Going to do one big blog for rafting trip, as easier!! Another bus ride, to the river Seti today - more interesting sights including a big wedding precession going through the middle of one town, amazing clothing in reds and golds, with a huge back up of cars and bikes waiting to get past. Arrived at the river in the boiling heat and loaded up the rafts/ met our new guides for the trip. First day rafting was good, more a sedate trip down the river rather than rafting. Scenery was lovely, saw a few Kingfishers on route, had a few water fights and swimming on the way, good team on the raft, which I decided to call "The All Backs", not sure it caught on but I thought it was good!! Bit preoccupied today as my sunburn had travelled to my arms and I could feel the sun beating on my skin - bloody painful even with factor 50 :(
Got to camp for our first experience of erecting our own tents which Jo and I achieved in very good time! Then there was the toilet tent.... now, I've used the odd long drop in my time and indeed the group had been using one whilst camping, but a long drop in sand is a different matter, defining moment being the collapse of said tent when Sarah paid her first visit! Luckily she wasn't in the tent at the time...... The main problem with sand is that the hole collapsed when you squatted so you had to go with the risk that you may fall into the hole rather than peeing into it, for those of us old enough to remember it, it was reminiscent of an old horror movie called Blood beach (I think) where people were sucked into the sand, never to be seen again.... Evening meal was good and included an opportunity for Super Emma to come to the rescue of Rachel who was being attacked by a huge hairy caterpillar! (no word of a lie!!!?????!!....ok well maybe it was just there rather than attacking her) Slept well, then not too early start for day 2. Woke up to the sound of birdsong, not too dissimilar to my alarm clock which was nice, esp. as this alarm didn't mean get up for work! (No bed tea or washing water or Ishwan with a cheery Good Morning which was a little disappointing) but nice breakfast before packing for the day. Arms and hands better, so wore short sleeved shirt....BIG mistake!! Within minutes of setting off, was sore again so concocted some bandages out of travel towels, which Nurse Rachel tied on for me!!! Rafting a bit better today, few more rapids with one we went back to about 4 times, it was like kids on a slide, up and down, then back up... very funny! Water fights more intense today, with the defining moment being Pete jumping onto the other boat and 'ejecting' Ram into the water (lucky the water was shallow, as not sure how fond of the water Ram is!!) Along the way, Raj taught us to count to 5 in Nepalese, our pronunciation being Eg, duey, tin, tart, bart, which was not tooooo far from being correct!! Also learnt a song which went - You are a monkey, I am a Donkey, pee, de, de, dee, deeee, however, later found out these were the wrong words, but as it is supposed to be a love song, guessing these particular lyrics don't fit too well. Still not sure how it should go, a job for when wifi is next available (personally, I prefer our version). Got to camp early, set up tents, and then smothered my hands and arms with any cream available before they fell off! Snooze before dinner, then one of the porters walked to local village for beer (took about 2 hours!) He came back with some form of special brew which I thought was great, and most others hated, what can I say, I clearly have a preference for strong beer!!! Good nights sleep, then up early equipped with long sleeved shirt for protection! Before we left, Simon found the most amazing Caterpillar with a red head, horns and yellow body, was all good until Ram saw and went mad as it is apparently poisonous (kill you as soon as look at you as far a his reaction went) however, Simon is still very much alive and I imagine will continue to pick up unidentified wildlife on his travels!! Last day, 4 good rapids (albeit a little tamer than described by the guides) before the river merged with the Trisuli, which feeds into the Ganges - could canoe to India rather than fly!!! Quick change and goodbye before catching the bus to Chitwan.....