We enrolled for a basic level course on "Kayaking", yes the exciting cute colorful boats that run along with rafts for rescue.
We stayed in a most beautiful camp on white sand beach of Ganga. Camp was some 16-20 kms from Rishikesh. It could be reached only by a boat from the road. That gave it an exciting feeling of remoteness. We reached the camp in the evening, unpacked, had food, and enjoyed the camp-fire.
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Next day Dharmendra, our instructor arrived with the gear. Things started with learning the 5 basic necessities for a kayaker - kayak, paddle, helmet, life-jacket, and the skirt. We learnt simple paddling, how to keep the kayak steady, and how to paddle upstream. We were also shown how to exit from the kayak if it topples over - the wet exit. I must say, it was all more difficult than I had imagined.
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Second day morning... Trying to catch some sun, relaxing our torn muscles, we were praying for Dharmendra (our instructor) to get a little delayed :)
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But he was as always punctual, and had no mercies. We learned to ferry across the river the second day. I liked ferrying. In a flowing river, if you want to reach the opposite bank, you have to take a sort of triangle (remember school day physics?). This, unlike paddling upstream, was more of balancing than muscle power. We were also taught "T-rescue". This is a technique where you can get your kayak straightened with the help of another kayak, without exiting from it. Saves a lot of time, which will otherwise be spent in emptying your kayak of water and setting it up again.
Third day, and we were doing much better in taking our kayak where we wanted it to go. And, were ready to do peel into and out of "eddies". This was a little risky. Including me, most of us toppled during this practice. We were introduced to a third and the optimal way of reinstating the kayak on topple - the eskimo roll. Though, none of us could get it going correctly :( Chetan tried most sincerely. One signal from the instructor, and he would topple his kayak! And, then try to come back doing the roll. I was pretty uncomfortable toppling myself.
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| From Shivpuri |
Fourth day, and we were pretty much enjoying the paddling. We went to our first rapids today - the "Shivpuri rapids". I came out unscathed :) Chetan had a pretty difficult experience. He toppled, and had no place to set it up again. Dharmendra and he somehow managed.
Fifth day was the most exciting one. We went for a 10Km river run, starting from the "marine drive". This had about 4 distinct rapids. One of them - the 3 blind mice was a 2+ rapid, consisting of 3 rapids one after another. All of us toppled in this one by one, crossed one or more rapids in our life-jackets, rocketing on the waves. Pretty horrifying experience..., though seemed pretty exciting once rescued :)
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| From Shivpuri |
In all it was a lifetime experience. I hope I continue kayaking in future too!
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| From Shivpuri |
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