White water rafting down Trisuli River

The Trisuli at our out-in point
see all photos »

After a bus ride to the rafting put-in point, our Raft Captain, Indra, gave us a short safety briefing before setting off. Beautiful mountain views surrounded us in a narrow valley while water violently rushed over the rocks in the river. We started out on some small rapids just to get the hand of things. In a matter of minutes, we were soaking wet.

Our first real rapid was called "Lady's Delight". It was exciting as our zodiac crashed through the waves, creating a shower of white foam. There were other rapids like "Surprise", and "Upset", which was the most violent rapid on this section of the river. I thought I was going to fall out.

Our rafting crew
see all photos »

My favorite rapids however, were the "Swimming" rapids because it was safe enough to jump out of the zodiac and swim through the rapid. The current was very forceful, but it wasn't dangerous because there weren't any rocks. The rapids on this river are only graded about a 3 on the international scale of 1 to 5.

After about 3 hours of rafting, a total of 20km, we stopped along a beautiful white sandy beach for camp. Our camping crew already had our tents and everything set up when we arrived. Sitting on the rocks, you could hear the river rushing by and crashing against the rocks along the shore. Thick dense forests cover the mountain side, where small little houses sit, perched above their terraced farms. Goats can be seen scaling the mountain as they search for food.

Our zodiac and meal tent
see all photos »

On the second day of rafting, the river narrowed and passed through some beautiful gorges. The temperature was really hot so it felt nice getting wet going through the rapids. Today was also "Pushing" day in that our Raft Captain, Indra, pushed us into the river whether we liked it or not.

Floating with the current down the river, I could look up towards the mountains from the lowest view point and see lush forests and riverbanks covered with tall trees and clinging vines. We even saw some monkeys near the water's edge.

We stopped for a picnic lunch on a secluded white sandy beach that glistened like a silver blanket in the sun. Before reaching camp, I floated though another Swimming rapid and then swam to the campsite afterwards. it was harder than it looked as I struggled to swim across the current to reach the shore. This is as far as we go with the raft. We traveled about 30 km today.

After dinner, we had a campfire and our crew sang traditional Nepali songs to us. Because it was such a clear night, Jessica and I decided to sleep outside of the tent and on the beach. The stars were so bright, you could reach out and touch them. In the morning, we packed up, said goodbye to the rafting crew and were on our way to Chitwan National Park.