In their quest to be regarded as factual or even definitive, guide books often read as flat as roadmaps; they get you to and around the destination, but provide no feel for the topography. It is refreshing, then, to find a book which sacrifices nothing in terms of accuracy, yet in conversational tone manages to make a float down the white page through the fonted obstacles a pleasure.
White Water Nepal caters both to rafters and hard-driving kayakers. It covers maneater rivers as well as the frothing but tranquil streams of the type normally run by the Kathmandu rafting companies for walk-in clients.
After providing a tourists introduction to Nepal in factual but humorous fashion, the book embarks on a river-by-river treatment of 23 runable Nepali rivers. Each chapter begins with a box of data on length, starting and finishing points, how to reach, difficulty, gradient, volume and best season. There follows a summary of the rivers key features and a description of its route and scenery, with separate information provided for rafters and kayakers.
Then comes the nitty gritty of running the rivers. The text includes a day-by-day description of possible obstacles and how to negotiate them, and the logistics of overnight camping. These are augmented by detailed maps, drawings, cartoons, horizontal sketch profiles of the rivers, and pictures of portions of the river or the Nepalis living along it.