Rivers and rescue of a different kind...

It was once again time to travel to kathmandu - Fortunantly it was only for one night before we would be leaving again. We jumped on the bus at fishling with the rest of the guides and clients for the multi river trip. They had lost a couple of people so there was a girl called Michelle and five lads plus the guides. They all seemed like a good laugh although a little fed up of being on the bus - but the beer was helping them through it! 

We arrived in kathmandu fairly late, after unloading the bus, eating some food other than dal Bhat  and sleeping - it was time to load up the bus again and set off to the east and start our journey. It took us a while to get out of kathmandu - we all thought they were looking for oil with stopping at every petrol station but it turned out it was diesel - there was a fuel shortage which had just happened that morning apparently! Soon though we were able to fill the tank and we were underway on our journey. 

We arrived at our lodgings for the night which was situated on the bhote kose not too far away from the confluence where the bhalefi joins. After some lunch it was time to get on the river - on the way up to the bhalefi the journey again was not without event. A dog had run in front of the bus and unfortunatly that was the last time it would ever run again - although it was a stray it happened in front of several young children. I guess these things just happen.

The river itself was from the begining fairly fast and filled with lots of rocks - so a lot of dodging was to be done - the guide boom described the river as a kayakers dream river with boulder gardens, beautiful blue water and fast water. It definatly fitted the description with lots of non stop action and rapids to run some harder than others. The biggest drop on the river and I walked around this rapid with paddy running my boat down for me - which I was more than happy with. 

We were padding fairly quickly as there wasn't much time for stopping with rapid following rapid which was fun catching nice lines through the boulders. Until near the end - unfortunantly I managed to land on top of a boulder and drop into a hole - which I stayed up for some time until I got flipped - no issues I went to set up for a roll and then bang - my head had hit a rock hard, under the water. Time to pull the deck as I couldn't think at that moment - maybe I should have tried to roll but the force that my head hit the rock I wanted air as soon as possible. Paddy was right there to rescue me so I grabbed the front of his boat. And he started paddling me to the side - which was when I said to him "sorry I didn't roll I hit my head on a rock" to which he replied "it's ok, hold on your bleeding". 

It was then I put my hand to my head and saw the blood - mixed with the water it seemed like there was loads. When I got to the side I started to panic a little as I couldn't see what had happened I just knew that it hurt. Thankfully the English guys had some first aid stuff with them and after a quick bandage up, short ferry glide across the river, paddy and me walked up to the road to the bus - we were only approx half a kilometre away from the end but I did not want to get back into the boat. 

I got taken to the hospital and there they asked "what kind of doctor would you like?" And stated the rip off prices that they wanted to charge. I didn't know about this until afterwards but a phone call later and we had a doctor to see me. This doctor cleaned me up, gave me some local anesthetic and then two stitches. The cut was down to the bone apparently which was pretty impressive! I only had to pay for the medicines and what they used. Overall it wasn't a bad experience. Although the headache and black eye that were to follow the next few  days would be a reminder of the rock I had a fight with. 

Clinic of the kayak variety

After chitwan a few days of kayaking followed - more race training, rolling practise and a bit of river running on the Trishuli with a kayak clinic from another company. There was a few boys who were learning how to kayak and we were able to run the upper section of river with them. There was a raft with us on the first day and they were enjoying themselves. One of the boys from the kayak clinic capsized a couple of times and swam which I don't think he enjoyed as he ended up not kayaking the following day. 

The following day we had two girls who joined us and they too again had a couple of swims but they were in good spirits and enjoyed themselves. I ran 'upset' both of these times as although it was not the main line I still felt like I had pushed myself a little. The waters big and although there isn't many rocks there are big holes in some of the rapids which I don't really want to get caught up in. Overall it was a really good couple of days kayaking and my confidence on the bigger water has definatly got better. 

We were to spend the next few days at kuringhat with a lovely girl called mili who had booked on to learn how to kayak. Getting her to learn the basics was good as she wanted to learn and soon she was going upside down trying to learn how to roll. The next day she was to run some rapids and I stayed at camp to let Anil one of the GRG boys helping to cook have the chance as I had already run the section a couple of times. Mili did really well - Anil however had a couple of swims but enjoyed himself anyway. The last day of the clinic and we ran the section from fishling down to kuringhat. There was just us two girls and paddy. It went well and we had the chance to roll in the flat water which was good as I managed to roll successfully by myself a handful of times it felt like a lightbulb moment where things had clicked and were working well and easily! It felt like a small break through to me anyway! 

Soon though it was time to depart after being joined by a group of English people who were doing a multi river trip program over the next few days. They were heading to pokhara next, mili and Anil were heading back to kathmandu and paddy and myself back to fishling. 

Overall we had a really good few days paddling with different people and different parts of the river. Lots of learning was involved and a little more confidence gained. 

The Trisuli

The trisuli river is where the Himalayan whitewater festival is being held at the end of November. It is the biggest whitewater competition in Asia. We were headed here so that Paddy could practise for the competition, as he would definatly be competing. I on the other hand would sit the competition out after a back injury during the summer got aggravated by the rafting trip. 

There were a few boys already there practising on the wave for the freestyle competition. I don't really know much about the names of tricks and so on and to me it just looked like they were going for a wash... Without soap or shampoo! 

A few days into our stay here we had two of the boys from Rishikesh, India turn up. Both of whom I had met last year during my stay in India. I was happy to have more company as I wasn't very good at sitting on a rock all day watching the boys have fun - and there wasn't enough boats - 'proper boats' (not a small playboat) for me to go kayaking myself. It was ok though as we were to take a few days break and travel to Pokhara - which will be another post.

Anyway after our trip to Pokhara it was back to practise - the boys from India had managed to get some boats and they were ready to get practising. I got asked if I wanted to go rafting with a few people to do part of the upper section which I had not done before. I obviously said yes and persuaded Paz to come and another girl called Hayley also came. It was pretty cool we had started to build our girlfriends club and as we were all western and not taking part in the competition we could all talk to each other which was great. 

The rafting was great only a short section but we had some bigger rapids to go down - we also unintentionally flipped the raft on a rapid named upset - which was interesting! Kind of fun after being sucked down a few times but everyone was ok just a little wet! 

Soon the small town had more and more people turn up for the competition - the GRG crew as well as the other boys representing the Ganga Kayak Festival had arrived and the competition was soon underway! 

There were various events such as slalom , freestyle, boater cross, down river race and rafting race. The boys were looking good and much cheering was to be done from the rocky bank. 23 - Ayodhaya  37 - Sunjay, 38 - Soham, 50 - Veeru & finally 57 - my Pappu were the ones I made sure to watch out for and give the biggest cheers to. 

Ayodhaya qualified for the slalom final which was great news for team GKF. Soham unfortunatly had a nasty swim crossing from one gate to another where there was a big pour over so he took a swim unfortunantly. Pappu again in the same place got tipped over rolled twice and then gave up on the rest of the race.  

Pappu and Veeru qualified in the top 20 for the freestyle - of which then pappu qualified for the finals on the last day of the competition to then come 6th overall - which was pretty impressive. 

The boater cross Pappu and Ayodhaya got to the semi finals with pappu being knocked out and Ayodhaya finishing in second Place. 

The down river race Ayodhaya came in first out of the boys out of the GFK but unfortunantly was not a medal in it for him during this race. The slalom finals however he placed 3rd overall bringing home his second medal for himself and the only two medals for the GFK team. 

Overall the competition was fun with lots of people to meet and make new friends with. There were plenty of events to keep spectators and competitors entertained with live music, plenty of local food and drinks to try and fun to be had both on and off the water. 

Hopefully next year I will be back and so will my boys and we will all try again and compete hopefully to do better than this year. However for now it's time to turn the focus to the Ganga Kayak Festival being held in February, in Rishikesh, India. 

The Tamur

It was time to start rafting and kayaking - we were in two smaller teams four of us rafting plus a guide and then two kayaking plus four safety kayakers, then we had the gear raft. 

In the raft we had Joe, Lewis, "Dave", myself and Malia. We kept forgetting Dave's real name so we adopted a British name for him. 

The kayakers were Pappu, Libby, Brian, Liam, Tom and Gareth. In the gear boat we had Cali and Bicky.  

From the start the rapids were big and bouncy - for Lewis this would be his first time rafting and his faces were hilarious! He looked as If he was going to shit himself as we were going down the rapids! For me it was great to be rafting again and life couldn't be better! 

The kayakers made it look easy, playing and dancing down the rapids. I was glad I was in the raft - one day though when I've got my roll sorted out I'll be up for the challenge and I too will hopefully dance with the rapids like they do. 

The first day was successful, fun and the spirits were high, Lewis had managed to not actually shit himself and was happy that he was on solid ground again. After a chilled beer or two, a campfire and good food spirits were high. It was soon time for bed in preparation for the next days rafting. 

Day two and straight away we were into come big rapids which were scouted before running. In the raft we had set up the Go Pro on a paddle at the front of the raft to try and capture some of the action.  On the second big rapid we paddled down a drop and the water which hit the front of the raft smashed the go pro casing open and we were really lucky to not have lost it! Again more fun was had that day and in the in calmer water in the afternoon Pappu was guiding the raft - we had been messing around and trying to flip it with little success. We approached the next big rapid as we were going down we went down a drop and nearly flipped the raft - only Lewis an myself stayed in the others went for a swim! 

Again a great day was had on the river and a nice campsite was found - a bunch of local villagers came over to stare at us white people - in particular Lewis who has whiter than white skin!! They were quite curious about the raft and the boats that we had. Soon it was time for more delicious food, campfires and bed. 

Day three and a little mixing up of things happened. Lewis and myself jumped into some kayaks - Joe paddled the gear raft and the kayakers whose boats we had borrowed jumped into the raft. Lewis had a quick lesson in how to kayak as he had never done it before and off we went. We hit the first rapid and he was off for a little swim. It was ok though he jumped back into the boat and carried on. He wasn't the only one to have a little swim though - I had for pressured into trying a roll out and I had some lefty paddles which were really nice but it kind of failed a little so I too went for a little cool down in the river. After this we both wanted to jump into the raft so we paddled to catch up with it. I told them I wanted to get back in and they said it's ok you will be fine... I told them I didn't like the sound of what was coming round the corner and then we heard Liam shouting to get me back in the raft. It was a good job as I probably would have flipped on the rapid but who knows I might have been ok. After that the weather was pretty calm again and it was just more of a workout than anything else. We still had fun and banter in the raft though. 

Day four was again a mix between flat water and some nice rapids we had been battling with the wind in the raft which made it hard work but it was good exercise so we couldn't really complain. There were some nice rapids and we had Malia back guiding us although through one of the rapids he unintentionally decided to throw himself out the back if the raft. We stopped at a shop before heading to camp to stock up on a few things. This was probably the nicest camp we stayed at and reminded me a little of the MHE beach camp in shivpuri. 

 

Day five was fun with lots of bouncy rapids to enjoy. Again the kayakers looked like they were enjoying themselves and it was nice to not be battling with the wind all the time on the flat water. Tonight we would be camping at the confluence of the Tamur and the Sun Kosi. Joining us would be the trip that had been paddling the Sun Kosi - some of the lads I had met from England who had been on the kayak clinic. 

It was a fun evening with a bonfire and lots of people with even more drinking to be done as the trip was nearing it's end it was a energetic atmosphere with stories from the respective trips being told. It was also a time for reflection of what we had just achieved individually and as a group. 

The last day of the trip and there was a few big rapids although not as many as previous days. We stopped along the way at a temple by the river which was pretty and before departing for the rest of the river Maila blessed us all an the boats with a traditional blessing with his own funny style added to it. 

When we reached the get out terr was lots to do - kit to be loaded and lunch to be made as we were preparing to head back to Kathmandu or respective destinations. 

Again a long bus journey was to be had by most of us - some opted to fly - but the bumpy roads and Nepali music during the journeys is just part of the experience.

A highly reccomended trip - the GRG staff in particular made the trip enjoyable with their high expertise and rapport putting all at ease, not forgetting the great meals which were enjoyed by all.