Rishikesh - White Water Rafting

Today we have to wake up early morning as we need to report by 8.45 for Rafting Trip.

Red Chilli one of the famous tour operator in Rishikesh took us to Shivpuri, the starting point of the rafting. The gushing waters of Ganges swirled into violent rapids, smashing around the rocks, and spin – drifting its icy waters.  Having carried our raft down to the banks, we were ready to roll. The river cuddles high grade rapids in its water. Grade II to IV+ rapids can be enjoyed in this river.

“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream.” 

Lots of speculations about water temperature and cold windy weather in Ganga River, eight of us, encountered 26KM Long River rafting. Water that day was extremely clear with green color like a wide sheet of green grass. Since I had done river rafting earlier, I was not much worried about it other than cold freezing water.

I sat on the front right and bhayya on left kaka was placed behind me. Me and bhayya was only who had previous rafting experience, also captain wanted two strong chap at the front, We crossed first rapid and I sensed that low water level will make our rafting easier and less thrilling. River was very calm and our raft moved slowly. All of us were quietly enjoying the calmness of river and beautiful valleys around Ganga , We crossed few rapids and then our captain allowed us to jump off the raft. For Ganga Snan. Except me all jumped into cold freezing water.

We had a body surfing rapid also in which we were allowed to jump outside the raft in the rapid. , it was fun to flowing down, in fact we were floating. And I drank so much water. and I got purified as per Hindu mythology.

Words cannot describe this experience. Truly awesome. The rapids have interesting names as well, like, Sweet sixteen, Hugs & Kisses, , Three Blind Mice, Cross Fire, Roller Coaster, Double Trouble, Golf course etc.

Rapids like roller coaster, marine drive and golf course was fun, sitting in front and watching each and every moment of water was an experience to count. The best thing was Golf course with small ups and downs. And view looked like a mesh of countless small hills spread over river.

Half way through, we stopped at the banks of the river and had snacks and soft drinks. After a short rest, we were back on the raft, braving the rapids that tried to capsize our boat and throw us into the whirlpools. Sounds scary, but even if we did fall out, we’d float and the raft would pick us up after, And we didn’t try cliff jumping, as the guide felt that there wasn’t sufficient water for a safe splash down. The whole rafting took close to 5 hours. There were several times when we thought that our raft will hit the cliffs or will turn upside down but nothing happened as we followed the instructions carefully.

The rafting ended unexpectedly at a strange place. But we thoroughly enjoyed this experience. 

A picture is worth Thousand words -------- Video will be uploaded soon