News & Events
November 2010 Sun Kosi - Nepal
Sun Khosi Trip Report
The sand is shining like gold
glitter and I’m paddling the Sun Khosi River in Nepal, the famous river
of gold. There seem to be several theories about
why it’s
called the river of gold but golden glitter in the sand and in the
river is good enough for me. I’m on a 10 day
paddling trip
down the Sun Khosi River from Sukute Beach (upstream of Dolalghat) to
Chatra. A total of 260 kilometres.
The number of
days of the trip is a bit arbitrary. Eight of us
are on the
10 day trip and four more are on the 9 day trip.
What this
means is that we end up spending the first day at Sukute
Beach. This is fine for us kayakers as it gives us
an
opportunity to paddle the upper section of the Sun Khosi, from Balephi
to Sukute Beach. It also gives us an opportunity to
paddle
with the legendary Peter Knowles, author of the paddlers’ bible, White
Water Nepal. Peter’s been paddling in Nepal since
1983 so
he knows lots about Nepal in general and all the rivers in
particular. He’s also got lots of great
stories. I particularly like the one about getting
a
rickshaw back to England on the plane.
The road to the start of
the upper section runs along the river and from what I could see the
rapids were all fairly straight forward. This was a
good
lesson in the danger of scouting a river from the road
above! The rapids proved to be a lot bigger than
they
looked. There were some lovely rapids, although
Cat, one of
my fellow kayakers, did a big tail stand in a large
hole. A
great introduction to the Sun Khosi.
The trip started for real
the next day. There were six
kayakers. Apart
from me there were five paddlers from or associated with the Bromley
Canoe Club in London, Cat (at last another female paddler), Graham,
David, Mike and Tony. There were also six rafters,
two
friends from the Netherlands (male and female), two blokes from
Germany, a Nepalese bloke and an English bloke.
Also there
were five Nepalese to look after us, Arun, who’s in charge, Sudil, our
safety boater and three others gear rafters/cooks/general hands.
There
was also another group doing the exact same trip at the exact same
time. They were a group of Russians and they wanted
to be
separate from us. We encountered them several times
during
the trip. The first time we saw them there was a
large fat
male Russian doing his morning stretches. Why he
had to do
them in his Speedos with his paddling shorts around his knees I wasn’t
sure. The Russians propensity to wear only Speedos
made us
all relieved that they didn’t want to associate with us.
The Sun
Khosi is a fantastic cultural experience. People
live all
the way along the river. We pass houses, terraced
rice
fields lined with marigolds, people bathing, washing clothes and
cremating their dead. We see people fishing from
the bank,
from inner tubes and from canoes shaped from logs.
Others
carried huge loads slung from straps across their foreheads while
walking on rough tracks wearing thongs on their
feet. But
it’s the kids that captured our hearts. They lined
the
banks and bridges calling out greetings and trying to get us to roll
for them or showing off by somersaulting down large sand
banks. When they got the chance they’d climb aboard
our
kayaks for a ride. At camp they would mysteriously
appear
and sit quietly watching all the activities. They
particularly loved seeing photos of themselves on our cameras.
We
provided entertainment for the adults as well. At
one point
we approached a cremation on the banks of the river attended by several
men. When they saw us they ran along the bank so
they could
see us go through a large rapid around the corner, cheering every boat
as it disappeared in the white foam.
There were several small
villages along the river. At a few villages
children
entertained us with songs and dancing. For most of
the
people on the trip the main attraction of the villages was the
opportunity to buy beer. The Everest Special
Limited
Edition was the favourite. For the two German
blokes it was
an endless quest for chocolate which drove them to scour every village
we came to, without success. But for our cook it
was an
opportunity to resupply with fresh vegetables, fruit and chooks.
The
Sun Khosi is a monsoon river. In August it’s at its
height
with masses of water, sand and rocks flowing down the
river. This year the monsoon was late so although
it’s the
beginning of November the river was still at a medium
level. We could see the monsoon level high above
our
heads. It must be an incredible sight to see it at
its
peak. Each year huge amounts of sand are deposited
along
the banks and provide fantastic camp sites. Not
only does
the sand change every year but many of the rapids change as rocks are
moved or new rocks appear.
The first few days were a relaxing
float down the river. However there were some major
rapids
to enjoy. At the first named rapid, called ‘No
Excuse’, a
long bouncy rapid with a few large holes to avoid, our safety boater,
Sudil, was nowhere to be seen. We read and ran the
rapid as
we went. When we did catch up with Sudil it was
apparent
that he didn’t speak much English. This was one of
our
conversations with him.
Us, “Is the line down the right?”
Sudil, “Yes”.
Us, “Is the line down the left?”
Sudil, “Yes”.
Us, “Is the line down the middle?”
Sudil, “Yes”.
Us, “Are we all going to die?”
Sudil, “Yes”.
When we did get into the big ones he was there to show the line and to
rescue the occasional swimmer.
The
big rapids are mainly formed by huge rocks from rivers entering the Sun
Khosi. Many of the rocks form nasty pour-overs but
also
some great wave trains. There were some great rapid
names,
‘Punch’ was followed by ‘Judy’, ‘Pre-anxiety’ was followed by ‘High
Anxiety’ and ‘Meatgrinder’ says it all.
The biggest rapid on the
river was Hakapur II, a grade 5-, downstream of Hakapur
village. Huge rocks narrow the flow into a mass of
giant
holes and violent white water. There were two
distinct
parts to the rapid. Successfully running just one
part
would be extremely difficult let alone both. Two
new giant
rocks, which had just appeared after this year’s monsoon, had made the
rapid even more difficult. Our head guide, Arun,
wasn’t
going to run it, so that was good enough for us kayakers and we all
portaged the rapid. It was then that Arun told us
about
witnessing the death of a river guide friend in that rapid last
year. It brought home the dangerous reality of
these big
powerful rapids.
Another interesting rapid was Dead Man’s
Eddy. It wasn’t interesting because of the dead
body the
rafters found about the rapid (not a paddler but a man the locals had
been looking for for two weeks). I’d never heard of
a rapid
being named for the eddy below it. Dead Man’s Eddy
is a
large wave train but the most dangerous aspect is the eddy at the end
on river left. Once something ends up in the eddy
there’s
no getting it out!
The best section of rapids was Jungle
Corridor which consists of 10 kilometres of big rapids,
magic! Unlike some big volume rivers there are no
chicken
chutes on the Sun Khosi, you have to paddle all the big ones, which
suited me fine!
The rapids weren’t the only hazards for
paddlers. The remains of bridge building attempts
consisting of large concrete structures with metal reinforcing rods
sticking out lying in the river is always one to be
avoided. As is the large steel cage off the back of
a truck
lying mid stream but at least it was marked with
flags. But
probably the biggest hazard of all was the cascade of rocks and debris
crashing into the river from road building activities about 400 metres
above the water, just missing us. Hopefully it
wasn’t done
on purpose.
Road building seems to be a national pastime in
Nepal. They have been building the road along the
Sun Khosi
for several years and plan to continue it for the whole length of the
river. At this stage the road runs about half way
along the
river. Completing the road will certainly impact on
the
beauty of the river.
And the river is beautiful. Early in the
trip the snow capped Himalayas are visible and as we progress along the
river we paddle through steep sided gorges thick with
jungle. Herons, kingfishers and cormorants fish the
river
and troops of monkeys can be seen in the trees.
Butterflies
in particular are plentiful. However scorpions lurk
in the
sand around our camp fires and snakes swim across the
river. But fortunately these are few in number.
Also
beautiful is the Hindu Temple to Vishnu, called Barahachhetr, above the
river at Tribeni, near the confluence with the Sun Khosi and the Arun
and Tamur Rivers. Not far passed Tribeni the
mountains,
that had been our constant companions for the last 10 days, suddenly
come to an end. We had reached the Terai
Plains. The river spread out as far as the eye can
see. What a
contrast.
The Sun Khosi was certainly a great experience and Nepal has many more
rivers to paddle. I’ll be back!
To have a look at some of the photos/video from the trip click on these
links:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn9Z3UjZVTQ
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GqeLEGmOi8
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J8vONaX6nA
Alison