White Water Rafting - Rishikesh
After completing Jungle Safari at Jim Corbett and Skiing at Auli, the next adventure on our list was was Rishikesh – white water river rafting.
We took a lift from a TATA Sumo that left Joshimath (Auli) at 5am in morning. At the outset I had almost given up on rafting. This was basically for two reasons. After speaking to a lot of tour operators in Rishikesh, I discovered that in February the Ganges water is very cold and plus entire India was in a grip of a severe cold wave in the period around Jan-end to Feb 1st week. Secondly Amit was suffering from a severe cold and fever and it meant that I was alone for rafting and hence it was important for me to find a group who I can join for rafting.
One good thing that we did on the entire trip was solid planning and it helped us. We knew that rafting takes place along the Rishikesh – Devprayag road starting from Kaudilaya, followed by Shivpuri.
I had called up at least 5 tour operators the night before and all of them said that there weren’t any groups for rafting. Still I decided to take my chances and got down at kaudilaya. The sight was horrible – the entire camp was deserted.
We took a lift and reached Shivpuri. There all the tour operators had closed their shutters and were sitting near a small campfire. When I enquired them about rafting , again got the same reply. I was disappointed and we decided to head straight to Haridwar , just when one of the operators said that around 500mts from that place, down on the banks of Ganga ,is the starting point for rafters. It wouldn’t hurt to have look and try my luck there.
I decided to give it a last try and went and couldn’t believe it when I saw a group of rafters who were about to move the raft in to the river. I stopped them , requested, begged them to take me along and they agreed.
Puneet, Rashmi, Deepak, etc were from a Delhi and worked for Dabur. After the introductions , the instructor explained the basic strokes and we set along.
River Rafting is done mostly in imported rafts made of vulcanised rubber bodies reinforced by nylon fabric beneath an exterior of neoprene thus making it tough enough to withstand the battering it gets when it rams across the rocky boulders in the water. Rafting is done on rapids which is a white patch of foam on a flowing river caused by sudden gradient or by the river breadth getting constricted while flowing through a gorge between rocks or by a sudden increase or decrease in the volume of the water. Rapids are graded from 1 to 6 depending on the ease with which they can be negotiated, with 1 being the most easy.
Our stretch was of 20 kms in all up to Laxman Julla. We crossed around 5-6 rapids all of which have been given very interesting names like Golf Course, Double Trouble, Three Blind Mice, Daniel’s Dip, Sweet Sixteen, Marine Drive, Cross Fire and Roller Coaster.
Our instructor was also quite a cheerful fellow and before entering each rapid, we would shout “Ganga Maiya ki Jay”. After the 1st rapid, the instructor signaled to me and Puneet and asked whether we want to flip the raft. To do so, the raft has to be steered sideways in to a rapid instead of head-on and then one big splash of water and it over-turns. We tried it secretly in the 2nd rapid, dint work out but we were able to do so in the 3rd one.
One dip inside the river and I realized why there were hardly any rafts that day. The water was freezing cold and plus it was drizzling too.
After about an hour or so, the instructor parked the raft near a huge stone and explained to us that the stone was famous for jumping in to the river.
Jumping from a 30 feet high in to ice-cold Ganga river was the highlight of the rafting experience. Only me , Puneet and Deepak did the jump while the rest stayed back.
After completing the rafting which lasted for about 4 hours from 12 to 4pm, the instructor suggested me to take a dip in Ganga instead of going to a hotel and taking a hot water bath.
Contrary to me belief that Ganga is polluted at these places, I found it very clean. After the dip, met Amit at Laxman Julla where we had some food and then roamed around the place admiring the beauty of the temples situated on banks of Ganga.
2 responses so far
Dude,
I had done the rafting in rishikesh last year and it was an awesome exp.
Loved the way you have written your travelogue and great work on the site too.
Cheers
Fabulous is the word for it…….the entire trip through the photograph looks so exciting, i am sure it ll be a treat being there!!!!
cheers
Kanishk