The River of Gold - Sun Koshi

This is the longest river trip offered in Nepal, traversing 270 kms through the beautiful Mahabharat Range on its meandering way from the put-in point at Dolalghat to the take-out point at Chatara, far down on the Gangetic Plain. It is quite an experience to begin a river trip just 3 hours out of Kathmandu, barely 60 kms from the Tibet border, and end the trip looking down the hot, dusty gun barrel of the North Indian plain just a week later.

The Sun Koshi starts off fairly relaxed with class II and small class III rapids to warm up during the first couple of days. Savvy guides will take this opportunity to get the teams to work with exquisite precision as on the third day, the rapids become more powerful and frequent with high water trips. One can be astonished at just how big a wave in the river can get. While the lower sections of large volume rivers are usually rather flat, the Sun Koshi reserves some of its biggest and best rapids for the last days. At the right flow, it is an incredible combination of powerful whitewater, stunning scenery, villages and truly quiet and introspective evenings along what many people consider to be one of the world's ten classic river journeys.