The Mighty Karnali

The Karnali river is the last free-flowing ‘great river’ in Nepal. It flows down from Mount Kailash and, as such, is considered a holy river (Mount Kailash is the seat of the Hindu goddess Shiva). Unfortunately the river is under threat due to a hydro scheme which will see the erection of a dam just above where we were due to put-in and it will be a great shame to see this incredible piece of whitewater disappear.

It had been a desire of mine for a few years to paddle this section of river, but I had originally thought that I wouldn’t have time to get good enough before the dam was in place. I feel incredibly privileged to have managed to get to Nepal and experience it in time (thank you construction project delays and protests against the dam construction for your part in this!).

We had met Luke and Jamie from Paddle365, the rest of the group, and our Nepali raft-support team a couple of days earlier, and had all set off on a gruelling 20 hour bus journey to the start. The Karnali is in western Nepal, a long way from Kathmandu, and the road access is less than ideal in some places.

The discomfort of the bus ride quickly faded as we got our teeth into the first rapids. If we’d thought the waves on the Kali Gandaki were big, these waves were ENORMOUS. Heart-pounding moments riding down the dips and back up over the top of these rollercoasters was an education and a thrill. If this was the ‘class 3’ warm-up, what would the 3 days of ‘class 4’ be like?!

Luckily we had some expert guidance on hand. Luke and Jamie delivered some excellent coaching on big-volume tactics and techniques, and the river builds nicely, transitioning over several days from class 3, to 3+ to 4 and culminating in several class 4/4+ rapids in quick succession. By the time we had reached them, we felt well equipped to cope and had fallen into a lovely routine of camping by the side of the river, eating the great food the raft team provided, and enjoying campfires with good natured jokes and stories shared by the whole group.

God’s House rapid was probably the trickiest on the river, and a particular highlight and personal sense of achievement to run, even if I did have a ‘cheeky roll’ on the boil/swirly water below the main feature. Eek!

Two days of relatively flat (though still flowing) water followed with just enough in the way of waves and rapids to keep us on our toes, and some stunning canyon walls and rock formations to gaze at as we passed.

We took out, spent a day at Badia national park (where we saw a wild Rhino!) and then flew back to Kathmandu while our boats and some of the team drew the short straw of the return bus ride.

If you’re a kayaker and reading this, I’d thoroughly recommend both the river and the Paddle365 team. They made sure we were well looked after for the whole time, showed an enormous amount of expertise and enthusiasm for kayaking and the country of Nepal, and generally made the whole trip a massive success. Big thumbs up!

We left Nepal today and are en-route to Thailand for the next stop in our adventures. It’s been superb reliving the memories while catching up to date with these blog posts, and I’m very excited to see what happens next!