Monday 15 November 2010

Upper Seti River

After all the Diwali celebrations had finished in Nepal Bjorn and I got the tourist bus to Pokora. The bus from Kathmandu to Pokora took about 7 hours but this time could have been significantly reduced as the bus stopped unnecessarily several times for 'breakfast', 'lunch' and a few pee breaks. The trip could have been managed easily in 3-4 hours.

When we arrived Pokora we found a hotel and then went straight to the Ganesh Kayak Shop, owned by a French guy called Charlie. Charlie was one of the most helpful people we met in Nepal. He has so much knowledge that he is willing to share, helps everyone find paddling buddies and even helped us with taxis to and from the river. Charlie helped Bjorn and I find someone to paddle the Upper Seti with the following day which was really nice.

Our first day on the Upper Seti we went with an Italian paddler who had come alone to Pokora. We were able to see a large amount of the river from the drive up to the put-in. Once we were on the river we heard a couple of people yelling out to us from the road above and we realised it was Caroline who we met on the Karnali trip and Mo. We waiting in an eddy for a long time hoping they would catch up to us but we eventually gave up and paddled downstream. Finally while we were scouting Caroline and Mo caught up and we were able to complete the rest of the river together.

The Upper Seti is class 3-4 and is fairly continuous. We all got a lot of boofing practice on this river which was very fun. The river is wide to begin with then there are 2 rapids which are gorged in (worth having a scout and probably the hardest 2 rapids on this section of river) before the river widens out again.



After returning from the river that afternoon we found an American kayaker called Preston who Bjorn and I met in Kathmandu and kayaked the Balephi River with. He was also keen to run the Upper Seti River so Mo, Caroline, Preston, Bjorn and I went to the Seti again the following day and kayaked the section of the river twice!




Pokora was a lot more relaxing than Kathmandu and we noticed that we did not get harassed as much for things here. Hotels were also cheaper, however food cost the same as Kathmandu. Bjorn and I decided to break the budget a bit in Pokora and splashed out on a few meals such as woodfired pizza, pasta, chicken sizzler etc. One of our favourite places to eat was Moon Dance Cafe which was reasonably priced and also had free wireless.


We followed our 2 days of kayaking on the Upper Seti with a rest day in Pokora (mostly spent by reading a book by the lake) before our long journey using the local buses back to Rishikesh, India. Surprisingly this journey went rather smoothly and took about 36 hours (including the time spent crossing to border and waiting for buses in Banbasa and getting a taxi from Hardwar to Rishikesh).

Bjorn and I really enjoyed our time in Nepal but would have loved to have kayaked some more rivers and possibly done some trekking. Unfortunately due to lack of time and money we will have to come back to Nepal another time to do these things.

Thanks to Preston for all of the photos from the Upper Seti and also to Charlie from Ganesh Kayak Shop for helping us while we were in Pokora.

Sunday 14 November 2010

Balephi River

When Bjorn and I got back to Kathmandu we met a group of kayakers who were staying at Holy Lodge and Bag Packers in Thamel. Part of the group of kayakers worked for Pyranha who had organised a private bus to take them to the Balephi River and we were lucky enough to be able to go with them.


The Balephi was approximately a 3 hour drive from Kathmandu. We put-in where most of the rafting companies usually start their commercial trips and kayaked all the way down to the Sun Kosi confluence then along the Upper Sun Kosi for about 30min before taking out at Equator Expeditions.


The Balephi was class 3-4, pretty continuous boulder gardens and beautiful scenery surrounding the river. A nice thing about this river was that is was pretty gorged in and remote so we didn't have to listen to traffic passing on the road etc.


The Balephi was a fairly easy day trip from Kathmandu. We left around 7.30am and returned around 7pm that evening. If planning on doing the Balephi it can be easily combined with the Bhote Kosi or the Sun Kosi. Equator Expedition offer food and camping and would be a good place to stay in between running these rivers.

Thanks to Sara and Preston for their photos and to the boys at Pyranha who organised the day for everyone.

Sunday 7 November 2010

Karnali River Expedition

Bjorn and I came off the Sarayu/Kali expedition, straight across the border and had a 19 hour bus journey to Kathmandu. We arrived really late in the night and ended up getting ripped off with our taxi to Thamel and having to pay premium price for a hotel that evening. The next day we met our friend Chitra who was working with us in Sjoa this summer and we decided to go on the Karnali expedition which Chitra was trip leading through Drift Nepal. The only draw back was we were leaving in the morning and going back down the same road we had just came to Kathmandu!

The following day we got up really early and met the other clients coming on the trip. We also collected some other kayakers and rafts guides who we worked with in Norway this summer (Mo, Barbora, Emil, Elisabeth and Marius) so it was a very 'Scandinavian' river trip! It took over 4 hours to get properly out of Kathmandu due to traffic and accidents. We were meant to stay in a hotel for one night but instead we drove all day, all night and until about 3pm the following day where we reached the put-in for the Karnali River.


Pee break on the way to the Karnali Photo: Jacqui Whitehead


Photo: Jacqui Whitehead


View of the Karnali put-in Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We set up our first night's camp by the put-in of the river. It wasn't an ideal spot because of the amount of people coming down from the village to observe us but part of the expedition was 'Project Karnali' where a small group of doctors were visiting certain health posts along the way down the river. Their first visit was to a health post close to this village which is why we weren't able to camp further downstream.

After breakfast, lunch and a safety briefing the following day we started our trip on the river. We did about an hour of paddling which were some nice easy class 3 wave trains before pulling over in the afternoon to set-up camp.


Put-in for the Karnali Photo: Jacqui Whitehead


Drying clothes by the fire of our second beach camp on the Karnali Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our second day of paddling on the river was similar to day one. Pool-drop rapids and lots of fun class 3 wave trains. We finished off the day by scouting and running a large class 4 rapid called 'Sweetness and Light'.


Third night's beach camp on the Karnali Photo: Jacqui Whitehead


Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We paddled for about an hour on our third day on the river before stopping at a village where 'Project Karnali' did an assessment of another health post. We spent a couple of hours in this village exploring and had some chai before continuing down stream. Again towards the end of the day we scouted another large rapid called 'Jailhouse Rock' which had 2 huge hole on the right hand side of the rapid. This rapid was pretty exiting and got the adrenalin kicking in before we pulled over to relax and set-up camp at 'Scorpion Beach' for the rest of the afternoon.

Village where we stopped for chai on day 3 of paddling Photo: Jacqui Whitehead


View of the Karnali from the village Photo: Jacqui Whitehead


Children form the village wondering where all these rafters and kayakers came from
Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our 4th day on the river was the most exciting day with the most amount of large rapids and also provided the most continuous section of whitewater. The main rapids we were challenged with were 'God's House', 'Juicer', and 'Flip and Strip'. 'God's House' ended up with a lot of carnage. I ended up going into the top right hand hole and got surfed for a while in my creek boat which finally resulted in a swim. Unfortunately the fibreglass in my paddle smashed on my deck which was temp fixed with duct tape for the rest of the Karnali trip. One of the safety kayakers also swam in the eddy at the bottom of 'God's House' because he flipped and got pinned against a rock and said he kept hitting his head every time he tried to roll. The carnage made a lot of good footage for Mo who was standing on the bank filming and we were able to entertain everyone that evening by the fire doing our bootie beers.


Our camp at the end of day 4 on the river Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

The last 3 days on the Karnali were relatively flat with occasionally some very small class 2-2+ rapids. The only exception was a new rapid which had formed that we found on day 5. Most people were unaware of this large class 3 wave train (with a descent sized hole at the bottom). Funnily enough one of the gear catarafts were not paying too much attention and were caught off guard and flipped in the bottom hole losing the fried rice which they had prepared for lunch that day!

When we finished our last day of paddling we had lunch at the take-out and were back on the bus for another non-stop drive back to Kathmandu. Luckily I managed to sleep most of the way because we were so worn out after 7 days on the river!


Camp on our second last night on the Karnali River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Friday 5 November 2010

Sarayu & Kali River Expedition

On the 16th October I headed out on the Sarayu and Kali River expedition with Expeditions India in Uttarakhand. This was the first commercial descent run on the Sarayu River by Expeditions India and the second commercial descent by any rafting company. The Sarayu has been described as 'a little big river' offering some technical pool drop rapids with crystal clear waters. The best part of this river that it's relatively remote and untouched with amazing beaches for camping on. Even after the Sarayu runs into the Kali the action doesn't stop due to the big volume rapids.

View from our hotel in Kathgodam Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We started out trip in Rishikesh with a 2 day jeep ride to Sheraghat where we would put-in on the Sarayu River. We drove for about 10 hours the first day and stayed overnight in Kathgodam followed by what should have been a 4 hour drive to Binsar which ended up being almost 10 hours due to a road accident blocking the road on the way.

A little shop where we spent 2 hours on the way to Binsar waiting for the road accident to clear
Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

An army truck which had fallen off the cliff which officials were trying to lift back up to the road with 2 cables.... Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Watching and wondering if this one to one system was actually going to work lifting the truck back up to the road...... Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

........obviously not..... Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We spent 2 days kayaking on the Sarayu River. The first day we paddled for about 4-5 hours through some technical class 3-3+ whitewater. At the end of the afternoon the river had converged into more of a gorge. The second day on the Sarayu was a very long 7-8 hour day of paddling with some intense action moments. There were a lot of horizon lines with some exciting class 4 rapids. At one stage we thought we were going to lose the gear cataraft when it ended up being surfed on its side against a pillow wave on a huge rock, luckily Gaupo who was guiding quickly high-sided. We ended up giving this rapid the name 'Catastrophe'. After all the intense rapids had finished we arrived to the confluence of the East Ram Ganga and the river then widened out and things became a lot easier. We continued on until we came to the Kali confluence and kept paddling down the Kali a few kilometers before setting up for our 2nd night of camp.

View of the Sarayu when driving through Sheraghat Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

At the put-in for the Sarayu River

Camp the first night on the Sarayu River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

First day on the Sarayu River

One of the last rapids on the gorged-in section on day 2 of the Sarayu River

Second night of camping - Kali River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our third day of paddling was on the Kali River. We stopped twice to scout a massive but fun wave train (and to buy rum from the Nepal side of the river) and another huge rapid running along against a wall (on the left) with a creek coming into the right side of the rapid. The volume of the river was incredible and there were lots of impressive boils and crazy eddy lines. Shortly after these rapids we pulled over and had lunch on another beautiful beach and set up for camp for the night. This beach camp had a hidden waterfall which we were able to hike up to in 5 minutes with refreshing spring water we could bathe in.

Getting ready for action on day 3 Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Unfortunately I wasn't able to paddle on day 4 on the river due to stomach problems. I was able to tie my kayak to the back of the raft and lie down while we went down the river. Most of day 4 was fairly flat except of 'Chuca' Rapid. This was the biggest rapid on the river, a huge class 4-4+ wave train with many lines to take either in the raft or kayak. I was disappointed not to get the opportunity to kayak 'Chuca' but luckily in the raft we had a good line and kept the black side of the raft down! We camped on a beach on the right hand side of the river after 'Pillow' which is about an hour walk from Chuca Village.

Savitha with the catch for the day at our beach camp for our 5th night on the river
Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View of the Kali River on our hike to Jim Corbett's house Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Day 5 was a lay over day. We had a short hike (45min-1 hour) after breakfast to a house which is currently being renovated which is likely to be where Jim Corbett lived once. We hiked back to camp again for lunch then after lunch we hiked back up towards Chuca to explore the village and have some chai at the local tea shop. Chuca was very different to what I expected. It was a farming village and all the houses and crops seemed extremely well cared for. Day 5 was our last night on the river so we were surprised with a special dinner of dhal makini, mutter paneer, jeera rice and chapatis.
Chuca Village Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our last day of paddling on the Kali was very short (around 90min). The river had a lot of class 3 very fun wave trains and was a lot more continuous to the previous days on the Kali. We were met by our driver at the take-out in and had lunch, packed the jeep and then Bjorn and I got dropped off in Bombasa where we found a horse-rickshaw driver to take us across the border to Nepal where we will be spending the next month kayaking.

Chuca Village late afternoon Photo: Jacqui Whitehead