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I’d be lying if said I didn’t think about the resident Chukka tiger last night. Luckily that’s as close as he got and we awoke this morning to the chatter of birds and the Chukka Rapid. We had till noon to fish and visit the village of Chukka so before I drank my coffee I ran right down where I caught yesterdays monster golden mahseer and made 25 casts. Nothing.
After breakfast and coffee the whole gang went back down to the rapid again and Misty landed a 5lber but that was the only fish in an hour. That called for a break and visit to the historic village of Chukka.
You take a step back in time in this place. It’s a peaceful spread with no cars or outside noise. There are about 80 residents and they get around solely on foot on ancient trails. These folks no little and care less about the outside world. They seem wonderfully happy here and although very shy at first they warmed up to us and they let us take some photos of them.
I fished hard the last two hours without a strike and then reeled in it in for good. It was time to float down to our last camp of the trip which is very near the town of Tanakapur. Misty does not own permits to fish this area which is why our fishing ended in Chukka.
The Mahakali River opened up from its tight canyon walls to a flood plain then back into a canyon. Naturally because I can’t stand whitewater, we had to run one more major rapid. Misty has not been here in awhile so it took an hour of scouting. Even the scouting was dangerous as we were in a freaky falling rock area.
The whitewater run was sketchy to say the least. I was up front so the Confluence Team could film me and I got the bulk of the neck thrashing dunking as we bashed our way though the rapid. We had a close call where the raft stuck straight up in the air then came down so violently I damn near knocked out my front teeth on my own loose paddle. It was my own mistake losing the grip of the paddle but that wouldn't have made it hurt any less. I was pleased when Misty informed me that was the end of the whitewater.
Our camp tonight is on the edge of Tanakapur. We can hear the sounds of honking trucks and busses miles away. There’s some elephant dung around so we need to beware of yet another hazard on our last night.
Of course the last night must be a special one. That means make a bigger than normal fire (fire scares elephants as well) and drink all remaining beer and wine. In addition I surprised everyone and broke out my sharpies and during cocktail hour I drew up a mahseer on Misty’s new Yeti Cooler. It came out pretty sweet!
Tomorrow will be a float, a bus ride and a train ride all the way back to Delhi. This will undoubtedly involve some culture shock as this has been a truly amazing trip that I will never forget and will always be able to relive in a sense because of the movie segment we’ve made.
That’s it for now. I’ll conclude this incredible adventure when I get to Delhi.
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!
Outstanding trip, Jeff! Thanks for bringing us along with stories and pics.
ReplyDeleteThat is a cool drawing of a fish there Jeff. Now if he would of wanted a Golden Dorado, you probably would of gotten out of it, i’m sure :)
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