Run of the River Scheme
In their quest to be regarded as factual or even definitive, guide books often read as flat as roadmaps; they get you to and around the destination, but provide no feel for the topography. It is refreshing, then, to find a book which sacrifices nothing in terms of accuracy, yet in conversational tone manages to make a float down the white page through the fonted obstacles a pleasure.
White Water Nepal caters both to rafters and hard-driving kayakers. It covers maneater rivers as well as the frothing but tranquil streams of the type normally run by the Kathmandu rafting companies for walk-in clients.
After providing a tourists introduction to Nepal in factual but humorous fashion, the book embarks on a river-by-river treatment of 23 runable Nepali rivers. Each chapter begins with a box of data on length, starting and finishing points, how to reach, difficulty, gradient, volume and best season. There follows a summary of the rivers key features and a description of its route and scenery, with separate information provided for rafters and kayakers.
Then comes the nitty gritty of running the rivers. The text includes a day-by-day description of possible obstacles and how to negotiate them, and the logistics of overnight camping. These are augmented by detailed maps, drawings, cartoons, horizontal sketch profiles of the rivers, and pictures of portions of the river or the Nepalis living along it.
What makes this guide really different is the authors writing style. It is common to find martyr-authors who struggle to impress the reader with macho tales of hair-raising threats to life and limb while conquering remote rivers. These types of aficionados are skewered in humorous fashion by Knowles and Allardice, who use a gonzo-journalist approach and substitute nonchalance for terror.
Not that river-running is without its dangers. Launching a kayak into a river that is cranking at 150,000 cubic feet per second in mid-August is something like leaping into a gargantuan washing machine on the spin cycle. The book does not mince words in this regard, paying tribute to several kayaking colleagues who have perished under keepers or rocks.
The in-jokes of kayakers is liable to strike some as a bit grim, but there are also humorous asides for the general readership: "One group spotted a rhinoceros; unfortunately the rhino also spotted them and flattened their tents." There is also a hilarious account of a drink-inspired float down the Bagmati, which has become the sewage conduit for Kathmandu's human and animal wastes. A warning on the inside cover comes as a volley across the bows of would-be counterfeiters: "WARNING: Printed using laser-phobic ink —this may degrade if scanned by photocopiers or similar devices."
Sensitivity to the surroundings is perhaps the books biggest plus. Throughout, it demonstrates an environmental consciousness that goes beyond urging campers to carry their trash home. Where many books on rough sports concentrate on the technical aspects, this one looks up from the river from time to time, to enjoy the scenery, savour the air, and drink in the peace.
Van Beek is a travel writer who lives in Bangkok,