The Upper Bhote Koshi

Flowing from high in the mountains of Tibet, the mighty Bhote Koshi winds it's way across the boarder from it's source on the Zhangzabo glacier into Nepal before becoming the Sun Kosi and continuing it's journey in to India. In 2014 a landlside of gargantuan proportions occurred in the Lamo Sangho area, depositing an estimated 13.5 million tonnes of rock upon the town thats was there. The dam that resulted drowned much of the landscape upstream and the river was changed dramatically.

 The river still offers world class whitewater, however, and is one of the most famous runs in the himalaya, offering quality commercial rafting trips on the lower sections and harder test-piece kayaking in the upper gorges.

 Teaming up with Jack, Jamie and Dom, who were fresh back from their trip to the Thule Bheri we headed over to paddle the upper section from above the main gorge and down into the town of Barabise. This area was also one of the most badly affected in the earthquakes earlier on in 2015, and much if the town is still rubble, with evidence of reconstruction and earthquake damage everywhere you turn. The local school is still in tents, as is the police station, and there is several NGO and UN outposts offering aid.
 We stayed at a small and basic guest house which the other brits and spanish had stayed the few days previously and met Florian there who had run the river several times with the other teams and gotten to know the section fairly well. Unfortunately for us, we arrived late to the town without time to paddle that day, having had a bit of a nightmare in Kathmandu with transport, no surprises there! The fuel crisis still continues here and overcrowded buses and dangerous black market fuel have been making the journeys even more difficult and dangerous, not to mention expensive! We have now been finding that bus drivers are reluctant to take us at all, knowing that our kayaks will take up precious roof space to carry passengers.

 After the nights stay, our friendly host called his friend with a truck and we arrived at the put on in good time.
The paddling was challenging from the outset, being into class 4 and above right from the put on. Unfortunately for me, i took a duff line on a blind rapid with a sticky hole and as i dropped in to the hole my paddle wedged immediately in between boulders and was ripped from my hands resulting in a quick exit and lost paddle! We tried to reach where it was jammed but with sheer sided gorge it was going to be impossible, so out came the emergency splits! The rest of the river went well however, with continuous quality grade 4-5. Several of the rapids being very high consequence and not a place to be making any big mistakes. An incredibly steep gradient meant it kept us on our toes, and i was glad to have a strong team of peers on the water. The character of the rapids where often big, chunky and messy lines, but there was also plenty of set piece rapids and drops and we all got our fill of flares and boof moves!
 Really psyched to have gotten this mega classic run ticked and a big thanks to the guys for the good times.

Holy Waters - The Upper Kali Gandakhi

Despite the fuel crisis here in Nepal myself and all the other kayakers here have been making the most of the 2015 season. Those that can afford to have been sucking up the additional cost and venturing in to the expeditions runs of the Humla Karnarli and Thule Bheri, much to my envy. The team of Spanish paddlers who i had teamed up with earlier on in the season for the Madi and Modi Kohla runs (belayed blog to come on that) even hiked in to Simikot with their gear to get an early season run on the Humla and scout out the upper gorges, as well as some tribs, due to the cost of flights. Keep an eye out for Mino and Mikels impending blog posts about what sounds like an incredible adventure!
 Water levels here in Nepal have been dropping off perhaps a bit earlier than in a normal year, having had a relatively dry monsoon and many of the "regular" sections are now un-runnable, or too low to be of interest. It has spurred us, however, to look further upstream to some of the lesser run sections.
 Bastien, Mariano, Freddy and David had taken advantage of this drop in levels to head to the Upper Kali Ghandakhi and after reporting it was good to go, me, Joe and Ciaran made a hasty dash back west to get it done!
The Kali's valley system is definitely one of the most stunning places i've ventured to in my time in Nepal, and the higher up you go, the better it gets!

 We struck it lucky on our journey to Beni from Pokhara, being approached by multiple drivers at the bus station all offering fair prices, something totally out of the norm from our other travel experiences of this year! After agreeing to ride on the roof of the next public bus to come along as it was the cheapest option by a long shot, we prepared ourselves for another bumpy uncomfortable journey to Beni. However, as we were loading our kayaks, a delivery of mattresses was hauled on to the roof beside us.
"Are these going to Beni?" We asked.
"Yes" Was the Answer.
"Awesome!" Our response.
The mattresses provided us with a comfortable ride, so much so Joe even managed to fall asleep! (Not something i recommend whilst riding on the roof of a bus anywhere in the world!)
 The Next day we had a very contrasting experience and after a terrifying (standard) bus journey from Beni early in the morning, we arrived at the small village of Tatopani, which translates as "Hot Water". Probably unsurprisingly after that hint, hot springs emerge from the ground here and a strong smell of sulphur field our nostrils as we geared up surrounded by an incredible mountain vista.

 On recommendation from the other team we planned to do this short section over two days, savouring the water and giving us plenty of time to scout and portage if needs be. In hindsight we could've easily paddled this section in one day, but it was nice to take out with time on our hands when we arrived at our take out, the beautiful village of Tiplyang, and spent the evening playing cards and drinking cold beers at a really nice guest house, located at the northern end of the town.

 The white water was genuinely world class, with a real mix of style of paddling. Sections of bigger volume rapids were interspersed with steep drops, all mixed up with alpine like easier gradient rapids to let you catch your breath. I've seen photos of the river in higher water, and no doubt it would be a lot harder, but the level we paddled still gave us fantastic rapids, most of which around grade 4 (plus or minus) and several sections of grade 5. One of which we all decided to portage, due to the super high consequences of siphons and undercuts.

 We made three mandatory portages as well as the aforementioned rapid, which were un runnable at this level due to narrow passages and siphons, although may be passable in higher water. The first of these was within the first Kilometre of putting on, and certainly kept us on our toes with a taste of whats to come, with some must make ferry glides, and eddies to hit before major drops, portages and rapids.
Taking out back at Beni was a certain anti-climax, the river here becoming no more than a rubbish dump for locals. Clambering out near the bus park where we found our transport to Tatopani was definitely un appealing, but rewarding, as we found a relatively fairly priced jeep back to our base in Pokhara without much hassle.

 Thinking back this river has given me one of the  most enjoyable experiences of my time in Nepal, both with the quality of whitewater, and the scenery. But with dams planned on most major water ways of the country and many already constructed, i have to question again, how much longer can the whitewater aspect of the tourism industry survive?

The river of gold - The Sunkosi

 Me and George had made a hasty dash back to Kathmandu from Pokhara on a hellish micro bus ride after our Kali Gandaki and lower Modi Khola trip. After a couple phone calls we arranged to meet the remainder of the team at the bus station in the morning.
 We bartered a reasonable price for our taxi from our hotel and arrived with time to spare.

Shortly after our breakfast of cake and bananas, Greg, Bastien, Ciaran and Alex turned up on the back of their pickup truck hired from their accommodation. But Bob was know where to be seen.
"Bob, where are you?"
"I'm at the new bus park. Where are you?"
"At the old bus park where the bus leaves from!"
"... I'll be right there."
It was going to be a fun trip!
We negotiated a surprisingly reasonable price for our kayaks and us to Dolalgat, the put on for the Sun Kosi. On arrival we stocked up on supplies in the small town, our cumulative Nepali language knowledge some how managing to find us everything we required.
A couple weeks before, a team from GRG had made a super fast monsoon run down the river in three days, and our plan was too do a similar thing whilst there was still some reasonable flow in the river.
It was fairly late in the afternoon by the time we managed to put on, and after a couple hours of boogie class 2/3 we found a beautiful campsite just above the first larger rapid, "No Exit".
With Bob managing to source some local moonshine from the tiny village on the hillside, and our dinner cooking on an open fire under views of the milky way, it was already shaping up to be a great time on the river.
Around 2am i awoke to a bright light in my face.
"Hello my English friends!!"
Several locals had ventured to the river to try and catch fish and to come and say hello. Unfortunately, this sentence was all the English they seemed to know, and with our nepali measuring up just as equally, the conversation was limited to say the least.

 With nothing else to do in the morning but go kayaking, we were on the water around 7am, the easy rapids of this section washing the sleep from our eyes. The "river of gold" lived up to it's name this morning, the low sun casting a golden glow on the cliffs, the water sparkling and glinting as the waves reflected the morning light.
 By mid morning, our stomachs were rumbling and spying a small village on the bank, we pulled in to the eddy to venture in and see if they could provide us with food. After some confusion down to language barriers, we were invited through to the back of one of the buildings for a meal of traditional Nepali dhal Bhat, rice with lentil soup and curry. As we ate more and more of the village came to see these strange white men in their plastic craft and by the time our meal was done we were surrounded by inquisitive faces. Once we had eaten our fill we came to pay, but our money was not welcome, and one of the younger villagers managed to communicate that we were "welcome anytime!".
This is something i've really enjoyed about Nepal so far. Once you are off the beaten tracks, then people are incredibly welcoming and friendly.
 The day continued with the majority of the paddling being fat water or easy rapids, with the exception of a couple of bigger drops, and after around 80km of flat water, we were happy to reach our camp at Hakapur, just above the biggest rapid on the river.

Yours truly, photo by Bastien DeMange

Planning the journey on our beach camp, photo by Bastien DeMange

 We opted for a far more leisurely start today and to add an extra camp in our journey, so we awoke a little later and headed to the village for a breakfast of Chipati and potato curry.
Fuelled up and fired up, we scouted hakapur, the biggest rapid on the river. This rapid has some pretty grim looking holes, with huge waves, several times over head height. Despite this, the line itself was fairly straight forward, and despite a couple of back loops in the huge waves from a couple team members, everyone who ran it made it to the bottom unscathed.

Me running Hakapur, photo by Bastien DeMange

Me running Hakapur, photo by Bastien DeMange

Bob dropping in

George amongst it!

Bastien's loaded boat getting back looped in one of the huge breaking waves

Next up was the Hakapur 3 rapid. A huge but technically easier rapid which all members opted to run this time.

The remainder of the day was spent on easy, yet huge rapids, many with holes that would hold a swimmer and eat kayaks, big waves and boil eddy lines. There were just enough rapids to keep the boredom of further flat water at bay and we enjoyed stunning scenery as we floated down this mighty river.

Our camp that night was above the infamous "jungle corridor", a section of the river around 10km long of continuous class 3-4, again the huge volume creating over head waves and holes, boil eddy lines snatching at our sterns if we weren't on the ball. rounding the corner from our camp we bumped in to Darren Clarkson-king, who was there with a group on a trip with his company Pure land expeditions.
 I had unfortunately become really ill the night before, and felt incredibly sick by the time the evening came around, barely stomaching my Dhal Bhat from the village next to our camp at Tribeni, the confluence of the Tamur. Our original plan had been to paddle the Tamur after the Sun Kosi, again at a higher level than the majority of commercial trips. However, it became apparent from the amount of water flowing into the Sun Kosi that it would have been a fool hardy attempt so that idea was quickly put to bed, as was i.
 We had a short paddle in the morning to Chatra, where transport back to Kathmandu would have normally been simple. Unfortunately, the fuel crisis had rendered almost all public transport inoperable, so after some phone calls from our friendly Nepali guest house owner, who Bob knew from previous years, we embarked on a huge 21 hour journey back to the capital, the bus journey proving once again to be the crux of the expedition!

Our "porter" into the village of Chatra

Nepal: part 1

Wow...
Where to begin? This could be a long post! It's been almost six weeks now since i arrived in Nepal and It's certainly hasn't been smooth sailing thats for sure. I had originally come out here to work with a company but decided to go it alone in the end, just to say first off it's not a reflection on them and that i'd still recommend their trips and staff, and in fact the guys have become really good friends.
Anyway, i'm unsure on how much coverage there has been in the west of the goings on in Nepal, but things here have been rocky since i arrived to say the least. Many of the areas normally bustling with tourists are ghost towns, almost certainly due to the media coverage of the Earthquake that occurred earlier on in the year. On that matter, i'd like to say please don't be put off by that. Almost all of there areas i have visited have survived unscathed or have recovered well, and if you have put off or are putting off your visit because of that then you are doing more harm than good. Tourism is Nepal's lifeblood and the country needs it to survive.
To make matters hugely worse, Nepal created a constitution shortly after my arrival. This is something the country has desperately needed for decades, but also a matter of huge controversy. The creation of this bill of rights upset India, who, to put it bluntly, there their toys out of the pram. I can't explain the issues in too much depth, but the constitution made it hard for India to gain further control of Nepal, and it's no secret that India want to own Nepal. India closed their borders after unrest in the Terrai region and haven't open since. This has cut off all fuel to the country and caused a huge amount of difficulty to everyone, creating even further economic downturn and political unrest. Taxis and buses are running out of fuel, making it hard for us to get transport anywhere, restaurants have run out of gas and food to cook, forced to prepare meals on wood fires. Hospitals are also running low on supplies. I struggle to understand how the UN haven't stepped in and forced the border to re-open with support from UN troops to keep the peace. To me it seems like a political atrocity, the type that organisations such as the UN have the responsibility to help police.
Anyway...
back to our adventures.

After i decided to go it alone i put a shout out to my kayaking pals to ask if they knew anyone else in country. After a few replies i met up with George Younger and we teamed up to try and get out paddling. Sick of the noise and pollution of Kathmandu, we headed West to the much more chilled city of Pokhara, to escape the hustle and bustle and to meet up with Roshan, a Nepali who i had become good friends with.
Roshan had been working with the same company, but had also decided to move on so was now freelance in Pokhara, and through him we managed to jump on some trips on the Kali Gandaki river in exchange for video boating for the raft companies. I was happy to oblige as it meant free transport and food, in exchange for another of my favourite past times, taking photos.
The Kali Gandaki is a holy river, with many cremations happening on it's banks and at it's confluences. It also has great geological significance as well as being home to many rare plants, animals and birds... and scorpions! It's a pretty chilled affair, with most of the rapids on the commercial section being class 3, however, it also has a couple harder rapids and is a great river to get used to paddling with exped kit on big volume.

 On our second trip, for Adrenaline Rush, the Nepali guides suggested we embark on a mini mission to run the lower Modi Khola. This river has several dams, so early season is often the only opportunity to paddle this section. After they were kind enough to arrange a taxi for us we woke up at 5 30 am to hike out of the canyon with our boats and kit to the road where our taxi should of been waiting. Notice i say "should of".
After almost an hour of waiting and calling the taxi driver, (who didn't speak English) one of the guides, Gotham, appeared around the corner.
"What are you guys still doing here?"
We explained the situation and handed him the phone. After a few heated words in Nepali, Gotham handed me the phone back.
"He'll be here in 10 minutes"
We were feeling pretty rough after our early start and hike, plus the few days of having bad stomachs before the trip after eating some dodgy food in town, but despite this we had a great run down. The river started steeply, with boulder garden grade 4, most of which was scout-able from the boat. We opted to portage all of the dams, which although may have been runnable, we didn't want to risk any metal work piercing our kayaks, or us for that matter.

The river eased off as we descended, eventually turning to continuous alpine 3/4 before rejoining the Kali Gandaki and we boosted down catching up with the raft group for some lunch.

After our stint in Pokhara, we headed back to Kathmandu to meet up with Bastien, Ciaran, Greg and Bob and to head east to paddle the world famous Sun Kosi...

Really happy to announce that i'm now a Canoe and kayak store team rider!

Canoe and kayak store have been really good to me over this year, already hooking me up with a Zet Raptor earlier on in the year and letting me have a chance to get a review on the Toro the other day.

Canoe and kayak store are the main distributors of Zet kayaks UK and Select paddles. I'm a huge fan of both these brands, with Zet making some of the best and progressive designs on the market, and select making some of the most well crafted and hi-tech (not to mention best looking!) paddles around!

I'm really really happy to join their team officially and looking forward to working together even more!
Check out my welcome from the guys here

Windows of opportunity - Kayaking the Pentland Firth

In the far north of Scotland there is a place where races and tides flow fast enough to wreck even the hardiest of vessels, once patrolled by marine going tribesmen with a prowess to rival even the invading Norse, who named the area "Petlandfjord" meaning the Fjord of the Picts. Also known in Gaelic as "An Caol Arcach" meaning the sea of Orcs the names have have been anglicised and this stretch of challenging and treacherous water has become known as the Pentland Firth.
 The area plays host to an incredible amount of wildlife, both year round natives, and visitors from further a field. Puffin, Gannet, Guillemot and Tern all come to nest, whilst the waters are patrolled by Seal,  Dolphin, Basking shark and even Orca!

With tides that have been recorded to flow up to 14KN in places, for many sea kayakers (and indeed small craft sailors) the thought of crossing this stretch of water is fool hardy, but with the right conditions, and planning and preparation, this beautiful area of sea can become navigable even to us in our meagre craft.

So there i was, sat in my tent reading a book whilst guiding the second of my back to back summer isles expeditions for Wilderness Scotland when surprisingly a message pinged up on my phone. I was a bit taken a back as i hadn't even spotted i'd got internet signal, and in such a remote place, i certainly wasn't expecting it! it was Fiona Weatherall, currently on the instructor development scheme at Glenmore Lodge. Fi is an awesome paddler, and i've had the pleasure of kayaking with her a few times on whitewater over the last few months  and am always impressed with her skill and ability. She's definitely a role model for women in the sport and has kayaked around the whole south island of New Zealand with her partner James; an incredible achievement!
 I had only two days of free time between my return trip from the summer isles and going to observe a three star sea kayak course at Glenmore Lodge in order to become a provider, but wanted to squeeze in some personal adventure time having not had much this summer, so i was psyched to get the suggestion of a big crossing from Fi. Initially Fi was suggesting paddling across the Mull of Kintyre to Ireland, but on a closer look the weather forecast didn't quite work, with a southerly force 3-4 forecast. I made the suggestion of the crossing to the Orkneys instead, with the wind at least blowing us in the right direction! With the tides on neaps (smallest range therefore slowest flow) and a short window of high pressure forecast, the adventure looked good to go!
 Returning from the summer isles i had a swift turn around of kit the following day before Fi came to my house that evening for some last minute checks on our tidal planning, followed by the drive north.

We opted to island hop across the firth, crossing at first to the island of Stroma (meaning island in the tidal flow), then on to Swona before the final stint to South Ronaldsay and hopefully our ferry back to the mainland. A huge tied race on the north end of Stroma lying just off shore of Swelkie point, nicknamed, "Svalga" or " Swallower" by the Vikings due to the huge whirlpool that forms there, marked our first crux. (According to legend this whirlpool was formed by the sea witch grinding the salt to keep the sea salty!) Despite the neap tide, it was important that we hit this point at slack water, or just before, allowing us safe passage. So after a big ferry glide from the mainland to the island we stopped for a coffee at the slipway of the Geo of Netherton giving us a leg stretch and photo opportunity. Stroma, like many of the other islands in the firth, was once inhabited, but was eventually abandoned in 1997 when the last family remaining, the lighthouse keepers family, moved off the island.

Looking across our next stretch to Swona we spied the large white caps of the tide race that guards the south end of the island. Our plan was to over shoot this and travel around the north end of the island to a small cove called the haven. Paddling around the corner from Netherton pier we found the Swelkie flat calm and a gentle sea crossing lay before us, the force 3-4 not really materialising.
We'd played it safe with our planning and ended up with some room to spare on our crossing, so far so good!

As we approached Swona the sea began to pick up, becoming lumpy and confused as the tide began to flow back in the opposite direction, whisking us toward the north end of Swona. It was great fun watching the land whizz past and we pulled into the eddy on the eastern side with grins spread across our faces.
 The coastline of this area of Scotland is stunning, with big stacks, caves and arches to explore and spying a deep, yet incredibly narrow entrance to a passage i reversed my boat in. After a bit of playing we  got out at the haven for yet more fresh coffee and a picnic lunch followed by an explore of the island, whilst we waited for the tides to change.

 Returning to the area of buildings we were greeting by a chap who had ventured over in his powerful rib. We sat chatting about the history of the island with him and enjoying the sunshine for quite a while. 
Swona, once inhabited by dozens, is now uninhabited, the final residents leaving in the early 1970's. Unfortunately the last gentleman to leave the island suffered from a degenerative disease, and according to our new friend, was taken at short notice "on holiday" leaving almost all his possessions and even food in the cupboards, never to return. A while later, a ship was wrecked on the south end of the island in a storm that lasted for days. Luckily  the crew were able to come ashore and find refuge in the houses, and eat the tins of food left in the cupboards!
 Chatting away, we lost track of time and all of a sudden realised we had to leave otherwise miss our window to cross at slack water. gearing up rapidly we paddled off and it wasn't until about two kilometres offshore that i realised i had left my expensive Oakley sunglasses, and couldn't return else risk being swept out to sea! Gutted!!! If anyone finds them i'd be VERY grateful of their return.

Again our timing payed off and the crossing was made easily to south Ronaldsay with just a little bit of tide to negotiate as we rounded the corner heading to the ferry stop. Unfortunately the ferry was just pulling away as we paddled in to the harbour, so whilst waiting for the next one, we brewed up yet another coffee!

They have strange Jellyfish in these parts

The ferry operators were really helpful and friendly and helped us load our boats on to the back deck. The crossing back on the ferry was a chance for us to survey our journey from a far and congratulate ourselves on our adventure. I couldn't believe we had struck it so lucky with time, weather and the tides working in our favour! The Pentland Firth crossing is a highly sought after log book tick and folk can wait a long time for everything to come together, so i feel really lucky to have all the pieces fall in to place, especially at such short notice!