Rafting in Manali




White water Rafting on River Beas - Manali

The magic behind  River Rafting which is also referred, as White Water Rafting is the extreme and never-ending thrills in the untamed rivers. The rivers in the upper Himalayas are among the best in the world for river rafting sports, with many staircase rapids that challenge the body and spirit of the river runner. The river cuts against the rocky banks, crash into rocks, crevices and breaking into white water rapids, foaming, swirling, and falling in a thunderous din.
We experienced the Thrill and Excitement of River Rafting om Beas River in Manali on 26th May 2008
White water river rafting is done at a place “PIRDI” , about 4kms from Kullu on the river Beas,which flows out of the molten Snow/Glaciers from the Himalayas & hence the water is icy-cold even in Summer.The stretch was of 14kms in total.

We Gruop of Eight , Four of them were Youngsters put on our safety accessories - Life jacket, Helmet . Our instructor gave four members of young Brigade , the paddles & explained in short how to use them. These instructors are well experience and mostly from Tibet. They all speak Very good English.
Rubber boat was checked for Right Inflation Pressure, Ropes were Checked for Tightness. Our Rafting Trip started at around 10.30 AM in a sunny day. Three other rafting team followed us. There was a captain leading the rafts sailing at the front. He was on a one man fibre Boat. He guides the teams on routs , direction . Where there is a high swirl he ensures that all the boats cross the swirl and then moves towards front. The initial couple of kms were quite smooth actually. After 2-3 kms, the real fun started.
Rapids started coming in at a much faster rate. One big wave splashed on us and icy-cold Beas water made us remember that this isn’t as easy as it seems.Then we went to an even turbulent section. While we were paddling with vigor, the eddies became even more wider. The guide in our boat keep duiding with commands " Forward", "Forward again", "Backward", "Stop" and the young brigade followed these.
At exactly the mid-point , i.e. after 7 kms another river Parvati joins River Beas & it becomes the most difficult part since the water-depth also increases. There is a Bridge at 7th Km.
The last 7 kms , our instructor was literally shouting since the waves were coming really thick & fast and we couldn,t hear him.Our entire body had become numb due to the continuous cold water splashing in from Beas . Young Members had great difficulty in moving the paddles, many a time it was on to air rather than water. Whole body became wet due to continuous spashing of water. Water was splashed on us by the members of other boats that were following us closely.
The experience was awesome & though we got a little petrified honestly, we didn't want it to end. Each time negotiate a rapid there was a loud noise, cheers , exclamatory shouts - from young and old alike. It were the most adventurous 90 mins for each one of us as we have experienced the rafting for the first time. We also enjoyed watcing the natural scenin Beauty of mountains, Tall green trees thoughout the Trip.
This was momentous and memorable experience of Thrill , excitement, and Fun which will rewind and remain in memory for a long time
My only regret was that we couldn’t click any photos / videos of rafting experience as we were not allowed to carry Camara, digicam, or mobile.
On Browsing the net after the trip , I came to know of white water rafting locations , Rivers and facilities in India including Rishikesh, Uthranchal etc.

Comments

Venky said…
Awesome trip indeed

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