River Rafting-Ness Roadies--2007

“..hum hai naye to andaaz kyun ho puraana..”

The Roadies: Brajesh, Shrikant, Sandeep, Jayateerth, Uttam, Rajiv, Indu, Pavan, Jyotsana, Dolfred, Madhu, Ravindra, Dinesh, Akshata, Gururaj, Sainath, Ajit, Pranav, Ketul, Shrihari, Divya, Rajesh, Satyaranjan, Pratibha, Deepshikha.

The Event: River Rafting @ River Cauveri

The Place: Bheemeshwari

The Date: August 4, 2007

Thanks to : CARE India

Roadies had a different plan this time..we left the roads and had a plan to venture towards River!. Yes.. we wanted to try our hands on paddles of River rafting.

Unity in diversity..Twenty five Roadies from different EDCs (though 27 people were nominated, 2 dropped out because of unavoidable reasons) assembled at Ness Towers on Saturday,4th of August. We consulted CARE, an institute who conducts these kinds of activities. They arranged the bus and the bus came to Ness towers at 7.00 AM. We left our office at 7.30 AM and headed towards Bheemeshwari. As planned, we had breakfast on the way near METRO.

Bheemeshwari is 103 km from Bangalore. We have to cross Kanakpura and Muttatti to reach the camp site. The climate was ideal for the journey.
“Yoon hi kat jaayega safar saath chalne se, ki manjil aayegi nazar..saath chalne se..”this and other songs were sung and the lush green tress might have enjoyed the singing of budda-ing(!!) singers J

We reached the Bheemeshwari at 11.30 AM. Mr.Ravi from CARE, who accompanied us, gave instructions about the plan in the base camp. Since ours was the second batch, we had to wait for our turn for the rafting. Why waste the time?! We decided to go for trekking. After fresh-up, we started for trekking. The hill was bit steep and there was no grip as there were lot of small stones. Most of us managed not to fall down but many made it J. As we went up, the scenery around was just beautiful. The light breeze, some times strong wind added special effects for our trek. The river flowing between the hills was looking like a stream of milk. There is one view-point at the top of hill, where we took some snaps, took rest for some time. The place was picturesque…awesome!!

We came down from the same route which we followed to climb up. So it was a fun coming down as most of the people were slipping and our cameras were waiting for the click..”mauka ye wardat..” J

The trek was around 3km (to and fro). When were reached the base camp, we were hungry. Everyone was delighted when they came to know that our lunch was ready. Jungle Lodges and resorts had arranged a nice vegetarian lunch for us.

After the lunch, we took some time and just roamed around the base camp. So at 2.30 PM, we were ready for the much awaited Rafting!!

The chief instructor gave demonstration about the dos and don’ts of the rafting. He introduced us to Raft , Paddle, helmet, safety jacket, dry bag, life line etc. He also instructed us what we should do if we fall down in the water. And all our senses were alert as all were the first timers !!. We got to know about the commands such as forward paddle, backward paddle, hard forward row, Relax..etc.

There were 4 rafts each one having one instructor. All the instructors had experience of rafting in Hrishikesh, the most sought after rafting place in India. According to them the Rapid category here is -1, but for us it was 10 !. We started following the commands of the instructor. When the command was forward paddle, we used to shout “1..2..3” in order to synch ourselves !.We used to forward paddle when we felt we are slow and used to hard forward paddle when saw the rocs ahead. Sometime in the middle, we enjoyed the “Relax” command..most wanted command indeed !
We had fight with the other boats’ roadies also…yes it was splashing water on one other using paddles..initially we fought bravely but later decided to follow Gandhigiri J

We were excited when we came to first rapid. Though it was small one, it was like a demo version for us ! and cautioned us about the forthcoming rapids. While passing through first rapid, our raft went down and up, down and up again. Water flashed on us. Since I was sitting front in the raft, I felt like a bucket of water is splashed one me !

After that rapid, our instructor asked us to jump down the raft !!!! Initially we got scared but later summed up all our courage and jumped in to the river..of course holding the life line!. Later we came to know that we are not going to get drowned because of safety jacket and we left the life line and freely floated in the water. Later instructor informed us about the lunch time of the crocodiles.. immediately came in to the raft J

Next one was the bigger rapid ..and it was a bit longer also. To simplify, it was like a roller coaster ride. Going up, down sidewords..while the raft was moving in all direction, water was splashing on us. The instructor was shouting “Forward paddle.. Forward paddle..we hardly heard anything of him.

Since we liked getting in to the water we asked the instructor again and got down in the water. This time few more joined the group and we had a nice time in the water. Some people tried to swim (who ever knew swimming) and others enjoyed floating.

When we were approaching the next rapid, instructor asked us to get in…in fact he pulled us! We thought the next one was a minor rapid. But to our surprise..it was the biggest of all the rapids!!. While the raft was passing through it, it was difficult for us to paddle as water was falling on us like a jet and the instructor was shouting hard to paddle fast in order to quickly pass that rapid and balance the raft. Our raft hit that rock and slowed down and turned its direction. Instructor then shouted “Back paddle!!” with all his energy. We did and finally the raft became stable and we were out of the rapid. That was indeed the breath taking movement.

We passed through couple of whirlpools and few rapids. Since we had passed the critical ones, we did not get scared this time. But we enjoyed the thrill.

When we reached the end of thrilling 7 kms of rafting, jeeps were waiting for us to take us back to Base camp. But they had to wait more as we played in the river for some time. Many cameras clicked the captured the snaps.

One jeep carried all the rafts and ladies. In other jeep, we decided to come in the carrier attached to jeep. Everyone was standing in the carrier without anything to hold. The driver seemed to be F1 champion and he drove the jeep like the Ferrari!!. We screamed initially but held one another and started singing (may to avoid screaming!). The road and the silent forest enjoyed our singing. They enjoyed “yeh dosati hum nahi chodenge..”, “mere angane me tumhara kya kaam hai..”, “dilbar mere kabtak mujhe aise hi tadapavode..”, “Raghupati raghava raja raam patit pavan sita ram..”, “Sare jahan se achcha hindusita hamara..”, “Bumbai se aaya mera dost..” and what not !

It was an equally thrilling and breathe taking ride, we called it “Road rafting” J

We came back to base camp. Got fresh, and were ready for the return journey to Bangalore. All good things must come to an end. So as this. But we all had a nice unforgettable, thrilling, breath taking experience.

Roadies enjoyed the trekking and rafting so much that they gave nominations for the next even which is yet to be planned!!!