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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 ! | |
