Those who cross the bridge at Thapthali every day will find it hard to believe that along its upper stretches the Bagmati is a clean, clear brook with icy cold water even during the summer.

That is what participants of Dunga Daud have been discovering during a week-long festival aimed at raising awareness about the need to clean up Kathmandu's main river. Corporate houses, media personnel and students took part in raft races from Sundarijal to Gokarna as part of the 6th Bagmati River Festival.

The festival, organised by the Nepal River Conservation Trust will conclude with a Jal Jatra on 20 August. Five hundred students will march from Chobar while a race among kayakers will run from Sundarijal to Tilganga. The students and kayakers will meet at Thapathali Kalmochan where the festival will conclude.

The Himalayan Bank team won the Corporate Dunga Daud on 12 August, while JICA and Kathmandu Guest House came second the third. The Nepal Forum for Photojournalists came first in the media race, with Nepal Sports Journalists Forum in second and Himalmedia third. The Blind and Disabled Team that called itself the BAD Team also took part and won the creativity award.

A Live Aid Concert is being organized on Saturday, 19 August at Jawalakhel Football Ground from 1PM onwards. Bands like 1974 AD, Namaste band, Abhaya & the Steam Injuns, Dev Rana and friends will be performing. Says Megh Ale of the Nepal River Conservation Trust: "The holy river is still clean up here in Sundarijal, now we need to make the downstream stretch as clean."

PICS: MIN BAJRACHARYA

MOUNTAIN TO THE SEA: Ram Hari Silwal (in kayak) will set off next week to trek, bike and kayak from the Himalaya to the Bay of Bengal in 50 days.

Nonstop adventure

Ram Hari Silwal and Endra Rai are all set to start an adventure 'Source to the Sea Expedition' that will take them from a Himalayan glacier to the Ganges delta.

On 21 August, they will begin an epic 50-day journey by setting off on a mountain bike from Pashupati to Sundarijal. From there, they will trek to Melamchi, get on kayaks and float down the Indrawati, Sun Kosi and Sapta Kosi, crossing the Indian border at the Kosi Barrage and then on to the Ganges, through Bangladesh and until they finally reach the Bay of Bengal.

With 20km of mountain biking, three days of trekking and 45 days in kayaks, they will cover a distance of about 1,800km. The adventure duo want to attract Nepali youth, help encourage adventure sports in Nepal, create awareness about Nepal in neighbouring countries, and spread messages around environment and river protection.

Everest summiter Endra Rai

Ram Hari and Endra have always been ambitious nd idealistic. Ram Hari grew up in Nuwakot and started paddling in the Trisuli when he was a boy. Now 30, he teaches kayaking in Sweden, Norway, England, New Zealand and other countries.

"From my experience in Europe, I know that adventure tourism is changing," says Ram Hari, "foreigners are now looking into long trips with multiple adventure sports rather than shorter packages of specific sports. The beauty is that it offers not only physical but also mental challenges."

Endra is an Everest summitter who wanted to be an engineer but got side-tracked while job-hunting. "We want to see how can we chain up adventure sequences in this trip," says Endra, "to reach rivers to kayak in you have to hike, and we threw in mountain biking just for fun."

Ram Hari has been producing adventure documentaries for Swedish Television, National Geographic and Adventure One and is filming the trip. Afterwards, he plans to open up a kayaking school along the banks of the Trisuli river so younger Nepalis will catch the adventure bug. Endra, meanwhile, wants to promote multiple adventure tourism after this adventure is over.

(Shailee Basnet)