This weekend I did a two day white water rafting and camping trip down the Trisuli River, which originates from Mt Langtang. The water is a lot higher and with stronger currents at this time of year due to the Monsoon, but it ended up being one of the most fantastic trips I've done.
It was beautiful seeing the hilly and mountainous landscape along the river, I had fun friends in my boat, our guide Santosh was sooooo nice, and it was brilliant camping outside on a beach under the stars.
The rafting trip was organized by Initiative Outdoor which is located in Patan/Lalitpur and it also was our starting point at 7am on Saturday morning. From there, we took an approx 1.5 hour bus ride to our take-off point, at Bairani, where we organized our boat groups and learned some safety tips, etc.
We were a great group (Team Ramro!) and about half the time in the boat we were laughing about something and trying to responded well to Santosh's enthusiastic commands as we crossed big rapids, such as: 'Show me your POWER!' 'Be the tiger!' 'Faaaaaster!!!'.
The first day we rafted about 30-35 kilometers down the river, with a short lunch break, until we reached our beach campsite. My friends and I set up our tents (rain precaution) right near the water and then lay our mats in front of the tents, so that we could sleep outside. The sky was beautiful - filled with stars - and we spent most of the evening chatting and playing guitar with some candles lit around us.
The next morning we woke up early to a great breakfast of coffee, eggs, toast, chunky potato/hash browns, etc and then set off for another 20 kilometers of rafting. This section had a lot bigger rapids and I actually had a bit of a scare while passing through one of the most dangerous spots, with at least 4 level rapids. Our boat almost tipped over and I was thrown out of the raft...While in the water and being pulled under by the strong current, it really made me realize how dangerous this river is and I just kept hoping I would rise to the surface soon. When I did come up, a rescue kayaker was able to race forward to catch me and then drag me back to my boat. So glad to have the safety kayaks on hand!
We finished our rafting journey at Panch Kilo, which is very close to Pokhara and Chitwan National Park. After a lunch, we grabbed our bus back to Kathmandu which normally takes 4 hours, but due to traffic accidents it took at least 5 hours. I mostly slept the whole way back and was completely exhausted when I went to bed that night.
Unfortunately I don't have a waterproof camera and have no photos from the raft itself, but I'm trying to track down some others that took pictures and then I'll update this post!
It was beautiful seeing the hilly and mountainous landscape along the river, I had fun friends in my boat, our guide Santosh was sooooo nice, and it was brilliant camping outside on a beach under the stars.
The rafting trip was organized by Initiative Outdoor which is located in Patan/Lalitpur and it also was our starting point at 7am on Saturday morning. From there, we took an approx 1.5 hour bus ride to our take-off point, at Bairani, where we organized our boat groups and learned some safety tips, etc.
We were a great group (Team Ramro!) and about half the time in the boat we were laughing about something and trying to responded well to Santosh's enthusiastic commands as we crossed big rapids, such as: 'Show me your POWER!' 'Be the tiger!' 'Faaaaaster!!!'.
The first day we rafted about 30-35 kilometers down the river, with a short lunch break, until we reached our beach campsite. My friends and I set up our tents (rain precaution) right near the water and then lay our mats in front of the tents, so that we could sleep outside. The sky was beautiful - filled with stars - and we spent most of the evening chatting and playing guitar with some candles lit around us.
The next morning we woke up early to a great breakfast of coffee, eggs, toast, chunky potato/hash browns, etc and then set off for another 20 kilometers of rafting. This section had a lot bigger rapids and I actually had a bit of a scare while passing through one of the most dangerous spots, with at least 4 level rapids. Our boat almost tipped over and I was thrown out of the raft...While in the water and being pulled under by the strong current, it really made me realize how dangerous this river is and I just kept hoping I would rise to the surface soon. When I did come up, a rescue kayaker was able to race forward to catch me and then drag me back to my boat. So glad to have the safety kayaks on hand!
We finished our rafting journey at Panch Kilo, which is very close to Pokhara and Chitwan National Park. After a lunch, we grabbed our bus back to Kathmandu which normally takes 4 hours, but due to traffic accidents it took at least 5 hours. I mostly slept the whole way back and was completely exhausted when I went to bed that night.
Unfortunately I don't have a waterproof camera and have no photos from the raft itself, but I'm trying to track down some others that took pictures and then I'll update this post!
The trip sounds exhiliratig and fun being in such remote mountain rapids. Glad you made it back to the raft. Those Kayakers must be tough!
ReplyDeleteWow great pictures!
ReplyDelete