Karnali River

I want to say that this was the best time ever, but I can't. Everything else was so awesome as well. The Karnali is the longest river in Nepal. This time of year it was the best to raft by far. We spent 10 days rafting and camping out in the middle of western Nepal. We were 18 hours of driving from any civilization.

10 nights camping along the Karnali were some of the most peaceful nights of my life. We would wake up at 7 each morning eat our breakfast then get in the water. We would raft for 3 hours or so then have a lunch break for an hour. After lunch we would paddle for another hour or two. We'd get to a perfect sandy beach set up camp, then gorge ourselves at dinner. By 8pm you would be laying in the sand looking up at all the stars. We were in the middle of no where. The only people we saw were the villagers who have never left the countryside. Sometimes the kids would paddle makeshift canoes over to our campsite and play Frisbee or football with us (soccer). The whole experience was so surreal.

All this being said the actual rafting was a rush. We would go through rapids getting smothered by waves. I got thrown out twice. The second time was because the entire raft flipped. Everybody went. It was actually really scary. It reminded me how small I am compared to the forces of mother nature. In a matter of seconds we were all spread across the river getting thrown into boulders. It was one of those things where at the time it was not fun, but after it was all over you look back and say "hell yes that was sweet". One of the days we stopped a village and bought a goat. The guides butchered it up and cooked it up for dinner. There was not a lot of meat on it, but the taste was alright. Another night we bought some chickens and did the same thing. The chicken tasted a little better, but the goat was better than you would have thought.

It was such a great experience seeing the untouched countryside of Nepal. To see all the kids in the villages come running after our raft screaming random English words they knew was just priceless. This coupled with the white waters and peaceful nights is pretty much perfect. I can't wait to go back.