PANJSHIR: On a recent sunny morning in northern Afghanistan, excited children and bemused policemen lined the banks of a fast-flowing river to watch a group of Europeans in multicolored kayaks navigate the white water. A drone-mounted camera also followed the kayakers’ progress, buzzing and hovering above them like a mosquito.

The boys, who were on their way to school, squealed and raced along the rocks as they watched the unusual spectacle — no kayakers had ever come to the peaceful Panjshir Valley, some 140km north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Scottish tourist Callum Strong, in green, chats with his Afghan guide after kayaking along the Panjshir River in Panjshir province, north of capital Kabul, Afghanistan.—AP

But according to Callum Strong, a Scot who recently graduated with a geology degree from Edinburgh University, Panjshir River offers some of the best kayaking in the world.

Together with three friends, he spends all his spare time and money travelling the globe in search of the best white water. Panjshir looked promising on the map — that Afghanistan is grappling with a 15-year insurgency was not going to deter them.

“It’s extreme geography that attracts extreme sportsmen, not the fact that the place is at war,” he told The Associated Press as he dragged his kayak out of the water following an invigorating three-hour paddle down the Panjshir River. His three friends — Brit Joe Rea-Dickins, Scot James Smith and Austrian Kristof Stursa — are also recent graduates in their early 20s and amateur kayakers who met through their love of the sport.

They funded the trip to Afghanistan themselves, flying to Kabul with their kayaks and then employing a local travel agent to help them transport their kit, organise permission from security services to travel and move safely through dangerous areas.

Afghan trainees practice kayaking along the Panjshir River

Then they spent 10 days paddling the length of the Panjshir River and introducing the local community to the sport.

“Before I came here, I was worried as the only news you hear from Afghanistan is bad news,” Strong said.

“But I believe most places you go in the world, most people are good — and the river here looked very good, so we wanted to come.”

His friend Rea-Dickins was similarly enthusiastic, comparing Panjshir to the best places he’s kayaked in northern Europe, India and Pakistan. “In terms of white water, this is as good as anywhere in the world,” he said.

One of the joys of the sport, he said, is that “it takes you to pretty interesting places, it gives you purpose, you can be in a beautiful environment for weeks, you go off beaten tracks and stay where you end up and you meet with local people”.