A pretty tree to start the taleI've managed to start writing this straight off the back of the last installment, I should probably go and get myself some masala tea (I'm addicted again) and roti, but here I am. It's probably becasue the interenet connection has actually remained good and seems to be uploading my photos quickly and not crashing!
So the date had reached the 24th Oct and we had been back in Pokhara for a day. Munched food by the lake in the Pumperknickle and probably had a few beers. We also chatted to Babu (crazy Nepali who used to work in Charlie's kayak shop) and formulated the next plan. I also signed myself up for the paragliding course I wanted to do - 10 days training and I can fly by myself anywhere in the world... don't look up!
The new plan was to get a taxi to Lamarquet, hire porters, head up to the top of the Madi Khola, Sickles powerhouse, paddle the entire section (60km or so) to Darmali, catch a bus to Dumre from the roadside, catch another bus from Dumre to Besisahar, get a jeep to Bhule Bhuli and then walk to Ngadi to paddle the Upper Marsyandi. Easy. We got ourselves some permits for the walk on the Madi Khola (super last-minute, our taxi driver ran in and pushed to the front of the queue to grab the forms and information we needed, needless to say he got a big tip) and away we went on the 25th Oct.
We left kinda early and got to Lamarquet in pretty good time and started searching for 6 porters willing to lug our kayaks up the 'hill'. After an hur or so we had them all and started our ascent. One of the porters was a 13 year old with wild eyes and massive hands. Apparently his father had died recently and he was now the main bread bringer for his family, he was adament he could manage a boat, and we were more than happy to give him the work.
The views back down the valley on the walk up to Sickles (first image from Sean).The walk was long and tiring and wound it's way up over 2000m, that day we climbed 1000m pretty much straight up stone steps. The views were however absolutely stunning and we managed to reach a guest house in Sickles as the sun set. Daal Baat for dinner and we all crashed out pretty early. Sleep did not come easily that night as dogs barked all night and from about 5am the porters started making a hell of a racket. Although we had agreed breakfast for 8am and away by 9am they wanted to leave earlier. We reluctantly dragged our lazy arses out of bed around 7 am and then waited for our breakfast. It didn't appear till after 9am. All pretty typical.
It took another 2/3hrs to drop back down to the river and so we didn't put on till around midday. The river itself was super clear and cold, and fairly fell downhill. It was also full of badly placed rocks! I actually seemed to hit form on this river and really started to enjoy myself in my new boat weaving around all the roacks and puching the holes. I even ran a drop that nobody else did, a tight line through boulders and sieves. Everything was going really well until we ran a stickier drop, most of us had run it and it was just Colin and Sean to go. Unfortunately things didn't go so well for Colin. A rock at the base of the drop forced him sideways and he got stuck in the towback. We thought he should be able to work hiself free, but after a while with his head underwater and not much progress, I jumped out of my boat and onto the banks with a throw-bag. Very shortly after he pulled his deck and popped up, and I threw him a throw bag. Although he pulled me off my feet, it swung him into the eddy and as his boat drifted past I grabbed that too, Emrys helping to drag it out of the river. Danny and Si took off after his blades and Emrys and I had to deal with an angry Colin. Luckily, Danny managed to catch Colin's paddles and we were soon back on the way.
Time moved pretty quickly and we soon found a village to stay in which we had been through on the walk up, called Souda. They cleared out a room for us (6 in one room - 4 on the floor, 2 on beds) and made us some fish daal baat. Whilst we were having a few drinks and some smokes after the meal a local teacher came in to chat with us. He told us about the local youth group and explained that they would like to put on a bit of a show for us. I agreed and after an hour or so, and a few more beers, we headed to the tiny village square. Massive speakers appeared, a tape deck and benches were brought out for us. Villagers seemed to appear out of the stone-work. A mad, young Nepali guy welcomed us through the booming speakers in some of the funniest, broken English we have heard. He referred to us as "Belly and his friends, from England and Scotland". He would then introduce dances and dancers, "Welcome, please, Miss .... and Mr ...., who dance this very nicely dance.... AND.... clapping lots please as they dance this Souda dance". It was certainly an experience as loud music from a tape blared into the night as young Nepalese teens danced for us. We couldn't wait to get up there too, and soon enough we pulled up in front of the village to fully embaress ourselves dancing with the local girls. It was great. I ended up donating 2000NRs to the youth group, and even received a letter of thanks/ receipt from the village. I also developed a gum abcess that evening in the back of my jaw. I guess that's the pleasure:pain balance in action, although I thought had generated some good karma fro the donation.
The next day we were slow getting going, Danny had a dodgy belly. We eventually got on the river to run the regular Upper section. Within a couple of minutes, my belly gave out and I had to find an eddy to ruin.. the first I picked had a snake chilling in it, so I had to make the next eddy my toilet. It was a beautiful day with lots of read and run grade 4, and we only got out to snack. Around 3pm we reached Karputar, where I had stayed last year, and we decided to chill here for the night, rather than paddle the 30km of easy water to Darmali. I had forgotten what an idyllic spot the guest house there was, and as we sat on the roof surrounded by rice and wheat fields eating some noodles, we all agreed it was our best stop yet. The daal baat they served later that night concreted our opinion.
The view from our guest house in the morning.The next day we stealed ourselves for lot of flatish water and a long paddle. It turned out to be quite a pleasurable float with beautiful views and gorgeous little beaches where we'd stop every hour or so for snacks and smokes. By 3pm we reached Darmali. There were lots of kids there who played with our boats and even managed to make us a bit angry, as they tipped a couple of our boats and soaked some of our gear. Back up at the road it took us an hour or so to stop a bus that would take us to Dumre. The next few hours was spent jumping buses until we reached Besisahar on the Marsyandi, I was pre-occupied with the pain in my gum, which was spreading into my jaw, throat and ear. We found a hotel and I found a pharmacy and I stocked up on Ibruprofen and mouthwash.
(A pleasurable float)The following day we scored a miserable jeep to take us up the road to Bhule Bhuli, which took about an hour, and whiched we managed to sneak past the trekking check point where we would've needed another set of 2000NR passes. From here we ended up having to walk for about 2.5hrs in the midday heat to the put in a Ngadi. Our first lot of walking carrying all our own kit and our boats. It was pretty hard going, but we all made it and were really raring to get on the cool river.
Sean with the only carrying harness tromping up to Ngadi.
Danny on a typical Nepali bridge next to the put in for the Marsyandi (image from Sean).The Upper Marsyandi is indeed one of the most fun runs I've ever done and lived up to all expectations. This was despite managing to start the river by missing the last eddy above the first grade 5 and running it blind by myself. Apparently I was heard to matter of factly state, "Oh sh*t, I'm dead" as I increased my paddling rate and fired over the drop between a couple of boulders. It turned out fine and I didn't ever get my head wet. I grinned as Colin and Sean followed me down, I was going to enjoy this. Si didn't have so much fun, listening to a description by Danny he clearly hadn't understood and blasted over the mddle of the drop, straight into a rock. We held our breath for a second, as we feared he'd get pinned, then he reappeared, with a big dent in the front of his boat. Other than that he was fine, although he did have a word or two with Danny about about the line....
Me in the 2nd grade 5... Photo by Sean
The next big rapid flowed shortly afterwards and tuned out to be enormous fun. A couple of huge offset holes, with a massive diagonal cushion wave exploding off a boulder between them. Most of us ran this right to left, using the diagonal to throw us between/ over the holes. Danny chose a line down the left boofing/ punching the first hole to hit the chute past the second hole. This was gorgeous, steep, big white-water. Now happy in my boat I relished working our way down this run, eddy hopping and boat scouting (not getting out of the boats) great grade 4/4+ rapids. Dinnae fiddle, down the middle! When we weren't skirting the edges of huge holes, we were throwing ourselves into their smaller brothers for play sessions and entertainment. By the time we reached the dam which separates the top section from the rest we were grinning and shattered. We climbed up out of the river on a path and walked along the raod to find a guest house, but none of them would open for us!! This must be a first in Nepal!!
In the end a ridiculously friendly bus driver, with a huge bus, persuaded us to head down the road to Dumre, and we decided to sack the bottom section in. We had already paddled the best bits. On the journey the bus driver called a friend at a guest house down the road from Dumre, I think it was called Bandipur, booked us cheap rooms and some food. Diwali festival was on so it was lucky to get this, and the place turned out to be nice and quiet and a much better place to pick up busses from. I didn't notice a huge amount as my gum had turned into a world of pain, of which my only escape was Ibruprofen and Codeine. A massive breakfast of banana pancakes cooked by a festively drunk and hugely fat chef got us to flag down a bus and comandeer it to take us to Lakeside, Pokhara and home. This was good news for me, as I had resorted to using one of Sean's syringes to take various diffenernt mouthwashes and inject them underneath my gum to irrigate the abcess. I needed antibiotics. Once we hit pokhara I got them. And here I am, writing this a couple of days later with just a dull throb in the back of my mouth, waiting for my paragliding course to start on the 5th, the guys planning their trips to the Thuli Beri and Humla Karnali.
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