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2024 LCC River Karnali Trip (Nepal) Day 2 – Kathmandu – Pokhara

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2024 LCC River Karnali Trip – Nepal

Day 2 – Kathmandu – Pokhara

We had what we naively thought was an early start on Day 2 with our taxi picking us up at 6.45 am to take us the 200km to Pokhara. Now 200km doesn’t seem so bad right? 2-3 hours drive at most? Ha!

A bus driving on a dirt roadDescription automatically generated

There is only one road between Kathmandu and Pokhara and they are in the process of replacing the 2-lane road with a 4-lane highway. Being a very mountainous country with annual monsoons, this takes a lot of work; cutting into the hillside, landslides, digging huge drainage ditches, etc.

In the UK, we would build a new carriageway whilst continuing to use the existing carriageway and then move everyone to the new carriageway whilst updating/replacing the old carriageway. Not in Nepal. In Nepal, they dig up the original carriageway (all 200km of it) before starting a new carriageway. This meant 200km of potholes, ditches, mud, dust and general chaos, and that’s before you factor in the slow climbing lorries, the broken-down vehicles, the tight corners and Nepalese driving.

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We arrived in Pokhara no less than 9 hours and 20 minutes after leaving Kathmandu, all a few inches shorter and some of us wishing we had worn a sports bra!

On arrival in Pokhara, our first port of call was a briefing with Paddle Nepal where we met our lead guide for the trip, Calu. We then got dinner before heading to bed.

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