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Second dispatch from the Slugs touring Nepal before heading to New-Zealand. Following from the Modi Khola article, Colin takes up the tale ...

Article by Colin Aitken for PLAYAK.COM, December 2002

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[ This article is a follow-up from the latest Slugs report. ]

The Slugs have been in Nepal for almost four weeks now. Despite being temporarily detained in Kathmandu morale remains high. The Maoist terrorist groups "bandah" (transport strike) has caused all ground transport to cease. Stranded in the city, the group is patiently waiting to depart for an expedition high into the Marsiyangdi's reaches.

The broken doctor, "Porno" Pete, is enjoying city life whilst recovering from a re-dislocated shoulder from an earlier trip on the Modi Khola. David, Greg and myself are filling our time as best we can to scratch the itch for getting back out on the river.

So far the paddling has lived up to the legend of the Nepalese white-water. Leaving the broken boy in Pokhara to recover, the remainder of the group headed for the Kali Gandaki River. Porters had been organized, destinations and time scales agreed upon! The plan was to hike up river for three or four days until the river looked unrunable.

The river is the major drain of the Eastern portion of the Annapurna Conservation Area. We had based this trip on information supplied by the honorable Andy Jackson. He and Bridget had paddled a section from higher than previously attempted. It was all good to go and above looked like it would go too! That was enough to convince the Slugs ... but we must start higher than Jackson!

Getting there was to prove the first problem. Carrying a loaded kayak on your head (the recognized carrying technique in Nepal) is no mean task. But these are Nepali porters - men of steel I say! Unfortunately our city slicker porters appeared to be on a vacation. Weighed down with mini-disks, cameras and whatever other goodies their rucksacks contained. (It is normal practice to porter with the clothes on their back) From the outset it became obvious that these guys were not going to manage. Carrying the boats between two by their grab loops, their knuckles would soon be on the floor. The first day was painfully slow, the second day was painful! By lunch on the second day we were making no sign of reaching our goal, Tatopani. 'Tatopani's' litteral translation from Nepali is 'hot water' • a kayakers river side dream. A hot healing bath to soothe the aches and pains. Not getting to spend the evening in a hot spring was enough to push me over the edge. I picked up my kayak at the Dal Baht stop, put it on my head and was off. Four hours later I arrived in Tatopani with a stiff neck and a hole worn in the skin at the base of my back. I'd like to say this made me sympathetic to the porters' cause, but not. We ended up sacking them and arranging some other hill breed sturdy men for the next two days.

Whilst at our second sitting of Dal Baht for the day a local hotelier came to speak to us. He was very excited about the second group of kayakers he had ever seen this high up in the valley. As a matter fact he even had photograph of the last kayakers! Who else but Andy and Bridget on the river, but with a foot and a half less water in the river !! Intimidation set in... We all know how important mental strength is; well ours was drained like a dose of dysentery!

Up and at it early the next morning with motoring porters and thoughts of last nights discussion well and truly buried, or so we thought. Walking up the river, pretty much on my own I began to form my impression of the river in the glorious morning sunshine. Scary, I'm not up to this yet, that's bigger, steeper and more continuous than anything I've ever paddled! I hope the others are at least a little scared. Yes, thankfully they were. The slug consensus was this is too much. We've come way too early for the river to have dropped enough etc... etc... We decided to cut our losses and get on where we were.

The paddle tuned out to be a fantastic grade 4-5 pushy whitewater, most of which went no problems. Stopping to camp at the hot springs on way down, we cooked our own Dal Baht, with added soot and sand, fueling the bodies for the next day. More of the same style of kayaking, mostly read and run, only to be interrupted by David getting pinned in the middle of the river. After abandoning boat for a mid stream boulder he then became the subject of much needed throw line practice. Then he swam!! Other than his loss of pride and a throw line he was unscathed. We collected our broken Doctor from his lakeside view in Pokhara and headed out East to the Bhote Khosi.

The general theme of our Nepal trip seems to be paddling the famous runs, only as high up the valley as we think we can manage. The literal translation of Bhote is 'from Tibet'. This being the case we put in just 'below' the Tibetan Border - at the border the run looked full on mental! The river appeared high. Not to worry, this time we were mentally strong. Greg being the only one to have read the sections description in the guide we put our faith in our sensible Veterinarian team member. In hindsight with 'may the Gods be with you' as the closing sentence, this may have been not so wise.

After having side-stepped down the faeces strewn 'path' we were ready to go kayaking. The entire section proved to be on the edge of being kayakable, or was unrunable. This was a long four kilometers of white water. Dropping off ledges, sneaking down the edge of rapids and some pretty long portages.

Have a break, watch some video highlights! (Low quality MPEG files):

• Class 5 on the Kali Gandaki: MPEG video, 72kb
• Colin styles one of the rapids on the Upper Bhote Khosi: MPEG video, 208 kb
• Dave does some hole wrestling ... in vain: MPEG video, 488 kb
• Greg nails the biggest rapid of the Kali Gandaki: MPEG video, 280 kb
• Follow the action as Dave has to give Colin a helping hand: MPEG video, 320kb
• Colin: "I'm sure it was here last time I looked": MPEG video, 368kb
• American Pete in the big and chunky Marsayangdi: MPEG video, 280kb

Three hours or so in we came across a rapid, which Greg had inspected quickly and decided to paddle. He didn't appear to execute this in his normal nonchalant style, thus installing doubt. With a death hole at the bottom and Gregs report of 'pushier than it looks' I had decided to walk. Dave on the other hand spent long and hard looking at the rapid. He ended up dropping into the death hole sideways, and swam!! Again I hear you ask? Yes, but once again unscathed. After another hour or so of similar kayaking we got off. Physically exhausted, dehydrated, in need of food and mentally drained.

The next day we paddled another section of the river which wasn't quite so pushy, got off in Bahrabise and split the group. Dave and Greg went to paddle the Balephie Khola and ended up spending a night on the porch of one of the local villagers while Porno Pete and I went to Kathmandu. I had to rest an injured wrist, from one of the portages, in time for our attempt on the upper Marsiyangdi.

More later..

The slug team is Colin Aitken, Greg Nicks, Dave Kwant and Peter Kyriakoudis. Their tour of whitewater pleasure continues and will be regularly updated on PLAYAK.COM.

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