The trip he envisioned, like his Amazon adventure, was to follow the entire river, from its nascent dribble on a peak called Otgon Tenger in the Hangayn Mountains of Mongolia, then across Russia and Siberia, and finally to its mouth some 3,400 miles away in the Arctic Circle. The point was to travel the Yenisey under the power of his crew: no motors. They paddled a rubber raft and kayak for roughly the first quarter, then rowed a wooden dory with two massive oars for the rest. Adding to the challenge, the team had a limited window. Eight months of the year, the river is jammed with ice.
"Lost in Mongolia: Rafting the World's Last Unchallenged River" tells of Angus's five-month ordeal. It's a misleading title, though, since he does not say if other top rivers like China's Huang He, Russia's Ob-Irtysh, Amur, and Lena, Southeast Asia's Mekong, or Central Africa's Zaire/Congo have been "challenged." Besides, a quick Google check reveals no unanimity on the question of the top 10 waterways. (Technically, for the Yenisey to even make the top five, it needs to be thrown into the Yenisey-Angara river system.)
Record-book debates aside, the journey is remarkable. Surely the most harrowing episode is Angus's separation from his two teammates. While still in Mongolia, the raft capsizes, spilling their belongings into the river. Angus paddles off in a kayak to retrieve a bag containing their documentary film footage. Without food, clothing, bedding, or sun protection, he lives by his own wits for 12 days.
When he meets Mongolian peasants living in tepee-like huts called gers, Angus is reduced to pantomime and scribbling Neanderthal-like cartoons to describe his mishap. Details like this -- or how, later, the temporarily coed crew takes care of personal hygiene in an 18-foot wooden boat with no toilet -- amusingly satisfy our curiosity to know the nuts and bolts of this expedition.
