2024 LCC River Karnali Trip – Nepal

Day 6 – Paddling Day 3

After breakfast and rafts loaded, we set off for our third day on the river. This day brought with it a little more trepidation as this was where the big rapids started.

There was one rapid early on where I was caught out by a wave and capsized and rolled back up (yay!) just in time to avoid Martin who had got caught in a big hole and ended up swimming. Stuart came to his rescue and towed an exhausted Martin from the hole to his kayak.

The first rapid we stopped to inspect is called “Sweetness & Light” and is a grade IV. This rapid consists of a lead in line to the right of centre and then a manoeuvre towards river left to avoid the big rocks on river right, followed by a BIG wave train that maybe best avoiding the biggest of the waves.

As I got back in my kayak, I was nervous, I didn’t like the look of the rocks on river right and the water was fast. Would I have the strength to get over to the left in time? We followed Norris down the planned line and it soon became apparent that the water was pushing us the way we needed to go away from the rocks and so I was able to relax …and then I remembered, a little too late, that ideally we did not want to go through the biggest waves coming out of the rapid. I skimmed the edge of the first one but was pulled into the second one sideways and soon flipped upside down. I tried to roll but the water was a swirling mass and I couldn’t get purchase so I bailed and swam out. At least I was at the bottom of the actual rapid by that point! Haha.

We continued downstream and soon came to another rapid we had to inspect. This one doesn’t have a name because they didn’t used to have to inspect it but a change in the river has changed that. On inspection, this rapid seemed long but not particularly difficult, requiring a little manoeuvring towards the end to avoid the stoppers.

We followed Norris down and as we approached the bottom section, it became apparent that it was far bigger than it had looked from the inspection above, the stoppers were bigger, the waves were bigger and we were glad to have Norris to lead the way. We followed his line very closely!

After another picnic lunch, we had one more rapid to inspect, the grade IV “Jailhouse Rock”. The crux of this rapid is a huge rock at the bottom with a large hole behind it. Basically, avoid that. Martin opted to portage this one and I was very much on the fence about paddling it. By the time we had inspected and I had walked back to my kayak, I had all but talked myself out of it. I gave Norris an “I’m not doing this” sign and he told me I’d be fine, that he believed I could paddle it and just to relax and follow him. Relax? That was pretty far from what I was feeling at that point!

Nevertheless, with Norris’ gentle persuasion, I went for it. I followed right behind Norris so that I might get the line right. Keith behind me and Stuart behind him. (I will add at this point that whilst the four of us had taken to very closely following Norris’ lines, our fellow paddlers took a far more relaxed and slightly chaotic appearing approach to the rapids under Manoj’s supervision.)

The rapid went well but I missed the breakout hard left coming out the bottom and was pushed right instead so I went hard right to miss the mid-river stopper and was followed by Keith and Stuart, all in one piece. I told myself they were looking out for me but Keith had a rather different view “you’re joking! I wasn’t in control!”

After nearly 2.5 hours paddling in the morning and a little under 2 hours paddling in the afternoon, with all the anxiety and adrenaline of these rapids, we were glad to reach camp and couldn’t wait for dinner.