The pack of CATS ready to leave Chandigarh before the crack of dawn...
Hats off to the husbands who woke up early to drop their better halves at the assembly point at 4am!!
All smiles in Gaddi No.1
and this is one bunch which did not sleep a wink for the 5 hours of journey
to Rishikesh.. The string of jokes and songs went on and on :)
Smiles in Gaddi No.2 also... when they were not either sleeping or eating :P
The breathtaking dawn broke when we were crossing Ambala Cantt.
and soon we were taken into the bylanes of Saharanpur...
full of sights, smells and sounds of an era bygone...
Animals are really affectionate towards each other...
take this CAT and a goat for example ;-)
CATS got a chance to stretch their legs and have their breakfast with
a hot cuppa cha at a local Dhaba... where one look at us and the cup of tea was charged at Rs.15/-
One stop shop for all solutions.... Any takers??
CAT Puneet had a tough time to get our driver Naresh make a pit-stop
to buy some organic and fresh jaggery from the roadside sugarcane fields...
For the uninitiated, this is the first step towards the making of jaggery (gurr)...
the juice is extracted from the sugarcane which flows through a pipe and get sieved from the husk...
The juice then goes through a series of underground open fires..
the smoke of which goes up in the air through this chimney...
Going back to the sugarcane juice, the husk is hung in bags to extract
the last of the juice, and the juice goes through these four large containers,
one at a time with fire burning underneath..
each container refining the juice towards becoming jaggery...
and this is the condensed juice waiting to be made into jaggery balls/pats...
however, we chose not to buy the jaggery...
as it had tons of artificial colour added to it in the last container!
The artificial colour had added more colour to jaggery than the life
of this child walking around gingerly... sadly so!
we were in Haridwar by 10am... a city which is host to 40million pilgrims taking a holy dip during the Kumbh Mela
The main road was lined with hoardings of every possible Baba Ji, Sant Ji,
Mata Ji, Maharaj Ji, Behan Ji busy propogating every possible issue
under the sun.. including global warming!
and an odd MacroMan also found space amidst the Babas ;-)
Haridwar Administration has done a commendable job in holding an event of this
scale, as smoothly as the pilgrims possibly allows it.. the whole city has been
divided neatly into parking lots.. holding barricades for people to take
a dip into the Holy Ganga... choona sprinkled urinals and bathing areas
have been erected at regular intervals...
A beautiful statue of Shiv Ji greets you by the banks as you drive through the city...
another close look from a moving vehicle at the Ganga...
Tented cities have been created in an orderly fashion...
what more could one ask for? The administration deserves due recognition for all the effort it has made.
Rishikesh... and the first look at Ganga in the hills...
It was love at first sight for all twelve of us at Marine Drive...
Capturing the beautiful sight for posterity...
Our next scheduled stop was Kodiyala Monal Restaurant for lunch...
a place which has not changed much since last time...
apart from the food and service which has become even better :)
CATS in a queue for the washroom before we got into the cars towards
the starting point of rafting...
One lizard in the washroom gave CAT Kirti a tough time though ;-)
Can you imagine what this is?
A dried up creeper still clinging onto the bottle palm!
Off we move towards the confluence.. Yippie :)
The confluence of Bhagirathi and Alaknanda..
If you see closely, Alaknanda on the right is muddier as a dam is under-construction
around SriNagar area hence a lot of mud is flowing into the river.
Otherwise, the river is as clean as the Bhagirathi coming from the left.
The original plan was to begin rafting through the confluence. However, as I was
the only experienced rafter of some consequence, the head guide vetoed that
we should begin from Dev Prayag instead, about half a kilometer ahead of the confluence.
Alas, we had to shell out road tax one final time for the road which is non-existant ;-)
Our launch pad.. Dev Prayag.. the level of excitement was reached its' zenith by now in both the cars :)
Chotak conducting the training before we are allowed to jump into the rafts...
CATS, all geared up in safety helmets, life jackets and pedals to begin rafting....
FINALLY.... CATS meowing their way into the rafts :)
Each raft was accompanied by a Kayak for rescue... just in case.... mommmyyyy!!!!
Surprisingly, the occupants of each car gelled in so well with each other,
that they chose to take this division to the rafts too ;-)
honestly... we are just posing for the camera ;-)
First brush with Ganga... holding onto the safety rope of the raft though ;-)
This is the first thing that the guides get you to do once you have learnt to pedal the raft...
jump into the river and get accustomed to the water.. get comfortable outside of the raft too :P
and yes.. you can swim to your heart's content too in the area of the river where the guide feels is safe...
Being in Ganga made me realise one thing, 'I love being in water!'
These two from our raft were feeling unsure of getting into water..
CAT Renu we managed to persuade finally, but our guide Chotak gently pushed
CAT Singhvi from the edge of the raft and....
SPLAAASSSSHHHHhhhh
oh please... do take a pic... I had been mercilessly thrown into the water ;-)
All back into the raft.... to pedal through some small rapids...
hey girls.. get back in.... there's a rapid ahead...
but they aren't listening!!!
CAT Meenakshi and CAT Kirti having the time of their lives in Ganga :)
oh boy... I thought I had them all in.. how did this one escape??!!!
CAT Rishi being towed by a Kayak towards the raft ;-)
OK.. I give up!!
My excuse was that I was demonstrating the rescue posture on a Kayak :P
what had actually happened is that I had swum quite a distance from my raft
and it was quite difficult for me to swim against the strong current towards my raft..
so the kayak guide Dinesh opted to tow us back to the raft..
An Important Lesson in rafting... never stray away from your raft!
After having loads of fun through rapids of grade 1 and 2, plenty of swimming
and dunking in the Ganga, a bit of body surfing through the rapids whilst
holding the kayak.. we eventually arrived at Vyas Ghat.
Bheegi Billiyaan :P
we are still SPEECHLESS.......
VyasGhat; a virgin sandy beach where our camp site had been set up for the night
CATS getting into their tents.... for a quick change
CAT Renu and CAT Parveena are in heaven already :)
Yummy pakoras served with hot tea and cold soft drinks...
a welcome sustenance after oodles of fun in the water :)
Our head guide Rawat personally supervised the service...
The power of Mother Nature simply took over this merry pack of CATS...
we felt engulfed with peace all around us...
Our dining tent where more chatting went on than eating!!
The bonfire in place.. waiting for the sun to go down....
CAT Kirti holding a lovely pose by the Ganga...
CAT Singhvi was lost in a world of his own...
It was as if every one was connecting with something deep within... sheer bliss :)
A little while later, our entertainment manager of the expedition, CAT Singhvi held a yoga session
followed by a meditation and relaxation session.
Would you believe me if I told you, that this session converted even non-believers
of yoga into the followers?
and I was lost in a world of my own... colourful stones strewn around the beach by
the mighty Ganga held me riveted... I did not know what to absorb now and what to soak in later...
clear skies... clear Ganga... cool breeze... shining silver sand... colourful stones...
I was in heaven
whilst CATS were having the times of their lives on this beautiful beach...
our Guide was busy supervising his team to get the dinner in place for us...
Feet dipped in Ganga... minds getting afresh.. spirits getting renewed with new energies...
The kitchen and pantry essentials in a natural refrigerator ;-)
Do you need further evidence of how blissful we all felt?
CAT Singhvi exclaimed when he looked at this photo later,
'Arre, bilkul bachha ban gya tha main wehan!'
The moon had already started teasing us above...
while the peacocks had started frolicking at the shore below :)
We were disturbed only once when a landslide took place on the other side of the river...
a jolting experience reminding us to protect our environment ferociously
and not just tenderly anymore... Plant more trees to begin with!
Can you imagine that everyone lying on the beach here had met
for the first time in their lives only once??!!!
It was an honour to lead such a well balanced group into this rafting expedition..
Thank you folks for maintaining the energy during the trip :)
A spot of antakhshari by the bonfire.. where the whole gang was split into two groups
namely Bhagarithi and Alaknanda... cheating through rampantly ;-)
we did not spare even our head guide in singing, whom we gave the title of 'Saanjhi Billi'... meow :)
Can you notice CAT Puneet using her torch to check which dish is lying in which bowl at the dinner table?!!
CAT Puneet and I had chosen to sleep under the stars rather than inside the tent through the night...
It was a joint effort.. she proposed, I agreed.. she made the bed, I slept :P
The dawn broke ever so gracefully... filling us with joy all over again...
with so many cameras around, every moment was captured.. CAT Puneeta coming out of the toilet tent!!
CAT Renu brushing her teeth using the natural mineral water ;-)
whilst the owner of this pair of happy feet still slept away :P
I was wondering what my tent, my rucksack and my sandals must be thinking at this precise moment!
Any guesses???
Another pair of feet... battered and bruised.. but still HAPPY :)
CATS looking over the Ganga for another day of fun ;-)
CAT Singhvi woke up with a datun in his mouth.. only to realise that the outer
covering of his tent had been blown away during the night by the strong winds ;-)
CAT Juhi in enchanted by the beautiful day that beckoned us all...
While CATS were enjoying this beautiful morning, the team of
our guide was busy getting the breakfast ready for us...
The Kayak and Raft guides had washed and cleaned our helmets, safety jackets, pedals and rafts by now.
CATS enjoying their morning cuppa
It was not long before I got distracted by the drama which the Mother Nature was staging in front of us... just for us...
It was not just us mere mortals.. Ganga had left even the pebbles glistening under the morning sun...
The sun was finally shining brightly over the beach...
as we started to pack up for a day full of adventure ahead..
Are we not as temporary as these footprints on the sand?
Just as the waves wash away the imprints of our existence, this very Ganga
washes away the last of our being; our ashes once we are dead...
Yoga session underway in the morning...
Any guesses what the CATS are upto now?
CATS.. written in stone.. literally :P
OK.. one more look :)
As the team was giving the finishing touches to the breakfast,
CATS soaking in the beauty all around them... just one more time ;-)
The sand had as much fun with us as we did in the sand!
Due to the abundance of sand, it jammed the shutter cover of CAT Puneet's camera
which had to be priced open with the nails each time we had to use it ;-)
Evidence for you to see for yourself!
Oh yeah.. and we had a sumptuous breakfast too...
What do you see in sand apart from the stones? Any ideas?
Our guide confirmed that these are footprints of the leopard which had come visiting
during the night to drink water from the Ganga while we slept blissfully.
This is the sight which CAT Puneet did witness, but put it down to a trance in a beautiful night!!
Beauty Beauty Beauty all around :)
and Boys will always be BOYS I guess ;-)
CAT Singhvi and CAT Prem skimming stones!
Do you notice the reddish colour in sand? This colour is lent by the stone dust
of the coloured stones being tumbled naturally in the Ganga...
Qudrat ek... Rang anek...
Our tent being taken away for packing!
Packing underway....
All set to hit the waters again :)
and here we go..... MEOW :)
A bird's eye view captured from afar...
Can you see the snow-lined peaks at the back of the mountain range??
and it was fun time all over again... CAT Shilpa doing a back flop into the Ganga :)
While the occupants of both the rafts were busy pedalling water at each other..
CAT Puneet is yelling away, 'Arre STOP camere pe pani mat daalo!!!'
A rock emerges out o the Ganga to kiss the skies above..
shadowing everything around it... lending an echoing silence around it...
It was time for lunch soon... :P
As CAT Chat noticed, 'How many times did you stop for food on this trip?
Had you gone there to raft or eat?!!!!'
And this is the point where the fun gets over and serious rafting begins..
Kodiyala - rapids of Grade 3, Daniel's Dip looked us straight into the eye as we got into the rafts after lunch.
Both the kayaks went ahead to check the current and then gave us the go ahead.
The monster of a rapid awaited us soon thereafter, The Wall at grade 4 had
the record of flipping 95% of the rafts going through it.
One of our rafts had flipped during our last expedition.
What lay ahead of us this time?
After due diligence, 3 CATS opted out and 9 CATS went in one raft to
befriend The Wall. With synchronised pedalling under the guidance of Chotak and
our trump card CAT Meenakshi, WE CONQUERED THE WALL...
YIPPIEEEeee....
Such was the momentum of the group after The Wall, that we refused to
stop at our appointed finishing point, The Marine Drive.
Apart from CAT Singhvi who opted out, and CAT Shilpa who though originally
went out of the raft only to jump in again, 11 of us chose to raft down another 14kms.
After doing another rapid of Grade 3 - Three Blind Mice, we started indulging in
some more fun. Chotak got us to raft while standing on the edge of the raft!
after going through the last rapid of the stretch, Cross Fire, we indulged in
some body surfing, followed by a long stretch of swimming and then we decided
to opt for a spot of synchronised swimming!
CATS were unbeatable that day.. we could do anything :)
Our guides had a tough time getting us all back into the rafts to reach the shore!
Finally, we were all ashore... dried and changed.. for another round of
pakoras and tea before we got into the cars to head back to Chandigarh.
This is where our Guides told us that they had never come across a bunch of men,
forget women who had rated 56kms in a day (this is the distance which
we had covered on day 2 from VyasGhat till ShivPuri).
How could we say goodbye without a last minute photograph with the whole
pack of CATS and the team of Guides who provided us with such immaculate service,
to give us a memorable weekend.
The Roaring CATS :)
- CAT Supreet
