Instead of busing all the way from Pokhara to Chitwan we opted to raft part of the way. We were picked up in the early morning, along with four others, and transported to the Seti River where we would start our two day journey.
The Seti River is quite calm and warm this time of year (as opposed to the Trisuli where most people raft class 4 or 5 rapids). Our rafting trip consisted of mainly relaxing and floating down the River enjoying the countryside scenery around us, and sometimes watching the locals as they washed their clothes in the river. Along the way there were a few class 3 rapids to provide some excitement and to make sure we got wet! A few times when the water was fairly calm we had the chance to jump off the raft and float/swim alongside it.
We stopped for lunch on a rocky beach and dried off, then continued along until we arrived at our camping destination, a pretty sandy beach to pitch our tents on. We had some excitement along the way when a snake quickly skimmed its way across the water towards us - head up looking around, tongue out, and heading quite aggressively towards our raft! Our guide hit the water with his paddle a few times before it finally left us for good. After that, nobody wanted to get out of the raft to swim!
Snake!
After pitching our tents, we enjoyed some tea, popcorn and soup with a lovely view of the water. The local kids arrived and performed some songs and dancing and dragged us all in to join.
The sun set and we enjoyed dinner by a campfire. Life doesn't get much better than a campfire on the beach!
The next day we set out about 10am and rafted for two hours, hitting four big rapids just before the Seti joined the (much colder) Trisuli River. We got out of the river, enjoyed lunch (and were reunited with our backpacks) and then got on a bus to Chitwan.
Early morning
Our group
Dave was the only one brave enough to jump into the much colder Trisuli River
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