Monday, June 2, 2008

Rafting at Rishikesh, Uttaranchal

Weekend before last i went for my n-th rafting trip to Rishikesh (n>10) and the first thought when our raft hit the rapid was – why haven’t i been doing this more often? Of all my travel experiences, the thrill of being in the middle of a rapid (the third mice or the roller coaster) and a huge wave hitting from the front is unmatched – better than even sighting a tiger !!

If you are driving down from Delhi, i recommend starting very early say by 5 am as one saves lot of time getting out of Delhi and crossing Ghaziabad, Mohannagar, Meerut etc. where the traffic gets slow at later hours. For food it is best to stop at the tried and tested ‘Cheetal Grand’ at Khatauli which is exactly halfway between Delhi and Rishikesh. Other decent alternatives are Moolchand resorts just before the Muzaffarnagar bypass and Polaris in Roorkee.

It takes about 5 hours to get to Hardwar if one leaves at an early hour. From the road one can see Har ki Pauri and also the Chandi Devi temple (on top of a hill). There is an aarti at Har ki Pauri in the evenings and many who visit Rishikesh make it a point to attend this aarti one of the evenings.

Rishikesh is about 25 kms ahead of Hardwar. Our destination was Logout Camp@Ganges which is about 26 kms ahead of Rishikesh on the Badrinath route. In Rishikesh one crosses the famour Ram Jhula and the even more famous Laxman Jhula on the right.

If you reach in day time you will see some of the rafts ending their rafting journey at Rishikesh. From Rishikesh onwards the road gets winding as one starts climbing up towards Badrinath. The route offers some spectacular views of the river Ganges flowing below and the hills on both sides.

From Rishikesh to Tapovan Chauki to Shivpuri to Malakunti took us about an hour to reach Logout Camp@Ganges. The team was ready to welcome us with chai and snacks.


There were a few groups already at the camp – some of them had finished their rafting and were doing rappelling and rock climbing, while some others were playing volleyball on the beach.
We were allocated tents we would be staying in (at a slightly higher platform) – each tent had two cots with beddings etc. – so fairly comfortable for a camp setting (the loos are not so comfortable though, as forest only allows dry pit loos). We had snacks in the evening with some music for company, had early dinner and went to bed.

Next morning was the rafting day. We had an early breakfast as we watched the Logout team ready six rafts for different groups who were going rafting that morning. While others were being given safety instructions, we got ready with the life jacket etc. and got going !!


Next three hours were exhilarating ! The thrill of negotiating the rapids especially the higher grade rapids (rapids are given grades depending on how violent they are and chances of a raft turning over, the ones with grade 3 and above are the most enjoyable – watch out for Three blind mice, Roller coaster, Golf course and The wall) is unmatched !
The cold water splashing on your face, the guide shouting instructions (All forward, faster faster) to paddle faster and the fear deep inside of falling into the ice-cold water if the raft was to turn – all adds to the chill ! Difficult to describe in words, here are some pictures taken of other rafts as they crossed the rapid right behind us !!


We rafted from the Logout Camp (near Marine drive, where most rafting trips start) down till Rishikesh. We were way tired to attempt anything more – though we found some more energetic ones preparing for rappelling and others for an activity called bridge slithering !