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It takes Misty’s crew about 4
hours to break down and pack camp so we walked to the mouth of the Saryu for
one last attempt. We landed one small
mahseer and as I let him go, and as I sit here tonight looking at the roaring gray-sediment-filled
Mahakali, I wonder if that’s my last fish of the trip.
At around 11 the rafts made
it down to us and after a whitewater safety lesson from Misty we were on our
way. I got one last look at the mahseer
panicking under our rafts as we left the Saryu into the Mahakali. Once in the Mahakali the current swept us
downstream rapidly.
The Mahakali is one awesome
river. It’s almost as sacred as the Ganges. It starts
as a cold river in the Himalayas of Tibet then forms the border between Nepal and India and gradually becomes a
jungle river. Where we’re at is close to
the end of the range of the mahseer because it gets too cold. The further down we go the better the fishing
should be – that is except for the unclearness from the mud.
Today’s section of river took
us through an amazing steep walled canyon.
Nepal was on our left
to the east and India
on the right. We are not allowed to
touch Nepal. On occasion we’d see a few shacks and the
locals would run along following us. Seeing
a boat for them is like us watching the space shuttle. Honestly most of these people have never even
seen a car!
We faced some serious
whitewater. After nearly drowning on the
Zambezi in 2005 I wasn’t too thrilled about
it. But sometimes you don’t have a
choice. The land terrain was virtually impassable
for me to take on foot. Plus, every
paddler is needed so I wasn’t going to leave the boat short. We made it but it was a beating.
At 5 PM we arrived at
fantastic beach Misty and his crew calls Tin House. The battered house is shelter for Indian
border patrol although we didn’t see anyone.
Once camp was set, despite the horribly murky water, Misty and I fished
for several hours but not even a touch.
I was not fishing with much confidence even though I’ve caught mahseer
in the mud.
I’m feeling like crap with
some sort of whooping cough congestion.
It’s a flash back of February’s Brazil trip. Bad health luck I guess. Nonetheless, we had a great time around the
campfire eating and drinking tall Indian brews.
Being filmed doesn’t allow me
to take pics. A SPECIAL THANKS is in order to Jim Klug and Chris Patterson of
Confluence Films who not only brought me on this trip but also provided most of
the blog photos.
Again, please toss my old
hotmail email address that I can no longer check and let’s reconnect at jeffcurrier65@gmail.com THANKS!
What an amazing trip Jeff. Look forward to the film!
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