Anything that Floats

Today we arrived back in Pokhara after a two day adventure.  Our small itinerary involved  a full day of boating, one night of camping, and a half day of boating today.  The kayaking crew consisted of the three of us, a Nepalese kayak guide, and a friend from Australia.  The rafting crew consisted of a Scottish couple, a Canadian couple, a French couple, and two Nepalese raft guides. 

Our first day started early in the morning involving a one hour bus ride to the put in.  There we carried all our gear down a steep hill to the water’s edge.  This first day I was going to kayak from start to finish.  I did not feel as though I was boating as well as I did in Slovenia, though throughout the day I was improving slowly.  Towards the end of the day, I was tired and the wind started picking up.  Though I was weary, before me was the biggest rapid I had ever done.  On a 1 to 6 scale the guide called it a 2+.  I missed a huge hole on the right hand side and hit some huge waves on the left hand side.  After the big rapid we set up camp on a beach.  It felt nice to be in nice warm clothes.  Late at night we made a big bonfire and waited for dinner.  We had a pleasant night’s sleep in our tents along the flowing Lower Seti River. 

Our Camp  (photo by: My Dad)

Our Camp (photo by: My Mom)

This morning, I woke up to the sound of plates clattering and breakfast cooking.  I was hungry, and had made up my mind to ride in the raft today.  Today’s water was a good bit harder than the rapids I was doing yesterday.  I joined the raft crew and soon experienced huge waves!  I was extremely glad I did not kayak.  We ended our adventure on a beach with a trail going up to the road.  We ate a short lunch made by our guides, and then took a public bus back to Pokhara. 

Public buses in Nepal can be festive, but they are not the most comfortable.  The outsides are painted with bright colors, but the insides are often in pretty bad shape.  The seats often joggle and make loud, obnoxious squeaking noises,  The metal in the buses is rusty and broken, the luggage racks are falling apart, the ceilings are barely held together.  The road today was dirty and bumpy.  Occasionally, we would fly into the air and land back hard on our seats.  Our driver drove really fast and passed other vehicles very tightly.  I found the whole experience of being on the bus a tiny bit scary. 

Pictures from the bus:







After arriving back in Pokhara,  we had dinner with our Australian friend from the kayak trip.  She is also the woman I referred to on the overland the biking trip from Lhasa to Kathmandu.  (See: A Journeys End.)  We had a lovely dinner and I am back at the hotel writing my blog.

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!