SAMAYA x NOURIA NEWMAN

 

 

In December 2023, Nouria Newman and her kayaking acolytes Sergei Ilin and Kristof Stursa traveled to Nepal to descend three mythical rivers. Nouria recounts their journeys by bus, their unexpected encounters and Nepal's tumultuous waters.

 

"The idea was to go to Nepal in the autumn to descend the rivers considered to be great classics: Thuli Bheri, Karnali and the Dudh Kosi. The Dudh Kosi is the only one I had already partially packrafted the previous autumn.

 

Together with our Russian buddies Sergei and our Austrian friend Christophe, we wanted to get a clearer idea of river morphology and gradient profiles in relation to flow rates and catchment areas. For me, it was a question of getting to know these key rivers, before potentially going out to discover new things.

 

As a trio, we were able to do Thuli Bheri and Karnali, and then I did the Dudh Kosi solo. It's a fine Nepalese trilogy, known as the "Triple Crown" in the kayaking world, in reference to the pioneers who established the first triplet in British Columbia and Alaska with the mythical descents of Stikine, Susitna and Alsek.

 

It's always hard to decide which rivers to make. Let's say the first two were obvious. Thuli Bheri is the most beautiful to navigate, certainly the least hard of the three, but the most qualitative. It's 5 really continuous days of great beauty. Karnali descends from Mount Caillage in Tibet and is of great importance. Dudh Kosi is known as the unforgiving Everest River, with previous generations of kayakers attempting to "conquer" it by starting from the highest altitude and unleashing unthinkable canyons... The 1990's topo described it as a rock-infested, bad-rock channel with rotten rapids. I wanted to restore the river's image, by making the section the most practicable and the most fun.

 

Historically, it's interesting, it's a beautiful place and it's pretty crazy. The contrast between the top of this river in the Kombu, with all the trekkers, a completely over-frequented area, and then the descent of the river where there's no one left, where everything is wild and you can't refuel when you want to.

 

In addition to the trilogy, we imposed on ourselves the constraint of making it as cleanly as possible. Instead of flying, we did it all by bus. This allowed us to discover the country better, at a slower pace. Public transport is always a bit of a hassle. There's always a bus, but you don't know when it's leaving or when it's arriving. Sometimes the journey will take an extra day or two. Sometimes the driver will stop the bus in one place and decide that we're all sleeping here. We've experienced some pretty incredible things: in France, when people throw plastic bags out of the window, you're disgusted. Here, when Nepalese people throw up in their plastic bags and throw them out of the window, you're very happy it's not on your feet. We ended up with babies in our arms and chickens on our laps. It was quite funny and at the same time very uncomfortable. The trip was more tiring than the days on the water in a kayak.

 

Once the bus journey was over, we thought we'd find some peace and quiet away from the crowds, but we were surprised to come across so many people on the way down Thuli Bheri and Karnali.

 

We managed to get through the first two rivers without a hitch, happy to be paddling through such beautiful rapids and spectacular scenery. We often found ourselves close to villages, and soon found ourselves with all the locals visiting us. This was both great because the youngsters were attracted and intrigued by the kayaks, but at the same time quite complicated because we had very few moments of peace and quiet and therefore little rest.

 

Once the first two rivers had been completed, we headed back to Kathmandu and I left myself two or three days of respite and rest before continuing with my solo descent of the Dudh Kosi. Despite its tarnished reputation, I loved it! With a trickier section between Basa and Waku, the descent was more challenging and expedition-style than on the previous two rivers. This time, I had looked at the satellite images and maps upstream to be able to bivouac in isolated, quiet canyon areas under the TARP Samaya. I was able to enjoy the calm of the place and complete this "Triple Crown" as I wished."

 

Photos by Kristof Stursa