White Water Rafting Down the River Ganga

This was something I had been looking forward to the whole time I stayed at the ashram, to go white water rafting down the River Ganga. I found an agent who arranged this kind of tour on the main side of Ram Jhula. The package included three hours of rafting (starting at Shiv Puri and finishing at Ram Jhula 18KM of the river) and the cost was Rs 500.

13 of us in the jeep itself

I must say that the jeep ride to the starting point was as thrilling if not more, than the rapids themselves! The road is uneven and is basically hugging the side of the mountain, and we were racing through these roads as if in an emergency!

13 of us in the jeep itself, two others sitting inside the inflated rubber boat on the roof of the jeep. I can’t imagine how terrifying it must have been to be up there!

I didn’t carry much with me, just my phone, wallet and room key – these I put into the dry bag along with my t-shirt that I wanted to keep dry.

The guide spoke Hindi only, and as I was the only foreigner I had to try and make sense of what was going on – through observing others and the help of some basic translations I was able to interpret the rules and instructions – we were going to sit on the side of the boat, rather than inside. Which only now makes sense to me, as we needed to be able to row/paddle.

The first rapids were fun, I think I nearly fell out of the boat in excitement. But in between rapids, we needed to paddle the boat forward – else the river would be too slow to take us downstream naturally.

We stopped at a small waterfall and rock jump. Here I jumped off a rock about 5 metres high. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is fairly high!

I took a selfie and was photo-bombed to the max! Look at this group of girls in the background. Hahaha!

As we approached the end of the rafting tour, I asked to be dropped off on my side of the river just before Ram Jhula (bridge). They kindly obliged and I disembarked from the boat and made it back to the ashram just in time for lunch.

Here’s  a photo of the boat leaving me at shore.