Shakka Lakka BOOM!

Birat (pronounced Biraj) calls us in the evening and says we need to leave early as there is an impending strike tomorrow. We arrange to meet at 6.30am on Lazimpat (as the bus can't get down these tiny lanes). I'm feeling nervous as the Bhote Koshi has a challenging reputation, graded between 4 and 5 (5 being the maximum). There have been accidents here and I asked Birat about what happened to the tourists who were killed. Birat says it is unfair on the industry that the truth of the story is not being told. He says they were Israeli, and had been told NOT to jump in the whitewater. There are places to swim and the guide will tell you when it safe. The Israeli's did not listen. They jumped in regardless and all were drowned. A rescue and recovery was launched by the embassy. Not sure they ever found the bodies.
The bus is a pink stripey affair, loaded up with all the rafting gear and the team who will be taking care of us for the next day or two. We are all half asleep and find ourselves a double seat each. The kids snooze while Lee and I watch the changing landscape as we leave the crowded city heading east past Baktapur, and through beautiful countryside towards the Tibetan border.
We stop for daalbhaat and after a 3 ½ journey reach our first put in point. We are starting on the lower part of the Bhote Koshi, to help us find our feet and so our amazing guide, Dil, can work on our paddle skills and assess whether we can take on the upper part of the river tomorrow. Alot of less professional companies are known for starting straight at the top, which hits whitewater from the second after the put in. My fears are allayed very quickly. This outfit are incredibly professional. The gear is exceptional, with a french made raft and good quality helmets and life jackets. We are introduced to our team. Dil is the guide and raft leader. With 18 years professional experience and having trained around the world, he is Nepal's 'river guru'. He takes us through an extensive briefing, with regard to safety, the equipment and the river itself. We then have two rescue kayaks. Bijay and Matan (?) are both very experienced and Matan explains to us the procedures for rescue situations.
We get into the raft and run through some of the techniques. Tevo and Roisin have rafted twice before. Once in the French Alps on a grade 3 river, and once in Sri Lanka on a grade 2 river (it was a bit boring actually). We raft for about 2 ½ hours along fairly easy territory but very good for practice and confidence building. After being picked up by our jolly bus, with the raft and Matan sitting atop, we head to our next put it site further up the river.
After a fantastic lunch buffet, at what will be our camp site for the night, we set off from this point for another couple of hours rafting. The bus picks us up again and returns us to camp. By now, Vishnu and the others have made a great camp. We have a big tent. I just wish we had bought our own sleeping bags and mats (which foolishly we left in the apartment).
Dinner is a huge meal of dhaalbhat except the daal is much thicker and tastier, so everyone goes to bed with full bellies. They have ingenious uses for paddles which include a draining table and a toilet tent. These guys just keep impressing us with their care and attention. For a start, we are not in some squalid camp site (as described by the Rough Guide). The team put together a rather well constructed and very environmentally sound temporary drop toilet. All paper will be burned in the morning. Every care and attention is paid to not having an impact on the environment here. All waste is divided into food (given to the goats) and plastic and paper. There are separate buckets of iodine treated water for everyone to use, for handwashing, for washing plates and then for rinsing.

The next morning, after a huge breakfast (which our team share with some local hungry children) we pack up the bus and head to the upper part of the Bhote Koshi. This part of the river is a 4+ straight from the put in point. Whitewater all the way and we have the most exciting rafting trip of our lives. Dil pays every care and attention to scouting the route, avoiding two notorious points in the river. Dil and Matan take the raft down 'the wall' - a place that only the most experienced rafters can descend. We walk around. At another spot, they take the raft out of the river and carry it to a place further down to avoid an area that no-one should be rafting (a nepali guide died here last year after being trapped in an undercut). It is clear this team take safety very seriously and Dil tells us later that he wanted to assess how we got on on the first day, before taking us further up river. He thinks we are a good team and the children are strong. We learn they are the first 10 year olds they have known to raft the Bhote Koshi! We raft until mid afternoon and once again are met by the bus, and another fab buffet lunch is laid out for us all. After that, a sleepy journey back to smoggy Kathmandu.
I will post the details of this company later as I would highly recommend them for anyone wanting to go on an exciting professionally run expedition. We paid $100 each for a fully inclusive two day trip.

PS Shakka lakka boom is actually on an billboard advert for noodles, but it was our celebratory team mantra when we did our paddle high fives - all paddles in the middle then lift and BOOM onto the water.