The India Kayak Road Trip - The Kopili

As river levels dropped in Meghalaya the boys finally made the long drive east, towards Assam. What they searched for had been on the bucket list since the start of the expedition and what they found was possibly the most fun river to date.

Draining from a reservoir on the Meghalaya-Assam border, the Kopili starts with a bang. As we drove the bridge high over the river we peered over the edge to see an absolutely terrifying rapid followed immediately by a large waterfall. Fortunately we would be starting a further 20km downstream but was this a sign of things to come?

After arriving at the put-on in darkness, we camped on the banks and woke to sounds of monkeys across the water. The river was initially wide and flat but it wasn’t long before we heard the rumble of white water in the distance. What followed were endless rapids filled with huge crashing waves and holes that required technical and difficult manoeuvres to navigate through.

http://youtu.be/yTKz_0-1OTo

The Kopili was so good that we returned for another lap... twice! Watch all three descents in Episode 7 of the All India Kayak Expedition. (video above)

The run took two days to complete, but camping on the banks of a beautiful river is no hardship.

The white water didn’t let up for a full 20km and served up a perfect 8m waterfall to finish!

Image © Jakub Sedivy, Callum Strong and Jamie Conn