White Water Rafting at Kundalika!

Was a crazy day out visiting the Kundalika river. It was a really busy day.. we hardly got a break from the "JAI KUNDALIKA!" slogan. Its a beautiful fast flowing river flowing into the Arabian Sea, and the white water rafting happens at a point between Tamhini and the Bombay Goa Highway, about a hundred kilometres from Mumbai and Pune. First of all, the greenery is just breath taking. There are beautiful lush green hills on every side and you can sense that there has never been a shortage of water in this part of the world!We left Pune at 4AM and reached at about 7AM, just in time for the sudden gush of water that flows through the river after Tata opens its dam gates. After a great deal of sloganeering, our group of 11 got into the inflated boats.

The instructor told us what he meant by "Right Forward", "All Down" and so on, and we set forth. Seven of us were in one boat and four in the other. The first rapids were superb, but the next one was just breathtaking. This one had a wall of water, about 7 feet in height right in front of us, and we enterd it head on. Our instructor yelled "All Down", and we put out heads inside the boat.. oh boy it was awesome. You are supposed to hit such rapids head on, and at a good pace. If you dont, there is a good chance that the boat could overturn. Anyway, there was then some more "Jai Kundalika" and some racing between our boats. Another rapid followed, and then there was a flat section of river moving at slow to medium speed. It was then that we heard this new code word that our instructor had not told us about.. " All Overboard" he yelled. I was stumped.. I said "What"? "Overboard man.. get off the boat"! "There is water outside here man... its deep too!" I yelled. He said "Oh Yeah, not more than 25 feet.. dont worry.. u got your life jacket on anyway". What the hell, we thought, and jumped off the boat, and boy, it was fun. The life jacket just would not let us drown, and the river took us down about 3-4 kilometres in the hour and a half that we spent floating in it. The dive into the water, and the confusion that set in as soon as I hit the water.. that was probably the biggest thrill of the whole trip! Well, we got off the river, had some wada pavs and then sang some songs on our way back home.. a trip to remember!