It turned out that we needn’t have worried about getting all of our kit under the 32kg weight limit for the flights after all….
My kit bag weighed in at 13.2 kg, Jethro’s at 9.7kg and our paddle bag weighed in at 6.2 kg. In order to proceed onto the flight without incurring further cost or hassle, our boats had to come in at under 15kg each. Luckily for us the check-in staff decided that the boats would not fit onto their scales, instead opting to ask us how much the boats weighed. “About 15kg each” was my rather wishful response. Fortunately that is the value that was entered onto the system so we were home free!! 🙂
Next up we had to take our boats to oversize oversize drop-off, which entailed us escorting the boats through to a staff entrance where we handed them over to baggage handlers. With that, it was off to the bar for a well deserved pint or few.
The flight to Delhi was uneventful and we landed with about three hours until our connection to Kathmandu departed. We both took the opportunity to catch some shut-eye as we were struggling to stay awake. We were both amazed at the smog which surrounded Delhi airport like a heavy fog – you couldn’t see further than a couple of hundred metres.
Upon arrival at Kathmandu airport we went through the rigmarole or getting visas for our stay before collecting our boats and bags and meeting up with our pre-arranged transport to our hotel. After dropping off our bags and boats we traipsed along to the off of Mountain River Rafting to organise our first trip. We had initially planned on doing the Tamur, which was a four day trek followed by 6 days on the river, covering 130km. Following our discussion, we settled on a new plan to do the Sun Kosi. This is only a two hour drive to the get-in, rather than a two day drive to the drop-off point for the Tamur, as well as being 260km in length. We set off at 0800 tomorrow morning for about 8-9 days on the river, followed by a two day public bus ride back to Kathmandu.
Having just been for dinner (after spending about an hour wandering lost around Kathmandu), we are not off to bed to attempt to catch up on some of the sleep we have missed.