Rowdy roadie Round Trip 2015

Rowdy Roadie Round Trip 2015

With a visa in hand I flew back to Katmandu and to Sam’s Bar and ‘V’. Hello V! Things had calmed down from the earthquakes but a ‘Banda’ was in place. A Banda is a nation wide strike where no private vehicles are allowed to move, only government emergency vehicles, army and police. But it depends where you are in the country because some groups have no cares for the politics of in Katmandu. And even in Katmandu there were a few motorcycles out and about. In other areas motorbikes and cars were burned and even bicycles thrown into the river. Life goes on none-the-less.

The constitution was signed by pulling something like 16 different parties together. One group in particular was upset because they didn’t get their own division and India, a democratic country, slammed the door on oil hoping to influence the outcome but Nepal was stead fast and turned away from India and towards China. And Banda was back on.

The way many Nepali look at it is that they are a hen being pecked at by two big roasters, one on each side. I went back to Thakadurwara and helped build the dinning hall and in the process helped identify a species of owl that wasn’t supposed to be there.

We took a quick stop at the river in search of Gangetic dolphin and found a few along with a Garial Crocodile fishing side by side.

Johnny Sparshatt, one of the owners of www.wildtrakadventure.com was asked to help identify an owl species that, until now, was said by specialists not to inhabit Nepal. Johnny downloaded a couple tracks of Wood Owl sounds and I brought my speaker and we loaded up the cameras in his jeep and off we went to where they had been sighted. We turned on the tracks and the speaker sung out to a pair of Mottled Wood owls who responded almost immediately with song and fly-bys. When one of them landed Johnny and I both began taking numerous pictures until we could without identify the bird. It has been corrected in the area expansion that Nepal now has the Mottled Wood Owl. Even in the Wild Trak Adventure compound owls persisted to hang around and once the lookout was up and running we tried the Mottled Owl calls there and they arrived. The whole experience was really cool.

In the end we headed up to Shey Phoksundo Lake in the Lower Dolpa region in the western Himalayas.

We trekked for around ten days or so and ended up in Jumla and we flew back to Nepalgunj where we bid farewells.

I headed back to Katmandu and met some great people like usual and said good-bye for now to Sam’s bar and ‘V’.

 My flight was supposed to be nonstop but due to the fuel shortage we stopped in Delhi for fuel and then on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I dropped in on Malacca on my way to Tioman Island on the other side of Malaysia. Malacca was nice but I remember being eager to get to the ocean and swim and Malacca was not the place for swimming.

Crossing to Mersing town and out to Tioman was a snap and in the water I went. I met a nice couple from England whom lived in the next bungalow. We would sit on our respective porches and talk the evenings away.

Returning to Kuala Lumpur I flew to Thailand and had a short visit there before heading off to Krabi,

Koh Phi Phi,

Phuket,

And up the coast to Khao Lak where I joined Wicked Diving on a 6 day live aboard dive trip; a most excellent experience with good people. I learned a lot from the staff in regards to the condition of the Andaman Sea and how to be a more compassionate diver. That may sound like an odd phrase but considering the way we all mistreat the oceans and the life in them it makes sense to me.

I was not disappointed when I reached Khao Sok National Park either. I’ve been here many times and again up to the lake where I could hear Gibbons howling in the jungle, Hornbills fly overhead, take jungle walks, go caving, and swim out my floating bungalow front porch.

From Khao Sok I took a van, a bus and a boat to Koh Tao where I spent a few weeks around Christmas and New Year. Yes, I have to say, that it was an incredible year and here I am sitting on Koh Tao having a beer at Maya Beach Club and listening to some great DJ music whilst watching the sun go down on New Year’s Eve.

www.davidcdagley.com

Nepal In Retrospect

Nepal In Retrospect

I took the six-hour bus ride from Pokhara back to Katmandu to prepare for departure. My five months in Nepal had come to an end. Five months is all Americans are allowed with a tourist visa. With the India border blockade leading to the fuel shortage on and squeezing momentum out of ‘progress’, it’s just a good idea to get closer to the airport because I might have to walk. I pulled back into the Holy Himalaya for a couple days and have a solid look at the places, people and animals I was fortunate enough to experience.

It seems like just yesterday I arrived in Nepal for the first time and was awestruck by the cultural and historical treasures of the three kingdoms that now make up the city of Katmandu. I hired a motorbike taxi and visited the Monkey Temple and the three squares and I took stacks of photos. Wandering the streets in Thamel became second nature and always crowded with tourists coming and going to the Himalayas or into Chitwan National Park. I chose a flight less traveled and bounced to Nepalgunj and Bardia National Park for a look in the jungle.

I ended up trekking in a virtually untouched area of the park with no other people around besides National Park patrols. Apparently permits have been difficult to acquire in the past but we managed to get two separate permits and took advantage of them. Tragedy struck with the first earthquake. Even in the west of Nepal, Thakadurwara, I felt the earth move. I moved on by bus to Chitwan where I ran into Rhino, Elephant, Crocodiles, Garials, and a plethora of deer and wild boar. It was a short visit but worth it.

I bused up to Pokhara where I volunteered with Hands Helping Hands and helped feed families in devastated outlying regions. I had to see Katmandu for myself so I took a taxi there with a full car of drinking water. All along the road there are still signs of the destruction. Katmandu was at a stand still with brick, wood and rubble filling the narrow streets, limited clean up and refugees filling the parks with makeshift tarp tents. Working facilities were non-existent and the smell of death hung in the air.

I was on the 3^rd floor of a hotel in Pokhara when the second earthquake hit. People remained sleeping in the car park for fear of more. After-shocks and mild earthquakes continued on into double digits with avalanches striking the Himalayas taking out trekkers. Tourists evacuated the country and for the most part have remained away for now.

I blasted off to England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, and Portugal, and returned to Nepal after two months in Europe for my last three months of the year in Nepal. As I arrived, Banda (Government strike of all automobiles) was in effect and made travel difficult. I returned to Thakadurwara to help with a new dining hall at www.wildtrakadventure.com for a couple months of serious heat. At the end Johnny Sparshatt and I headed for Shey Phoksundo National Park and lower Dolpa region. It was nice to be with the locals and hear their stories of life.

We ended up in Jumla and the end was near for me. A few days in Katmandu was all I had left. At Sam’s Bar an Austrian acquaintance left me with a wonderful woman teaching teachers in a small rural area to the south east of Katmandu. She is quite the traveller and I was taken by her knowledge. I’m now curious to go see what she’s up to next time I come to Nepal.

There were so many pictures to chose from I had to leave a lot out. Another way someday.

I hope Nepal finds peace.

www.davidcdagley.com

Gangetic Dolphin in Nepal

Rafting the Karnali

We got up early and had a light breakfast of sweet tea and an omelet before driving the jeep up river to Chesapanni to raft a branch of the Karnali River, the longest river in Nepal. We passed through a few military and police check points on the way. Just a quick point of interest, there are Nepali military checkpoints, police check points and Mao army check points. My question is why are there two separate armies in Nepal? Many of the Nepali cars and trucks queued to show paper work but with John being a local and somewhat of a celebrity teacher in the area and now a resort partner the checkpoints wave him through and we enter the road that cut through the park. Tigers, elephants, monkeys, etc. are all possibly visible from the road as we pass. The Japanese sponsored a beautiful bridge across the Karnali that is at the edge of Chesapanni. While John and Sitaram pumped up the raft I had a look around at the local activities happening on the edge of the river. There is no running water in Chesapanni so women wash clothes and bath riverside. The whole town gets drinking water from a hand pump well near the edge of the river. It seemed like everyone was getting water for the day and a loose line formed waiting for the pump. Groups of young boys held thin bamboo rods with a line and a hook and fished off the rocks into deep holes. While the raft was being pumped up John explained another Japanese project that was underway and expressed his concerns on its affect towards the Bardia National Park and the Gangetic Dolphin that seasonally appear in the deep pools near Tikapur.

Below the bridge on the western side of the bridge is a large aqueduct made of concrete to divert some of the Karnali River towards agricultural land to the south. The problem John sees is that Bardia National Park wildlife depend on that water in daily life and diverting it will have negative ramifications towards the ecosystem there. And to top it off a species of Gangetic dolphin frequent the pools in the Karnali River system. Not many people in the world know they exist this far inland. John said the dolphins could be seen near the town of Tikapur, just a few kilometers down the road from Lamki.

During the time I spent near Bardia National Park John spoke with some locals who all nodded when asked if the dolphin are in the nearby pools. When I asked John about the dolphin he seemed under the impression no one knows the Inia are this far inland including the Japanese researchers who you would hope did a thorough assessment of the flora and fauna that will be affected or erased from the area. I don’t think Green Peace knows these mammals are there and or what the Japanese are working on in western Nepal. Well I’m telling you now. It is a concern that should be addressed. For more information on the Inia subject go to: Johnny Sparshatt at Wild Trak Adventure. www.wildtrakadventure.com. Phone: 9804543477. Cell service in western Nepal is sporadic along with power and Internet.

Once the raft was pumped up we set out down river. There aren’t any true rapids it’s more of a full day silent nature-watching float. A few groups raft the Karnali River but our goal was to find the branch that ran in front of the resort. There was a slight headwind and we had to paddle a few of the broader slow water spots. Did I mention that the river has Crocodiles and Gavials in it? It does. The Gavial looks like a Crocodile but has a very slender snout and is primarily a fish eater.

Cormorants swim around hunting while a Serpent Eagle flew overhead with a snake in its talons and perched on the riverbank. Large storks and great egret wade in the shallows flapping their wings trying to scare the fish into moving. John spotted a pair of rare Red Headed Vultures working over a carcass. We stopped and watched and took a few pictures. John drew my attention to the scree mountainside showing the whole area was carved out of an ancient riverbed hundreds of meters deep in some spots and supporting the jungle.

There are many branches of the Karnali, which means jungle islands surrounded by water and not easily accessible except by boat or elephant. Many animals go to these islands for a multiple of reasons. Some of the branches are only active during the rainy season and tend to be more of a flash flood valve for maybe a few hours to days depending on how much rain falls and snow melts from higher up. There is a 1250 kilometer highway running East/West bisecting many of the flood branches in the area and act like a dam. The water in turn undercut the highway and erodes the pavement. The government is working on the waterways under the road in the hope of ending the erosion.

The Karnali River is bisected by the Babai River in the Bardiya District and is located against the foothills to the Himalayas. When its rainy season most of the islands are submerged and debris including whole trees are collected in the branches of the trees and brushes. I saw some debris spots where wads of tree limbs stuck in a tree 2-3 meters of the island floor.

As the day went on so did the heat. Western Nepal is at a relatively low elevation, hot and predominantly farmlands growing rice, wheat, corn, etc. In the heat of the day many large mammals come to the water to cool off or drink. There were many signs of tigers climbing under downed trees and lounging in shallow pools in the shade. Unfortunately we didn’t see any tiger but I’m not done yet. We returned to the resort just as the sun was going down. Children played at the river’s edge and mothers held an assortment of nets catching little fish for an added protein in their food.

We saw both types of monkey on the shore Black Faced Langur and the Macaque along with running into a family of river otter.

I have to interrupt the process here because the Katmandu Earthquake happened while I was in Bardia. I have a five-day trek to describe but I just visited Katmandu yesterday and have a few photos of the government’s invitation to return to their villages for free and I witnessed the damage and exodus first hand. Stay tuned.

www.davidcdagley.com