"I wish...... I wish I could kayak instead of rafting". And thats how it all started.... seemed like a very good idea at the time ! I had been rafting 4 times in about 14 months.... Zanskar in Ladakh, Ganga and Tons in Uttaranchal and the Mighty Brahmaputra in Arunachal.... On all these trips there were the regular Safety Kayakers along - Kahn Singh, Gappu, Manoj, Jeetu..... and it looked like such fun... dont get me wrong, i didnt think it was easy. I realised it would be difficult but little did I realise HOW TOUGH...
So during the Brahmaputra trip in december 2010, we started talking about doing a Kayak Clinic in Shivpuri at Camp Silver Sands. Seemed like a simple enough idea and even a good one at that.... so i signed on !
Come April, we landed up at Camp to 'learn to kayak' and oh my god what a trip it turned out to be.
4 days of gruelling paddling and near-drowning in muddy, murky water under the unrelenting sun. 2 sessions a day of several hours. I think it was the only way for me to find out that kayaking, river kayaking was not for me!
The water looks great when youre looking at it from the bank or even from the raft but when youre in a kayak and you roll over upside down and you cant see a thing and there's multiple currents swirling about, its very different. And with your lower body constrained in the kayak too..... not a great feeling.
On the last day we went down the river for a few kilometers which was great fun, probably the only time i'm going to be able to do that. Went upside down in a rapid and kept my nerve for about 7-8 seconds to be rescued. Most surreal few seconds of my life.... water everywhere... currents swirling... so much visual noise but audibly none. complete silence.
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| We had no idea what we were walking to.... |
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| Camp Silver Sands is a beautiful place at any time, but even more so when every bit of you is hurting and bruised |
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| Looks a lot simpler when you're NOT in the water ! |
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| Rolling. the toughest part of kayaking and one that i never managed |
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| Oh boy, i'm gonna have to get in soon |
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| Rana. Our 'patient' teacher |
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| We did finish! |
1 comment:
you persevered and went all the way to finish even though it was so tough on you...that was the amazing part:)
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