NGK - Getting This Show on the Road!

After rolling back into Kathmandu to pick up zeee Amurrrican friends, Christie and I got wind from Inka that the Nepali Girls had already started training for the program. So we met them at the city pool (I reckon there's only one) to help out for a day before heading back to Pokhara.

Getting to meet the girls was amazing... of the eight working hard at the pool when we got there, only three were fully comfortable in water. Sylvia, their swim coach and a badass climber chick from Sweden, gave us the low down on the swimming situation and let us take the group for a bit to introduce them to the kayaks. FIRST TIME IN A KAYAK! Waaaaa! It was also the first time the girls had used life jackets, so we did a few laps warming up to the big floatation things. Being at the pool all afternoon really gave me new perspective on the audacity of this project. Here we have some girls who can barely swim, completely committed to the core, working their asses off for the chance to be a raft guide/safety kayaker.

Swimming with Buoyancy Aids

From NEPAL 2008

These women are fearless. With Slyvia's consul they spot each other swimming laps... some of them are swimming laps while we're drinking tea. You gotta want it to win it and these girls want it bad.

Anyway the kayaks were a huge hit---and Christie and I were both able to concur that there's a pool of hidden talent in these petite-framed women. We saw a few naturals who fell in love with the boats. They went in time and time again... and their enthusiasm has definitely given me a fresh drive to maximize my time here.

From NEPAL 2008

From NEPAL 2008

So there you have it... the modest beginnings... the baby steps of NGK. Thank you thank you thank you to those who donated their equipment or money -- it's definitely going to a fantastic project. Aaaaand for those of you with heavy pockets, it's not too late to shell out a little love :) see here

More to come! Next time we see the girls is at the PeakUK Whitewater Challenge in a few weeks on the Trisuli River. Get ready to rock rock. For now I'm off to do Modi Khola and Kali Gandaki for 4-5 days with the crew.... we've done heaps of other rivers but I seem to have acquired a virus (actually like 12) on my memory card so those photos are hostage until I find a computer with good anit-virus software. More trip reports pending. Over and out. Give the 'Po my love!

OK! So the goods are coming in... Nepal is a world-class kayak destination, no doubt. I was lucky enough to rally with the Scottish and English crew up to the Modi Khola and it was definitely the best trip yet. Quality low volume technical whitewater, not unlike what we have on the East Coast at home. Except for it's like 70K and there's fantastic food and sleepings all along the way.

We left Pokhara at dawn's asscrack and started the one-day trek in the Anapurna Sanctuary up to the river with our trusty porters. The porters are amazing... small statured, but far more athletic than they let on. For about $7 per day these super-heros in disguise will lug your boat to the moon and back. We rolled into a tea house just as dark was setting in, indulged in dalbhhat, fended off some abnormally large insects, and hit the hay for the wild river on Day 2.

Beautiful Trekking!

From NEPAL 2008

Sneaking in before Dark

From NEPAL 2008

Day 2 we finished the trek to the put-in, which coincidentially is at the largest sieve I have ever seen. Observe with horror, nearly 2/3 of the river spirals down this thing.

SIPHON!!!!! aaaaah!

From NEPAL 2008

Simon lines up for the flume.... the boys ran the upper mank, meeting us at the bridge for more fun.

From NEPAL 2008

The rest of Day 2 was a little hellacious... we had a bit of an 'epic' early on... but managed to recover alright and continue on down for camp, where we reunited with the friend who had opted to walk out. Camp was fantastic. This is the secret to why Nepal is so great... is you can paddle sick-wicked-nasty whitewater all day, then pull over in a village and sleep in a warm bed [of varying quality] and stuff yourself full of as much food as you can afford. In the morning, it's wash, rinse, repeat.

We started paddling the next day as early as possible to try and catch the rest of the group (we were pretty big so we split up at first). We ended up passing them at their camp and then finding them later on when we were scouting something. The second day on the river was much closer to what we anticipated, strong Class IV eddy-hopping bliss.

Tim Burne is lovin' it!

From NEPAL 2008

With our massive crew of 10 finally re-united we sped off to the dam and took out. I carried on with the English to run the Lower Modi Khola... just a little easier and wider open than the Upper and it was definitely worth it. We rode the bus roof all the way back to Pokhara... feasted on massive $3 buffalo steaks, had too many beers, and then conked out. Such a good trip... I'm lovin' it! I'll definitely be back to this one when Christie and Andy get back to town, yeeeeehaw!

World Series Race at ASCI

One of the World Series races for slalom was held at ASCI about a week ago. It was incredible being able to watch and race against some of the best slalom paddlers in the world. Here's a video of some of the insane paddlers that competed at the US World Series race.

Jordan P