3 of us (Dhruv, Praneet and me) left on a Saturday evening and reached Camp David 3 kms before Biasi(Uttaranchal, India) on Sunday morning. The bus ride from Delhi was not as much fun as we would have liked it to be but sometimes adventure doesn't start from the exact point one would like to.
We had almost the entire camp site to ourselves as the season was almost over. After a quick breakfast we got ready for a 15 km rafting experience to Shivpuri. Before that we splashed around on the shallow bank of Ganges for a long time wearing the life jackets. This was important to get used to the water as well as get ready for the thrill lying ahead of us. Our guides were 3 smart young locals who knew the river from the back of their hands. On Day 1 there was a family to give us company on the raft for about 5 Kms. They negotiated "Good Morning" and a few easier rapids (one of them was supposedly called potato) with us. After bidding them farewell we started paddling for the remaining 10 Kms, which had some real challenge for a newbie like me. Although we had already done some floating in the river from the first suspension bridge, when we were asked to jump into a "body surfing" rapid for the first time I wasn't too sure if our guides knew what I was capable of. I still jumped, first few waves in the rapid seemed easy but then I was going under the water every time and trying hard to continue breathing (bad move as I was supposed to match my breathing rhythm with the waves). Anyways, although a few seconds seemed like a few hours the first experience taught me a lot about staying above the water in the rapids ( Guides taught us a few handy tricks as well). While earlier Dhruv and Praneet had floated away from the raft when trying to get their picture clicked in the water, this time it was my turn. The raft was floating at a steady pace and I had caught speed in the fast current while floating. Although the life jacket was there for my protection I wasn't sure how I would be able to get back on dry land, if ever. Fortunately, the guides were only waiting for some acclimatization time to pass before the next rapid and they picked us back into the raft ready with the paddles.
After an exhausting but exciting experience with a few more rapids we came back to the campsite and crashed in our tents after a quick lunch. We needed those few hours of sleep to make up for the sleep lost during the bus journey. In the evening we went to the rock face and Dhruv and Praneet got to practice some climbing with a Jumar and rappelling with a rope and descender. It was a nice refresher for me although I was waiting for the rafting experience on Day 2 - 25 Kms (Biasi to Lakshman Jhoola). We also tried to make some good use of a cricket pitch mat and a beach ball net on the sand, apart from the carom board of course. Nevertheless, rafting was the high point of the day so much so that I asked the camp managers to allow me to sleep in the open next to the river on the cool bank (Fear of mosquitoes in the tent was the other reason) of river Ganges under the starlit sky.
I got up when the sun was already nice and bright and noticed that my other two companions were still waiting for someone to wake them up. We got ready in a few hours lazing around the mess tent, having our breakfast and packing our bags for the journey back home. I also took some time out to click a few pictures of a barking deer drinking water from the river, a butterfly fluttering around, a few local village belles collecting wood from the slope on the other side of the river and the camp site. We were all set to go at 10 AM with the camp owner's family. This time I was feeling more confident and wanted to see the stretch after Shivpuri. However there was another thrill in store for me. We didn’t jump into the calm water after the suspension bridge but couldn’t resist the temptation of jumping in the “body surfing” rapid which we had experienced the previous day. I started floating on the rapid and was able to keep my head up all the time as I had figured the tricks. Then, as we were approaching a whirlpool/hole in the water I swam away from the stream to avoid the danger and in no time I was floating in circles in an eddy (for the uninitiated an eddy gets formed next to the rapids where water moves in circles but is not fast enough to form a whirlpool). As much as I tried to swim away from the eddy and get back to the raft I was getting pushed back by the water. Our other friend Praneet didn’t know swimming and people on the raft appropriately decided to pick him up first. In the meanwhile though, the raft moved ahead and I was still floating with my face up and life jacket strapped on to me. I tried again to get back into the current so I could float towards them but I noticed that I was unnecessarily exhausting myself. I decided to wait for another raft to arrive or the eddy to break up into a stream (if anything like this even happens). After about 20 minutes or so (although it seemed like a life time) our guides paddled the raft to the bank close to them and started walking towards me on the bank. While they were whistling towards me trying to encourage me on to swim my red helmet was also noticed by another rafting team. It was from that team that an angel named “Sudhir” who was on his canoe paddled towards the eddy. He was guiding his rafting team and he also guided me to latch on to a hook on his canoe so he could take me towards my raft. I complied like an obedient soldier and we were all back together on the raft once again. Further beyond, Shivpuri we had some of the best rapids named, “Tee off”, Golf course”,” Washing machine” and we all paddled well through the fast water. The final piece of adventure was a 14 feet cliff jumping exercise. The height didn’t seem daunting but when I had let gravity take over I was wondering for a split second why is the water not touching my feet. I must have gone into the water, a few feet and when I emerged my ear drums could sense what the world refers to as increasing pressure of water as one goes deeper into it.
We disembarked from the raft a few yards before Lakshman Jhoola, had our packed lunch and started on our journey back to Delhi. This time we got proper seats where we could afford to doze off like tired adventurers who were dreaming of their next trip of adventure.
