Nepal 2008

From ICCC

People

• Ralph - although injury cut this short
• Adam
• Mark
• Tim

Program

Upper Seti, Gr3(4)
Madi (from Lamarkhet), Gr4
Lower Myagdi, Gr3
Upper Kali Gandaki, Gr4-(4+)
Upper Modi, Gr4+(5)
Lower Modi, Gr4-(4+)
Marsyandi, Gr4(5-)
Balephi Khola, Gr4-(4)
Upper Bhote Khosi, Gr4(5)
Upper Sun Khosi, Gr3(3+)

Introduction

The idea for a trip to Nepal really came from nowhere, Mark was bored in the Mech Eng coffee shop thinking about not going to the Alps on yet another club trip (it would be his 5th) when Patrick wandered in, and suggested Nepal as a different destination. Ten minutes later Mark had purchased the guidebook, before he went around whipping up support for the proposal. Only Ralph and Adam appeared keen, so the three bought flights for the following October, before doing precisely nothing for the next few months. Tim decided to come somewhat at the last minute after discovering that the security clearance for his new job would take longer than originally anticipated. So last minute indeed, that he ended up buying his flights less than 24 hours before the its departure time. The four met in the car park at Kathmandu airport, and retired to their guesthouse to plan the next move

Pokhara

A bit of swift bartering later they set off for a 7 hour taxi ride to Pokhara - with a bus strike on this proved the only cost effective way (costing some GPB55) of crossing the 200km gap.

After being pushed between guest houses they saddled up the next morning ready for the first river - the Upper Seti - which somewhat worried Mark as the 10 year old guide book (the newest available) claimed it had a grade 5 rapid.

Upper Seti

An hour's taxi ride in a 35 year old japanese battle wagon saw six paddlers (two randoms having shown up) sat at the end of the road, with the Upper Seti appearing around a corner from a grade 5 gorge. Putting on Mark immediately ran a chicken shoot on the first 4- drop, before swimming (within 200m of the put on of the first river in Nepal) in the pool at the bottom of a grade 4+. [Photos available]. After a sylish (almost) self resuce, which nearly involved pulling Tim (with camera in hand) into the river, the the group bombed down the remaining 7km to the dam at Pokhara with no further incident (although Mark did successfully roll above, and then take the hero line though, a hole which he had been warned to avoid).

After paying the taxi driver what appeared to be far too much the tired paddlers returned to the guesthouse for tea and medals.

Madi

The Madi is a much lower volume river, with probably only 40cms to the Seti's 80cms - as such it was always going to be slightly easier to navigate.

At 7am, the world's most uncomfortable jeep arrived to take the four to the end of the road - conveniently right next to the Madi. Whilst the guidebook recommends putting on slightly higher the incentive not to pay for both porters and national park entry permits was enough to ensure that this did not happen.

30Km of grade 3,4 rapids followed largely without error - although Mark decided to keep his hand in at swimming after paddling into a large hole at the bottom of a rapid which he hadn't bothered to inspect.

Arriving at the recommended get out we were told (by the local guest house owner) that no buses were going to arrive that day. This left us with 35Km of grade 3,2,1 water to paddle within the follow 3.5 hours before darkness. Happily the road bridge, and a local bus back to Pokhara, loomed just as dusk was drawing in.

Adam had the privilege of turning a year older, and so we took him to the restaurant of his choice to celebrate. After Mark and Ralph returned to bed Tim and Adam headed out to club Asiana to buy drinks for a local.

Lower Myagdi

Unsurprisingly alarms were set for 11:30 the following day, meaning that the group didn't leave for the Lower Myagdi until 2pm. Arriving at Beni (the town at the bottom of the section) after dark they were unable to get any further and spent the night in a partially built guesthouse.

Waking at 6:30 the following morning for some swift haggling the group arrived at the top of the lower section at 11:30, hoping to hire porters for the trek to the put-in for the upper.

The hours ticked by with little progress.

By mid afternoon (and after inspecting a little trib which we had considered running) the local police were helping us out, and offered us some porters at an expensive, although reasonable rate.

We had heard that some porters were coming down from where we wanted to go to, and as such turned down this offer for what we hoped would be a better price. This was a mistake.

By the time this second group of porters arrived (and offered us a too expensive price) these porters had left.

After 24 hours of not willing to pay enough to hire porters the group abandoned the prospect of the upper, and set off down the lower - back towards Beni.

With little muppetry to show (Mark having been taught how to roll on the roof rack on the way up from Pokhara) the group soon hit the confluence with the Kali Gandaki.

Kali Gandaki

Mark wasn't paying quite enough attention at the confluence with the Kali Gandaki, and as such missed the eddy-out-and-eat-lunch river signal. This left him leading down a grade 3 rapid on BIG water - perhaps 100cms, that he found himself suddenly unable to read. Some frantic beckoning brought Adam to the front of the group (who, after having spent months in India was confused as to what the problem was) before all four finally eddied out for lunch.

With Mark sticking firmly to the rear of the group (allowing him to average out the best lines) steady progress was made down the river, though little brother (4-) and big brother (4+) with the expected minor muppetry. Plenty of photos show Mark backwards as his boat heads for a bus sized hole in little brother, whilst he briefly ended up upside down halfway down big brother, before being washed out into the flow.

As dusk descended the group chose a beach to camp on, dragged their heavy boats from the water, set up camp, them compared the animal prints in the beach to those for leopard in the guide book.

Tim, sleeping under a tarpaulin, took pots and pans to bed to scare off any inquisitive beast.

Sadly everyone survived the night unscathed, and 8am found four tired boaters paddling past the camped rafting groups, across 4km of man made lake, to the take out. A slow local bus back to Pokhara ensured that only just enough time was left to crash a trip up the Modi, scheduled for 8am the following day.

Ralph ended his paddling trip at this point, after a mountain bike injury to his shoulder flared up.

Modi Khola

A trek and porters are required to reach the put in for the upper Modi Khola, and it was fortunate that a second, larger, group was going with which transport costs could be shared.

Trekking until after sunset this swollen group of 10 boaters (complete with 10 porters) arrived at the hamlet of Old Bridge, a couple of hours shy of their target, New Bridge.

With the river meant to be half a grade harder above this point Mark, with two other boaters from the other 7 elected to remain at Old Bridge, whilst Tim, Adam and five others continued the trek up.

Some 4 hours passed before the 7 returned, with Adam commenting that it was "one of the hardest sections of white what I have run in my life". Both Tim and Adam elected to run the rapid at Old Bridge, where probably 85% of the river ran though a siphon, with the remaining falling over a 2m high pour-over. Happily both were successful.

Accidents happen. This we know. Epics happen less often, and are caused be a succession of accidents. A minor epic then followed.

The river at Old Bridge was steep, possibly beyond the capability of Mark. He managed the first rapid fine and the second with only a roll.

The third rapid (the first really without inspection) was one to far. Messing up the entry drop he spent at least 100m failing to roll before swimming in the middle of grade 4. Some downtime in a drop saw the paddles plucked from his hands (he thinks they are still there, so if anyone goes to Nepal in the future...) before escaping into the pool below.

Seeing this Adam does the decent thing and jumps onto the river to rescue Mark. Noble intentions. Sadly, whilst he reached the paddle-snatching hole upright he received something of a trashing from it and was also forced to swim. An hour ticked by before both boats (although no paddles) were recovered, with the pin which eventually rescued Adam's burn giving it something of a nose job. With only one set of splits Mark elected to walk off, arriving at the guesthouse (where they had spent the night) some 10 hours (and 200m of white water) later.

Some swift bartering later saw a portered hired, who carried Mark's boat down past the 4+ rapids to a slightly easier section where he met with Tim, Adam, and a spare pair of splits.

The next morning saw some some better Kama, and the end of the upper section was reached with only one swim - predictably from Mark, who ended up missing a line and falling straight into a rather large pour-over.

Lower Modi

The upper section of the Modi ends at a Dam, which takes water out for 2km. After a couple of hours portaging / paddling / scrambling down an empty river the paddlers arrived at the outflow from the powerhouse, and set off back down the river. With the new section being an entire half grade easier (in places) everyone styled the river and took out slightly too far from the road, requiring something of a hike up a hill with heavy multiday boats.

Marsyandi

The White Water Nepal guidebook says the Marsyandi is the definition of grade 4 and it was with great anticipation that the three (Ralph having left for India) left early in the morning for the 7 hour drive to the put in.

The Marsyandi has been split in two by a dam which although is not yet taking water from the river is suitably built that it can't be kayaked round. Additionally, as with all Himalayan rivers, it is easier lower down than harder up. Thus, with Mark somewhat shaken by the guidebook description, the group put on (at 3pm) below the dam for around 20km of grade 4/3/2 boating action. With no-one messing up the road was reached as dusk set in.

Unfortunately we had stopped some 2km from the local town (and our chosen guest house) meaning that the buses didn't really want to stop to pick us up. Fortunately there was a guest house at the take out which served us foot and put us up for the hight.

Unfortunately Tim quickly discovered a massive hairy spider in his bed and next of bald baby mice in the guest house duvet he stole from Mark.

Fortunately, although no further rooms were available from the guesthouse we were offered their restaurant tables to sleep on.

Unfortunately their pet dog spent all night barking, howling and running around, and when coupled with the staff (who also slept on the tables) getting up at 4:30 (and expecting us to do the same) it was a tired bunch of boaters who headed back up the Marsyandi the following morning.

The plan for the day was for Tim and Adam to start as high as they could (without having to pay for trekking permits) whilst Mark would join them lower down, where the river grade dropped below continuous 4+.

Largely this plan was a success - with Tim and Adam having a great boat down the top section, only having minor troubles where a rapid turned out to be a little steeper than expected (loosing its gradient in 20m rather than 100) resulting in a collision between them halfway down.

After collecting Mark from the second bridge over the river (rather than the expected first, and thereby achieving the tradition 3pm start for the day) the group carried on down, taking a little more time over the rapids. With only 7km between the point where Mark got on and the new dam (apparently complete but seemingly not drawing water from the river) there was little scope for carnage.

As usual Mark sort to prove this wrong and attempted a hero line through a large hole (he's blaming having to use Adam's spare paddles rather than his own, which were lost on the Modi). Clearly this failed and he took a quick dip where he chose to swim towards some syphons rather than over the main drop. After reunification with kit (after some great rescue work from Tim and Adam) the group carried on down to the dam (only one rapid further down) before catching a bus down the valley (and apparently upsetting a conductor by not paying an excessive white-man rate) and attempting to then carry on to Kathmandu. Nepal is a daylight society, so this option failed, and the decision was made to stay the night in the guest house where the bags had been left.

The following morning (after nearly getting scammed for nearly paying the bus fare to the wrong person) a bus was taken to Kathmandu. Again we narrowly avoided paying the white-man rate for Dahl Bhat (a little over twice the normal rate) before getting a taxi to our guesthouse.

Balephi Khola

After Tim left his thermals to be washed in a 24 hour laundry service we decided to leave (almost immediately) for the Balephi Khola. This was not straight forwards, since a there was a rumored bus strike for the following day (although tourist only buses were not going to be affected). Happily a rafting company was found who was willing (for a fee) to take the group most of the way to the Balephi the following morning on their 6am bus. Hoping out after a mere three hours a jeep was found for, for an agreed price (which included porters) would take everyone, including boats, to the top of the Balephi. After four hours of bumping up a bad road (including through at least two sets of road works where the dirt track was being cut from the hill side we arrived at the end of the road (apparently the driver didn't really know where we wanted to go to). It quickly became apparent that he didn't know where we wanted to go to, and that his passengers weren't porters and so couldn't carry our boats to the river for us (some distance away by now). After only paying him the agreed price for the jeep and hiring some porters (effectively meaning the guy with the jeep was ripped off by the expensive porters) we put in (about 4km higher than the guide book put-in of need to check bridge) at the traditional time of 3pm (some 9 hours after getting out of bed). As dusk loomed after 10km of great grade 4 boating (and a tradition swim from Mark) the group arrived at Jalipe (a village on the dirt road where the 'scheduled' bus services end). The welcome that we received from the villagers there was fantastic and went some way to make up for the attempted scams of the previous day.

After going to bed at 7:30 (there being nothing else to do) Mark and Tim woke up early and came downstairs to be questioned at some length by the local student (who wanted to practice English) about Shakespeare. A good deal of classical poetry and a massive breakfast later the group put back onto the river and boated down to the confluence with the Upper Sun Khosi. Taking out at Equator Expeditions Sukute Beach Resort we were stunned to bump into Monica and Sophia whom we had boated down the Modi with. An exorbitant fee later saw the group booked into the resort for a 24 hour period, and they set about making the most of the free food (which soon ran out - a theme of meals there) and the swimming pool (by practising rolling). Adam failed in this last respect and took a swim in the pool. Happily Tim was there with his Camera.

Ali and Tom from ICCC fame were also spending time at the resort - with Tom having arrived in the country two days earlier.

Upper Bhote Khosi / Upper Sun Khosi

After his swim on the Marsyandi Mark wasn't feeling up to doing the Upper Bhote Khosi and left it to Tim, Adam, Monica and Sophia - who did have the skills to contemplate running 'frog in a blender', 'midnight special' and 'the wall'. Mark instead ran the upper Sun Khosi with Ali, Tom and the rafts from Equator Expeditions - a rather pleasant end to the trip.

Indeed this turned somewhat comical when one of the rafts flipped, and getting the line down a 3+ (possible 4-) rapid completely wrong (they were pointing in all directions all the way down!). The cleanup operation by the staff was also obviously rather slow!

After arriving back at the resort and a three hour wait for the crew from the Upper Bhote Khosi the team made their way back to Kathmandu (to collect their laundry) before returning to the UK.

Logistics

Nepal is a really easy country to get to, and get around in, with your boat.
The trip would have been an awful lot harder (and may not have happened) if Peter Knowles hadn't published White Water Nepal as part of his series of guide books. Really it's essential and made the whole trip a lot easier - if nothing else we could point at the river maps in the book and say to the locals "we want to go there".

We went in early October (9th - 27th), and found rivers (on the whole) at quite a nice level. We did, however, wander on more than one occasion if the monsoon had been a bit earlier than normal.

Mark and Tim flew to Kathmandu with Qatar, via Doha. On the whole it was a pleasent experience - although the baggage limit of 20kg could have been a problem. If you contact them they will increase it to 30kg free of charge for you. If you stop over for more than 5 hours in Doha you get a free meal. Qatar don't publicise this (and most staff don't know about it), which is very frustrating. You need to go to the canteen nearest the childs play area in the main terminal (we're assuming you're not flying first class!) to get your voucher.
Adam and Ralph flew with Virgin dirrectly to Dehli before getting a bus to Kathmandu. The bus took 40 hours and wasn't much fun.
Virgin may be about to start direct flights to Kathmadu - possibly worth checking them out, since their kayak policy is legendary.

Meeting other boaters out there is very, very easy. All the paddlers seemed to stay at the Holy Lodge, located near the centre of Thamel, Kathmandu. If that doesn't work you might like to try Ganesh Kayak Shop, Pokhara. Charlie (who runs it), is a mine of information - he can also arrange transport and porters (normally with very little notice). Whilst it might have been a bit more expensive than getting taxi's off the street we found it really quite convienient.
Were I wanting to raft any rivers I think that I would also choose to use him.

Once you're armed with a guidebook and some friends everything else is really easy. You'll need taxis to take you to the bus stations (aim to pay a little less than half of what they offer) and buses to take you to the rivers. We nearly always used the roof racks to transport ourselves and our boats - they are more comfortable and it's what the locals do. If you do the same keep a waterproof (to protect you from the wind), a hat and sun cream (to protect you from the sun) and something to sit on (to protect you from the uncomfortable roof rack on the really really rough roads) to hand.
Everything seems to have a top speed of 50kph, with an average of probably 30-40kph (depending on the road). You'll need to plan for traveling to take lots of time.
You'll probably also need porters - these were more expensive than we expected, probably £4 per day in Pokhara (where there are many) and £10 per day at the trail heads (where there are few). On the whole they were very easy to find and hire (once we offered to pay them enough).

Staying the night anywhere is really easy - there are guest houses everywhere. Ralph and Adam once found themselves in a village with no guest houses and were forced to stay the night in someones front room. They still found somewhere though!

Nepal, on the whole, is a beautiful country to go to. The people were almost with exception very friendly. Some of the best experiences we had was when people (our own age) got their parents to cook us good free food - just so they could practice their english on us.
Generally though I found that whenever money was involved most people did almost anything to try and get as much out of us as possible - seemingly based on the premice that "since you're white you can afford to pay twice what the locals do". After a while it verged on getting a bit irritating and hard to explain away.

Don't let any of this put you off. Go to Nepal, it's an amazing place - and remember we did hard rivers (which I tend to talk up). There are lots and lots of much easier rivers out there.