Photo: Zak Shaw
The Pindar River was undoubtedly the highlight of the India adventure, and as we were now close to the Nepal border, plus the driver (and van) was beginning to show signs of breaking down, we opted to call an end to the India leg and move on to Nepal. JJ, Toby, Will, Isaac and Cooper would jump on a bus to Pokhara, Nepal, and Kev would travel with the van back to Haridwar and then on to Delhi and home.
Photo: JJ Shepherd
Photo: JJ Shepherd
Photo: Will Stubblefield
Photo: Will Stubblefield
Photo: Will Stubblefield
Isaac, looking stylish as ever, enjoying the sweet lines of the Gauri Ganga. Moustache glistening.
Cooper's scary cave eddy 1.
Cooper's scary cave eddy 2.
Cooper's scary cave eddy 3.
The run was spectacular-long rapids with just the right gradient, scattered with large boulders, forming hundreds of perfect boof-pourovers, and fast chutes. We were cruising down the valley at high speed, with only 2 or 3 stops to bank scout in over 25km of class 3+ to 4+ whitewater, soaking up the last of the delights the Indian whitewater was going to give us on this trip.
The warm spring, under our camp-spot, cascading into the glacial water of the Gauri Ganga. Photo, JJ. 
JJ getting the mo shaped at the mo-stylist.
Our next river trip was the Alaknanda, on the way to the Pindar river. We did a short (17km) section that ends at a rapid named Hillary’s step, after Sir Ed’s last trip to the Himalaya, where he took a jet boat up the Alaknanda as far as this rapid. 
The run was fantastic. Big and bouncy, fast class 4. We paddled 17km in about an hour and a half! The perfect break in the drive to the Pindar.
Shalab had given us a detailed description of the logistics and route for a 3 or 4 day trip on a river called the Pindar. It drains the Pindari Glacier and the valley is one of the last major drainages in Uttarachand to see roads and other modern infrastructure. Because of the lack of roads, it requires a 20km trek along the popular Pindari Glacier trekking route, from the road end at Lokharket, up and over the Dhakuri Kal Pass and down to the Pindar river. Shalab had described the route they had taken a few years ago, and suggested that we may be able to drive further than they had, but we quickly realised that we were in for a much longer walk!
Predictably, the road was destroyed by landslides, even before we could get to Lokharket, so we loaded our boats with gear and food for 3 days, and began the long, steep climb up the old road to Sog, where we were told we could arrange porters. We arrived late in the afternoon, and seemingly, our state of exhaustion provoked the local porter hustler to up the prices by about 300%. Harry, the porter hustler, invited us to his “restaurant” for dahl and chapattis, and we could talk about the price more then. His “restaurant” was his house, and it measured about 3m by 3m. His wife was cooking over a wood fire in the middle of the room and the lack of a chimney created a completely unbearable atmosphere. We sat outside. The grand price of 1000 Rupees, plus food, was agreed upon for a porter to carry an empty kayak over the pass and down to the river. We would meet at Harry’s at 7:30 for breakfast and head off soon after, with the porters that he would find in the morning.
We woke in a stunning position, high on the ridge, with a group of Nepali porters, eagerly asking for work. They offered their services for 600 Rupees (NZ$17). We still dined at Harry’s restaurant, but ditched the porter hustler in favour of the Nepalis, who are famed for their legendary carrying skills and mountain fitness.
We had climbed 500m the previous day, which left us a 1200m climb up to the Dhakuri Kal pass (2932m). The trail was a beautifully constructed pathway that had obviously been used for centuries. Our pace, with camping gear, kayaking gear and food, was about the same as our porters, and once we’d settled into the pace, the trek became less of a slog, and we began to thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and clean air of the mountains. 
The pass was a welcome sight, and once refreshed we headed down the steep slopes of the Pindar valley at double speed. Our porters still had to walk home!
We camped on a flat paddock next to the river, close to the village of Dhakuri, about 3km downstream of the confluence of the Sunderdhunga Gad and the Pindar river. The water was the clearest green we had seen in India, and the flow looked great.
We slept like babies and woke early, with the usual crowd of onlookers, who observed our every move, as we made breakfast and prepared to get on the water. JJ had done some Google Earth scouting, and clocked the gradient of this river section at about 30m/km for the first 20km or so. This type of scouting is notoriously inaccurate, but the whitewater was just what we had hoped for. 
Beautifully formed rapids, with clean water and just the right gradient to allow boat scouting, yet still provide fun and interesting moves.
Great class 3+/4 read and run medium volume creeking with a few beefier class 4+ drops entertained us all day. 
The valley is sparsely populated, with only a few footpaths and 3 or 4 foot-bridges, so we saw very few people, and the usual river bank decorations of litter and shredded clothes were not visible here. 
We found ourselves scouting a much steeper section, late in the afternoon, and tried estimating our travel distance. We decided we had most likely paddled about 20km, and since the next section was going to take some time we opted to set camp.
We found a perfect, small sandy beach, surrounded by huge boulders about 10m from the river, at the top of the steep section. After clearing the tiger/leopard risk by lighting some highly suspect firecrackers, we settled into one of the best camp spots of all time. 
In the morning, we scouted the next section and decided that the first waterfall (right next to camp) was the only one we could safely do, for the first few hundred meters. 
The portaging was not challenging, so we found ourselves back on the water very quickly.
More high quality class 4 boat scouting and short mini gorges carried us quickly downstream. The gradient slackened off, but our pace remained fast, with swift class 3 wavetrains and no need to stop.
The fun was endless, but we were all eagerly hoping to see our take-out (Laxman and the van), before dark. We had planned for 3 days, so our food supply was a little low and another night out would be a hungry one if we could not find a village where we could buy supplies. Fortunately we came across a small village where we bought eggs, rice and onions-perfect!
Our camp was on the main path of the hay collectors, bringing straw and hay back from the meadows to the village. We were visited by a few friendly local kids and presumably gave the whole town much to talk about for a few days.
In the morning we drifted downstream, to find more stunningly beautiful whitewater. Not challenging, but enjoyable and moving quickly.
When we eventually saw the van parked next to the river at Pulwara, we were weary, but still enjoying the river. We had paddled about 45km of some of the best whitewater in Uttarakhand.
The Pindar is one of the classiest river trips I’ve ever done, and has to be one of the World’s best multi-day kayaking adventures. Unfortunately there is a road being build into the upper part of the valley, to allow the construction of a hydro-electric dam, so the river’s days are numbered. Next year it may be possible to drive to the put-in, but in 2 years, the Pindar River will be gone.
This is a sad realisation, but we all felt lucky to have had the chance to get on this classic river. It may have only had 2 kayak descents, but hopefully it will see a few more before it’s dammed.
Photo's to follow...!!!
Bagirathi River.
The Bagirathi River is joined by many tributaries to form the Ganges River, which is the holiest river in India. The Bagirathi emerges from the Gaumukh (Cow’s Mouth) on the Gangotri Glacier. Unfortunately, a large hydro dam was built 3 years ago, which has flooded a huge section of presumably good whitewater. The Theri dam is the largest dam in India, and has displaced thousands of people. It holds enough water that that if it were to break, the entire city of Delhi would be destroyed. Upstream of the dam the river is big and steep.
We did our grocery shopping in a small dusty town, and luckily found a shop called “the English Wine Shop”. Since we had not touched alcohol for a week, we grabbed a 12 pack of the best beer (the only beer) they had to offer. 8% alcohol, syrupy sweet, and it comes in 1 litre bottles. It didn’t take long to polish the case off, and it seemed only right to break into the last bottle of duty free. A bottle of Tequila later, we were merrily rocking it out to loud Hindi music, cruising through the mountains, blissfully unaware of the dangers of the fragile road, broken and narrow, with crazy drivers in big trucks.
We woke next to the river (and road) with slightly fuzzy heads, loaded the van and drove up the valley looking for a put-in. The river section we were passing looked just perfect. Large volume, and continuous. Big, bouncy class 3-4 with long wave trains and great looking play spots. Exactly what the Doctor ordered!
We found a put in at a bridge, which crossed the river in the middle of an amazing looking class 4+ rapid. We just couldn’t wait to get on the water.
Once we put on we realised that the river was much pushier than we had thought! The waves were much bigger and the holes much scarier than they had looked from the road…Mostly still read and run-able, but powerful and fast, with boils and whirlies, exploding waves and haystacks. Hangovers were gone instantly in the crisp, cold, glacial melt water.
The river is wide, and busy. Early on in the trip I accidentally dropped into a hole that I thought was going to give me the thrashing of my life, but fortunately I simply melted down under it and resurfaced 5m meters downstream of it, with enough time to put 2 or 3 paddle strokes in to avoid another monster hole. Some of the others had seen this happen, so took a long, hard look at the rapid before running it. All got sweet lines and made it look easy! I learned my lesson and took a much more cautious approach for the rest of the day.
The whitewater was excellent. Very continuous, and powerful. No portaging and some of the best water that most of us had ever been on. The Bagirathi is a must do trip for any class 4 and 5 kayakers who visit this area of India. 
As the Bagirathi is the source of the Ganges, there are many small temples and shrines here. 
As with the other valleys we had been in, the Bagirathi has been ravaged by landslides this year. We passed through a small town that had lost quite a few buildings, and witnessed some amazing feats of road building over extremely unstable, often actively moving landslides. We were all far more terrified of the driving than the whitewater!
With no other safe option we camped under a cliff that looked less likely to collapse than the landslide debris, on small ledge where we found enough wood to light a fire. Our Van driver chose the spot to light the fire with care-a pool of tar, that quickly lit and added some great fuel to the scarce wood!
In the morning, we drove further up the valley, in search of more whitewater. After paying off the Police, we found that the whitewater was a bit too crazy for us, and at the same time we realised that the road was getting too dangerous too. We turned around and headed back down the valley pleased to have escaped without falling off the road. We chose a section of river that looked a little juicier than the previous day’s section, and arranged to meet Laxman about 6km downstream at the site of another large landslide. 
This section turned out to be a very similar style of paddling to the previous days, with a couple of huge rapids with big lines and big holes. 
We had done 2 sections- from Helgi to Pala, and from Bhatwari to just upstream of Maneri, and left the valley feeling energised and excited, although a little concerned for the future of the river as the signs of the Uttarakand Hydro-electric Company were everywhere.
Seemingly, our driver was scared off by the Bagirathi driving and bailed on us. He was replaced by another, who lacked the dynamism of the original. He fell asleep at the wheel within an hour of picking us up and crashed into an oncoming vehicle (luckily we didn’t end up in the Thieri Dam). He got a bit of a slapping from the driver of the other vehicle, until JJ stepped in and calmed the situation down. JJ then took over the driving!
The next Valley to the East is the Alaknanda, which is where Shalab, India’s most famous whitewater kayaker lives. Shalab had organised our vehicle and driver and is also Laxman’s boss. He owns a little piece of Heaven on the bank of the Alaknanda, near Rudraprayag, where visiting kayakers and other tourists can escape from the madness of India and relax in luxury. We bee lined it to Shalab’s place!
See www.kayakindia.com for Shalab’s place!
Shalab gave us a good rundown of the runs to do and the runs that need to be done. We headed up the Mandakini, which is the biggest tributary of the Alaknanda, to do a deep gorge that Shalab had run in the past, plus a 6km steeper section above that had not yet been paddled. In total this would be a 26km run with a total elevation loss of about 550m.
We arrived at our put, just downstream of Sonprayag and began sorting gear for an overnight. We were quickly approache by the local dam construction workers who brought it to our attention that the river had been diverted into a tunnel, just around the corner from where our gear explosion was progressing.
The dam was in the early stages of construction, and every drop of water was diverted away, leaving a completely dry river bed for us to portage through, for the first half km or so of the trip. A weird beginning to a great trip.
The gorge we had dropped into was steep and boulder choked. We portaged quite a bit, but also ran some great drops and enjoyed the remoteness of the gorge-away from the dust and noise of the roads.
The gradient slackened off a little, and we began looking for a camp spot. Lemurs ran through the trees, and kingfishers flew overhead. After exploring a few terrible looking camp sites, we stumbled upon a riverside cricket pitch, which was presumably the only flat spot for miles around, so the local kids had set it up as a cricket field. 
They greeted us with loud shouts of “Welcome to India!”, “What’s your name?!”, etc. and after losing their cricket ball, decided that it way more fun to play with the kayaker’s gear!
The kids left before dark and we enjoyed the well cared-for grass and flat sleep spots, cooked up some rice and dahl for tea, and slept like babies. Breakfast was done quickly and we put on the river around 9.30. 
The Mandakini grew in volume and the gradient stabilised to produce some excellent read and run (blind bomb) class 4 with a few class 5’s thrown in for good measure. The water remained interesting and enjoyable for the entire day with only 1 portage (Coop, Toby and Will ran everything).
We reached our take-out at Kund Chatti weary and hungry, but charged by such a good trip. Unfortunately, this was most likely the last descent of the upper Mandakini, as the dam will be complete later this year and the river will be gone for ever.
