SUMMARY
This trip came about due to my enquiry about fishing in Nepal. In Kathmandu in July 2018 I was talking to my friend, Ganesh, a Nepali guide from Gorkha, and I asked him where was a good place to fish for mahseer, the famous sporting fish of the Himalayas. He said he had not guided a fishing party but he knew who to ask. He took me to the offices of Ultimate Descents Nepal (https://udnepal.com)
in Thamel, only 5 minutes from my hotel.
STORY
At Ultimate Descents Nepal, the staff explained they were primarily white water rafting specialists for the whole of Nepal, but that there were opportunities to fish while on these expeditions. I was encouraged by the sight of a photo of the proprietor holding a 20 kilo mahseer which he had caught 3 years previously. I thought that the opportunity to do some fishing while white water rafting was too good to pass up, so I enquired about forthcoming expeditions. I was interested in a 10 day trip on the river Karnali in western Nepal, a remote area that I was told offered some of the best rafting and fishing in Nepal. There were 2 dates arranged for October, and I opted for the first date beginning 12 October as this would be the first trip of the new season after the monsoon.
After paying a deposit to book and getting more information from printed itinerary sheets, I subsequently met the proprietor of Ultimate Descents, Mr Megh Ale. He explained that the 12 October trip was going to be a scientific expedition to get information on the environment of the Karnali. Megh said this expedition was going to be longer than usual and cost a lot more, but he indicated it would be very interesting.
However, at that time I was not particularly interested in being part of a scientific expedition and really wanted to concentrate on fishing, so I declined his offer to go on that trip. I opted for the shorter 10 day rafting trip starting 21 October. However, I was unaware that my place on any trip was dependent on the bookings from other people, and as the second date in October was not booked up, I was allocated to the first date of 12 October after all. This turned out to be the last week of the Nepali-led scientific expedition, which had started on 17 September and had followed the course of the Karnali from its source on the slopes of Mount Kailash in Tibet, down through the high Himalayas and south towards the plains. I discovered that I was joining the expedition at the first point where it was possible to raft, as higher up the rapids were impossible to navigate safely.
To get to the Karnali in remote western Nepal, I had to take a flight from Kathmandu to Surkhet. On this flight I had a superb view of the magnificent Dhaulagiri, rising from the lower ranges of the Himalayas, and stretching far into the distance I could see the whole range of the snow-covered Himalayas as it curved towards northern India and Tibet, against a background of the deepest blue sky.
I was met at Surkhet by the guide leader, Bikram, and fellow guides. There followed a long, dusty and tiring bus journey over very rough roads, pausing for lunch at a cool mountain village on a high pass, and we reached our destination by the Karnali river in the late afternoon. Our camp site was pitched on a wide sandy beach, adjacent to a Nepali police station. As we got off the bus, we were met by the scientists and guides from the longer expedition, who were dressed in blue polyester T-shirts that identified them as sponsored members. We were also given these T-shirts so that we didn’t feel “left out” of the group! It was only after we had all been introduced that I realized that the scientists had been following the river from its source by road and trek, and that this was now the first time that they were actually going to be ON the river.
After a welcome cup of tea and introductions, there was a buzz of activity and excitement from the nearby police station, and I was told that the Chief Minister of the Western Region was joining our party for rafting over the weekend (we had arrived on a Friday evening). The Chief Minister, the Honourable Mahendra Bahadur Shahi, a surprisingly young and handsome man, arrived with his police escort, and we were all introduced to him and his senior colleagues, in a pooja ceremony where we were given a traditional scarf. We then attended an expedition Presentation, where the whole aims and purposes of the scientists and sponsoring organizations were explained. This was primarily to find out the quality of the environment and the water, the biodiversity of the river, the areas of natural beauty that should be preserved in the event of a dam being built, and to gather information on all aspects of life along the river so that the decisions about siting a dam for hydroelectric power could be taken in an informed way, so as to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of a hydroelectric dam on the local environment. This was why the expedition was attracting political attention, and the Chief Minister was accompanied the whole time by press reporters and photographers, TV crews and local politicians and police chiefs. The mild-mannered and very quietly-spoken Minister was hauled off on several occasions to give TV interviews, against the backdrop of the river, with his safety helmet and rafting equipment all in full view. He also gave a speech at the Presentation which apparently trod a cautious path between acknowledging the economic development of the area by the development of a dam, but also recognizing that it was also important to preserve the natural beauty and environment, for tourism and sports activities like our white-water rafting.
Karen Bennett, an American geomorphologist who had been employed by the American Forestry Department for nearly 40 years, gave a most interesting and succinct summary of what the scientists had observed since 17 September, saying that the Karnali was very unusual because it cut through a whole range of topography and geology, and the whole range of climatic conditions from desert (Tibet), high Alpine, mountains, hills, plains, jungles, forests, temperate, semi tropical and tropical on its course from Mount Kailash to the Indian Gangetic plains in the hot terai region of the Nepal/Indian border. Karen said there was no other river in the world like this. She outlined the geological features of the Himalayas, how the sedimentary rocks had been turned into igneous and metamorphic like granite, sandstone and limestone by tremendous heat and pressure arising from the Indian sub-continental tectonic plate colliding with the Eurasian plate and being subducted along the south Tibetan fault line. Karen said the Karnali had existed before the Himalayas were created, which explained why it had cut through such a mass of rock and left such deep valleys and gorges, also why it carried so much silt and sediment (she told me later that the Karnali was second only to the Yellow River in China for carrying the most amount of silt in its waters).
After the Presentation, we had a delicious dinner and went to bed early. I was very impressed with the amazing display of stars in the night sky. I slept long and deeply.
The next day, Saturday, I was awake at 5.00am to find a dense mist on the river. This was the first day of our rafting. After a good breakfast we packed up our tents and loaded them onto the rafts. Megh put us through his preparation techniques, teaching us about safety, how to paddle, what commands were used, what to do if we flipped over and many other points. We were gathered around in a circle, and did some exercises to loosen up. As we finished, we followed Megh in his chant “Om Kailash Karnali kamar” which is the sacred chant of blessing for the river, blessing for us, and blessing for where we were going that day. We started each rafting day with this chant and it worked because there were no serious accidents and no raft flipped! I was amused that the Chief Minister’s police bodyguard was worried about his pistol not being waterproof as they set out on the river, and he tried to wrap a small piece of transparent plastic bag around the pistol but this would not have been at all effective, in fact it could have been dangerous if he had had to use it!
Megh had explained that we were on a section of the river higher up and not normally used for rafting, we were using this section because of the logistics of meeting up with the scientists and the Chief Minister, and also because we wanted to see the site of the proposed Lower Karnali dam. This was just 2 small stone-built structures on either side of the river, so small and insignificant that we would not have seen it unless it had been pointed out to us. However, the site was at the narrowest point of the gorge and it was easy to imagine a 40 meter high dam here, and we had to bear in mind that if it was built, all “white water” rafting would be impossible from here downstream as the water level would be too low; this was our introduction to the contentious topic of “Dam Politics” in Nepal, which would provide many hours of conversation later in the trip. I can only say at this point that the dam is marked as such on my map of Western Nepal, and is one of many proposed hydroelectric dams that have not been built and do not look like being built for a long time.
As we paddled gently downstream on this first day, we had time to look at the beauty of the valley gorge, the structure of the rock formations and the flow of the river. I immediately saw the immense amount of sand and silt in the cold water, making it cloudy, and little tiny particles of mica were sparkling as the sun caught them. I remarked to Karen, having complimented her on her summary of the geology at the Presentation, that you could “ literally see the rocks being turned to sand in front of your eyes” – a bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but Karen smiled. Later that afternoon we found our camp site for the night, and met up with Simon Lucas, an interesting man from the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), who would provide us with many interesting stories and insights into the politics of the area generally, and the politics of dam building in particular.
The next day, Sunday 14th October, we spent a pleasant morning rafting down river, enjoying the peace, the sun and the beauty of the butterflies and the dippers. The Chief Minister left us at a small village by the river, mid morning – he was still accompanied by a police officer as his bodyguard, and was met by many officials and escorted to his convoy, although not before he had said Goodbye and Namaste to all of us and shook our hands. I thought “What a pleasant politician!” (for a change!)
We stopped for sampling the river at a beautiful waterfall, one of the sites chosen by the biologists, to measure the quality of the water and biodiversity at the confluence of a small stream or tributary where it ran off the mountain and joined the Karnali at an angle. This was because by measuring the quality of a feeder stream, the quality of the main river could also be assessed, as the main river was too deep and swift flowing to make sampling effective. The small shallow stream could be tested for oxygen, acidity and up to 10 other tests, although not for bacteria, which was surprising given that villages could use the streams for human waste disposal. The water was indicative of the type of ground over which it ran, for instance it could indicate whether the ground was stable or unstable, if there had been a landslip or avalanche or flash flooding recently, or other activity. The biologists also tested for invertebrates, crabs, small fish and vegetation, all indicators of the health or otherwise of the biodiversity. The lead biologist explained to me that the samples were taken back to their laboratory and examined under a microscope. A particular type of fish, for example, would be measured for shape of fins, number of fins, shape of mouth, number of barbels, arrangement of scales etc etc. All these were indicators of the health of the ecosystem.
In the afternoon we travelled over some exhilarating rapids of Level 3+ to 4 grade. We stopped for the night in a steep rock-cliff canyon, overlooking the beach with a “washout” of cliff fall from the precipitous cliff. There were children playing on the beach. We built a fire from driftwood and went to sleep early after a tasty dinner.
The next morning Monday 15th I woke early to find mist on the hills. There were still the children playing on the beach. The sun climbed up and warmed the mist and dispersed it. We packed up leisurely as we were leaving after 10.00am, due to local interviews being undertaken by Austin, our American anthropologist, and Professor Dr Prem Sharma, a retired humanities lecturer and local government official, both of whom were taking oral evidence from local people about their thoughts on the development of the area for hydroelectricity and economic purposes. I played with and talked to the children and gave them some sweets, although Megh warned me not to get too involved as it encouraged “begging”. I was surprised that one of the boys produced a camera phone and asked to take some photos with me! The children said they went to the only school in the area, and pointed up to the top of the mountain cliff – I was aghast, as this meant at least 2 or 3 hours walk up the steep cliff.
Today was great white water rafting, we went over Jailhouse Rock and The Inversion, Grades 4+ or 5-, there were no flips and it was hugely enjoyable. The main rapids had been named with inventive names, such as God’s House, Flip and Strip, The Juicer, and others. I wondered if Megh had named the rapids himself, as he was a pioneer of white water rafting in Nepal and had been coming to the Karnali for nearly 30 years. On the itinerary it stated that other rapids were yet to be named, and in fact the rapids system changes from season to season depending on the monsoon and level of water – it is possible that some smaller rapids become much more dangerous at certain times of year.
As the sparkling waves seemed about to overwhelm the raft, the raft simply flattened out the crest of the wave and rode through it safely. The motion was very similar to that of sailing in a small yacht in choppy waters, gliding up and down smooth humps of freshwater rather than salt water. The rafts were extremely buoyant and stable, and any water on board was quickly drained by the self-bailing system. “Forward” and “Stop” were the only commands needed, apart from a very occasional “Back paddle – right or left”.
There was more sampling. I noted the rock sediment formations, how the Himalayas had been deposited in flat sediments and then lifted up wholesale to 90 degrees and compressed. I could see how the whole process had worked, from sedimentary rock to igneous and metamorphic, the rocks I noted were granite, quartzite, scheist, silica, mica, limestone, sandstone, mudstone. The striations made interesting patterns, veins of white hard quartz running through softer grey limestone and running crosswise through this. The colours ranged from jet black to pure white, through red, yellow, pink, brown, blue, purple and grey. Shapes are made by folds of layers, sometimes in a wave shape or a bubble shape, but mostly they are flat stratified levels uplifted to sharp angles.
Further downstream, the rocks were formed of sandstone, mudstone and silica; here you can see rounded river boulders that have been trapped in a later wash of sand silica, that has turned literally to glass under great heat, and the whole section has been uplifted at an angle of 45 degrees. Interspersed with these boulder levels are beds of metamorphic sandstone of thin to medium thickness, which have been formed by heat and pressure. The river flow has been so powerful that it has torn away some smaller boulders from their very hard matrix, leaving gaping sockets. Again this topography changes further downstream as we approach Chisopani. Here the river valley narrows to a gorge, making the hydraulic power of the current extremely strong. It has worn away and undercut the beds of sandstone, which have become much thicker than upstream, so that great thick slabs of sandstone have collapsed along the riverbank without the support of the softer layers below. The river has worn fantastic shapes, caused by eddies and whirlpools, making the rock surface pitted and potholed and carving strange ghoulish shapes into the flat rock. I was interested to see that these shapes were as much on the downstream side of the rock as the upstream, indicating the suction and drag effect of fast flowing water as much as the erosion of the rock on the upstream. Finally, these features were cut by tributary streams and washouts at right angles to the river, further breaking up the topography and creating a very misshapen landscape.
Our rafting settled into a daily pattern of early wake up, breakfast, washing up, packing the rafts, setting off and drifting downstream. We changed our paddling position in the raft to provide variety. We always found a nice place to stop for lunch, which was always quickly and perfectly served in the circumstances – the guides were all good cooks, porters and mostly professional rafters, and carried out their duties efficiently and politely. They contributed greatly to the overall enjoyment and atmosphere of the trip.
As we continued downstream, the rapids diminished in severity and grade but were still enough to provide exhilaration and excitement every day; we never could completely relax as we knew that a sudden unexpected surge could throw either us or the raft into the water, and we frequently were doused with very cold water just when we were warming up as the sun rose! The guides or captains of each raft were expert and knew where to steer the safest line, but if the rapids appeared too calm they sometimes steered us deliberately into a faster flowing stretch to give us more excitement. Once we went under a spectacular waterfall. Megh told us that this river was one of the very few (in the world) that provided eight days of continuous white water rafting.
The river and environment was very quiet. The valley or gorge that it had cut was so steep that mostly the cliffs descended vertically into the river, but there were some stretches where the river had carved a flat bank, and there was just enough room for a few houses to grow some vegetables or bananas on a strip of rocky land. As we drifted peacefully downstream, sometimes the small children rushed down to the river edge and shouted and waved to us, and we waved back. Sometimes we were called or shouted or whistled at but couldn’t see where the people were, they were hidden by the forest trees! Settlements were very sparse. Brahmin cows and goats were herded along the edge and we saw them coming to the river to drink. In our last 2 days as we approached Chisopani, we came across 2 villages. The first was a Magar village perched high up on the mountainside. Megh had known the people here for many years and his company had built a school in the first few years of their rafting tours there.. Megh took a group of us up to meet the villagers and headman, and see the school. We were welcomed and given chang or local beer, and watched the women thresh the newly-harvested rice that had been grown on a wider stretch of fertile flood plain that had been irrigated by a recently-built canal. They told us this was the first rice harvest for over 20 years. Other vegetables, fruit and spices were grown on this flood-plain, including potatoes, turmeric, ginger, ground nuts, bananas and peas. The village was spotlessly clean, and the houses were very neat and had recently been freshly painted for their festival. The houses were constructed of precisely-cut timber beams, as the area was densely forested and they could gather plentiful timber from their community forest. The women were well-dressed and proud, some wearing their traditional face jewellery, the men also polite and friendly.
We asked them about the proposed dam development, but were told, not surprisingly, that the locals were cynical about any economic benefits to their community, the plans for building a dam had been around for so many years and nothing had happened, and no-one had explained what any benefits to them would be. I noticed that a new road was being built at the bottom of the mountainside. But there was only one JCB, parked haphazardly, no driver in sight, and the road base was very badly leveled and incomplete. I thought that this would take many years to construct, and was symptomatic of the problems facing any construction of a road or dam in western Nepal.
The second village which we arrived at the next evening was from a different caste, and had some of the poorer people from the Dalit community. I did not go to see this village, which involved crossing the river at a wide point, but Austin and Dr Prem gathered more evidence about the locals’ thoughts on any dam proposals.
So there were three elements to the Karnali white water rafting trip. The scientific/geographical side, the political/economic side, and the tourist/sporting side.
I think this particular trip, which was sponsored and supported by many interested organizations, and which had such a high-profile political member (the Chief Minister, no less) whose concerns were with the whole region, will have been important in influencing the Nepal government about the development of hydroelectricity in Lower Karnali. If all the promised scientific and humanitarian reports, photographs and films are submitted to the appropriate departments, it is quite possible that the siting of the dam, or its size, will be reconsidered or cancelled. Certainly if a dam is to be built, its effects on the environment, on the local population and the tourist industry should be minimized and mitigated according to the conclusions of the several reports resulting from the September- October 2018 River Karnali 1st Scientific Expedition.
C. Tim Taylor Dec 2018
Associated organizations:
Nepal River Conservation Trust https://nepalrivers.org www.nrct.org.np
Waterkeeper Alliance Member https://waterkeeper.org
Karnali River Waterkeeper
Waterkeepers Nepal https://waterkeepersnepal.org
Sponsors/Supporters:
ICIMOD
Patagonia
Tiger Tops
NRS – providers of 2 new rafts
Fly Fishers International
Turkish Airlines
Yeti Airlines
Tara Air
American Whitewater
Ultimate Descents Nepal (www.udnepal.com)
Mountain People
Nature-Treks.com