India 101.
Lesson number 1, Indians will drive you crazy with their driving. On my way to Rishikesh rafting camp from Deli international airport, I truly believed my time among the living had come to an end for at least 4 times. I stopped counting after 50 kms. I managed to reach my destiny after 200 kms, 6 hours and 4 tea/sleep pit stops. I arrived late. I had to wake up my driver on the last pit stop.. And told him I was already late and he had to drive or I wouldn't pay him! He raced like Juan Manuel Fangio on Steroids through cow/monkey/kids filled streets to get me there on time. He didn't succeed. I paid him goodbye. After meeting all the crew and turists we went on a Jeep and started our way to Rudraprayag where the Alaknanda Rafting trip was to begin. On our way we stoped at Devprayag, to see the confluence of the two rivers (the Alaknanda and the Bhagirathi) which meet to form the Ganges. When we arrived at Rudraprayag i had a brief tutorial on Rafting by the Neo-Zelandese boat captain and off we went. There were only a few rapids on this first day, but the very first one was the worse/best... a grade IV rapid "The Holy Hole", at the confluence with the Mandakini... whitch is a lot ..but the guys say that at this time it was only a BIG III Plus Rapid. In the afternoon we reached our beach on the shore.. i don't remeber the name but i do know it was amazing ( although there was a dead cow in a distance). We settled down , received instructions on how the camp worked and just chilled out.
Slide Photos (Click for BIG) : Me in the airport (self portrait top right), The confluence of the rivers to form the Ganga (big picture top left), Me and Kaushik a Chennai friend in Devprayag, Me and Kaushik on the beach camp writing stuff on the sand and a panoramic of our tents on the beach.
