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