Karnali River

The Karnali River is located in Western Nepal and is one of the more difficult rivers to reach in the country. In the past, getting to the put in involved two days of trekking with porters and tons of gear. Fortunately, there is now a road that will take you there...well if you can get through some obstacles it will get you there. This was the first Karnali expedition of the season for any company so water levels were somewhat in question...it was high!
I left Pokhara on September 30 with a nice couple from England to meet up with the rest of the group coming from Kathmandu. We had lunch and got on the road for what we thought would only be a day and a half. 3 of the girls on the trip, whom I had met in KTM a week before, showed up and were not feeling too hot. They had eaten some bad curry and were having trouble keeping anything down. After 5 or 6 hours on a hot bus with their heads out the window decorating the side of the vehicle, we decided it was time to seek some medical attention before going too far into more remote areas of Western Nepal. The doctor recommended that we stay in the town overnight so the girls could take medicine and rest. We were wondering if it was a good idea for them to stay on the trip at all. Being the tough Aussies that they are, the girls decided to stay on the trip and off we went for another full day of busing across Southern Nepal near India. We covered a lot of ground that day but had to stay another night in a village because the last stretch of road has not yet been paved and is challenging enough with daylight. Unfortunately, they are paving the road in order to build a damn on the beautiful Karnali. It is sad to think this amazing stretch of river will not exist in ten years. As is the case in all villages, we were greeted by a mob of kids who wanted to know what was up with these funny looking people with big colorful pieces of plastic(kayaks) on the roof. After a hearty dinner of Dal Bhat, we hit the sack in hopes of an early start to the river.
The next morning, day 3 of expedition, we started driving early and met the end of the pavement on one of the most incredible roads I've ever seen. At this point, it was a team effort to get off the bus and fill in the mud trenches with rocks when needed, and even do some pushing. I did some praying that the bus didn't go over the side and down through the clouds into the abyss. At one point, one of the Nepali guides called "high side!" when the bus did a big lean...luckily it didn't go over. "High side" is a command used in whitewater rafting to prevent the raft from flipping. It was a beautiful morning above the clouds and they eventually lifted revealing the Karnali River to us as we made the descent to the put-in.
After unloading a paddle raft, a gear raft, 6 kayaks, and tons of food and gear, we ate lunch and were off sometime mid afternoon. The first day on the water was great! Tons of huge wave trains but nothing very technical and we didn't have to scout any of the rapids. I was blown away at how big some of the waves were and was gaining confidence in my big water paddling skills...not for long! We camped on a gorgeous beach the first night and everyone on the trip was in agreement that this river was absolutely worth the 2.5 days of travel. When I say we camped on a beach, I mean we camped on a beautiful white sand beach with tons of room for everyone to spread out. There were no human footprints since we were the first to set foot on the beach after monsoon waters went down. We had fires every night and the sky was crystal clear...I personally saw dozens of shooting stars throughout the week. This was the Nepal wilderness that I had been hearing about and it made sense that people go through so much trouble to get there.
The second day on the river was more challenging than the first. It was a blast, but there were a few rapids that needed to be scouted. One of the rapids we scouted was the first one to flip my boat end over end instead of to the side like it usually happens. It was actually pretty fun but a good eye opener to how powerful this water can be. Day 2 was an action packed, challenging day of paddling and we made camp early. I had the pleasure of making a bowdrill set from driftwood at camp that evening and sharing the joy of creating friction fire with my new friends from down under. In addition to the 3 girls, there were 3 others from Australia on the trip. 2 of them were a couple who were great boaters and had been paddling all over Nepal for the past month. I heard so much about Australia and everything there is to do and see there that I might just have to go check it out for myself sometime soon...
Day 3 was a big day for our group on the Karnali. We scouted a couple rapids early in the day and they were getting bigger and more challenging as we continued downstream. We eventually entered into a gorge and one of the Nepali guys paddled over next to me and said, "this section very challenging!" I was already feeling a little tired from a couple days of paddling and the adrenaline from rapids that morning. We got out at the entrance of the gorge to scout and I couldn't see anything bigger than we had paddled so far. It looked pretty straightforward...I couldn't see around the bend! The first section of this gorge wore me out, my arms were super lactic and my form was getting sloppy. The river turned 90 degrees to the left. Without scouting, we took off. I was after a couple kayaks and saw the paddle go up indicating a safe line to run and we were in it. When I could finally see over the horizon, I knew I was screwed. It was bigger than most of the stuff we had been scouting and I knew that if I flipped it would be ugly. I dropped into a massive curling wave trying to get into a safe eddy and had no strength left to get there. The wave swallowed me and my 8 ft creek boat and I was under. The water was moving fast. With each roll attempt I could hear Ali (one of the Aussie boaters) yelling for me to get my roll. Each roll attempt was getting worse and worse and I was out of air. Eventually I pulled a knee out and the next thing I knew I was out of my boat...not good!!! I knew swimming in the big water would be a ride but had no idea it would be like it was. Not going to go into too much detail, but it was by far the longest, most terrifying swim I've taken on any river...brutal! After surfacing from being sucked into one of the whirlpools, I saw that our 16 ft paddle raft had also flipped and we had full on carnage! I was totally out of steam at this point but managed to get to the raft with a little help from Hannah sticking her paddle out for me to grab hold of. I hung with the swimmers on the raft for some time. This was a long and continuous rapid that showed now mercy to any of us. The currents were incredibly strong and would hold me down for uncomfortable amounts of time. Eventually, we got to a hydraulic and I was ripped from the raft and on my own again. My kayak surfaced about ten feet from me and I managed to get on top of it. One of the other safety kayakers helped me get it to shore. When I finally got to the river bank I was completely wiped out and concerned about where all the people and gear had ended up. I had no idea that swim would be as long and exhausting as it was or I would have hung in for some more time before exiting my boat. Don't recommend swimming in big whitewater...it sucks! Fortunately, nobody was hurt and no gear was lost. The rest of the afternoon was challenging for me personally. I got pretty rattled from the swim and think most of the folks in the raft did too. We were all feeling really grateful for the rest of the day. This happened to be the last major rapid on the river and the last 4 days were a relaxing Class I-II stretch of river. That night around the fire, I asked one of the Nepali guides what the name of that rapid was. He replied, "no name." I said, "That f$%king rapid needs a name!" And it was done...I named my first rapid...That Fu$%ing Rapid.
As the Karnali headed south toward India, the mountains got smaller and we saw more villages throughout the day. It was great to be out there and camping on the beaches was quite enjoyable. Lots of eating, sleeping, beach soccer, and hanging out with the locals. One of the highlights of the last few days was getting a ride in a dugout canoe. I went to take a picture of this canoe ferrying across the river and the man guiding it signaled for me to jump in. Talk about skills! This was the most unstable watercraft imaginable, but so cool to be in one of these things that has been used and remained unchanged for hundreds or thousands of years.
We got off the river on the morning of October 8 and started making our "16 hour" journey home. Some of the guests on the trip had differrent destinations and the group got smaller and smaller as we headed East. The plan was to drive all night and get to Kathmandu the next morning. However, the bus blew a fan belt in the middle of the night and we spent the whole night in the bus right in the middle of a road in Southern Nepal. It was a long night and the rain was coming down so the bus was hot and miserable. The drivers went and found a mechanic the next morning. Not surprisingly, they had a great deal of trouble finding the right belt. Arun and I left with the remaining guests mid day in the back of a truck so they could get on with their travels. We assumed the bus would be fixed and they could just get us on the way to KTM. After 7 hours of hanging around a junction town called Mugling, we decided the bus probably wasn't coming so we jumped in a car and got to Kathmandu around midnight last night.
So, back in the city for two nights and leaving in the morning to start working on the 20 day guide course. It begins at Sukute Beach and finishes with 10 days on the Sun Kosi River. Its always nice to be able to use the internet, sleep in a bed, and eat at good restaurants in the city. However, I'm ready to get back out there!
Thank you for reading my blog...please check out http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=215545&id=1533910566 for more pictures from the trip.
Namaste!