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.