Upper upper Bhote Kosi

Ciao,

Right now we are hanging out in a Kathmandu after cool three days of kayaking on the upper section of Bhote kosi river. River is flowing from the Tibet and right after borders there is a power station. First possible put-in on the Nepali side is behind the power house so we put-in up there.

First part of river is really nice class 4 4+ boulder creek style. It is like four kilometers and then is upcoming class 5 rapid with hard entry and hole in the first slide and quite rocky drop is right behind it. Good rapid. After one portage (possible runnable but too rocky) there are some nice class 4+ rapids again for like 5 ks. Around the middle of this part there is a big syphon but with easy chicken line on left. Right behind is coming really nice gorge with some easier rapids and a suspention bridge at the top that is used for bungee jumps and swings. Really nice place.

me at the first rapid

Ron at the second drop of a first rapid

Behind the gorge the river turns into the left and makes two class 5 rapids with two trashy holes. Definitely not good place for swimming. :) Behind this part is coming the borderland resort that is put in for the classic part down to the dam lake which is still really good these days but no more that funny class 4. We have paddled the upper section for the first time on Sunday and took us almost all day. On Monday we did the second run double fun and on Tuesday Ron and Luke went for a bungee swing and jump and I paddled myself because Basti was just hanging.. Bhote kosi is really one of the best rivers in Nepal. Together with Humla and upper Karnali definitely one of my most favourite rivers over here.

me at the last hole of the upper section

Lukas boofing one of the trashy holes

Ron sliding down to the river after portage

Tomorrow we are heading off to the Trisuli event. This year called Mountain dew himalayan whitewater challenge. Hope it is gonna be good fun. There are Xslalom, freestyle and downriver race and you are able to use just one kayak so I am looking forward some newschool freestyle with my Habitat 80 haha.

Later
Jakub

Karnali - Simikot to Chisapani 385 km and 2 weeks of kayaking

Aloha,

After three weeks we are back in Pokhara enjoying proper food and relaxing after long multi day trip. We started the mission with a busride to Nepalgunj that was the most possible place to get a flight to Simikot. After two days of waiting and hanging out we could finally leave dirty Nepalganj and get to the beautiful mountain village Simikot. There we had to hang out for two days because Basti didnt take his passport that you need for entry to this area. We were managing photocopy of it by fax for long but then we could finally walk down to the put in of Humla Karnali. Three hours of walking wth kayak (me) or with a portrers (the others) and then we finally started with kayaking.

Simikot airport

Trekking down to the put in

During the first days there were some unrunnable rapids and some long portages but that was a fee to the river. After that there were coming more and more nice rapids and just little bit of portaging. After one week or so we get to the confluence with a Mugu Karnali and river was getting bigger and bigger. So coool. On the tenth day came the final part of upper Karnali and the rapids were just awesome. Big water and big clean rapids all the way down for like 30 ks.

river was getting bigger haha

awesome part of Humla - Ron

cooking breakfast

After this part came a long flatwater. (sometimes class 2-3, what a whitewater:)) we paddled it two days and then we got to the put in of the Lower Karnali which is a classic bigwater run with some nice rapids in nepal. Thats what I heard before I came to Nepal and I am pretty happy that we did the Humla and upper section. Lower part was like class three four and nothing special. Then after next long flatwater (100 ks) we got to the Chisapani and took a busride to Pokhara where is a good food and some beer of course. After two weeks of kayaking and eating just instant noodles, milkrice or cookies it is time to hang out little bit and have some easy days here at Lakeside of Pokhara. Such a nice place to be.

Now we are finding some small mission for five next days before Himalayan whitewater chalenge on Trisuli river. Stay tuned

Jakub

Pictures by: Sebastian Striebel

Lukas - first gorge

one of the best parts of the river - Lukas

local boaters

Campfire

Basti flatwater day

Taking off to the Humla Karnali

Hey,

After we stucked in Nepalganj with Soluting flight tickets to Simikot (put in of Humla) we finally go to pay it and tomorrow morning we are taking off. :) It means 10 days trip. We already have a pot, spoons, sugar, tea, biscuits, instant noodles, milk powder and peanuts. Haha I am looking forward our healthy food. :) After we will pay the tickets we will pack up the kayaks and here we go...

I will write after Karnali
CU
Jakup

Mission changed again :)

After a cool hang out in Pokhara during the day we changed our plans. Madi khola is like 10 cumecs creek and we came for some bigger rivers so we go to the Nepalganj where we will take a flight to upper Karnali. After that the water drop little bit down and we will go to the upper Khali Gandaki which is one of the deepest gorges on the world and volume is over 100 cubics. The gorge is situated between Annapurna and one another 8000 mountain. Sounds good because it is pretty steep and there is a lot of possible runnable places. Hope we will do most of them... Write more later