| |
Reisavontuur: Kayakking down Bhote Kosi River
| Fotos bij dit avontuur | |
| Avonturier(s): | Booz |
| Continent: | Azie |
| Land: | Nepal |
| Aanvang: | 19 Juni 2003 |
| Einde: | 23 Juni 2003 |
 t 6.00 in the morning the four of us
were awaited at the office of Equator trekking agency in Kathmandu to
head for a 5 day kayakcourse on the Bhote Kosi river, one of the
steepests in the world and especially now in the monsoon season it
would going to be a down swirling thrill which we never would forget
according to the director of the company. Of course we did bargain a
good price and got a discount of 60% and we even managed to get 2 free
beers a day per person and a fixed beer price of 80rs for the evenings.
We got a private car to bring us about 70km north of Kathmundu. after a
3 hour drive along rivers and through amazingly green hills we arrived
at our destanation around lunchtime. And beautiful it was, the resort
which would be our base for the next days looked awesome, it was like a
tropical paradise with wooden huts to sleep in a large bar with no
walls just some bamboo poles with a straw roof large banana and
palmtrees, a beach with a volleybalplayground and all situated at the
banks of the raging Bhote Kosi river which looked really fast and
furious because of the large amount of waters dropping down in this
monsoon period. Then I could not believe i would ever go out there in a
smal unbalanced kayak, no way!!
Just after lunch we started immediately
with the classes , first in the little swimming pool they had, in
between the weirdest and biggest butterflies and insects I had ever
seen. Starting off to learn basic stuff likke paddle handling, boat
balance, self rescues and the T-rescue. All of this seemed pretty easy
in a nice sunny swimmingpool. at the end of the day we all handled the
kayaks well and we started of with the first thrill: the eskimo-roll,
which you really have to know because you don't want to do a self or
T-rescue when you are out there on the river. The roll is really the
best thing to do when you and your kayak flips over (something that
later in this trip seems to happen more often then one want) Its hard
to learn something that you have to feel, its like skiing or
snowboarding, you cann talk about putting weight on certain legs or
moving your hips on a certain way, buyt you have to feel it I think,
and luckily it worked out pretty fast for me. I think that afternoon I
did a 100+ of rolls and really liked doing so and experiment with the
kayak. Basically what you have to do when you are on the river when you
flip, is remain calm, you'll hang in your boat upside down in the
water, you put your padlles in the right position and flip up again, if
this is not working out well then you wait for another kayak to come
near your boat so you can pull your self up (t-rescue) and if this
don't work you do a self-rescue. The last option is the worst, after a
selfrescue you have to get out of the river, empty your boat and get
back in again something thats pretty easy in a pool but not on a river
in between rapids, fast waterfalls and a lot of hurting rocks.
So you
really want the roll to work out and stay calm when you flipped over
when you are on the river. Something that i tried remembering hard the
next day but which was going to be very hard with a 300p/m heartbeat
and raging river. In the night we got eaten by all kinds of weird
insect and bugs while playing pool and drinking beer, and tired but
satisfied we fell a sleep.
The next day would be a big day, for the
first time we would go into the river, I was really nervous about it
and found out that i really can be a scary rabbit chickenshit. I didn't
like the idea of throwing myself in that water with my little plastic
boat, even though everybody wore protection like wetsuits, helmets and
vests. Once in the water everything turned out to be different, make a
roll out here is much more stressfull, remaining calm was hardly
possible because once your underwater you get knocked to rocks and
everything starts swirling around. No the first day was like hell to
me, and I could hardly enjoy it, at least it lasted a few hours before
I felt confident enough to know what I was doing. The rest of the group
had kind of the same feeling (except canadian cameron who was always
stoned and really loved the thrill) Luckily the next days we became
more aware of the fact that its hard to drown even when the river is
that fast as now, and that our 2 instructors are nearly always there
when you need them for a t-rescue. As confidence grew also the skills
became better and it turned out that we had a real good group with fast
learning skills. On the third day our instructor asked me to teach a
group of 6 Irish rafters the basic poolskills and I was really
flattered by it. so that morning I instructed them for 6 hours earning
500rs (6 beers :-) in all of the excitement I did something very very
stupid, I forgot to put on sunscreen, something which is a ritual in
the morning for nearly 2 months now. so I ended up that day still
wearing my wetsuit (I still wear it now :-) even when I put it off, by
now the blisters are fading away and my shoulders are not hurting that
much anymore, but it really sucked being burnt like that. Every night
in the resort we had a big party going on dancing and playin pool and
talk some exagerating stories about the rides down the river of that
day. the one bailing the most of time had to pay for the first round of
beer. In the end everybody was broozed, ahd cuts and wounds everywhere
and Jarrod even had his head smaked up to some rocks really bad.
Cameron was stuck in the middle of a wicked rapid in the middle of the
river without his boat and no peddles, just shouting: help me, help me,
I got stuck once in my boat in between some rocks, trying to hold on
and keep my head above the water while I waited a rescue i noticed
everybody just chatting a littlebit and waiting for me to come over,
they just didnt see that i got stuck really bad and I thought I was
drowning there :-) I can tell you a million of stories like this, but
you better wait for the pictures (we bought a little waterproof cam)
Kayakking is really fun, especially when you have a chance to learn it
really well from instructors that kayakked one of the fastest rivers in
the world and know what they are talking about.
Now I am back in
Kathmandu trying to arrange things for the orphanage, the money raising
was a huge succes. And we try to figure out what to do with the money
to find some sustainable solution but i'll inform you later about this
I have a meeting right now with them. so thanks for all your donations
! | |
