If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside.Learn about Outside Online's affiliate link policy Ash Dykes has started his journey down the Congo River Basin, with only an inflatable kayak between himself and the river's predators. Experts weigh in on whether that's wise. ( is a fishing enthusiast and commerce editor who’s tested and reviewed several inflatable kayak models.
For this story, she followed Dykes’s expedition through his TikTok videos and social posts. Krempa then spoke with Evan Stafford, communications director at American Whitewater, and Sarah Kilbourne, a swiftwater and packrafting instructor and former executive director of the American Packrafting Association, to assess his choice to use an inflatable kayak, the river conditions, and the wildlife and health risks. If you’re as perpetually online as I am, you’ve been glued to TikTok keeping up with the “Congo River Kayak Guy” who’s all over my FYP.
And if you’re not, let me fill you in: Congo River Kayak Guy’s real name is Ash Dykes, and he’s going viral for attempting to paddle 434 miles (700 kilometers) along the Sangha River in Central Africa, where hippos, crocodiles, and an array of diseases are threatening to cut his trip short. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s attempting to do it all in an inflatable boat that looks like something you might casually toss in the trunk for a weekend lake trip. Dykes, an experienced extreme athlete and 5X world record holder, has completed some wild feats: he’s crossed Mongolia on foot, walked the entire length of China’s Yangtze River, and biked across Britain.
On October 8th, he kicked off his latest adventure through one of Central Africa’s most remote regions. The journey marks the first of six expeditions in his new Project 6 film series, and he’s documenting the whole thing on social media. Being an outdoorsy gal myself, I have to wonder: Is paddling hundreds of miles through the Congo Basin in an inflatable kayak actually feasible?
Yes—but with some very big caveats. Both experts I chatted with agreed that inflatables can be great tools for remote river travel, but the boat is only one small piece of the larger expedition. For a serious, month-long adventure like this, you need extensive planning, specialized skills, and a ton of emergency preparedness.
More on all of that below. Day one of kayaking 700+km in the Congo basin…@Btswithwill At first glance, an inflatable kayak might seem like an odd choice for a journey where a puncture could quickly ruin the whole trip. But portability is actually a major advantage when your route involves more than just paddling.
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