Egua - Germans/Russians
			‘L'indecisione è la chiave alla flessibilità’

Egua

Off to the Egua, another Sesia valley classic. Here's the opening drop, with Simon sliding the slide...

...he flies through the air with the greatest of ease, again with the whole 'cowtails flying' thing going on there. "Achtung! This is Der Commandante speaking: brace for landing." More German content coming later in the Egua.

Here's Mick landing from the same drop, provocatively showing a little hull...

Young Tom charges off the lip...

...disappears into the plunge pool...

...and surfaces in the textbook landing position, seat in the fully-upright position, tray stowed.

You can tell that Tom has been reading the kayaking manuals.

Simon has seen enough photos of the first drop and is anxious to move on. Well, he would be, except of course that Simon doesn't do anxiety.

It also looks like Simon is wearing elbow pads - this, if true, really would be talking the 'German kayaker' concept too far. We'll have to look into this.

The Egua is a boulder maze with the route laid out as a series of little drops and slides. A classic example of the genre, if you will.

Mick picks his line...

...and drops off...

A wider shot shows the general layout of this section. Much of the Egua looks like this. Tom prepares to make his move...

This shot shows the clarity of the water in the Italian Alps - It looks like there's no water there at all.

Tom has also read the chapter on boofing...

Here's some dude, not from our crew, running a slide. Asking around, it seems that this guy and his buddy were either climbers or Germans, or possibly German climbers.

Another source says that they were Russian canoe polo players.

Here's the first guy's buddy...

They also may have been "vodka swilling rooskies." In any case, leaving aside the worrying lack of communication with the strangers in your group (see the Belgians episode), these guys ran rivers by eddy hopping and communicating via walkie talkies.

Being somewhat more old-school, Mick communicates with Tom via the 'thumbs ups/thumbs down' system...

Judging by the landing, perhaps we should look into this walkie talkie idea...

Mick shows how it's done...

Towards the end of the Egua, there's another set of slides. Simon watches from above as Mick leads the way...

Simon follows Mick...

Clearly, a good day on the water for Simon... or was it?

Our legal team has been on to us here at MananaManana warning us that we need to protect ourselves from possible litigious exposure:

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