Kayaking

Well, last Friday we finished full time language and decided to celebrate by having a short chutti (holiday). As avid white water kayakers we've both been eyeing up the rivers over here so we decided to take advantage of our time off and do some paddling (whitewater kayaking slang for those not familiar). With the monsoon on the way (well it was but then a typhoon in Pakistan pushed it back a few days) we decided to pick an easier river in case it arrived while we were on the river and we didn't want to be on a river with the rapids going from fun to pure survival. We chose the Seti river, two other people joined us in a raft, one from Canada and one from the UK, they were great people to hang out with.

We had four Nepali guides from Paddle Nepal (www.paddlenepal.com), two of who were in kayaks and two were in the raft. The guys were lovely and glad to speak Nepali to us. One kayaker in particular was very good at surfing a Blisstick Mac1 (good to see New Zealand built kayaks over here).

We set out on a bus to the get in - the rafters got a full safety briefing and we were told to get in a kayak and go. The river turned out to be very flat except for a few rapids all of which had a big hole hidden in it somewhere. We took turns getting stuck in them. The scenery was great and it was so nice to see a part of Nepal where there are so few people.

We camped on the side of the river. We were given tents to sleep in but it was too hot so we slept out under the stars which was great!!

The food was incredible. We pulled over on a beach after a few hours paddling on the first day, a barrel was bought ashore and the guides proceeded to make a coleslaw, produced meat, bread, fruit and biscuits. Dishes were all rinsed multiple times in a series of 5 buckets with iodised water. Dinner started with popcorn, moved to vegetable noodle soup that was made from scratch as Maggi hasn't made it to this country yet. This was proceeded by pasta, potato fries and a milk sauce. I hope our kayaking buddies in NZ are taking notes as this is what we expect now. The leftovers were made into a pasta and tuna salad with bread for lunch the next day after we had had a breakfast of porridge, pancakes and toast!!!

Sorry paddling buddies, as we were with a raft we couldn't stop and take video of us going down the big rapids!!
We went home on a local bus which we think the Nepalis paid $10NZD to get our gear and six people the 2.5hrs back to Pokhara and then we got delivered to the office, not the bus park like everyone else!! However, the penalty was a bumpy ride which got worse the closer we got to home, the opposite to NZ - start off on a bunpy gravel road and it gets better. Jo hit her head on the roof going over one bump - that drew blood and some very startled glances from the Nepalis - the roof was a good height for Nepalis but not expats!!!!

Jennie (Canada) and Paul (UK) at the end before they got on a bus and went to Chitwan where they saw rhinos, rode elephants and saw a python eat a baby deer!!!!