“That cow has a decent medial suspensory ligament.” That’s what Lulu told me the other day as we walked past the dairy barn. If that weren’t confirmation enough that my education dollars are well spent, she just sent me this photo that she took during class today.
Speaking of farm animals, I decided against doing the big long river trip in Nepal. I am a big chicken. The thing is, I didn’t know enough about the company to want to entrust my life to them during that three-day segment of the trip when an overturned raft could be fatal. Call me old-fashioned.
Actually, I have a bigger reason for changing my plans: the cost of the longer trip and taking an extra week off of work aren’t financially feasible
Instead, I’ll do a shorter river trip, probably the Kali Gandaki, which is the one I’d planned to do a year ago. It’ll be plenty hair-raising but a little closer to civilization so they won’t have to carry my corpse as far. And what if my traveling companions are buttheads? In that eventuality, three days in the wilderness would be a lot less painful than ten. (I know this for a fact. On the Magpie expedition there were some great people — even Richard Dean “MacGyver” Anderson was quite funny — but all it took were two vicious people to contaminate the experience.)
So I bought my plane tickets today. I should be excited but all I am is scared about money.
Here’s a video I found on YouTube of the Kali Gandaki:
“CNN is now reporting that up to 100,000 people have died from the cyclone that hit Burma. The scale of this disaster is hard to even imagine, and relief is urgently needed. So we wanted to pass along this email from our friends at Avaaz.org (the global online progressive group) letting you know how you can help.”
Speaking of south Asia, I’m a day away from making my plane reservations. I’ve finally chosen the whitewater trip I want to do and have booked space on it. Actually, I would’ve preferred to run a different river because this one is more dangerous than I’d like, but I couldn’t get other dates to fit my schedule.
Here’s some of what the out-of-print book White Water Nepal says about the trip:
“…Wild and unpopulated with some of the most pristine jungle scenery in Nepal and abundant wildlife… The valley narrows into a series of canyons, the river speeds up, and there are big rapids, one leading into another, almost continuously… This is a trip for expert rafters, and considering the wilderness nature of the terrain, it should not be underestimated.
“The Karnali isn’t a trip for softies: the two-day trek to the start is not hard but neither is it a Sunday afternoon walk… class 4 big white water rapids will work you hard… Dave Allardice says, ‘This is a remote region. A swim in the middle canyon could have serious consequences, as one huge powerful rapid leads straight into the next.’”
Iron supplements are sure hard on a gal’s system, it seems. I’ve had to stay close to bed the last two days. Boring and frustrating. Whatever, so long as I’m back to my glorious self in two weeks when I leave for Guatemala.
When I first told Yo-Nenny about my idea for this trip she said, “It’s good you’re doing some of these things in your twilight years.”
My current plan is to hang out in Antigua for two weeks and then explore Guatemalan ruins for a week, and then — a plan that emerged last week — hie me to Costa Rica where I’ll track down Jill, who’s now on the Oso Peninsula in Corcovada National Park. We could backpack down there, maybe. And the rivers look beautiful (though low at this time of year). I just found a week-long kayaking school which is way too much money but doesn’t it look great?
Rio Pacuare seems to be the most popular for whitewater rafting. I haven’t been able to find any multi-day, camp-your-way-down-the-river trips yet.
