Rafting the Seti River in Nepal

As part of our Gecko’s Annapurna and Chitwan Tour of Nepal we spent two fun-filled late September days white water rafting on the Seti River. This included an overnight stay at a tented lodge alongside the Seti.

Our group of 14 met the rafting crew at the riverside town of Damauli. We packed up all our things into dry bags, had some brief safety and paddling instructions and then jumped into the rafts.  Of all of the safety and paddling instructions the only thing I really tried to remember was to keep my mouth closed as you didn’t want to ingest any of the water in that river. Each raft was being controlled/steered by an experienced guide at the back. He would yell out commands to us like Forward, Forward Fast, Back, Left Hard, Stop.  Whether we actually responded as he would have liked was another story all together.

The Crew Rafting down the Seti

Day one of our raft trip consisted of a very fast two and a half hours over 22 kilometers. During the dry season we were told this same trip would have taken approximately five hours. I’m not too sure the class of rapids we went through, I heard there was some class IV rapids but they seemed to be III at the highest. In any case we had a lot of fun, despite going through monsoonal rain for what felt like an hour.

Pamela and Sarah having some fun.

Overnight we stayed at a really cool tent lodge on the banks of the Seti river. We had three really nice meals at the lodge along with having the time to look for rocks, skip stones, drink some tea and relax. Overnight we were visited by very large spiders in our bathroom. The spiders, which were about the size of your outstretched hand, were supposedly harmless and very friendly. It’s my understanding these nocturnal spiders are related to the wolf spider. Our favorite part of the spider were the glowing eyes.

 Our bunkmate. This spider was easily the size of your entire hand.

Hangin-out in the front of our tent lodge.

 Day two of our raft trip consisted of an even faster 60 minutes of rafting (in very cold water) over approximately 8 kilometers. Towards the end of the trip the Seti river merged with the Thrisuli river which proved to be a bit colder and slightly rougher.  Our bus met us at the end of the trip and we changed our clothes and made the trip down the mountain to Chitwan.

Below are some of the pics from our rafting trip. All of our pics from the rafting trip can be found on this link: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/SetiRiverRaftingNepal?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Suzie, Nick and Hiren

Carly, Pamela and Suzie are Ready to Go

Duncan!!

The Rest of the Crew

Pauline and Sarah 

Not Sure What Happened Here

If you're in Nepal we would highly recommend a rafting trip, you won't regret it. Just try not to ingest any of the water, then you might regret it :-)

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave