Bhotekoshi River Rafting

Our trip meets at 06:00 (always make a point of checking this as it can change depending on the time of year) at our office in Thamel. Because all the restaurants are closed at that time, bring a cinnamon roll, some fruit or a large bottle of sap for breakfast. Once we have everyone collected we have short walk to our chartered bus. The bus ride takes us out of Kathmandu Valley and through rice fields and ancient town of Dhulikhel. On a clear day the entire Himalayan Range is clearly visible from the summit. From here the road drops, 1,100 meters to the village of Dolalghat on the banks of the Indrawati River. Our put in point is just below the Dam on the Upper SunKosi, 40 Kms south of the Tibetan Border. Once we arrive at the put in we have our lunch and rest for some time (we will serve lunch before the start of the rafting or after a couple of hours of rafting downstream, depending on the time). Then we unload all the gear and prepare for the Rafting cum Training Day.
Due to our concern of safety, as well as to fulfill the demands of our valued clients; have decided to have a new approach with our Rafting Services. The Bhote Kosi is not the River to take lightly.  We will teach and give instructions on the First Day of our Bhote Kosi trip, so that the rafters could have more fun and understanding of rafting skills with more satisfying experience. We consider that the rafters have to have experience of the Class 4⁺ rafting before they do the upper stretch of Bhote Kosi.

The rafting cum training starts after all the safety briefings. This is the day in which you learn about River Currents, Eddies, Whirlpool, Hydraulic Hole, Rapids; as well as Self-rescue, Flip drill, Whitewater Floating Position and more.

As our instructors are internationally qualified Rescue3International(Swift water Rescue Technician, SRT) trained river guides, you will get qualified to do rafting anywhere in the world on Class IV to V- Rapids. We are sure that the people will get an opportunity to enjoy the real savor of Rafting after increasing confidence from this Training.

After the day of Rafting & Training the team will drive to Borderlands. An evening at the Borderlands resort is the ideal preparation for the day to come.  Thatched roof safari style tents, toilets, and a massive dining hall complete with a well stocked bar, make for the perfect haven, where you can indulge in home comforts in the middle of Himalayan splendor.  An oasis, and temple of tranquility, nestled in the curves of the flowing torrents… Take in the view, fresh air, and peace that only Nature could offer. Your overnight stay will never last long enough.

In the morning everyone packs their gear and comes to breakfast where a huge pot of cowboy is waiting. Coffee not only wakes up, it also insulates us from the fear of being a sentient beings early in the morning, when the vastness of the world and the smallness of our place on it is so clearly seen.

Personal gears are loaded onto the bus, which will drive to the take-out to meet us. Before starting there is another paddling session to refresh everyone’s memory and scrape away last night fog. It’s all action today and we will have 4 to 5 hours (depends on the water level) on the river, pure whitewater all the way downstream. After a series of class 3 rapids we drop into the first class 4 drop, affectionately known as Gerbil In The Plumbing. From Gerbil there is a stretch of class 3 whitewater and then we come to crux of the day, which is a long, technical rapid called Frog in a Blender (guess who’s the frog). The guides often scout this one, as with changing water levels the ride can become well interesting. (If the water level allows us to run this rapid….) Don’t worry though; your trustworthy and stalwart safety kayaker is waiting for you at the bottom, providing of course that he isn’t still cartwheeling in one of the several hydraulic to be found along the way.

After frog things settle down for about twenty feet, and then it’s back into the soup with a long series of class 3⁺/4^– drops, which lead us into a nifty, little rapid called Carnal Knowledge of a Deviant Nature (named for the compromising position often attained after running the last drop). This gem of a rapid starts out of a long series of boulder slaloming and hole riding, and ends with the entire river rebounding off two rocks before spilling over a two meter ledge into a big soft pool.

The remaining ten kilometers of river is a non-stop series of class 3 and 4 drops terminating into short pools with the next drop just a few feet away. The river flows through a beautiful narrow canyon with lush green vegetation and waterfalls coming in from the steep stone walls. At the bottom of this stretch is a rapid called ExLax (cause people go all over the place). Just before we hit the village of Barhabise we take a break for lunch to refuel and continue our descent through the center of town and onto a short flat stretch. While most people equate flat stretches with a lessening of intensity, our raft guides know better. The reason the river is flatter here is because a side stream has deposited a huge amount of rock into the river channel, essentially making a dam, which backs the river up for a kilometer. Upon reaching the dam, the entire gradient of the last kilometer fulminates into fifty meters of incredibly steep and technical rapid, respectfully known as The Great Wall. Guides tend to smoke a lot of cigarettes in the quite stretch above The Great Wall…. The Great Wall’s one redeeming feature is that there is a pool at the bottom, because right after the pool is an incredible rapid called Liquid Bliss, which leads directly into a rapid called My God, What To Do? This is one of the most fun stretches on the river, made doubly fun by the fact that The Great Wall is behind us and lunch is ahead of us. Depending on the time we stop to have lunch after My God, What To Do?, or push on and have lunch at the takeout. Either way the trip ends with a bang on a long series of drops known as Dazed And Confused. Without a doubt this is some of the finest whitewater rafting to be had anywhere.

At the takeout the rafts are carried up and dried in a garden surrounding the Dam Keepers house at Lamosangu. From here it’s a three hours bus ride back to KTM, usually arriving around 19:00 Hrs. The 3-hour ride allows some time to rest our bodies before we reach the capital. After collecting valuables, and having a shower or some more rest, we often gather for dinner and drinks at a favorite restaurant in Thamel, to recount the trip highlights.