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A unique river passing through two beautiful and contrasting
scenic areas. Relatively small volume blue and warm, we
recommend this as a warm – up river for interim ediate kayakers.
If started at Damauli, it makes an easy raft or kayak trip.
The River
The Seti Khola rises on the South East slopes of Machapurchare
and then flows south as a fairly typical Nepalese mountain
river, it is dammed for Hydro Electric Power just above Pokhara
and then shortly afterwards it disappears in to a deep and very
narrow chasm to reappear again in a wide valley a few kilometres
below Pokhara - so be careful where you get in! From the
recommended put -in at Dule Gouda it flows through a spectacular
almost eerie, board river plain, at times meandering in braided
channels at other times incising the plain leaving 100 metre
high river cliffs. The rock here is reminiscent of buildrers
comglomerate - pebbles and small boulders embedded in a coarse
sand matrix but more resistant to erosion than it appears at
first glance.
After Khaireni the Seti enters a typical Nepali valley initially
passing through some small narrow gorges. It then winds a lot
between interlocking spurs of the high green hills, before
entering a straighter jungle corridor, with only a sparse local
population. This corridor continues all the way to the Trisuli,
interrupted only by a short narrow section, which precedes the
wide Mardi Khola confluence at Dhaumali. Features to note on the
river include quit a range of birds, from many vultures on the
upper section to Kingfishers on the lower section. The jungle
corridor has lot of hanging, green vegetetion on all sides and
has several narrow velleys, which could be explored on foot.
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