Bhaktapur and Katrina's here

So, I got a bit slack after my adventure on the river. Made it back to Pokhara after the river trip. Portaging the dam on the Marsyandi took a while, so take your time and use a really long throw bag (60m or 2x30m), portage on river left. After the river I took sometime to recuperate, doing a Upper seti trip before Katrina arriving in Kathmandu. I needed to get to to Kathmandu before she arrives as I needed to sort out my Indian visiting visa, and researched that it would take atleast a week. I said goodbye to the Germans who were heading to Kathmandu around the same time to attempt some rivers in East Nepal like the Bhote Kosi etc. David got sick the night before the bus trip over the pass, and I wasn't far away. The very day of the bus trip to Kathmandu I got D. So I made the bus stop at the next toilet so I could relieve myself. If I had cared I would have been embarrassed but as I felt I was knocking on death's door it didn't matter. I wasn't far away though from V as the next day after I started the Indian Visa monkey business in the morning I spewed the entire day, requiring both D&V to utterly clear anything living inside of me. It was then I decided to embark on a pharmaceutical 'War on Terror' to take down the terrorists inside of me. I popped pills that I thought were going to help....afterwards feeling like rubbish and drinking water. I lay in bed for two or three days in the Hotel before Katrina arrived. I don't really remember much now (as I'm writing this almost 6 months later) but these are the fun things travelling you need to build your body up to handle. Thankfully I was well conditioned living in Queenstown after maintaining a healthy winter weight. Anyway, so things worked out ok, I picked up Keys and thought a few days in Bhaktapur would be a great way to introduce her to Nepal and see something both of us haven't seen.

Enjoying milk tea at our hotels roof top restaurant - pagoda in the background

Pagoda Guest house - where we stayed in Bhaktapur

duttatraya square Katrina sporting first purchase of the trip

Ross sitting outside hotel in front of pagoda

looking into Taumaudi square from restaurant

Ross below the pagoda

Taumaudi square from the pagoda

Famous peacock window

temple with lots of bells - purpose?...to keep ross awake

walking to bus stop - ross over photos :-)

King Curd !!! - Faye you would love this stuff - thick and creamy - heaven

Ross with the King Curd in front of Pohkari 

Calf in Kathmandu - thinks hes a motorbike?

Day 16 November 1, 2011

Day 16 November 1st , 2011

Location: Bridge over Khudi river in Khudi Village, near the Marsanydi river.

Found out local restaurant uses Oznamoto in their cooking. Turns out its just MSG! No wonder I'm feeling awful in the mornings (happens to me when I have MSG). Feels like a hangover. The Germans (Flo & David) should be back by tonight or tomorrow lunch time so I guess I'll see how the river goes. I've been ready the guidebook on the river run so I should be alright. Things could be very different though, as I got invited to do the Thule Beri with a rafting crew on a mission to distribute clean water tools to villages as they descend the river. I saw a t-shirt the other day which sums up the country people's struggle. It listed 3 things: 1st Get out of Bed, 2nd Survive, 3rd Go to Sleep. For the majority of our race this is how we live, those in the developed world are the strange ones.

Day 15 October 31, 2011

Location: Khudi ('Kudy'), at a local restaurant.

The other two headed up to Jagarot in attempt to paddle the section above Bhulbhule. I later found out when they met me in two days time that they had to walk most of the rapids until the Nadi Khola confluence. Another group who paddle the same section from Syange down managed to do the whole thing but this was 5 days after the germans attempted it so I'm guessing the river has dropped a little bit recently. I have two days before the germans reunite with me but I don't really know for sure whether they will actually arrive.

I did a small section of the Khudi khola from above the village about 3 kilometers down. It was mainly class 3 with a hole or two. Pretty boney so I didn't really think it was worth the walk. The others managed to get a jeep ride up the Marsyandi river to Syange after missing the "only bus".

I have also been making samosas with the local restaurant's family and learning more about Nepali food. They do not really do desserts here unlike India.

Day 14 October 30, 2011

Bused to Besishar today, cost us 500 rupees each with locals maybe paying 50 if that. Guess we're supporting the local economy but can't help feel we could be inflating prices a bit for the next foreigner to come by. The bus took 8 hours, with the ride being pretty horrific. It was truly an experience I will hope to forget with the bus overloaded and all manners of people with goats chickens and everything but the kitchen sink. One thing I noticed were the black plastic bags they handed out for people to puke in, then just discarded out the window. It is a little disappointing to see as a kayaker from New Zealand I try to not to litter at all as it invariably ends up in a river somewhere down the line.

Got to Besishar with a few people telling us the bus station up the Marsyandi river was about 2km away, then after me going half way there almost found out after returning to the guys there happened to be a bus that was going up the river. Cost us 1200 rupees for 3 people, which was pretty steep considering the distance was maybe 10 or 15 km. This was a bit annoying, but after we found a few things had been nicked from our boats so we argued and managed to regain some of the money.

The annoying thing about the whole debacle was not the fact we had lost a few carabiners but that the bus driver and conductor stood around for 30 minutes looking like the were thinking about it really hard but not really moving or doing a thing until we relented our demands for a refund. It wasn't their fault but they did not help the situation but make it worse by creating a bigger scene.

I guess this is the fun part of traveling when you really never know what will happen.

Day 13: October 29, 2011

Made camp night before just before we got to the Annapurna permit area. Camped just below Lamarkhet on the Madi Khola river.

Dinner with the Germans, Florian and David (L-R)

rice and beans...mmm

Just below Lamarkhet camping on the Madi khola

I was feeling pretty average but I definitely got a wake up call on the first rapid. These two geramns were a level or two above my skill set and mental toughness. There were about 2 or 3 rapids I felt incredibly uncomfortable. We did not scout anything but read and run all the rapids mainly. I think the more scared I got the better I paddled.



One rapid of note was a double drop with two holes that included a wave at the top of the rapid that you needed to punch through. I had a lot of speed going through the wave and ploughed over the top of the hole and mistimed my boof stroke over the first hole too late. I landed off balance and went for a quick right hand roll using the momentum of the capsizing kayak. It was the quickest roll I think I had done, but I was on fire with adrenaline so I don't remember much of the rapid except the last bit. I rolled up with enough time to see the next move and boof over the last hole without any trouble. After that drop I needed a breather for sure to recover from the adrenaline. After that rapid I started to relax a bit more and run rapids without too much hassle. I definitely needed a large kayak for this trip and even though I paddle a small boat in New Zealand I know now that the diesel is a good size for me on this type of river.

Lunch spot on Madi - the river relented after the double drop rapid but was never completely flat

The local kids very interested in a new toy to play with - At the take out of the Madi Khola at Karputar

 After the double drop rapid there were still some more grade 4 rapids but it became less continuous. The team worked really well with one of the germans usually David probing the rapid and me following Florian about 5 meters behind. We accomplished the paddle of about 25km in about 4 hours without too much hassle and a quick relaxing lunch break. Another group of U.K. kayakers who left at the same time never made it to our camp spot in Karputar so I assumed they took their time. If you are doing this run there is a rock on river left with an image of a kayaker on it saying Karputar.

We made camp on a nice sandy beach and had many visitors to offer us a place to stay, and some kids who camp to play with the kayaks but be careful as they can be quite mischievous.

Flo and I made our we into town to scout out where the bus left to Besishar as we wanted to do the Marsyandi river after the river. We asked 3 different people and got 3 different answers one of which we knew to be right as we had talked to another group who had done the same. We had been told the bus from Karputar to Besishar left at 6am. In the back of my mind I never really knew if we were going to make it to the next river, but I guess that is the fun part of paddling in Nepal when the logistics of kayaking are much more difficult than the river paddling.

Day 12 October 28th 2011

Off to do Madi Khola (grade4/4+) creek, taking a jeep to the put in. I'm paddling with Flo and David from Germany. Their on a world tour, started in Norway, in Nepal now, and will go to New Zealand then Chile next year. They are definitely better than me at kayaking, but are super chilled and happy to slow things down for an amateur kayaker like me. Anyway got to get some last minute supplies hope I make it in once piece after this trip.