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Published: October 17th 2005
Rafting in Nepal (Sun Kosi River) - 19th-26th September, 2005
A Blow Out, Flood & My Holy Foot!
Bernadette, Elizabeth, Kendra and I have just spent the past week rafting 270km of the Sun Kosi River in Nepal. It was a great trip and already so many stories to tell!
The Blow Out - On Day 2 as we were peacefully admiring the surrounding hills and villages there was a very loud bang just like a shotgun or perhaps even a cannon. All I was thinking was that we were being shot at and I was ready to jump down into the raft and hide. The cargo raft that was trailing behind us had hit a sharp piece of bamboo in a rapid causing a huge blow out and leaving a tear in the side of the raft over a foot long. It was not repairable. This happened at around 10am. Indra (one of the safety kayakers) paddled down stream further to a village and then hired a car to drive to the nearest town to use a phone. Indra rang Kathmandu and asked them to drive another raft to the point where we had started the day before.
Big Big Rapid
The paddling raft was guided down alongside the rapid without us in it. There was too great a chance we would flip and end up down a hole.When the raft arrived he paddled it with 2 others mostly in the dark until he reached us. He arrived at our campsite at 7.30pm just in time for a well earned dinner! The trip would go on!
Flood - During the evening of Day 3 of rafting we were admiring the lightening which was creating quite a show behind the hills for a number of hours. Then the rain came (we are just at the tail end of the monsoon season in Nepal!) and it didn't stop. We were camping in tents on the river bank on a fairly high piece of sand. Just before we went to sleep I asked Kendra how far the river really was from our tent and she said about 2 metres. I was concerned that the river could rise and we may need to shift so I asked Kendra if she had a raincoat in case we did need to shift our tent in the rain. We packed all our gear in to the dry bag. Kendra felt that if the water rose that we could become an island because there was a low area of sand on the non-river side of
Many Hands...
Everyone was around to help move the cargo raft which was very heavy. The local kids were all there apparently because their school teachers had been taken by the maoists. us. I tried to stay awake as long as I could to monitor the situation but fell asleep. At 4am we were awoken to the sounds of the Nepali guides yelling at each other and then yelling outside our tents "wake up, wake up!!!" There was no explanation by them as to why they had woken us up and my first thought was that we were under attack by the Maoists. I wasn't the only person that thought this. When I looked out of the tent I said to Kendra, "you were right! We have become an island!" Our toilet had been washed away including the 2 wooden planks and our Nepali guides had nearly been washed away when the water started flowing in to the shelter in which they were sleeping. We cleared the tent and one of the guys walked it across the water to dry land and we followed with our dry bags.
My Holy Foot - Following the flood there was lots more debri scattered around our campsite. I was just thinking about putting my tevas back on my feet when I stood on a small branch that had thorns on it that were about
Looks Like Goat For Dinner!
Our guides always cooked up a storm and one night they bought a goat from the nearby village. 2.5cm long. A good 2cm of the thorn penetrated the heel of my foot followed by a great deal of pain! It took me absolute brute force with a pair of tweezers to remove the thorn leaving quite a hole in my foot. As the day went on the pain worsened - a bit like a stabbing pain through my foot! All I could think about was the river water (not at all clean) that we were paddling in for the next 4 days and whether or not the thorn had hit the bone in my foot. Would I still have a foot to trek on? Thankfully with twice daily betadine and keeping it dry overnight my foot is feeling great and ready to start trekking tomorrow!
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Miranda
non-member comment
first aid pharmacy
Lou this is a great idea, I'm looking forward to reading more about your adventures! I hope your foot gets better soon - good thing you had all that first aid pharmacy packed!