Flips and campfires on the SunKosi River
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2008
1
33
59
Trip End
Ongoing
Dolalghat,
Nepal
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
I was in a group of 6 tourist - me, another guy from England, two brothers from Iceland and a couple from Australia. We were in a raft with one guide, then we had a kitchen raft with a cook and backup guide, and two safety kayakers - at 6:5 we felt very looked after and it was a fantastic group.
It was a 2 ½ hour minibus ride to the put in point at Dolalghat on the SunKosi river where we inflated and packed the rafts and reduced our luggage (one dry bag between two), then we set off down the river
Just starting off, inflating the rafts
. The Sun Kosi river trip is a 270km long stretch starting just 60km from the Tibetan border and finishing near the North Indian plains it was going to be a good one. The first couple of days were a quiet build up, lots of flat water and a few class 2 and 3 rapids, so time to admire the scenery and get used to things - include a few dunks in the water. The water was cold but not to bad and the sun was warm enough to dry you off in between dunks and splashes - I was quite happy in shorts and t-shirt (and a splash jacket for some of the time). In fact the sun was strong enough to burn a bit as well - especially on the water. Later the rapids built up to class 5.
It was a great feeling to camp along the riverside, we shared tents, built campfires and helped peel vegetables for the evening meals - the food was great - much better than I expected - and there was plenty of it, which was good after a day s rafting. We generally had breakfast - including campfire toast expertly made by our Nepalguese toaster (Our Portuguese Kayaker!) and set off around 9ish, then stopped for a brief lunch and found camp around 3/4pm. The toilet (kings palace) was a hole dug in the sand with some tarp for privacy - interesting when the sand collapsed at times but otherwise much nicer and cleaner than some in the hostels
Typical view
! I can t tell you all the stories on here but I spent 9 days on the trip and enjoyed every minute, from the people tipping over, invented nicknames (I was soup for a while), play fights with people jumping across rafts, washing in the river, feeling exhilarated under a powerful waterfall, huge fires and wood hunts, bloody monkeys distracting people from oncoming rapids (oops), late night stories of the others adventures, collecting live chickens (for dinner) and Roxy (a local spirit) from the riverbanks, sleeping out of the tent and under the stars one night, lush tropical scenery, golden beaches for camping, suspension bridges where we ducked stones and cow sh*t, and kids along the way shouting greetings, doing funky dances and coming over to meet us.
Of course the highlight was the rapids - we had some big ones that we had to get out and survey before attempting them and on one of the biggest ones we flipped the raft over - I went up, under and whooshed down the river, into a whirlpool, over some rocks and got rescued by one of the kayakers as we all scrambled to a shore. - It was a bit scary and I got a bit scrapped by some rocks as I hurtled down the water but fantastic - we all got such a buzz, such an adrenalin rush we all wanted to do it again and again
Our team
! I remember sitting on the riverside, in the sun, looking out to the water on the 1st December thinking how different it would be if I were at home. The only bad bits were that I was a bit ill one night, but I was well looked after with the others offering various medication, hot soup etc. It also wasn' t so great to put on wet clothes in the morning (they didn' t quite dry in the evening) but after a few splashes in the raft it was soon forgotten.
Unfortunately it had to end, and we finished at a really hot area not far from the Indian border - I think it was Chatara. We packed up, deflated the rafts and set off on the long 15 hour bus ride home - it seemed to take a bit more time because there were various road strikes where we had to wait for other buses to cross together..Our adventure was extended a little when we arrived back at the hostel at around 4.30am to find it locked up! Two of us were locked out so we sat and drank tea next to a little fire on the corner of our street for an hour or so, when we managed to get in!
Back in Kathmandu (3rd December) I finished sorting out my visa for India, spent a bit of time with some of the rafting group, and decided on my next plan
Some curious kids coming to meet us
. I had a bit of excitement - the next morning after the rafting trip, I woke up at around 5am to the sound of running water... in mid sleep I wasn't worried because I d been used to the sound of water next to the river... then I realised I wasn't by the river... I looked up to the window and saw rain pouring down... still mid sleep I though it must be raining... then in struck - I hadn't seen rain here before - I swung out of bed and stepped into water - arrggh my room was flooded - water was literally cascading from the ceiling like a waterfall! I quickly grabbed my bags off the floor went to wake someone from the hostel. It turns out the water tank had overflowed - apparently it happens about once a year. The guy helped me to move my stuff to another room and got me a cup of tea to say sorry. Not the best awaking but at least nothing was damaged - just a bit wet!
