Kayaking in Pakistan by JK Team | Dec 4, 2020 | Creeking, Nirvana, Whitewater, Whitewater Feature, WW Disciplines | 1 comment Not many kayakers have explored the Pakistani rivers yet. David Sodomka is one of the few people that has been there already and he wanted to do it again! And we, five young folks, joined him and the trip started. David was our leader/daddy and we were the kids Matthias, Manu, Eirik, Yoran and me. I couldn’t wish for a better crew! The trip turned out to be an expedition and adventure from the first day on, was it on the water or off the water. Logistics, roads, food, everything isn’t as easy as in Europe obviously. But Pakistan is amazing! The people are incredibly friendly and always ready to help you. And the landscape was stunning as well, huge rivers making their way down the massive mountains of the Himalya. We started our trip with some warm up paddling on the side rivers of the Indus. After that we went to our main mission, the Rondu Gorge! The section called Rondu Gorge is about 150 km long and the Indus gets pretty steep and fast. Luckily, the road is close most of the times and we didn’t have to carry our sleeping gear in the boat. With a lot of scouting, safety and portaging, we always spent a long time on the river and it took us seven days to finish the mission. After the seventh day we paddled out of the gorge with a huge feeling of relief, pride and happiness. The Rondu gorge is one of the sickest places for kayaking where I have ever been and I cant’t wait to go back! It is big, rowdy but also super fair and fun! Thanks to David for organizing everything and thanks to all of the crew for being amazing! Submitted by : Andi Brunner 1 Comment Peter Knowles on December 18, 2020 at 10:01 am “Not many kayakers have explored the Pakistani rivers yet” I feel this is misleading – Kayakers have been exploring the rivers of Pakistan since the 1980’s. Wick Walker’s guide book “Paddling the Frontier” was published in 1989. The first trip to the Rhondu Gorges – filmed as “Taming the Lion” was in 1990 – I was there in April that year and returned with a large group of paddlers in 1991 to explore some of the other, easier rivers of the N.W.T – Whit Deshner has a hilarious chapter about this trip in his book “Travels with a Kayak”. Since then I think there has been on average one trip a year – so that probably adds up to a couple of hundred paddlers in the last thirty years? Pakistan is not as popular as say Nepal, Chile, or Ecuador. However I would say that it’s a great destination for an experienced team of kayakers. Access is relatively easy as most of the rivers have jeep roads up them and have been explored for paddling. All the easier sections have been paddled, however I think that everyone would agree that there is still huge scope and many days of harder paddling and first descents. In my humble opinion there has probably been too much focus on the Rhondu Gorges which of course offers stupendous, large volume, extreme paddling – however it is really not that pleasant a place – with clouds of dust and stinking black diesel fumes from the trucks on the main highway that follows the river! There are many, much pleasanter rivers to paddle in Pakistan. Most importantly, let me reiterate what others have said before – the locals have a reputation for being a bit wild but in truth they are incredibly friendly! Peter Knowles, IWHOF. Author “White Water Nepal” guidebook. Reply Submit a Comment Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ
Peter Knowles on December 18, 2020 at 10:01 am “Not many kayakers have explored the Pakistani rivers yet” I feel this is misleading – Kayakers have been exploring the rivers of Pakistan since the 1980’s. Wick Walker’s guide book “Paddling the Frontier” was published in 1989. The first trip to the Rhondu Gorges – filmed as “Taming the Lion” was in 1990 – I was there in April that year and returned with a large group of paddlers in 1991 to explore some of the other, easier rivers of the N.W.T – Whit Deshner has a hilarious chapter about this trip in his book “Travels with a Kayak”. Since then I think there has been on average one trip a year – so that probably adds up to a couple of hundred paddlers in the last thirty years? Pakistan is not as popular as say Nepal, Chile, or Ecuador. However I would say that it’s a great destination for an experienced team of kayakers. Access is relatively easy as most of the rivers have jeep roads up them and have been explored for paddling. All the easier sections have been paddled, however I think that everyone would agree that there is still huge scope and many days of harder paddling and first descents. In my humble opinion there has probably been too much focus on the Rhondu Gorges which of course offers stupendous, large volume, extreme paddling – however it is really not that pleasant a place – with clouds of dust and stinking black diesel fumes from the trucks on the main highway that follows the river! There are many, much pleasanter rivers to paddle in Pakistan. Most importantly, let me reiterate what others have said before – the locals have a reputation for being a bit wild but in truth they are incredibly friendly! Peter Knowles, IWHOF. Author “White Water Nepal” guidebook. Reply
