My First Time

I had been wanting to blog out my Cauvery camp experience for a long time, but all of it was more than three years old. I love the JLR experience…have visited Galibore twice, Bheemeshwari once, Dubbare once. These camps are cut off from rest of the world…no newspaper, no TV/Radio, no cell connectivity. This camp atleast has a fan & a Zero watt bulb inside the tent…Doddamakali does not even have that! Experience here brings a lot of peace within..being with the nature…away from crowd & noise.

This Saturday we made another trip towards Galibore- A camp beside river Cauvery. Just 3hrs drive from Bangalore to the camp. This time the roads were in good condition & with our Innova the drive was fast & smooth.

We were welcomed with fresh ‘neembu pani’ meaning lemon juice. Check-in was at 12.00PM, we were there by 11.30AM. So had a 2hr wait for the lunch to be served. Simple Buffet with one dessert. Son loved the space this camp had to offer. This being breeding season for butterflies we had varities of butterflies flying all over…close 50 odd butterflies sitting on a small shrub!! Monkeys jumping from one tree to another.

At 5.00PM were taken on a Coracle ride to the other side of the river. Had a nice time watching friends fishing, son playing in sand and getting our feet wet. Around 6.30PM we returned back to the camp to enjoy the bon-fire. But unfortunately it started raining heavily. So we had to make do with just the snacks in the cafeteria. We were served hot Onion bajjis, Aloo bonda, Mirchi bajjis, and for the non-veggies some Chicken kabab I think. We planned to return back to the tents once the rain stopped….pitch dark, with just one lantern hanging outside each tent. The fear was what if we stamp some snake passing by…but we didn’t see any J. Because of the rains, dinner got served only post 9.30PM.

Next morning 6.15AM I was wide awake…feeling fresh after a good undisturbed sleep (well Sonny boy slept well J). Was well prepared with 2 bottles of milk just incase he woke up at night. After a cup of Tea & Marie biscuits(that’s standard), both of us went out for a short walk towards the river. At 7.00AM I was to leave for Rafting…yes River Rafting. I refused initially, but then our friend was all excited about it, so I joined her. Husbands stayed back to do their fatherly duties. At 8.00AM the jeep was finally ready to take us upstream. That’s where we were to start rafting. We were totally 17 of us split into two rafts, 15 people from one family. I was amazed at the participation from this family…from chitti(aunty), to appa, to husband, to cousins…all were there. Wow!

Shashi (the manager for the adventure sports) briefed us on the usage of equipments we were using in river rafting. And we set out on our expedition.

Here is where “My First Time” story begins J

We chose the middle seats to be safe. Both of us don’t know swimming, so did not want to risk it. Start was quiet with all of getting used to the water around us & learning to row. Just 10 mins of rowing we were asked to stop and suddenly one of the fell into the water in the middle of the river. All of us panicked. But this was a demo for us to get familiar with water & to learn floating. I did not volunteer. One by one all the guys tried it out, the guys who knew swimming were the first ones to try it..rest also tried. Suddenly then one of the ladies came forward for the jump, I just kept watching with fear. Then my friend stood up saying she would also like to try it. She jumped in and looked very comfortable in water, making me feel that I was missing out something. That’s when I decided that I shouldn’t be missing it either. With my heart racing fast, I held my breath, closed my eyes & jumped out of the raft. When I opened my eyes, I was still inside the water, felt water passing near my ears, body going down. Few seconds passed…felt I wasn’t coming up, should I be shouting for help, were they watching me…questions raced through my head…and bloop..I came up. Shashi asked me to open my eyes, keep my hands apart and relax…legs automatically came up…I was floating(with life jacket ofcourse). Enjoyed the water for a few minutes then the fear of Crocodile coming up made me go back to the raft. Tried to climb in on my own, but then had to take Shashi’s teams help to be lifted back to the raft. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE IT WAS!!

Once we all were back into the raft, the real experience of rafting was awaiting us. One, two, three and all of us coordinated our rowing with the leaders sitting in front of the raft. We passed through about two rapids before we stopped again. This time we stopped at the banks of the river and were asked to get down. What do you think we were expected to do?? Walk up, get into the river and flow down with the river to place where we had two of Shashi’s people standing. Goodness, this was something I would never do. What if I miss these guys and flow away with the main stream which was joining the Sangam. Shashi guaranteed that something like that would never happen. He was leaving us towards the flow which was going to his people. Wow again…WHAT AN EXPERIENCE. I don’t know how to express this….but I had my heart beating again hard, I could feel it through the life jacket. I tried it just twice, but the guys went on with it again & again. I relaxed sitting inside the water…I think that’s what tanned me J Again all of us were back into the raft and started on with our rafting. The leaders in front had no coordination this time…may be tired of all the swimming & playing in the water. We decided that this time the ladies should try leading and here my friend & I volunteered to be the leaders. Sitting right in front, taking instructions from Shashi we went forward facing the rapids & the current. Splish & Splash everywhere from all sides. I realized that we had missed out all the fun sitting in the middle of the raft earlier. This was like challenging the water, cutting through it…feeling the rocks suddenly under us, the sound of the rapid water…all of it was exciting..Even without knowing swimming, I had this sudden courage to fight the waters J We achieved it….we were good leaders who crossed all the rapid water screaming…yet without fear. Rs.600/- for this…all of it was worth-it.

In all, this was a great gift…and experience I will never forget….my first time in the deep & rapids. Am going to do this again….very soon.