Images From India

Graham Bland

In March 2008 twelve of us embarked on a mini-adventure to paddle in the Indian Himalayas – targeting areas that see few  tourists, yet alone paddlers. The trip was arranged by Mark Rainsley (big thanks) and the group comprised Mark and Heather, Chas Couchman, Oliver Renison, Liz Garnet, Claire Cheong-Leen, Andy Newell, Andy Levick, Dave Hodgkinson, Simon Knox, Dave Surman and myself

A selection of images tells the story

Day 1 Rishikesh and the Ganges

Flying Gulf Air, with ‘frequent flyer’ membership we had 30kg. But, with creek boats and camping kit this wasn’t enough. We hadn’t warned them of the boats but, thanks to some broken scales and a bit of good luck, we sailed through check in and were off the ground at 09:30

We arrived in Delhi early morning, loaded up a couple of mini buses and drove north to Rishikesh. It was the day after Holy Day, the festivities were still in swing and it looked as though we had arrived in an India partaking of a national paint-ball fight. A warm-up paddle on the Ganges, big Grade 3+ waves  from Shivpuri to Rishikesh.

Rishikesh is a Yoga capital with many western hippies (we could even get Pizza!)

Day 2: A long Drive

A morning spent wandering around the town re-familiarising ourselves with India and then we drove up the Ganges and Alaknanda valleys, 7 hours driving and we were too late to paddle and so found a hotel at Karnprayag

Day 3: Pindar

We paddled the Pindar (a tributary of the Alaknanda). A 7 hour paddle of approx. 30km from Naranaybagar to Simli. Beautiful grade 3 and 4 rapids.

Towards the end of the day we were detained by a group of Park officials (that looked like military types). They didn't know what to do with us but Mark finally negotiated a temporary truce and we were on our way.

A load of park officials were there to greet us when we arrived at the get out at dusk - more phone calls and debate

Day 4-6: Alaknanda

The following morning dozens of Park officials turned up at our hotel to extract a hefty 'official fine' from us. (5000 rupees).Then we headed up to Chamoli where we loaded boats (which took a while for the first 'multi-day') and headed off down the upper Alaknanda. The three day paddle down to Rudraprayag gave us plenty of Grade 4 rapids with a mix of big-water paddling and tight technical gorge runs. We camped the first night near Nandprayag (opposite a funeral Pyre) and the following night at a beautiful beach somewhere downstream of Karnprayag where we watched monkey antics as the sun set

Day 7: Mandakini

The Mandakini gave us around 20km of grade 3 to 4+ entertainment

Throughout the trip we also provided entertainment for the locals who lined the bridges and banks whenever we passed a village

Day 8 Driving to Barkot

A 7 hour drive to Barkot - a distance of approx 100kms – which gives some indication of the state of the mountain roads!

Day 9: The Yamuna Gorges

A long climb with the boats down the terraces saw us on the upper Yamuna, for 5 hours of continuous Grade 4+/5 steep creeking down to Kuthnur

Day 10/11: The Tons

Paddled the upper Tons from the confluence with the Rupin River. Approx. 15kms of powerful Grade 4+ with volume and gradient. We saw our first poor weather with thunder, lightning and cold rain.  We hooked up with the vans and drove a few kms south of Mori to camp by the river.

The following day we paddled the lower Tons from Mori to Tiuni. We anticipated a rest day of grade 2/3 However, no rest – we paddled 30kms over 6 ½ hrs and the last 15kms proved an endless array of technical rapids ranging from Grade 4-4+, including one big 5. There were 8(!) swims on this trip which ended in thunder and rain.

Day 12/13: The Sutlej

We drove across the 3000m pass to Rampur, a town on the mighty Sutlej River. We loaded up and launched in the afternoon downstream of Rampur,  surviving a few big rapids before a delightful campsite

Our last day on the rivers - a long 8 hour day of paddling  big water pool drop Grade 4 with huge wave trains and some amazing gorges. A Dhal lunch at a village on the way kept the energy levels up. The owner of a little chai house beside the road at the get out agreed to make us egg curry and Chapattis

Day 14: Shimla

We spent a day in Shimla chilling with hot showers and good food at this colonial hill station. Here we saw our first non-Asian faces in over a week, giving some idea of how off the beaten track we'd been.

Day 15 - a 12 hour drive back to Delhi for our flight home the following morning.

Costs

Remarkably, the whole adventure cost around £850 (including flights) - Flights = £418, hire of bus and driver £247, Cash <£200. Admittedly we lived frugally (although there wasn't really any opportunity to spend). When we didn't camp we stayed at the best hotels in town (at £3 or £4 per night) and there's only so much you can spend on noodles!

A sad note to end

The future of kayaking in this region Is bleak – hydro projects are springing up everywhere. We checked out the Bhagirathi (which joins the Alaknanda to form the Ganges) only to find that the river is already lost to hydro projects. Within a few short years the Alaknanda and the Yamuna will suffer the same fate – all are holy rivers (but that doesn’t seem to matter a dam) – excuse the pun

Graham B