Still going... update soon...

Hey hey!

Well we've just arrived back from yet another mission - this time doing the Upper Upper Madi Khola (a day and a half trek up from the normal put in) and the Upper Marsyandhi (from Ngadi down). Both fantastic trips and full of stories... from random parties put on for us in villages, to the first swim of the trip...

"Who was it?!" You ask....

Find out in the next couple of instalments. Here's a pic to wet your hunger from the walk in to the Madi Khola:

By the way Colin's here too....

I realised that I forgot to mention that Colin arrived before Emrys and Si... he's here and loving it. Enjoying all the food and cheapness that Nepal brings. Of course after spending most of our summer together working on the marquees, our chat is pretty special, and it's certainly lucky there's others here to aid conversation.

Anyway, we've now been in Pokhara for a few days, and it's all I remember it to be. Easy to sort things out, cheaper and cleaner than Kathmandu. We're staying in a place called Hotel City Annapurna for around 100 NRs per head per night, and the owners son has taken to hanging out with us, when we're not on the river. It turns out he's related to the owner of the guest house up the road where I stayed last year, New Future Way, as is the way out here.

The day after we arrived in Pokhara (Thursday the 16th... I think), we had a good warm up run down the Upper Seti. It was nice to do it in the light, since the previous evening we almost sucked ourselves into a plan to do it by moonlight. This plan was obviously subject to the wares sold in the bar we were in. The river was fun, but not exactly challenging, what was more amusing was the young punks at the take-out who charged our taxi driver for the privilage of parking in their playground/ patch of scrub.

That night we hatched plans to do the Upper Modi Khola, we booked a coach with Charlie at Ganesh kayak shop and porters for the walk. We needed the coach as we hooked back up with Sonia and Monica, but also a group of 3 British guys, including Tim Burne. That meant a total of 10 of us heading up... The coach ended up costing us 270 NRs per head (!) and we got porters at 500NRs per day each. We drove to Lumli and couple of hours away and began the days trek.

The trek up the Modi Khola is pretty ace, with views of Mataputchre and Annapurna South popping up around corners and plenty of interesting kids and folk on the trail (see pics below). As usual we got lots of funny looks for hauling kayaks around. We made an hour or so shy of the put in at New Bridge and stayed the night in a tea house next to Old Bridge. My knees gave me healthy gip most of the way... I must be getting old.



The next day we made good time to the put in, leaving Sonia and one of the Brits to meet us at the Bridge, and hideous syphon (where lots of the river headed underneath rocks) at Old Bridge. We were a bit slow getting going, Si managed to drop one of his bags off the edge of the trail, down a small cliff into dense undergrowth. It took him a while and the help of a couple of Nepalis passing by to eventually retrieve it.

The river was a good as I remember it, if a bit lower than last year. I chose to be photographer for the day, which meant I portaged a few drops to get pics and because my camera and lens act like a suicide block in my lap! All in all the river was ace and although we had planned to carry on down the lower section, we ended up getting out at a dam and jumping on a local bus top back to Pokhara. This saved us a 3km walk in the midday heat with kayaks on our shoulders. I felt it was the right move and we got back into town mid afternoon on the Sunday 19th.




I write this on Friday 24th October after we got back from running the Upper Upper Kalighandaki from Tatopani hot springs yesterday.. but that's another story...

Here in Nepal

I have eventually made it to Nepal, after the fantastic journey through Delhi (20 hours in the Airport). I would like to note that Delhi airport is much improved from when I was there last year - 24hr cafes in the waiting lounge and a re-organised departures building made life loads easier. I had to pay roughly 30 pounds to get my boat on the flight onwards with jet airlines to Kathmandu, but it's all worthwhile and I met lots of nice people on the way from all over the shop.

Upon arrival I settled into my room in Kathmandu, the Holy Lodge, since it's the easiest place for kayakers to meet up. Within 10 minutes I heard a familar voice saying, "Oh, I'm from Scotland, a tiny wee island up north." I went to investigate, and there was Sean, my ginger dreadlocked mate from Edinburgh who I thought I was meeting in Pokhara. Ace. We sat down and caught up and within another 10 minutes, Danny turned up. Time for lunch then. After lnuch we took a trip to the "Monkey Temple" half an hours walk away (see typical pic below)...

The following day we made plans to do the Bhota Kosi with an Amercan girl and German girl that we met at the Holy Lodge. Taxis were booked for 6.30am (ouch) to take us to the local bus station. It was great being back in Nepal as we loaded are kayaks onto a still moving bus to take us to Balephi 4 hours away for a massive 120 NRupees (about a pound).

Once in Balephi after a beautiful roof-top journey on which the weather improved from misty to blue skies and sunshine (we even got views of the Himalayas) we had to pick up a pick-up truck to take us the next 10km or so to the upper part of the river.. 70NR. We put in at Borderlands, a camping resort, where they let us know the river was very high and away we went.

The river turned out to be fantastic, lots of big holes and rolling waves as it crashed it's way down away from Everest and Tibet. With Sean having run the river recently we had a good guide for the smaller rapids, but still got out to have a peak at a couple of the biggest ones. Here's a pic of Sean in the meat of the first one of consequence (see below). This rapid started with a huge hole, with a line over it using a curler. For some reason I manged to flip on the eddyline afterwards, rolling up confused about my line through the rest of the rapid. I personally blame it on my new boat ;op

The rapids continued and it was an awesome river to warm up on.... although I did find myself nervous a few times. Whether it was fatigue or lack of technique after a long period out of kayaking, towards the end of the river I was dished a couple of healthy beatings. Trying to punch holes and failing, the subsequent washing machine cycle reminding me to hit my lines properly! Unfortunately this final stretch of river also undid the girls. Sonia taking a long swim through a grade 4 rapid and Monica a shorter one, deciding to exit her boat towards the end. It was a surprise to all of us, since the ladies had looked stronger than us most of the way down. We managed to collect up all the bits and pieces before the dam, to continue down the lower section and pick up the bus home. Eventually... buses are very busy on a sunday evening, we got ouselves up on the top of a crowded bus and rode the roof home, getting back, starving, to our hotel in Kathmandu by around 10pm.

It's almost a week after these events that I've managed to get the time to put this up... we've now managed to meet up with Si and Emrys, we're in Pokhara, we've paddled the upper Seti and the Upper Modi Khola and we're definitley enjoying ourselves... more updates very soon....

New kit, dodgey pics, and ready to go....

So, it's the day of departure, 9th October 2008, and I apparently have some time on my hands. It's been an interesting few days of catching up with family and trying to pack my kit. For some strange reason I feel like sharing. It's probably because I know over the next couple of days I have to kill 20 hours in Delhi airport - Ouch.

Before I packed my kit I decided to test out a couple of new items I received from Desperate Measures: A Palm Stikine drysuit and an IR Union Suit. Together this is the most comfortable combo I've tried. The cuts of both suits are fantastic and seem to keep a comfortable temperature as well. I certainly advise anyone to get IR thermals if they can - the polartech fleece they use is perfect for kayaking. It takes moisture away from the skin and is supremely comfortable. The best thing about the Union Suit is the lycra neck line - this will remain warm even when it's wet (for those times when any neck seal blows (as they occasionally do) and it works as the entrance into the suit, leaving no uncomfortable seams anywhere.

I will update my experiences with the palm stikine when I get to more extensively test it.

The important thing is that you can look good wearing these items around the city and wouldn't look out of place at a garden party...












































Inbetween looking great in my new dinner wear (note the special suit shoes... hmmm) I also got around to packing. This was not as easy as I thought it would be. I had planned on shipping a bike to New Zealand to arrive once I was out there. In this box I would also add extra stuff so that I didn't have to cart my entire life around to Nepal and onwards. This turned out to not be feasible - at over £300 and not arriving till February I decided that it wasn't that impotant. I'll hire a bike. This meant that my packing for a year of travels became much like anyone elses. No frills. A few pairs of pants, a couple of trousers/ shorts, a few T-shirts, socks and a jumper. Then all my kit... sleeping bag, bivvy bag, thermarest, cag, drysuit, thermals, stove, camera (and stupid large lens), drybags, jackets etc. etc. etc.... It seemed an impossible task. A lot of swearing and squeezing later, I eventually squeezed it all in, and according to my scales, it was all under the weight limit. We shall see....

The only things that ended up in my boat were my BA, sleeping bag, and airbags.

Before.....

















After.....