Modi Khola, Losing Porters and Spider Bites...

On Oct 20 Anton and I set off for the Modi Khola. Also on the same mission were a bunch of American guys and an English guy Matt who I knew from the Zambezi earlier in the year.

To get to the Modi you need to take a taxi or minibus for about an hour and a half. From there you unload and along with porters to carry your gear you hike all day to the 'Old Bridge.' After a night in tea house's or a hostel you hike for another hour up to the put-in at the 'New Bridge'.

After taking a separate taxi to the others Anton and I started hiking from Lumle to Langruk. After leaving our porters on the trail to meet back up later we reached Landruk at 1640m by 4pm.

-Early on in the hike looking up the valley-

-A lunch stop at Bitchuk-

-Still looking up the valley, one of the many valleys we had to descend and ascend-

-The view down the valley from Landruk-

-A sketchy looking 5 story Hotel in Landruk-

After we got to Landruk we drank tea and waited for our porters to arrive with our gear. Except they never arrived! We weren't sure why they hadn't made it but with dropping temperatures and only boardies and a t-shirt we had to wrap ourselves up with duvets and were in bed listening to our iPods by 7.15.

-View of the Annapurna range in the evening light-

In the morning we waited for a few hours wondering if the Porters were on the same trail as us, and after waiting to watch a helicopter land next to our hostel to pick up a sick dude we headed up to New Bridge at 9.30am.

-What were they trying to say?

Anyway once on our way news reached us from many hikers that a group of kayakers had already got on the water and there were two kayaks by the river. When we got right down to the river there was a message, presumably for us? Well fuck you guys too!! haha.

Anyway after a quick laugh we set out at about 11am down an incredible section of whitewater. We had to inspect virtually all the rapids from the New Bridge to the Old Bridge.

-Anton Immler heading down one of the many many awesome rapids-

-Will Clark hitting the same rapid-
-Photo Anton Immler-

-Anton Immler heading down the one with a big sucky siphon on the left-

This one was memorable as it was a really tricky line and a major obstacle to avoid. I got pushed towards the siphon above the last drop but managed to spin and ferry out of it again only to loop in the bottom drop. Anton got a better line through the top but looped at the bottom and took a bunch of rock on his pads.

-Will Clark on the bottom drop of 'the rapid with a siphon in it'-
-Photo Anton Immler-

-Will Clark, mid move-
-Photo Anton Immler-

-Will Clark about to grind the rock and avoid the gnarly hole on the right-
-Photo Anton Immler-

-Stoked after that one, that last rapid was the only one I was a bit intimidated by-
-Photo Anton Immler-

After a while we caught the American guys just before the Old Bridge and heard that they'd stayed at a different place on the other side of the river the previous night, along with our porters who we apparently worried about where we were.

-I think this is the one that kicked you out to the right a bit-
-Photo Anton Immler-

-Will Clark pulls it through another sweet rapid-
-Photo Anton Immler-

The river was truly awesome, there was just so many sweet drops one after another, we portaged one bit on the lower section where there was a big landslide and as we walked around the American group caught back up, they were having a good look so hopefully one or two of them ran it as it was a pretty cool long section of technical paddling. Other than that we ran everything the river had and by the time we carried out to the road just after the dam at 4pm we were shattered.

-Some of the local kids from the tiny village by the road where we took out-

All that was left to do was flag down a bus load the boats and ourselves on the roof and head back to Pokhara.

-The view from the roof-

It was pretty dark when we got back and pretty cold from being on the roof of the bus, and it was fairly hectic making sure a power line didn't take your head off on the approach to Pokhara. But it was a sweet mission.

Next another rest day and see if what I think is a spider bite on my leg gets better or worse. It's also my birthday tomorrow so the rest day might turn into two or three if we get drunk.

After that a couple more rivers then back to Kathmandu to pick up Anna Bruno and add another member to Team Uganda.

Happy paddling everyone.