Adventure Sport..................This is would be my first stint with it and I am excited for sure :)
Today I am going to Rishikesh, a holy city for Hindus located in the foothills of the Himalaya in northern India with my colleagues.
I am so excited that I started writing about it even before starting :D
It's a three day trip and i am very sure that we are going to experience something that none of us will forget for the rest of their lifetime, I will not for sure............
So, lets see how it goes and I am sure that I will have a lot to share afterwards...
P.S.:
Today is 29 April and here I am with all my experiences...
a bit late but as people say it is better late then never ;)
First, let me tell you thetheme of our trip
It was Roadies 6.O..............The game goes to Rishikesh :)
We divided ourselves into two teams
Biker Boys and Freakers
We decided to give it a feel of some competition :)
So we packed our bags and left for rishikesh on Friday night
After a hectic overnight journey on Delhi Rishikesh Highway (it was a roller coaster)
On a cool Saturday morning, we reached Har-ki-Pedi in Haridwar
It was an really beautiful... never seen before
Some of the devoted souls (including me) got down to visit the temple
But before that you have to do something not many will be willing to do
To take a bath in chilling water of Ganga and that too on a cool morning...
So we decided to take a short cut as we are from a generation that keep looking for them :)
We just had a dry clean as I call it by sprinkling some water all over us :)
So we escaped from the first challenge thrown at us.........hurray
Then we quickly visited the temples there and left for Rishikesh...
All through the journey, we were looking at the river with all the rapids (as they call the places where the water flow is very fast due to rocks and sharp turns). We were having a second thought about going for it..................in fact they were even more thrilling then we thought at that time...the fact we discovered after starting our journey...........I will come back to it later.
When we finally reached at our camping place.............we were all excited about the next two adventurous days ahead of us.
The climate was excellent..................it was drizzling and it was cold.
Our camps were across the river so we have to board a boat to reach there.............that was my first experience of rowing the boat in the river and it was awesome.
An interesting thing happened when we going towards our boats from the parking
Pankaj slipped and Indraneel captured that slip in his handicam
We all had a good laugh afterwards while watching that slip
Thanks Pankaj ;)
So we were in our camps........................it was again a first timer (oh ho! so many first timers in a day and so many more to come :))
We quickly settled into those tents and got ready for first meal of the day...
All the arrangements was good, except the most important one ;)
After all this, we directly jumped into the river Ganga with our life jackets...........
First, there was a little apprehension around because most of us were non-swimmers...
Nevertheless, once we were into that and started floating everybody was up to his mischievous best ;)
It was an awesome experience with all of us floating in the river....................unforgettable
After playing in the water for the next few hours and clicking some pics in unique and crazzzzzzzzzzzzy poses we came out of our short stint to childhood
There were plenty of things to do on that camping site................We started with Beach Volleyball
Again, a first time...........God knows how many of them are ahead :)
I personally enjoyed it a lot.................except one thing............the pain in my hands :(
We played many............I won some lost some but It was great...
Then our tour manager asked us to try river jumping...........a few of us were not willing to risk their life which all of us thought we might be doing....
But still we gathered our courage and left for a thrill
It was a rocky bed, about 10 feet from which we have to jump into the river..........
I was very nervous (read scared) but cannot show that in front of my friends :D
It was very tough to climb on that because the rocks were sharp and was hard to balance on them...............afterwards we realize that it was tougher then jumping
Then we started jumping one by one with Indraneel.........one of us shooting all this on his handy cam.
It was scary at first thought but when we saw the first person coming out without any hassles it was a morale booster :)
Still when you reach the top to jump...the instructor tells you not to see below and just jump.
However, have we ever listened to the instructions :)
So as soon as i reached the top...I gazed at the bottom...it was not the best thing I did :(
It was a bit scary, but still I gathered some courage and jumped.
I was deep in the water in less then a second i guess and out in a second again.
It was pretty cool...no no not only the water but also the whole experience.
Now there was no fear and all of us were ready to do it again
But Alas!
The time was short and we had to get back to the beach.
After this, we all were tired...Then we quickly had our lunch. It had started raining a bit heavily so we were confined to the tent for some time being...
Some of us took a power nap and rests of us were playing Volleyball.
We also had a brief photo session on the beach...
It was an awesome location...every one was giving poses
Some were more interested in Solo's, me too:)
In all, everyone was clicking to update his orkut profile :)
After some rest, we went for some trekking in the nearby mountain.
Not all were there...some were sleeping...some were too tired to walk.
Still some of us gathered some energy and went for it.
It was drizzling...perfect for trekking
There was a small village there. It was an awesome view up there...i missed my camera
However, it was not possible to carry it as it was raining.
We came back after sitting for some time there.
All were tired...and it had started raining now
A cup of tea was waiting for us as we reached back to our camps.
Tiring journey and rain...what else do you
In the evening, a bon fire was planned for us...but it was not possible due to rain.
So we were sitting in the tent...talking about the whole day experience and things to come next.
Then we decided to play some game…many options were suggested…Dumci, Antakshari, Truth and dare, etc
We finally decided to talk something all boys love to talk about.
Crushes in their life. :)
It was an interesting few hours. We were talking about something we love to talk and more then that listen ;)
It was dark now…the sound of river water flowing was amazing.
Until this time, few of us were still sleeping in their tents.
They woke up and we shifted to the place just in front of our tents.
We arranged our beds in the tents outside in a square and sat there for the rest of the evening. We were talking about our school days. Everyone had something up his sleeve.
It was a good trip down memory lane.
After having our dinner, we were off for the day with plenty of expectations for the day to come.
The next morning, we woke up early at around 7 AM (it is very early for me :))
We quickly freshen up and had our breakfast and here we were ready for the rafting experience.
We divided ourselves into two teams as I said earlier.
I was part of freakers along with Ashish, Deepak, Kennedy, Pankaj and Puneet.
Our guide then told about the various instructions we need to follow during the ride and the precautions to take.
Hence, we started our journey with plenty of enthusiasm, excitement and saying “Jai Ganga Maiyya ki”
Our guide gave us a new anthem
“Chin min chin min dhoom dhadaka…hoo haa hoo haa”
It was fun with all of us chanting that at the top of our voice.
When we started our journey, we had that Sprite AD in our minds: “Dar ke aage jeet hai :)”
The first rapid was termed as Good Morning Rapid.
It was a level 1 rapid…oh; I forgot to tell…there are levels of rapids from 1 to 4 with 4 being the most dangerous :)
Deepak and Puneet were in the front, Kennedy and me at the back and rest in the middle.
It was a good start and with not much difficulty for us except Pankaj.
He was scared like hell…it was visible on his face.
The next was a level 2 rapid with three rapids in a row. This time Ashish and me were in the front.
It was awesome…three in a row :)
Our guide already instructed us that we have to row fast to enjoy the rapids which we tried hard to do… and were enjoying that rowing experience.
In addition, the perfect position to ride is the front one. It is the best view.
This time around, two of us, Pankaj and Kennedy slipped inside the boat due to the water pressure.
The fear on the face of Pankaj was more visible now.
Then came a few more rapids…some level 2, some 3 and one was level 4, the best of them :)
Pankaj slipped on almost all of them ;) with rest of us slipping in one or two.
Ashish was the luckiest one falling outside the boat during level 4 rapid.
Thankfully, our guide got hold of his life jacket and pulled him back.
In between the rapids, we also had small floating sessions in the river.
We were asked to jump into the river and were told that we will automatically float…we do not have to do anything to float.
It was a thrilling experience…as if we were swimming in the river…. especially for non-swimmers like me.
We also had another diving session…but this time it was much higher…around 30-40 feet I guess. It was much higher, much more scary and many times enthralling experience for all of us :)
Overall, it was an awesome experience. I would love to experience it again and I am sure it would not be boring.
If you have not been there, I would definitely recommend you to experience it once.
It is a once in a lifetime experience :)
