4 Ways of Adventure Bathing in Rishikesh – 1

The series so far…

Rishikesh, precisely Shivpuri, about 240 odd KMs from Delhi is the one stop destination for all the adventure lovers who are looking forward to get the taste of some real adventure in their life and along with it beat the scorching heat on Delhi in summers by getting wet in the water of Ganges. Rishikesh / Shivpuri is an ideal destination for the ones looking forward to get wet in to the wild, to get the feel of some real fun and adventure filled bathing experiences… In the last article of this “Alive is Awesome” series, you read about how I had some real fun filled bathing experiences with my friends in 2 different waterfalls and now in this article I will be sharing my experience of getting wet in 4 different adventurous ways in Rishikesh / Shivpuri. To maintain the brevity of the article I will be sharing two adventure bathing experiences in this part and remaining two in the next part of this article.

A Dip in Ganges at Rishikesh / Shivpuri

It was a trip sponsored by my employer for the team building activity and in the month of March few years back, we set out for an adventure of our lifetime, as everyone called it. Adventure word was just a word from a dictionary to me at that time of my life. I was least interested of it rather could never understand why people do such insane activities (in fact anything other than technology appeared insane to me that time ;)) and then enjoy about them, I never knew that I was unknown to the path towards Nirvana then. Adventure became a part of a life now as you might have understood from the previous articles of the series. Well, back to story, we set out one fine Thursday evening towards Shivpuri as the Autumn breaks in India in the first week of March. The start was not that amazing as the whole night was spent in the bus itself owing to huge traffic jam of about 7-8 Hrs near Moradabad. A journey of about 5 Hrs had turned into a marathon drive of 12-13 Hrs, special thanks to the inefficient traffic control over Delhi – Haridwar Highway and super skilled truck drivers of our time.

We managed to reach Rishikesh / Shivpuri by 12 noon with breakfast at Moolchand’s resort on the way at about 6 AM, so we were sought of hungry and on the same time tired. Well, it was not over yet and we came to know that we had to trek down till the banks of river 🙁 … No one was in a mood yet no one had a choice other than to trek down with all luggage 😀 … Thanks to the organizers that lunch was ready for us by the time were in the camps. After taking lunch it was time to kick out the tiredness and the heat. What better than a dip in Ganges…  Got the life jackets up and my group of friends were all over the place near bank. A deep breath and with closed eyes I jumped in controlling my senses the hard way. Whooo… it was cold, damn cold!! The water was all over me – ears, eyes, nose and whoosh I came out gasping for breath 😀 … It was my first dip in a river and it was really like one of those “Alive is Awesome” experiences of my life which is rare to forget. Then, it was like one more, one more and one more until I was totally loving every bit of it.  Suddenly as we came out, one by one we all started throwing each other into the River and seriously, it was a special fun beating the heat, forgetting the tiredness…

Getting Wet while Canyoning at Rishikesh / Shivpuri

All drenched we moved to our camps where were were called up by the organizers. They asked us to get ready in half an hour as we will be going out for Canyoning The word was new to my vocabulary and I had no idea what was it but excited were were directly on the way to the ferry on the road up, which will drop us at the hiking point. Everyone seemed to be excited yet everyone was not aware of what was it. After about 20 minutes or so, the bus dropped us at a point where we were told that we had to hike up towards to waterfall (guess Jogi Fall was the name if I remember correctly). Well, it was a long hike to waterfall of about 45-50 minutes for someone like me who is totally out of fitness. Reaching the top we say a big 35-40 odd feet waterfall falling in full glory, as if a huge stream of milk was coming down from heaven. Very soon we were made aware of the activity, Canyoning – an activity in which you rappel down between a waterfall, much like you rappel down a rock wall 😯 …

I was totally thrilled just imagining about it while standing in front of that waterfall. Then, it was the time for turns. First one to attempt was a girl who did pretty easily and enjoyed it completely while it looked so very simple right from the watcher’s area below. But, soon the bad experiences started as couple of guys toppled as they planted the first foot into the waterfall and then came sliding down all along the rope to the bottom with bruised hands. Soon came my turn and I had to first climb upto the waterfall. Just when I was climbing to the top there came a section which was pretty tricky to cross as I took a wrong step, somehow managed and reached the top of the waterfall. Wow, that sound I still remember, I could not listen to what anyone was shouting from below such was the sound of the water near the top though everyone had their tips on offer from below, even I was doing the same when I was a spectator but being a performer it was completely a different story.

After getting ready with harness and all, I plant my first foot into the waterfall at the top and Whoosh!! the force was such that it threw it away and I came to know the reason why so many of my friends toppled right there. I managed a bit and then firmly planted my foot there and released myself for the first descending step, one ore two steps down I was completely loving it as I got used to it. The key was to maintain initial balance and lies your body as parallel to ground below as possible. I was completely wet by now and water again was too cold for the evening in first week of of March. I came rappelling down with complete joy getting the adventurous bath of my life. As I came near the bottom I had to push my self hard to jump as far as possible into the pool away from the falling current of waterfall else I might get injured due to its shear force. For about 2-3 minutes I kept getting a bath hanging in mid of it, lying parallel to the ground. Now, I was able to listen what my friends were saying as they kept shouting me to jump so that next person starts 🙂 … One, two and three – I gave a full push to reach as far as in the pool and bang-in, I was right into it with an nice dip to come out again gasping for breath 😀 … My turn was over but I had one of the most amazing moments of my life, a once in a lifetime experience it was, an experience that made me truly feel – “Alive is Awesome”

Just before we came to the end of this adventurous evening, there was one high drama and sorry incident where a friend of mine completely toppled upside down and the guide/instructor had to rappel her down on his shoulder as she almost fainted crying while hanging upside down 😥 … We all got a bit scared but in the end she was OK and found her senses back. The issue again was that first foot which you need to plant very carefully and very firmly, she could not manage to do so so lost her balance. However, soon the mood was joyous as we hiked back down to road where our bus was waiting to get back us to our camps for the night stay.

In the next article, I will be sharing two more way how I had these adventure bathing at Rishikesh / Shivpuri. I hope you loved reading this article and  if you had such experiences too then please do share with us as we will love to hear them.