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Published: November 21st 2009
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Most people come to Nepal for trekking which is totally understandable when you consider how fantastic it is here, but Nepal is also one of the best (and cheapest) places in the world for white-water rafting. We really fancied giving this a go so booked a two day trip with Ultimate Rivers which included food and a night's accommodation in a resort up in the hills, all for 60 euros.
Meeting up at 6am, a group of 10 + guides set off for a three hour bus ride through the green valleys up to the Bhoti-Kosi river. We helped load two rafts on top of the bus, which were considerably heavier than you'd think for something which is mostly full of air. The river is in two sections and we began halfway down, which is the easier section to begin with. Rapids are graded from one to six and the rapids on this section of the river only go up to a three which is apparently still high for total beginners.
We unloaded the rafts by the river side and were given life jackets & helmets and then received some basic safety information which was mainly things like if
you fall in, try and rescue yourselves or 'stay positive, don't worry'. It wasn't really the comprehensive beginners guide to white water rafting that we were looking for but it was enough to get us by.
So we set off in the raft, five of us and one guide followed by the other five in another raft. You have to sit on the side of the boat, leaning quite far over to paddle and with one foot tucked in a strap to try and keep you inside. The guide issues commands on which way to paddle and if you fast approach a large rock or big drop, he'll shout 'get down!' and everyone has to get off the sides and duck inside the boat for cover. The whole thing was a bit of a worry for Stacey as she can't see a thing without her glasses and there was a strong chance of falling out the raft and losing them or the raft turning over.
We couldn't take any pictures of the rafting because of the constant soakings but needless to say it was totally thrilling going over the rapids and managing not to capsize the raft. After
about three hours and a break for lunch, we reaching the calm part of the river and took the boats out of the river and headed back up the valley towards our digs for the night. The place was called 'The Last Resort' and was on a cliff 150m or so above the river. There was a rope bridge across to reach it and there was a bungee jump half way across, which is another popular adventure activity in Nepal. The resort was a tropical paradise with landscaped greenery and bamboo structures containing the bar and restaurant. We slept in big canvas tents which were huge and had electricity and proper beds so was far from roughing it, and we decided we would much rather stay here for a few nights instead of polluted Kathmandu.
The only downer was that since our shoes were wet, we left them outside the tent to dry overnight and I went outside in the morning to find one of them was gone. I searched around for it and eventually found it not too far away but it had been slightly mutilated by what I only assume was a hungry monkey. The little b******
had gnawed through part of the sole as well as the elastic used to tighten it, so we had to do a quick field repair with the travel sewing kit and a safety pin. It was annoying but would've have been much worse if I hadn't found it so we just put it down to experience and I decided that I don't like monkeys any more.
The next morning we drove 10 minutes down the valley to the launching point and got the boats in the water, tied off onto some rocks. It was like a totally different river, much more fast flowing with rapids all the way down. As we were scrambling over the boulders to get into the boat, Stacey remarked to the guide that the rope holding the boat wasn't very secure but he said it would be fine. A couple of minutes later, she was about to get into the raft and was the second last person in. Of course, the rope came off the rock and the raft was whipped away downstream by the strong current with Stacey only half in. What was picture it was. They pulled her in but of course being
the last person to get in, I was left on shore with my transport moving away quickly downstream. Luckily, I got into the second raft with the other group and managed to jump ship further down the river.
The river was much more ferocious all the way down with rapids most of the way. The rocks were hard to avoid but we managed well, although sometimes going backwards down through rapids and facing sudden drops in the river. Stacey remarked that she didn't even have time to feel scared as you simply paddled as hard as possible with the adrenalin rush. A few times the tail of the raft kicked up and the guide who sits at the back was flung on top of me with force. Each time we got through a tough section, we high-fived with the paddles in celebration.
On one particularly difficult set of rapids which were a grade 4+, the other raft managed to get stuck between two giant boulders and were trapped by the raging torrent of water. They tried for 10 minutes to free themselves but with no luck so the had to get a safety line to the shore and
transfer people out through the raging water in order to reduce the weight and free the raft. On another section of rapids called “The Great Wall” which was a grade 5+, we had to get out of the rafts and walk 100 meters downstream and let the guides take the rafts through because it required precise paddling and if anyone had fallen in, the river would've made a rescue impossible.
After three hours of rafting we stopped for the day and got the rafts out of the water and had a few hours for lunch in the sun, chatting to the guides about everything from long rafting trips where you camp each night on the shore and carry all the food to the Maoists and Nepalese politics.
We were sad to get on the bus for the three hour trip back to Kathmandu because the valleys are so lush and green and beautiful that we would've have happily stayed for the rest of our trip. It had been a great experience and we decided that we would definitely do it again in future.
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david.blewitt
non-member comment
Were the bus brakes OK?
Looks like a rock behind the tyre in photo 10!