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Tuesday, 25 November 2008

Update from Nepal, and Photos from the Kali Gandaki

It's been a while since my last blog update. Since then a lot has happened. Anna Bruno arrived about 3 weeks ago and we went on a bit of a tour on the best rivers around Pokhara. We paddled the upper Seti, Madi Khola and the Kali Gandaki from Tatopani with Anton, and then me and Anna headed out for a quick run on the Marsyandi while Anton headed back to Kathmandu.

Here are Anton's photos from the upper Kali Gandaki. (The Kali Gandaki is a popular Rafting run taking 4 days self supported from the town of Beni. We headed 3 hours drive higher than Beni to Tatopani to paddle the upper river where the bigger and harder rapids are. It took us longer than expected, but with two nights in Hostels and one and a bit river days to Beni, we then paddled another one and a half river days and had one nights camp on an isolated beach before reaching the take out where we managed to meet up with a rafting trip and get a lift home. It was a sweet trip with some sweet whitewater!)

From Will Clark
Anna on the Upper Kali Gandaki.





From Will Clark

After a couple of hours on the water and with fading light we headed off to a tea house for night one.





From Will Clark

Day two and some pushy kayaking. Will Clark inspects from the road. (By the way the road here is the scariest in all of Nepal - FACT!!)

From Will Clark
Anna and Will discuss the line.


From Will Clark
Anna moments before her Swim.

So Anna took a swim here - it was a pretty sticky hole! I managed to grab her and pull her to the side whilst her boat went for a bit of a cartwheel session on its own!


From Will Clark

After Anna's boat came out of the hole I went to chase after it and got pinned in a nasty narrow channel on the right. Luckily Anton headed out to get Anna's boat and we set about pulling my boat out.



From Drop Box
Then a quick abseil to recover part of our split paddles that had gone for a swim of their own.


From Will Clark
Will and Anna inspect a big one!




From Will Clark
Will sneaks through the tunnel.


From Will Clark
Anna on the same line.


Lots more Pictures and Stories to come!! Photos from the rest of this trip down the Kali Gandaki as well as more from Anna and my trip down the Marsyandi.

Nepali Girls Kayaking trip on the Sun Kosi has just finished - Anton and I saw off Anna and 39 more girls from Sukute beach 10 days ago as they headed off for their mission, so I'll put some photos of that up soon as well... and while they were heading down river, Anton and I wored our way up and paddled...

The Bhote Kosi from Tibet , and it turned out to be a bit of an epic mission. So a full story and photos of the steepest and most continuous river I have ever seen also coming soon.


Tomorrow we're off to try and be the first to paddle a 40 footer on the upper upper Seti. Should be fun!!

Peace





From Will Clark