The planning to go to this place had started about 2 weeks back. And I was super excited to go for water rafting, again. Yes, the last time, I had been to rafting in Coorg, when we had gone for Goldie’s wedding. It was fun, plus I had gone with my friends, which added to the fun part. Back to Kolad. We were a total of 13 people. I must say, a group people will have a complete different experience than going alone or with 1-2 friends. We left at 4 AM on Saturday, picking up everyone on the way. We had booked a traveler, guess that’s what it is called. The last person, who got on the vehicle had come directly from his office, after completing his night shift. He had brought omlette-pav for breakfast. Early morning, we didn’t feel hungry, but good we ate at that time, else, our tummies would have growled and grumbled after rafting. We reached rafting start point at 9:30 AM, after a lot of “yeah this is the left turn”, “see that railing, that’s the turn” and later “No, no, this is not the one” :-s. After reaching the point, some of us got in the water. The water was still and there were rocks around. Hubby told, the rocks will vanish as soon the dam water is released. The scenery around was good to be pictured. Photo-shoots started. After some time, there was a siren, indicating the dam water is going to be released. That meant, we had to wear the gear: life-jacket, helmet and pedal. People started coming out of the water and headed to the place where the gear was placed. After wearing the gear, there was still some time, so we started the photo-shoot again in that gear. In some time, there was another siren indicating the dam water is released, after which the guides started giving instructions on rafting. Once the instructions were given, we divided ourselves into 2 groups of 5 and 8. We were five in one raft and 5 were other visitors and one guide. Our guide, Anoop, was poker-faced joker. We got into the raft, and had a trial in still water. Anoop told us about the rapids and its names. The names I can recollect are Good Morning, Double Trouble, Welcome to Buddha, Butterfly, Rajasthan Express, Boom Boom Shankar and John Carrey. The different instructions which he gave while rafting were,
1. All forward: We had to paddle forward, i.e., the paddle should go from front to back.
2. All back: We had to paddle back, i.e., the paddle should go from back to front.
3. Left forward: The paddlers sitting on the left-side should paddle forward.
4. Right back: The paddlers sitting on the right-side should paddle back.
5. Right forward: The paddlers sitting on the right-side should paddle forward.
6. Left back: The paddlers sitting on the left-side should paddle back.
7. Stop: The paddlers should stop paddling.
8. Get down: The paddlers should get inside the raft and hold the safety rope on the side of the raft.
After the trial, we had got along with the flow of instructions. Some of the paddles kept dashing with other paddles, for which Anoop told to work as a team and follow the leader, i.e., the person sitting in the front. And after some time, we were doing really good. we were ready for rapids.
Good Morning was approaching and it was thrilling to see waves, rising up and down. As soon we hit Good morning, the people on the left side were hit by it. I was drenched in cold water, and there was an adrenaline rush inside me, which wanted more of such rapids. Then came Double trouble, even this time, we people on the left side were hit by it. Wowowow!!! And I wanted more and more and more. There on, all the rapids hit the right side people, until John Carrey. As we were approaching John Carrey, Anoop shouted, “Get down”, we got down and the water filled our raft from all the sides. Superrrrrrrb!!! Hurrayyyyyyyyyy!!! The experience was awesome. I am not getting words to describe it completely. I loved the experience and I am thankful to people, who were involved in planning the trip. After John Carrey, we started flowing in still water. Anoop asked us to stand on the raft’s edge. I thought he was kidding and kept sitting. Then I looked at other rafts nearby, people were standing. Then I thought these people are crazy, we tried to stand on the edge, few people were successful. So, Anoop asked us to stand inside the raft, we stood and all were successful. Suddenly, one of the person lost balance, and he fell on 2 persons standing opposite to him. The 2 persons fell in the water, but within no time, we pulled them in. Phew!!! After which, Anoop asked everyone to get in the water. Some agreed while remaining stayed. We stayed in the boat and enjoyed the scenery around. It started raining heavily, as we were already wet, it didn’t matter how wet we were. We were reaching the end point and Anoop asked the people in water to get inside. Once, they came in, we started paddling and reached the shore, ending an awesome rafting experience, which would stay on with us, until another one. As we got out of the water, we realized, we were so hungry. We ordered wada-pavs and boiled corn. After, satisfying our hunger, we headed to Tamhini Falls. All the way, we slept like logs.
As soon, we reached, we were in action. We kept looking for waterfalls by the roadside, some were small, other were big, but the crowd was not good. We got down at one place but as the crowd was not good, we headed to another one. On the way, some of us found a water fall behind the trees. I saw it needed a little trekking to reach there. Initially, I was a little hesitant, but gave in to my guide’s convincing. We trekked against the waterfall and we reached point where the water was flowing heavily and it was chilling cold. After playing for some time, it was time to get down. To come down was another task to be accomplished. Each step, we sat and stepped down. Supppeeeerrrrrrbbbbb!!! It was time to go back, go back with relishing memories of Kolad water rafting and Tamhini waterfalls.
An awesome trip to remember.
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