Pain, Panni and Panadol - Kayaking the Alaknanda

The trusty Mahindra Maxx

Mumbai to Rishikesh was easier than I remembered.  My delayed flight out of Mumbai connected perfectly with the flight to Dehradun where I was met by Puran, my driver and Laxman, one of the guides. In under an hour after arriving at Dehradun I was sitting in Laxman Julla enjoying Dahl Makhani and Dum Aloo before returning to my hotel for a well-earned night’s sleep.

The confluence of the Bhagrathi and Alaknanda, the
two tributaries to the Ganga at Devaprayag

The next day involved a quick run down the Ganga above Rishikesh to test my sore ribs.  I had damaged the cartilage in my ribs kayaking at the white water course in Al Ain three weeks earlier and I was still sore.  My condition had improved,  I could now cough and sneeze without it feeling like my ribs were breaking but I was still worse for wear.  Somewhat surprisingly I was initially able to perform my all paddle strokes with minimal discomfort which was a good sign.  However, as we proceeded further down the run, my ribs became very sore.  At this point, I was thinking that the whole trip was a bad idea!

A chai break while enjoying the morning sun.

After the short run, it was decision time as we were scheduled to drive about 5 hours up the valley to the Alaknanda River that affternoon.  In the end, I decided that, rather than cancelling, Panadol and Diclofencac were in order for our long afternoon journey.  I washed  the tablets down with a big can of HTFU (Harden The F—K Up) and loaded into the Mahindra Maxx jeep for the bouncy drive to Shivanandi Lodge, just to the north of Rudrapayrag on the Alaknanda River. On the way we picked up our second guide, Ayodhya, at Srinigar.  We arrived at Shivanandi just before sundown with me nursing my sore ribs.

Breakfast at Shivandi. Fresh curd, millet, pomegranate,
jaggery, hummus and freshly baked sour dough!

 

Shivanandi Lodge is run by Salib, a local Indian kayaker, and his Israeli wife.  It is in a beautiful position on the Alaknanda, just above the high water mark from the tragic 2013 floods.  It is constructed using local materials in a traditional style and is "off the grid".  They have an amazing fresh water pool with a reed bed and waterfall which filters and aerates the water.  Solar lights and solar hot water were in all the rooms and the kitchen was "pure veg". They even have a yoga hall!

Our first run was an easy section of over 20 km from Karanpayrag to Ratura.  We were joined by the team from Shivanandi Lodge and we completed the section in about four hours with the occasional stop to surf some waves. The sun was out and the weather was beautiful.

As with last year, I used De-N-Ascent for the guiding and logistics.  They were flexible and were able to quickly put together a customised itinerary to match my ambitions. Ayodhya and Laxman were both very capable guides.  They knew the rivers well and they had very good skills.  Ayodhya works in Switzerland over the European summer and has been very well trained over the years and his English was excellent.

Ayodhya in action

  

The next day we broke camp and said goodbye to the folks at Shivanandi and drove to Nandprayag to do the run down to Karanpayrag (payrag means confluence).  I was in more of a rhythm and we completed the grade 2-3 run of 18 km run in two and a half hours.  In fact, I felt so good that we considered running it again but Ayodhya suggested that the lower Pindar River may be a better option.

..... and Laxman

At this point, I need to put in a word about our driver Puran. After living in India for four years and doing a lot of travel in India before, during and after this period, I have seen more than a few drivers.  He is hands down the best I have travelled with.  At no point did I feel uncomfortable or nervous despite the serpentine mountain roads which we shared with any number of crazy drivers.  What makes him even better is that he knows all the put-in and pull-out points and then follows us along the river, stopping at viewing points to check on progress and take some photos before being waved on!

Some spectators from one of the many suspension bridges over the Alaknanda

The prospect of a different river was interesting so we quickly loaded the boats and drove the 12 km to the first available put-in.  The Pindar River valley was tighter and the river had a lower volume, greater gradient and was more technical.  It was a great run and I felt the flow return as I eddy hopped my way with greater fluency down the river. I was enjoying it so much that I stopped noticing my ribs. Alternately, it could have been the 250mg of Diclofeanc combined with the 1625 mg of Panadol I had taken over the previous 6 hours.

Locals washing clothes while their water buffalo has a swim.  It became quite agitated when I came close!
Attacked by a water buffalo while white water kayaking would look stupid on an insurance claim.



We paddled down to the confluence of the Pindar and the Alaknanda at Karanpayrag and loaded the boats for the drive to Chamoli, the put-in point for our last section of the Alaknanda.  We pulled out in a large eddy where a couple of Nepali families were working breaking the river stones into gravel with hammers.  The aggregate was then sorted into different sizes for use on road construction and maintenance by the Border Roads Organisation.  It is always jarring when you see men, women and children working hard to earn a few hundred rupees a day to feed themselves, particularly when you are doing something as pointless a kayaking rivers.

Our pull out at Karanpayrag with the Nepalese families hard at work.

We stayed at a local hotel and enjoyed some tandoori chicken at a small food stall across the road.  While the food was good, the owner was drunk.  He was sitting next to us drinking with a friend and proceeded to engage me in conversation throughout the meal.  I would like to say it was pleasant but it wasn’t.  No doubt he was trying to practice his English but there was an edge to the conversation that I just can’t quite define.  Despite the best efforts of the junior kitchen boy to distract him, he was relentless.

Punching a hole on the Alaknanda

We were met that night by Salib, the owner of Shivanandi Lodge.  He wanted to join us for the run but also wanted to try to find a paddle he had lost on the Nankini, a tributary to the Alanknanda, the previous month.  He needed to drive about 10km to visit some villages and then return so he left at 6 am and we agreed to wait until 10 am before setting off.  Unfortunately, he didn’t make the rendezvous time and we needed to complete the run then drive the 6 hours to Rishikesh, so we set off without him. Although he missed out on the trip, he found his paddle in a village but it took much longer than expected. 

Working my way down Hillary Falls

The run was Grade 3 to easy Grade 4 and we scouted a few of the rapids on foot. This wasn’t required on the previous sections as we were able to scout from the boats. Ayodhya and Laxman commented on the changing nature of the river since the big flood of 2013.  It seemed that many small river stones from the tributaries have been swept into the river reducing some of the drops.  In addition, the flood waters had moved a number of large boulders that shaped the rapids.  Given the flood waters had swept away steel Bailey bridge spans, the base of which were 10 metres above the current water level, it was hardly surprising that the river had changed form.

Always an interesting pull-out point

We completed the run in about 2.5 hours finishing with the Hillary rapid at Chamoli.  This was the impassable point that Big Ed had reached in Hamilton jets boat in the 1977 expedition to travel from the sea as far as possible up the Ganga.  It was a fitting way to finish my few days paddling.  Now it was just 6 bouncy hours in a rough riding Mahindra with my sore ribs to get back to Rishikesh. At least I was able to replace the Panadol with a dose of satisfaction.