Up at 6:00, I think. Tea/coffee , breakfast. I didn't have much of an appetite, the local beer/whisky combo still making my tummy funny. The kids were at the beach by 4:30, Steph says, she was up at that time, unable to sleep anymore. When we got up, all the kids (10 or so) sat on a huge boulder and just watched us all morning.
Rafted down the Sun Khosi river for a bit, and stopped at an important temple, a Hindu temple, I believe. It's supposed to be the most important Hindu temple complex in Nepal for a certain group of Hindu's, and they must all make the journey to here at least once in their lives.
At the temple, there is a rock. It's not a particularly large rock, maybe 15-20cm long, and maybe 10-15cm in diameter. Apparently if you can lift the rock and walk around the shrine carrying the rock, you'll have good luck or some such thing. But the rock is decievingly heavy. It weighs 80 or 90 kilograms. I was first, I tried to lift it, and got it as far as my waist, but couldn't hoist it up any further and dropped it. Shawn tried, and he barely got it off the ground. Will gave it a try, and he got as far as I did. struggling. After I rested a minute or two, I tried again, got it as far as my waist, then grunted and yelled as I jerked it up to my chest, where I was able to hold it in my arms. Wow, the rock was heavy! It must be made of iron or some very heavy metal. I did proceed to walk around the shrine once (the shrine isn't big, maybe 8 feet by 8 feet), but by the time I made one revolution, I was pooped, and dropped the rock (but only after Will took a picture of me). But, I did it! Then Shaun gave it a try. He managed to get it to the chest, and made one revolution, and he was done. Will, the oldest of the bunch, 52, got it up, and walked around once, then one of the guides said "Two more times.", so Will proceeded to make two more walks around the shrine with the rock. Impressive. Two locals, seeing what we had done, gave it a try...they could barely lift it off the ground, let alone walk around with it. It was pretty funny.
We had chai at the temple, then walked back to the rafts.
We continued on the Sun Khosi river, mostly flat, but a few parts had some awesomely big waves that we careened over. It was fun. We turned one last bend on the Sun Khosi, and absolutely nothing lay before us. This was the end, the Sun Khosi was opening up to flow through the Terai (flat bit) and eventually meet up with the Ganges. As we turned the last bend in the foothills, it literally looked like the edge of the earth ahead of us...we could see nothing on the horizon. We paddled on for a short bit, then landed near a big dam, where the bus was waiting for us. We packed everythign onto the bus (including the rafts, after being deflated) and left. This was about noonish. We had lunch at a little place in the village nearby, then drove south to the city where the airport is, and dropped Shaun and Steph off at the airport, and left for Kathmandu.
The rest of us drove into the night as long as we could. We ran into an unbelievable storm on the highway. You should have seen the lightshow in the air. I thought storms in Saskatchewan were amazing. This was 100 times better. Imagine Saskatchewan's best thunderstorm, and multiply it many times over. Storm cells reached from horizon to horizon to horizon to horizon, and the flashes of lightning were so frequent, they lit up the night sky constantly. I love thunderstorms, and this was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my entire lifetime. The lightning flashes were so frequent, it was almost indescribable. The best comparison I can come up with is during the Gulf War. Remember the footage of the nighttime air raids the allies were making on Baghdad, and the Iraqi army shooting off thousands of rounds of anti-aircraft fire into the night sky, the night sky lighting up constanly flashing. It was kind of like that, but better. The rain was pouring down, the bus had no windshield wipers, but that didn't deter the bus driver. He just slowed down, but kept on truckin'. And the windows leaked. It was fun.
Shortly before 9:00, we hit an army checkpoint that was close for the night, the barrier tied across the road so no one could pass. Looked like we'd be sleeping here for the night. Oh well. We'd be first in line to get through the checkpoint when it opens up. There was no sign of any activity. Everyone found a seat on the bus and went to bed. Abotu 15 minutes later, a horde of army personnel showed up, with machine guns and flashlights, checking us out. The guides talked to them through the windows, but they were sure interested in the bus (and what was inside). They kept walking around, shining flashlights inside every window to see inside. They were probably being extra cautious, concerned it may be a Maoist bomb bus or a bunch of Maoist rebels inside planning a night ambush on the army checkpoint. Finally they were happy that we were just rafters, and they left.
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