By the time bus took its first halt, an hour later, at somewhere close to Sion, the bus had turned into a ‘Party-on-wheels’. Chips flew out of noisy wrappers, biscuit packs floated across and over seats, and drinks of the softer kind flowed, literally, out of the bottles, through thirsty lips into empty stomachs.
At the crack of the dawn, the sun was feeling a little shy. The clouds, like jealous elder siblings, hogged the morning sky. The bus was speeding out of Mumbai. All the Roadies were aboard. Morning breeze snaked in and out of windows, and cast a refreshing spell. Taut bodies felt relaxed, and restless minds lulled in to sleep.
The bus came to a screeching halt at a spot on NH 17. This was Karnala Bird Sanctuary, a favorite haunt of the bird watchers and hikers. One by one, we trundled out of the bus and our eyes feasted on the calm beauty of the wilderness.
Out of the boughs of tall trees, someone caught a glimpse of a spire of a mountain. Thin and tall ! Like Grandpa’s old and delicate finger pointing the way towards the heaven. Some of them were tempted to sneak in to the jungle. Better sense prevailed. There would be another time for this adventure. Sound advice came in form of a popular phrase ‘a river will never wait for anyone’ and the We moved on towards Kolad where Kundallika was still waiting to toss and topple insolent infiltrators from the city.
After a journey of 4 long hours, We reached Kolad Market. Someone spotted a waterfall drifting down on a mountain. The news and sight was greeted with abundant cheer. Enthusiasm was spilling out on the streets. The few people who were present in the small market turned their heads and gave away bemused smiles. Obviously, this was not there first encounter with grown-up kids. We had a simple but filling breakfast and started for the base camp at Sutarwadi.
At the training camp, the sight of a muddy stream was shocking. It was no wider than six meters. ‘Are we supposed to go rafting in this puddle of river,’ was the question on everyone’s mind. But, the instructors were not forthcoming. They turned down all the questions and focused on the job at hand – ‘safety first’. The chief Instructor demonstrated all the equipment – paddle, helmet, safety jacket and the rafts. Ensuing discussion made the team forget about the river for a while. Most of the We were no-swimmers. One of brave hearts popped up the question, which few dared to ask out of fear of embarrassment - ‘is it safe to jump into the rafts for no-swimmers’. The Instructors reply was ‘Yes’. The whole bunch broke into a relieved laughter.
There were five rafts and one expert each to navigate the rapids. The rafts were to be accompanied by an expert kayak-rider, whose sole job was to pull amateur paddlers out of dangerously swift waters. So we thought! We were also instructed in the commands that one has to obey while on the raft – ‘Paddle forwards’, ‘Paddle backwards’, ‘Hold on’ and ‘Hold on and Stay’!
The drizzle continued. Clouds thundered mockingly, but they never poured. If you concentrated really hard, you could hear the banks of river Kundalika whispering unknown secrets to each other. However, this was no time to indulge in subtleties. We were divided into groups of eights. Then, the eight teams hauled their respective rafts over their heads and began to march towards the shore.
As we neared the shored, the river jumped, more out of excitement than out of spite. So did the hearts of Roadies, who were going to have there first brush with a river bent upon pulling off a mischief. We were excited, nervous and anxious, when we were asked to take their places on their rafts. The river did not ease the flow either for the Roadies, it was in a hurry to reach somewhere and it did not care a damn. Just at that moment, when the teams were about to sail the clouds began to pelt the harmless adventurers with huge drops of rain. By the looks of it, it was going to be one hell of a ride down the river!
With the chants of “Jai Kundalika’, the first raft bid goodbyes to the shores. Some hearts were in mouths, others were beating against the chest like a bunch of crazy drummers beating their drums in a rock concert, and the remaining hearts just shrunk, too scared to invite the attention of the river. The rafts bobbed in the water corks of champagne bottle. The rapids were still some way away, but the feeling of weightlessness is not easy to cope with, at least for a couple of minutes into the river.
The first rapid came unannounced. The surge of water threatened to turn the raft upside down. However, we kept their cool, and began to follow the paddle commands more clearly. The challenge is to balance the raft over the rapids so that you are always moving along the waves and not against them. The first wave was rushing towards us, so, we paddled harder to reach closer to the wave and then stopped paddling to let the water flow beneath it and then just flowed with the flow of the river.
First rapid crossed, the excitement was at its extreme. Their was laughter all around. A sense of accomplishment coupled relief of being safe and still being on one’s feet surged and spread through the Roadies. Before they faced the second rapid, when the rafts were sitting pretty on the river, the teams started horsing around, splashing waters with paddles on the nearby raft. Everyone seemed to be lost for a while in a shared sense of exhilaration and spontaneous laughter.
The rain had abated a bit. The charming beauty of the slopes along the mountains shone in its full glory. There was then hardly the time to soak in the scenery. Another rapid came along and the paddles crashed in to the waters at a furious rate. We synchronized their movements with chants of ‘one-two- one-two’. Each raft had its own version. When the rapid was crossed, the chants of ‘Jai Kundalika’ rose through the air.
In an hour, the Roadies had paddled for around 10 kilometers and crossed seven rapids. We were told that rapids on Kundalika were graded 4 and 4+, which was hardly the case. Nonetheless, the adventure and thrill factor was high. The last stretch of Kundalika was gentle and the instructors pushed everyone into taking a plunge. Most of us jumped into the river with pleasure. However, some chickens refused to throw away the paddle. The instructors did the needful. They threw them headlong out into the river to loud cheers.
We swam and frolicked for a long time. It is fun to just lay back and float. We do not get to see so much greenery in Mumbai, so it was a welcome change. For a few unspecified seconds we got ourselves drowned in the quiet splendor of the surroundings. Soon we came to the shore, had a wonderful cup of tea and took some pictures. It was hard to believe that the time just flew. All good things end, so did our rafting trip on Kundalika. But, there was some more fun waiting us on our way back to Mumbai.
We came back to Kolad Market for lunch. During lunch, we discussed that there was one thing that we had not done so far on this trip, which was to stand under a waterfall. The idea was welcomed with applause, since all of us desperately needed a bath, especially after swimming in the muddy water of Kundalika. We came to know of a waterfall some eight kilometers away.
After we had finished our lunch, we moved towards an unknown destination in search of the waterfall. We had hardly traveled kilometer, when to our utter surprise, we found a huge waterfall waiting for us at one corner of the road. Most had hoped to find waterfall in a jungle or something like that. We jumped straight under it for a long time. Passing vehicles would slow down to know what the fuss was really about, and then they moved on. It was indeed a grand finale to a great adventure – an unforgettable moment in the history of Roadies.
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