Adventure: Operation Zanskar An Irish-led expedition in India is about to descend through one of the most remote places on earth, writes Elaine Edwards

Exploring the world via its rivers by paddling through creeks and over waterfalls in a 2.5-metre long kayak is probably one of the more unconventional ways to go about it.

It makes for many spills, unbeatable memories and spectacular pictures. But for five Irish men and one American, they are taking this mode of travel to its extreme.

They are spending eight days on a 300-kilometre kayak descent through one of the most remote areas on earth - the Zanskar valley in the Ladakh region of northern India.

Colin Irvine (24), from Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin; Ciarán 'Kipper' Maguire (30), Chapelizod, Dublin; Ross Redmond (23) and James McManus (22), Roscrea, Co Tipperary; Brian Keogh (22), Lacken, Co Wicklow; and Brian Magee (36) from the US, will use their trip to raise money for charities, including the Irish Cancer Society and a charity working in India, by making a film about the adventure.

This will be the first Irish team to take on this arduous expedition. The eight-day descent will be an endurance test though all have paddled what they call 'bigger' water before.

The trip down the Tsarap and Zanskar rivers starts at a small stream high in the Himalayas, at some 14,500 feet, higher than the summit of the Matterhorn.

Acclimatisation will be difficult and the six expect to suffer from altitude sickness.

They will spend two days on a bus to get to an overnight camp at 15,000 feet, crossing several mountain passes at altitudes of up to 17,500 feet before they begin the descent.

Maguire, one of the most experienced paddlers in Ireland, said: "From the river notes we've read, in the first few miles, your lungs are crying out for oxygen. We'll be paddling with our sleeping bags, our mats, cookers, tents, food, water, media equipment, our video cameras, stills cameras, spare paddles, first aid kit, rescue equipment and ourselves in the boats."

To emulate the weight they will have to carry, three of the team loaded bags of rocks into their small boats on a recent trip to the French Alps, which they used to build up their fitness levels for India.

They face many potential health hazards, including water and food-borne diseases and malaria.

At night, the temperatures plummet - the region experiences major fluctuations in temperature, even during the summer.

The team will be out of contact with the outside world, apart from one point on the descent where they believe they may find Internet access.

Each of them has been delegated a responsibility: organising food and cooking; travel arrangements, sponsorship for the expensive gear they require, media contact and operating cameras and video equipment.

There's only one point on the trip where they will be able to travel by road, involving a journey through a war zone. Their commitment is, however, "absolute".

Mr Irvine, the initial driving force behind the expedition, has paddled all the Alpine countries, Norway, Zambia, Costa Rica, the US, Uganda and Nepal in the past six years. He hand-picked his fellow paddlers.

Each member of the team will take turns of two hours at a time to lead, to watch the river, to pull the others up at the 'horizon' lines, when the fast moving water drops away below their view.

"You need to know the people very well. You need to know that if you do get into trouble that you have a solid crew who aren't going to lose the cool," said Mr Maguire.

"The worst thing you would want is a weak link who would jeopardise their safety and, ultimately the whole team's safety."

"This is not a Jackass production," Mr Irvine added.

Still, girlfriends and mothers have, apparently, only been given the 'need-to-know' information about the trip.

There is, most people involved in kayaking for sport, leisure or travel will probably admit, a certain macho element involved - there are those who always want to push themselves and their little plastic boats to the limit in the unfriendliest of conditions.

But it's not by design that there aren't any women on the team: Mr Irvine paddled on a recent trip with a woman who he would take on the Zanskar expedition "in a heartbeat".

But he concedes there are fewer women involved at this tough level.

This trip isn't just about being on the water though. The cultural experience - the connections they hope to make with local people in riverside communities as they descend - is also important.

Zanskar, a valley system between the Himalayas and the Zanskar mountain, is, according to Ladakh tourism information, one of the least interfered with microcosms of Ladakh, one of the last few cultural satellites of Tibet and a heartland of Buddhism.

A number of monastic establishments survive in the mountains.

"As you visit more Third World countries and you get well into those remote mountain areas, you start to have more contact with this very basic, rural way of life," said Mr Irvine.

"It's great and it's interesting as a tourist, but one of the side effects of that is you start to realise you are really in an enormously privileged position relative to the people in the places you are visiting. So part of the idea behind the Zanskar expedition was to put something back into the country we're visiting," he said.

"It's all very nice to go there and take photographs, but that's not of great use. If you can do something positive on the back of the expedition, plug some resources back in, especially in the Third World countries like Nepal and like India, you are having more and more contact with the local people and the kayaking almost becomes secondary to the whole travelling experience."