Our final days in Nepal were spent taking our lives into our own hands at the rustic Borderlands Resort, located 30 km south of the Tibet border, where we spent four days river rafting the Bhote Kosi and canyoning the nearby waterfalls.
Canyoning (otherwise known as abseiling/rappelling down waterfalls) was something I did once in Switzerland with my sister. As far as I could remember, it was a fairly innocuous pastime, or so it seemed at age 17.
Having survived our two days of rafting (exhilarating!), the thrillseeker in each of us was warmed to the challenge of Days 3 and 4 canyoning. The morning ascent up the "hill" (as it is known in Nepal when not technically a Himalaya) should have indicated the feat that lay ahead. We were winded by the time we reached the top and as we stared down the mouth of the fall we quickly realized it was not child's play, or Swiss play for that matter. At first it didn't help that our canyon companions, Babs and James, were a couple from Sweden/New Zealand that own a river adventure company and apparently do this sort of thing for every holiday. Intimidating...
After a two-minute overview by our guide, it was time to jump in. Thankfully, we were outfitted with wet suits and helmets which provided some warmth and protection from the chilly water. At this point we were also thankful that both our two Nepali guides and James and Babs were experts to show us the way. In short, the way was nothing but steep descents of water-pounding-in-your-face, slippery rocks and unsure footing waiting to twist an ankle or two.
After three hours on our "practice" day, we both emerged unscathed, but for one small thing -- a leech bite on my left calf, this found after pulling off the wetsuit. Hmmm...all I know of leech bites is from the movie "Stand by Me" and I wasn't about to start pulling leeches from places where the sun don't shine. This was enough to call out "sick" the next day...
Waking up on the fence between sickness and health, I reluctantly joined an enthusiastic Jake (who was improving his abseiling skills by the second) to the top of the day's fall, of course higher than the day prior. My mind was telling me we should have counted our healthy chickens having made it through trekking, rafting and one day of canyoning already. If one of us were to get hurt, now would probably be the time. And then there was the issue of the leeches...
First chute of the day and already a leech sighting on the leg of my wetsuit. As this was the first actual sighting, we carefully studied it. Black and small, not yet engorged with blood, with six identifiable legs and whisker-like antennae. NCAA, as my friend Liz would say- not cute at all.
We had 9 falls to abseil culminating in a 40 meter (130 feet) fall that, had we known about it in advance, we most definitely would have played hooky to hang back at the resort. From the top of the fall we couldn't see the bottom. I assumed the abseiling position and began the descent, slowly and surely down. At first the even footing of the rock face was nice, albeit slippery. I focused by looking straight ahead and up until the waterfall started pounding me in my face and the rock became more slick. In that moment about 1/3 of the way down, I realized the predicament: Water is rushing, feet are slipping, there's no option but to continue descending and upon closer inspection of the rock face, I see a throng of leeches cascading downwards following the water flow as though they are on their morning commute to work. Mind games!!! I would rather be anywhere but here.
My thought was to get down as fast as humanly possible which meant allowing the rope to slack and trust my spotter at the bottom of the fall. That would have been fine had the spotter actually been there. Once near the bottom, I noticed a heavy bounce in the rope and realized it was flailing loose at the end. I panicked when I saw Babs about 20 meters below. "Babs!! What do I do?" She assured me it would be okay and that the fact there was no guide there to help was 100% planned and not some cruel joke. The trick was to abseil to the end of the rope, turn and slide down the rest of the fall. Great, and with the leeches!! Reluctantly, I did just that.
I ran over to Babs with tears in my eyes that I had made it but worried that Jake might have a problem somewhere between the height, the loose rope and the leeches. I stayed and waited until I saw him to scream out the same instructions that Babs had shared with me. He seemed to handle it all in stride. Once down, we commiserated about the experience, proud to have done it but realizing how stupid it could have been had it turned out for the worse. He was lucky enough not to have noticed the leech brigade. We were both lucky to have somehow avoided more bites on the second day, despite the visual proof that we spent the day with them.
Travels to this point have been taxing on the lashes which are now countable at 13. I'm sure some are swimming with the leeches.
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