Whitewater Rafting
The minibus thugged it’s way through the morning Kathmandu traffic and then entered the crazy slalom descent of overtaking, dodging and ducking down the hairpins that form the main trunk road south and west from Kathmandu. Most of Kathmandu’s supplies grind up this hill in multicoloured, hooting, crawling trucks.
Three hours later we pulled over onto the right side of the road to park in front of some inauspicious shops standing on the bank of the river. It was a gloomy morning in the gut of the valley with fog forming over the cool waters of the Trisuli River.
At that stage I don’t think anyone was enthusiastic about changing into our rafting clothes but Furba assured us that by 11am the fog would burn off and the sun would come out.
As usual he was right. On the stroke of 11am the sun burst through as we began our rafting briefing and, within minutes, we were piled into our rafts and hurtling towards our first rapid. The guide manoeuvred the raft to broadside the first standing wave and drench us all. Everyone’s mood rose as we realised we were heading for an 18 km sunlit adventure of thrills and spills.
The main road to Pokhara and India was carved into the forests high above the left bank of the river. The Trisuli river itself drained the Himalayan Valleys we had been trekking for the last few weeks and was cold and laden with sediment. It is a powerful, fast flowing, Himalayan grade 3 river and leisurely drifts through wooded gorges which were interrupted by the noise of approaching rapids.
The rapids, when they came, were fast and furious with large standing waves blocking our way. Our guide always managed to take us through the biggest and fiercest of waves to make sure we got the maximum bangs for our bucks. I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.
The last rapid had an eddy that pushed the boats onto a sandy shore where 11 drenched Medexers were deposited to be met by dry clothes and a short car ride to a splendid curry lunch in a posh riverside resort.
An hour or two later the minibus entered the Chitwan National Park, overtook an elephant and drove to the outskirts of Sauraha where we lodged for the night in the splendid Safari Adventure Lodge.
It’s a long and tiring drive from Kathmandu to Chitwan but the fantastic whitewater rafting trip and the splendid lunch made it worthwhile. Tomorrow we have to choose between an elephant safari and a jeep safari in search of one horned rhino and tigers. Then there’s the canoe trip and the bush walk. It sounds like we are on holiday!
