Fluid Kayaks Team

My last month in Nepal has seen us take in a tour of many of the 'classic' rivers. I've been scoping out a few of the easier rivers for Love it Live it, and for Anna this has been a perfect warm up to Nepal.

One of the most enjoyable rivers that we've paddled is the Kali Gandaki. It's commercially run multi-day river, and trips usually last 3-4 days depending on where you start. We decided to put in higher up than the rafts and found some incredible whitewater. There was lots to inspect and a lot of tight lines to avoid monster holes and nasty undercuts, but after a day paddling the hard stuff, the river opened out, calmed down and we had two days of fun paddling and camping out until we reached the take out.

Here's a photo diary of the trip:

The bus ride up to the upper Kali Gandaki was intense. Afterwards we all agreed that even though the river was amazing we'd rather walk for a whole day than risk the 3 hour bus. It was the scariest road in the country!!

Will and Anna inspect one of the trickier sections...

Fun times on the river - the Expedition Solo was in its element, I was all packed up with camping gear and food for 4 days...

After a hard day paddling we took out and found ourselves a tea-house for the night. You get a bed, some warm blankets some food and lots of Tea!! All for a couple of dollars! It's a bargin!

The Kali Gandaki was a really fun river, and it was nice to be camping on the side of the river, enjoying a campfire and the conversation of friends.

After that trip we all headed to Sukute beach at the start of the Sun Kosi river and at the end of the Bhote Kosi. Anna met up with a huge crew of Kiwi and Swedish girls and headed down river for a 10 day trip down the Sun Kosi to train up local Nepali girls to become Raft Guides. While they were heading downstream Anton and I headed upstream for our first big mission of our trip, to paddle the Bhote Kosi from the border with Tibet.

With Tibet in the background we prepare to climb down into the river. As you can see the gradient was incredible up here and the first few hundred meters from the boarder were unpaddleable, as you can see here...

When we got down and onto the river we realised the gradient hadn't eased up any and while there were a few sweet drops we did a lot of portaging...

One of the few paddleable rapids...

Me and Anton illegally in Tibet!

Portage number 8,9,10,11 & 12

It wasn't that it was all unrunable, but imagine a grade 5 or 6 rapid every 10m, with no eddies in-between and maybe 5 or 6 drops in a row!! We often thought something looked runnable only to find that there would be a hole backed up by a huge rock at the bottom...

Here I am at the start of our second day. It took us a day and a half to paddle 3km!! Anton had a nasty pin just after putting on from here and again we were doing more walking than kayaking. Whilst there were some fun rapids it was an exhausting two days and neither Anton or I would paddle this section again.

After those first few kilometers however the river becomes much easier and virtually everything is runnable. There are three main sections from here. The section from the upper dam to the gorge. The gorge to Borderlands resort, and Borderlands down. All these sections were sweet with some good pushy rapids, a few portages and lots of read-and-run stuff. The best thing about the Bhote Kosi is that there is no flat water!

Seal-launch into a tight little slot after one of the portages on the upper section.

'Bhote Kosi' translated means river from Tibet. And as such there is also one of the main roads to tibet all the way along its bank. This is another great feature about the river, you can hop on a bus and paddle whichever section you feel like. If you get scared, lose a paddle or for whatever reason want to get out, you can climb out to the road and wait for a pick up back to your hotel!!

All in all the Bhote Kosi is an amazing river. Anton and I achieved our goal and we did paddle the river from Tibet. However those first few kilometers were totally gnarly and intense, and at the end of the day a real pain in the ass to walk around!! So below the upper dam is the best place to start if you just want to 'paddle'.

Happy Paddling everyone!!

Will. __ Photos by Anton Immler__