Photo guide to the Lower Karnali, Western Nepal.

Photo guide to the Lower Karnali, Western Nepal.           

 Light streamed through the curtains of Hotel Snowland, possibly the poshest hotel in Pokhara. After the Marsyandi, Bhote Kosi, Upper Modi Khola, Upper Seti and only 9 days since landing in Kathmandu I was feeling rather tired.

“Rosie!”

“Whhhhaaaat…I’m tired, I just want to sleep and eat cake”

“Let’s go paddle the Karnali!

“Whaaaat’s …the Karnali’…?”

“180km, big water class 4, and total wilderness!”

His voice was getting more and more enthusiastic.

“Uh…How long does it take…” “7 days – but we can do it in 4!”

“But I only just got out of hospital 2 weeks ago – I feel weak.”

“But it’ll be amazing!”

“Yea, but we fly out of the country in 6 days, and what if it’s really high and we get stuck down some hideous gorge of doom and run out of food.”

“Oh come on. As if that is ever going to happen.” 

“What about last year in India????”

“Oh yea…uh…but this is Nepal! It’s different! Hotter, uh, and stuff!”

“And what about my lack of medical insurance?”

“It’ll be fine – how would we contact emergency services anyway? It won’t make a difference!

“Urggg. Leave me alone. Don’t want to do it.” 

“Rosie…”

“WHAT! Go away!”

“But it says in the guidebook that they saw leopards and coyotes, and eagles and monkeys on the river!”

“Did you say leopard?!

“Yes! Yes, yes I did, um, fluffy leopard and leopard kittens!”

“What! Why on earth didn’t you say so before?!”

 And so not so many hours later the local bus, two tourists, one large and slightly scary bug, and two kayaks filled with noodles and tuna pulled out of Pokhara and heaved their way onto the long and dusty road West.

It wasn’t the most comfortable journey. Bags were packed solid around my legs, totally immobilising them. I fell into an uneasy stupor filled with endless cramps, dehydration and a seriously rattled brain box. About 4 hours in I woke briefly to ‘splat’ as a balloon full of cow dung exploded through the bus window onto my face. At 6 hours the large and frightening bug that had occupied the headrest of the seat in front bailed and spun out of the window. That made me jealous. After 17 hours, the bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. Unlucky as we had no water, map, or idea which side of the ridge the river was on; we had sort of expected there to be a town somewhere along the way.

Luckily and before too long, as is the way in Nepal, two men materialised as if from the dust of the road and offered to carry out boats the 2 hours down the steep trail to the river, for around £2 each.

 Below is a photo diary of the rest of the trip:

Our first glimpse of the mighty Karnali.

Secretly I was quite glad that there were friendly cows at the put in, instead of leopards.

Until they tried to eat my Tevas.

We got on the river and passed through the first of many steep and impressive gorges.

I felt like a tiny paddler in an enormous gorge…hang on…

Over the first two days there were many rapids with spectacular backdrops. This is Rob on one of them.

Lines were big and open, see if you can spot Rob down the bottom of this one!

I was glad we had managed to stuff plenty of food into our dry bags; the alternative dinner didn’t look too tasty…

 …and neither was the river water laced with iodine. It tasted disgusting.

To be continued in next post…