
We are what we eat, which is why most of our tours include meals. We select the best, proven cafes for tourists and/or organize lunch on the spot (chicken kebabs, full hot meals, loose leaf tea, sandwiches, sweets). For tourists who do not eat meat, we replace meat kebabs with fish/vegetables cooked on charcoal.
Check out our standard menu for a 4-day rafting trip (caution: viewing the images may make you salivate :-)
We guarantee that no one will go hungry!
| Breakfast | Dinner | Dinner | |
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| Hercules porridge on condensed milk with raisins |
Pasta "Bolognese" | Buckwheat porridge "Boyarskaya" (with champignons, carrots and stewed meat) |
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| Sandwiches with cod caviar | "Kayaker" salad (cucumbers, cabbage, cons. peas) |
Greek salad | |
| Breakfast | Dinner | Dinner | |
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| Hercules porridge with condensed milk with bananas |
Fish soup with pink salmon | Pasta "Fettuccine" (with champignons and cheese) |
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| Sandwiches with cheese | "New Year's" salad (cabbage, peas, ham, apple) |
Salad "Kaleidoscope" (apples, carrots, cabbage) |
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| Breakfast | Dinner | Dinner | |
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| Wheat porridge with condensed milk with oranges |
Lagman (noodles, stew, garlic, carrots, cabbage, Bulgarian pepper) |
Pilaf "Risotto" (rice, stewed meat, carrots, zucchini, bell pepper, tomato paste, onion, garlic) |
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| Sandwiches with squash caviar | Salad "Poncho" (corn, cucumbers, croutons, beans) |
Salad "Summer" (cabbage, cucumbers, green onions, tomatoes) |
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| Sunday |
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| Barley porridge with condensed milk with apples |
Borsch | ||
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| Sandwiches with liver pate |
Vegetable salad (corn, cucumbers, cabbage, garlic) |
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* - some ingredients can be replaced for objective reasons (long transfer, hot weather, etc.)
** - substitution of dishes is possible due to the seasonality of ingredients
*** - in VIP tours, fresh meat, olive oil, natural milk, etc. can be used.
Top 5 most delicious dishes prepared on rafting
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1. Lagman (thick meat sauce with vegetables, stewed meat, tomatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, bell peppers, long pasta, real oriental seasonings); |
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2. Ukrainian borscht (fresh fried beets, carrots, onions, lemon, stewed meat, vegetables, fresh garlic); |
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3. Vegetable stew “Hungarian Ratatouille” (stew, mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic, herbs); |
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4. Shurpa soup with stewed meat, potatoes, carrots and herbs; |
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5. Greek salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, olives, Feta cheese, Chinese lettuce, lemon, vegetable oil, herbs). |
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