White water rafting at Rishikesh

As always my husband, Dyu finds something unique to create special times for me. This time he gifted me a white water rafting holiday to Rishikesh. And boy oh boy this was indeed a fun, refreshing memorable trip.

While the memories are still fresh in my mind, I think its best to try and capture them somewhere.

The journey to Rishikesh
We boarded the August Kranti to Delhi on Sunday, 14th September and had to spend 15th in Delhi since we could not take a train the same day to Rishikesh. Early morning on Sept 16th began our journey to Haridwar, the station we had to alight to reach Rishikesh. Haridwar is not a very pleasant station and if one thinks Bombay is dirty then one may want to take a look at Haridwar. People seem to use the platform to bathe, wash clothes and do many more things. Leaving that behind, let’s move on to the better parts of the journey. From here on we had someone from the Himalayan River Runners’ (HRR) team pick us up. We had done our bookings through these guys and these guys surely need a pat on their back for the work they do. We drove to Rishikesh from there. On the way we saw many statues of Shiva, some big , some small but all beautiful. And there we caught our first glimpse of ‘The Ganga’ but we witnessed the Ganga at her calmest and from then on we only saw her in different forms, flowing all the way to her destination. On one side of ‘The Ganga’ was a huuuuuuge mountain with thick dense growth of trees and the on the other side was the so called national highway on which we were traveling. The water looks green all the way long and one wonders why, to which my husband enlightens me that it is probably the green forest thicket which is making the water look green. The national highway road is so bad that I think the route not only takes you to these pilgrim destinations but may take you straight to heaven or hell, wherever. Additionally the Border Road Organization is also working to broaden the road, but they are oblivious to how haphazardly the work is being done. To top it all, we Indians are in this mighty rush to God knows where and every one wants to get out first not giving way to the other and in the bargain causing unnecessary traffic jam. Twenty kilometers down we arrive at Rishikesh, we pass the Ram Jhula and the Laxman Jhula on the way. But hold on, this is not the final destination. We drive further, we have to reach the HRR Ganga base camp and we continue to go… Then at last, we can see a beautiful beach with some tents on it. And here it is, destination PARADISE.
Hot sun, silver sands, long vast beach, cool flowing river, and the dense mountain right in front of you with a spring flowing… and some good food awaiting the hungry us.

At the camp
We are welcomed by our camp manager, Vijay a warm friendly person who gives a quick brief about the camp.
Our bathroom is a three sided enclosure under a huge tree. The water from a nearby spring is collected through a water pipe in a green drum which is hanging from the branch of the tree and there is a small tap to it. Bucolic but fun.
Our toilets are a small tent with a dry pit and a wooden commode which has an opening from the back. After every sitting one has to use the sand and lime mix kept at the back.
Our room is a tent with two single beds, two chairs, one dustbin, a mirror and a woven wooden mat spreading across the tent.
The front side view is the flowing river and the mountain. Our backside view is a sandy beach, a partial view of the road and more mountains.
We have a delicious spread for lunch. The food at the camp was quite good given the fact that it was cooked at the camp and also included variety. The cook did fair justice to continental food and Indian food.
We learnt that in addition to us, there was a mother daughter duo at the camp who had gone on an overnight trek.
We thought it would be rest time on the first day since we had just arrived but Vijay had other plans for us. He wanted us to go rafting. And me and my husband readily jumped at the opportunity.

Our first rafting experience
While I quickly changed, my husband rushed towards the raft and got introduced to Ganesh, our river guide and Raju our safety guide on the kayak. The water was ice cold and was a welcome relief to the hot sun shining above. Ganesh thoroughly briefed us on the rafting instructions, the dos and the don’ts on the trip and exuded complete confidence. A man of few words, he assured you that he knew his job well. We then got into our raft gear, the life jacket and the helmet and were ready to hit the river. While I tried to strike conversation with Ganesh, he would smile and answer only the questions asked. We were to raft from our camp to a little further than Rishikesh and then return by the vehicle to the camp.
We soon hit our first rapid – Good afternoon Rapid, that’s what they call it. ( The name changes dependent on what part of the day it is) And this was not bad at all, fun yes, scary no and now we wanted more. Then we moved further and we passed through the Roller coaster, Golf course, club house, Initiation, Return to the sender rapids… Major fun, but Ganesh stuck to the safe line in all the rapids since we were new and man I was bad with the paddle. At the initiation rapid, we were informed we could body surf, and my brave husband jumped into the water. You are actually supposed to move downstream with your legs in the direction of the water. But once you hit the ice cold water it takes you time to realize what you need to do and therefore in the bargain you end up swallowing water. Well, that’s what my husband did also. He later informed me that he was scared when he started swallowing water but once he understood the technique he had fun…

Me, I was still acting chicken and did not want to enter the water. Later when Ganesh coaxed me, I agreed to jump, but did so holding the safety line; a rope which runs throughout the raft and should be held when the raft capsizes, unless instructed otherwise by the guide. Later, we went to do the cliff jump… but it was a complete failure on the first raft (details later in the blog). On the way we passed many more rapids, names of which I cannot recall and then passed the Laxman Jhula, Ram Jhula, Tryambakeshwar temple, Goa beack (Surprised by the name) We soon reached destination and then got into a jeep to come back to camp by road. On the way Ganesh treated us to some garam chai… because none of the others were actually carrying money… Well that was our first raft and we only wanted more of rafting after that experience…

The Cliff Jump
On our first raft, Ganesh asked us whether we would do the cliff jump. This jump was from a cliff some 20 odd feet above the water surface and all one had to do was jump into it. Sounds easy, looked even easy from a distance but once you went up there on the cliff, your legs just freeze. Your mind wants to do it. You want to do it, but your legs just don’t co-operate. You go fits , no you go first, that’s all me and my husband kept telling each other Poor Ganesh, he cajoled us, told us not to worry, Raju was just below and this is safe. But we could just not do it. Inspite of having witnessed a previous bunch of boys do it, we were scared souls. After about half an hour of innumerable tries, we decided to continue rafting but we did not do the jump. What followed post that was a feeling of sadness, Ganesh told us not to worry since we had one more raft on this stretch of the river and we could try then.

On the third raft on the old stretch of the river and we reached the cliff again. The moment of truth. We had to do it this time. Additionally, this time we had an American father daughter ( Amy and Russ) duo with us. The daughter herself a river guide reached the cliff the first and took a jump without even blinking an eye lid. While I was still climbing the cliff, my poor husband was waiting down with the camera hoping this time I would jump because I wanted to. . But the wait would just not end with my feet not moving. The father then arrived and I told him to go first. He told me he was in no hurry. And here Poor Ganesh was cajoling me again telling me to jump. While I told him to push me at one instance he told me it was not the best idea as I could land on my stomach and hurt myself. I had to go with my feet down first. He got a little irritated with me after a point in time I guess, but was kind enough not to make it obvious. Soon afterwards Russ decided to take the plunge and there he went. He signaled me with a thumbs up and told me to jump. But me… one DARPOK could not move. . Ganesh asked me again do I want to do this alone and he could give me a gentle push. But I was not ready. Somewhere I knew that if not a push I would never be able to do this. Atlast Amy came up again and told me we could do this together holding hands. Ganesh warned me that I have to take the jump since I would other wise get pulled and could hurt myself in the bargain . We were to go 1,2,3 and jump. Amy took off and I was still there and the next thing I know I was in the water, feet down. This was indeed a VOW experience. The landing. I did not even realize the fall but I realized Ganesh had pushed me and I could not thank him enough for doing so, else I would never have witnessed the moment. Ganesh had done so only to ensure I was safe, since Amy and I were holding hands, Amy had taken off and I had not.
Well after doing the great so called jump, I would advise anyone to try it. Though easy said than done but it is indeed an experience one should not miss. Soon after that my great husband jumped too albeit with a push from Ganesh.
And VOILA we had done it.