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

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

3 Day Ganga Expedition

Over the weekend Bjorn and I joined on a 3 day/2night rafting trip with our kayaks on the Ganga River with Red Chilli Adventure. We started the trip in Devprayag and finished in Ramjhola. The first day of the trip we waited for over 3 hours in the scorching sun for the clients to arrive (they were delayed as they had been on a 3 day trek prior to the rafting trip). This didn't matter though as we only had about a 40min paddle down relatively calm water to our first camping spot for the night.

Bjorn and Rob at the Deprayag put-in Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Waiting for the clients to arrive Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

You can see the white wooden stakes in the background. These are measuring sticks for the river level. This year during the monsoon the river came above where I am sitting on the log (over 23m!!!).

So much rubbish has accumulated along the banks of the river from the monsoon. It is pretty normal to see plastic bags and other rubbish up in trees along the river Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Our first night we helped the clients settle in and Harinder our cook made us a feast of tomato soup with croutons, vegetable momos, and even tomato, mushroom and cheese pizza! All of this was cooked with only a gas stove. Rob, Bjorn, Kumar and I all slept under the stars using the raft as shelter while the other guides slept in the kitchen tent while the clients had their own personal tents.

Day 2 we again woke up to hot chai and another feast made by Harinder consisting of omelette, toast and chips. After packing down camp we had a pretty easy day on the river. We only had to kayak about 20km in pretty flat water with some sizable boils and whirlpools to keep our interest. Along the way we were able to buy 2 fish from the local fisherman and Harish our safety kayaker stopped in one of the villages to buy some more food for the evening. After a couple of hours we reached our beach campsite for the second night.

Kumar rowing all of our gear down the Ganga Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Bjorn helping unload all the gear from the cataraft Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Bjorn and Rob searching for frogs in the ''swimming pools'' on our beach camp Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We had a pretty relaxing afternoon at the camp so Rob, Bjorn and I rowed the cataraft over to the opposite side of the river in search for a waterfall which Arvind had told us about. After heading back to camp we helped prepare the evening meal which again was another amazing feast this time comprising of Indian food - dhal, fish curry, aloo ghobi, chapati, rice and rice pudding for desert.

A donkey on it's way on the opposite side of the river we found whilst searching for green chillies, ginger and a waterfall Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View of our campsite for the second night of the expedition Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Preparing the vegetables for dinner

Arvind about to demonstrate to the clients how to make dhal Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Day 3 was all the action. We kayaked down from camp about 3km and met up with Anvesh, Flo, and Gapoo (also kayaking) and another client who was joining on with the trip. The first rapid 'The Wall' is well-known for a huge hole on the left which will 95% of the time flip a raft. As we moved further downstream we went through rapids such as 'Three Blind Mice', 'Return to Sender', 'Rollercoaster', 'Golf Course' and 'Hilton'. The Ganga is a pretty friendly big volume river, with huge wave trains and pool-drop rapids. It is the river which I learnt to kayak on and even though it's my third time back to Rishikesh I never get sick of it.

Golf Course rapid on the Ganga River

Now we are hoping to make it onto the Sarayu and Kali River Expedition which is leaving in a couple of days time, before heading into Nepal.

Searching for Eric Northman in Sweden

Most people would have seen the TV series True Blood and fallen in love with Eric Northman. I didn't find Eric but I found a lot of wild mushrooms,beautiful scenery, and cheaper 'everything' compared to Norway. I spent almost 3 weeks in Järna following the rafting season in Norway.

Picking black mushrooms at Bjorn's parents summer house Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Cleaning mushrooms we picked in the forest. We first removed all the dirt, then cut the mushrooms into smaller pieces so they could be dried easily Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

My best friend Jo from Australia was visiting relatives in Austria during August and September and decided to fly up to Stockholm to visit me for a few days. Bjorn introduced her to typical Swedish past-times such as mushroom picking, the sauna and we visited the Tom Tits Experiment (a science museum similar to Science Works in Melbourne). After 2 days in Järna, on Jo's last day we tried to be 'tourists' and did some sight-seeing around the popular sights in Stockholm.

Almondy, a delicious Swedish cake from the frozen section of the supermarket

Jo out of control at Tom Tits Experiment Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Doing a tourist photo in Stockholm

Now Bjorn and I are avoiding the autumn rain in Sweden and Norway by spending the next 2 months in India and Nepal. We have already spent a week in Rishikesh, India kayaking on the Ganga River and plan on heading into Nepal towards the end of October. So far the trip has been off to a good start with lots of water this season in most rivers and we are looking forward to hopefully joining an expedition on the Sarayu and Kali Rivers in India.

Norway - Stories from the Land of Trolls

Surfing Faukstad on the Sjoa Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

It's been a while since I last posted so it's time to give some news about my summer in Norway. I made a pretty random, last minute decision a couple weeks after returning from South America that I would try and get a rafting job for the summer. I was pretty lucky to be offered a job with a small company called GoRafting as I've been told that around a hundred applicants email the rafting companies each year and usually all of the hiring is done by the end of autumn (not in April like my case).

Road trip from Sjoa to Voss with Will and Oli

On the way to Voss, this tunnel went on for ~30km. We found the flouro lighting pretty entertaining.

I found out pretty quickly that Norway is very expensive. I'm not just talking about pricey beer but paying like $5 for a 500ml bottle of water or $20 for a small piece of steak! This meant that most of us had to stay in the region around Sjoa most of the summer and not much time was spent road tripping around Norway due to the expensive price of petrol. I did however manage to go to Voss with Will and Oli for 4 days and do some paddling there which resulted in 2 swims, 2 lost booties/river shoes, and the boys wishing they could stay in Voss due to the high number of good-looking women (which is not the case in Sjoa). We were also lucky to meet up with my friend Jacob who I met in Chile this year and also met a couple of British guys (Ted and Dan) who took us out kayaking on our last day in Voss. I really loved Dan's attitude that we would chose a river which suited all of our abilities and having the boys getting me over my fear and down my first (fairly small however) waterfall.

Will trying to fix his dry-pants with some duct tape Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Running my first waterfall in Voss

Will and Oli scouting Money Drop in Voss Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

The rest of summer was spent in Sjoa working on the Sjoa River doing rafting, safety kayaking, riverboarding and also canyoning in Tessa Canyon. The Sjoa River is a pretty friendly class 3 river where a lot of time can be spent surfing the raft in various playspots such as Microsurf, Bye Bye Baby and Faukstad wave. A lot of surfing usually means a lot of action such as swimmers and flips. As the river got lower towards the end of the season a lot of these surfing spots washed out but it meant that the river was low enough to run a big rapid downstream called Washing Machine (the first rapid of Amot section on the Sjoa River).

Diony and I wearing the same shoes, same wetsuit and same drytop! Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Running safety on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Myself surfing in Faukstad Wave on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Getting a big hit down the first hole of Washing Machine Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

Myself in front with Will following down Washing Machine on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar

I was able to meet up with Erika, Barbora and Nini who I kayaked with in Uganda, and regularly paddled on the Sjoa with Barbora practicing our 'boofing', and was lucky to check out the Bovra River with Erika (followed by a visit to the famous Lom bakery!). If you live in the Sjoa Valley life is usually pretty quiet and you need to be able to entertain yourselves (which is easily accomplished by kayaking!) but a few other activities I did were berry picking, brewing beer (way cheaper than buying it in Norway!), a few small hikes around the area and a lot of the guides met up weekly for a BBQ or a visit to the local pub Pensj.

Mike kayaking down the rapid S-Bend on Amot Section of the Sjoa River Photo Jacqui Whitehead

Picking wild strawberries along by the Sjoa River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Jonny and Bjorn content after a day on the river and taking photos while some of the boys kayaked down Amot

Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Jonas getting over his fear of heights while doing the Bridge Swing Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Some of the highlights for the rafting season in Norway were our roadtrip to Voss, the Sjoa River Festival which included the infamous Pimp & Ho party, eating Chitra's fantastic flip dinners (whenever a guide flips their raft they usually pay a fine of beer but in Chitra's case he cooks dinners comprising of dhal bhat, rice and a curry), and our end of season bowling party in Vågå.

Some lessons I learnt in Norway were:

1) Alcohol is VERY expensive. Either get your friends visiting to bring lots of duty free alcohol, brew beer yourself or do a trip to Sweden as the Swedish Kroner is not as strong as the Norwegian as well as everything being a lot cheaper there.

2) Paying 2000NK a month rent for a grass hut with no bathroom and an outside kitchen is expensive. It helps to have friends in Norway who can help search for a good value room. 1000NK is a normal price to pay for a room with electricity, internet, kitchen and hot water.

3) In the Sjoa Valley you are pretty stuck without a car. A bike can help but it will still take about an hour to ride to the nearest supermarket.

4) Summer is like the Australian winter in Norway

5) Bring lots of food if you are driving from neighbouring countries....like alcohol food is cheaper in Sweden, also better and there is more variety. I found the fact that plastic wrapped vegetables in Norway lasting about 2 weeks is kinda scary (also the fact that fruit and veg is wrapped in plastic or canned, it's never really fresh)

6) Yes fish like Salmon is ''affordable'' in Norway. But it is frozen and vaccum packed.....

Myself kayaking down Golfstream on the Sjoa River Photo: Alejandro Cuellar