Rishikesh - Let's go Rafting

Rafting at Rishikesh
                           
I thought I was kicking some asses while working pretty hard, gradually I realised I was The ass, as I was working like one. Home - Office - Home - Office, life was crawling in between those two worlds. Who likes that? Atleast I don't. Convinced with my thoughts, my office colleagues and me decided to go for some kickass weekend adventure vacation. Considering all the pros and cons and opinions of course, we planned to go to Rishikesh which is famous for river rafting on the holy river Ganges. March to October is perfect for rafting in Rishikesh



Rishikesh, Haridwar is a holy shrine of Lord Shiva which is located at approx 236 kms from New Delhi and easily accessible by road, and train. Nearest airport is located in Dehradun which is approx 37 kms away.

With packed bags and high spirits, we all left for Rishikesh from office at 8am in the morning. Journey was long and so were the gossips of the girls. Having fun, soon we reached mid-way and stopped for lunch at around 1pm. The restaurant where we stopped was a decent one. We all sat down for lunch when we noticed a colleague of ours ignorantly almost entered women's washroom. He quickly changed his path but poor guy got noticed by us. Embarrassed, he returned while we all could not control ourselves and laughed till it started to hurt our stomachs.

Laughing, we continued our journey and crossed Haridwar where I bowed my head and prayed for peace. We had booked a camp online located at Shivpuri, 14 kms further from Rishikesh. It was getting dark as we continued and around 7pm we reached our camp. We were asked to park our cars and cross the river in a boat as our camps were located at the other side of the river. We all did cross the river in the dark but our driver chose to stay in the car as he told some old legend about Goddess Sita and warned us that river Ganges should not be crossed after sunset. The camps looked beautiful as we stepped on to the man-made white sand beach. We had booked 7 camps (each camp to accommodate 2 members). It all looked perfect, river, moon, camps, friends, adventure, bonfire... we all were lost in those beautiful moments. We all were pretty hungry and had dinner quickly. The night we spent having fun, dancing and singing while enjoying bonfire at the river bank.

Next morning, we all woke up pretty early and had fun playing in the white sand (which felt like we are in Goa) and played volley ball too in the camp area. By 10am, we all were ready to set on an adventure trail, Rafting. We were given life jackets and instructions on how to operate the raft; to never leave the oars and; to hold on to the rope at the side of raft in case it gets rough. We were asked to sign the declaration form where we will be held responsible in case of any mishaps. With increased heartbeats, my whole life came in front of me as I signed the declaration. I prayed for the safety of our team and we all left for the 14 kms long stretch of adventure in 2 rafts.

                           

I sat in the second raft and we followed the first one. Rafting can be defined in 6 grades of rapids. 1st being the easiest and 6th being the hardest which requires a lot of experience and precise manoeuvring. Being the first timers, we were expecting grade 1 rapids followed by grade 2, 3 and 4. I could only hope that we were right as I saw a bit scary rapid appearing in front of us. I noticed our first raft struggling through it and I wondered how are we going to tackle it. Our instructor informed us that it is grade 4 rapid which further increased our heartbeats. In seconds, a strong wave splashed water at us followed by other strong wave which tried to turn our raft upside down. I realised the strength of water first time as 3 of us holding on to the left side of the raft were thrown towards the right side of the raft. Our raft was standing at 75 degrees angle. The three of us tried to get back to our position, but failed as water kept showing us its strength. We all quickly tried to get hold of our positions and succeeded after 3 attempts. Thanks to the experienced instructor who managed and avoided a disaster. Later we experienced grade 2 and 3 rapids and a grade 4 rapid again once more, but we learnt the lesson and we held on to our position this time. Water has so much strength that it made our raft splash 10 feet above the water level. Rafting appeared tiring than we anticipated and we used to take rest in between all the rapids. Later we stopped to try our hands on cliff jumping into the river. It was a different experience as water tries to suck you down but you get saved by your life jacket. Finally, we finished the 14 kms long stretch of rafting in 2 hours by going through 7 rapids.

We sat in our car which was waiting at the final point and returned to our camps. Besides getting tired, we were hungry too. We thanked God as we saw the lunch was already ready for us and we all stuffed our stomachs. We all laid on the sand at the bank of the river and spent the noon relaxing.

Tired, we packed our bags and to return to our city after a great adventure weekend. I had never missed my pillow so much and closed my eyes and went to sleep only to wake up when I reach my city, New Delhi.

3 comments:

  1. Quite Interesting. I always wanted to go to Rishikesh for rafting. May be someday I'll make it. Didn't know there is cliff jumping too . That sounds like something I would love.

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  2. River rafting is already the favorite water sport for the adventure junkies. ... There are many rafting spots in Rishikesh where the rafters can have some of the best fun they ever ...

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