The Journey West - Part 2

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Parent Category: Travel Over There

Category: Nepal

Created: Wednesday, 18 April 2012 02:05

It was another early morning start that saw our little group walking the streets of Kathmandu for a local bus to take us back out into the mountains in search of a river. The river in question was the Trishuli. We have a new member of or family for this journey, Charlie, a young man from from Melbourne who has spent the last few weeks in an Ashram in India.

We catch the bus from central Thamel and are told it will take around an hour and half to get where we need to be. In Nepal, you can't really trust the time/distance as told because there is a flaw in their understanding of Space/Time. It ended up being closer to three hours on the road to Pokhara through the wondrous weaving winding mountain roads.

When we arrive, our guide meets us, a small dread-locked Nepali man with deeply coloured skin and a very easy going attitude. He gathers us on the shores for a quick tutorial and our group gains size once more.

The river is easy at first with a class 1 and 2 rapid to start before getting into the class 3. We have a great deal of fun digging in and taking on the water. A class 3 gives us the first real thrill, waves grabbing the boat engulfing us in the cooling flow. One wave reaches deep and pulls Pots from his perch. The rapids are exhilarating, we are given opportunity to jump from the boat and float through some class 1's under our own steam while a few stay in the boat to attempt to flip it on a large rock. The group succeeds in throwing out all passengers besides the guide who runs up the length of the boat as it crests the rock and pulls the boat back down.

More rapids make for a great day and as we near lunch time, we hit a beautiful series of rapids we navigate by having everyone shift sides – go left, go right, left, right, left no no right right capsize.

It was an excellent day and at lunch we part company with our extras and go on ahead to our campsite.

Not far down the river we come to a large rock from which we can jump into the river and we do before swimming across to sit under a waterfall.

The rest is easy going until we reach the final rapid of the day – a double – one side is the Chicken, the other is the Tiger. We go the tiger, ploughing our oars deep and building a great speed. The rivers bucks at us, the boat drops into the gaping maw of a rapid and as we start to pull out at a sharp angle, the boats goes over. We are all thrown into the class 3 rapids, water churning, roaring load in our ears. Over the cacophony we can hear the guide yelling for us to swim to the other side of the river, to get out of rapids, but some of us are too deep in to escape and we are swirled and chewed through the series.

We make our camp and settle in for night, drying off, eating and talking into the night. The food and company are good. We can hear the highway full of traffic deep into the night until around 3 it all stops and the road is silent. A strike is now in effect and the only traffic on the roads is tourist buses and milk and vegetable trucks.

The following morning we have a very easy 7 kilometres of river, with only a few rapids before we dismount and make our way to the highway for a bus into Chitwan.

The bus takes a bit over an hour into Bharatpur where we change buses and are taken to the parent resort of where we'll be staying. A quick lunch then another hour by bus into Chitwan before crossing the river in a boat to our lodge – The Island.

On the Island we will stay 2 nights and there are a range of activities for us to see a small part of the park: an Elephant walk, a jungle walk, a jeep safari, a swim with the Elephants, and a nature walk.

The Elephant walk is grand and the highlight is when we corral a One-Horned Rhino and calf.

The Jungle walk is relaxing with us seeing a water snake, light green on the jungle floor and several metres long, as well a Gharial Crocodile sunning itself on the shores of the river.

The Jeep safari is very cool with a swarm of Macaque leaping through the canopy above us.

Swimming with the Elephants is brilliant, especially when you try to ride them and they throw you off. Elephants are incredible creatures.

The nature walk is a pleasant stroll let down by the others in our group t knowing how to walk through a jungle in relative silence. Still we did see some barking deer and a stag along with some fresh Tiger tracks.

When Chitwan is over we fly back to Kathmandu on Yeti airlines and are surprised that it is running on time. The flight is only 20 minutes then it is time for relaxation as we enjoy the last 24 odd hours in Kathmandu before we Journey back east to Hong Kong then home again to Adelaide.

Other Nepal Articles

The Journey West: A Summary

The Journey West: A Summary part 2

Trekking in the Annnapurna (6 articles)

White Water Rafting the Trishuli River