Kolad was a three-year-old dream. I am so thankful to be blessed with
like-minded friends, who share the same passions, who do not think twice before
helping out each other, and who would go to any extent for adventures.
So, like I said, the dream was dreamt 3 years back, but it
was only a year back that we had finally decided to set a time to execute it,
and we had decided 2016. But when we
started planning in March 2016, to our utter dismay there was severe draught in
Maharashtra, and we were hoping against hope that the showers would pour down and
we can finally set our stone to roll.
Hopes were glum till end of June.
Come July, the rains finally started its outpour and so did our spirits start
to soar.
Kolad is a village in the Raigad district of Maharashtra and
is blessed with the beautiful Kundalika river, which is famous for its water
sports, especially river rafting or white water river rafting. While we all wondered what is “white water”,
it was our guide Ming who later clarified that the waters would not be white; rather,
when the waters are turbulent and rough, the foam appears white in colour and
hence the name “white water” river rafting.
I had heard from friends and the pictures from the Internet were simply
tempting. If you are one that loves
adventure and thrill, you can’t afford to miss Kolad.
As opposed to our other adventures, this time we had a 13-member
group. So the date was fixed for August
9, Tuesday. We decided on a weekday as
weekend rates are costly. Weekday meant
a lot had to be managed both at the work and home front, but as I said earlier,
we can go to any extent to manage our tours, and so all the manipulations and
organizing was done. We chose Tripplatform
as our rafting organizer as they were offering the most economic package, and
all bookings and enquiries were efficiently managed by Amit. Vehicle (Tata Winger) was booked from
Badlapur by Ashwini.
Since the first train was not convenient to take us to Kolad
on time, it was decided to stay over at Badlapur and again, Amit pitched in to
arrange our stay for the night. We had dinner at our respective homes and
reached Amit’s place for the night, where he and Sunaina had made excellent
prep for a comfortable stay. No, we did
not plan a gettogether dinner as a lot of us were working late shifts. Since it was the first time we as a group
were having a night out, none of us slept for a long time. We finally dosed off past 2 am, only to wake
up at 3:45 am. Vaibhav, the super
enthusiast in our group, along with Sunaina made us Vabby style Maggie for an
early, early morning breakfast along with tea.
With lot of enthusiasm and trepidation, we boarded the Winger and
started our journey to Kolad.
It gives me an altogether different joy and peace to watch
nature bloom itself with the first rays of the sun. The curtain of night is slowly dragged away
making way for the morning sunlight and nature gets another opportunity to draw
out its vibrant colours. The sky,
starting with a pinkish grayish hue, is strewn in a myriad of colours which
changes with each passing minute. To
compliment that, the earth too adorns itself.
Green in all its shades—always reminds me of a decked up bride. No, the bride does not deck up in green, but
the similarity lies in decking up.
Offering a word of thanks and praising the creator and smiling at my
dozing friends, me too closed my eyes after drinking in the beauty of the
mountains, trees, and grassland.
Amit and Vaibhav didn’t sleep as they were sitting next to
the driver, brave souls I must say. We
were just a little late from our scheduled time for arrival. After having a word with the organizers,
started the photo sessions, selfies, washroom, followed by the consent signing,
and later briefing. Our 13-member team
was broken into two groups of 6 and 7.
Our guide for the event was Min, or did he say Meen, I am unsure of the
spelling. He was a knowledgeable person
and he could judge the water current so accurately. He made sure that none of us missed out on
any part of the adventure and kept encouraging the ones who were scared to try.
After the briefing up session, we all got into the raft
enthusiastically, only to be dropped into the water in the next few minutes to
demonstrate the rescue mechanism. Well,
that little piece of stunt not just alleviated our tension but also elated our
spirits for the upcoming adventure. We
had first thought that the whole rafting would last for some half an hour, but
our jaws dropped when Min said it would be for 2 to 2-1/2 hours.
While on the raft, you are supposed to fix your feet to
footholds and hold on to the ropes and pedal (oars). There is a technique for holding on to the
pedal and a technique to oar it too.
Ming was a super talented guide.
He would only speak when he wanted to give us orders or he wanted us to
try any water tricks in the suitable waters (Kya aap ye try karna chahenge?);
else, he just let us drink in the feeling and let us be mesmerized by what we
were experiencing. I was first scared
when the smooth flowing river suddenly turns rough and the raft would turn and
toss itself with the tossing waves, but no words to express the thrill. He would ask us to let our feet down or bend
upside down and dip your head in the river, and so on. After some kilometers, he asked us to get off
the boat and just float and flow with the river flow. Everyone was a bit skeptical of this section
at first, but it later turned out to be the best part of the entire rafting
experience. As we neared our endpoint, the
final kilometer was a super-smooth,
river which meant tireless oaring.
They do not let us take our cameras with us, but they have
stationed photographers at some points, who capture both still and motion
pictures, which later they sell us. Be
sure to bargain as much as you can.
Anagha really surprised us all with her bargaining talent. Once we reached our end point, we didn’t want
the fun to get over, but every good thing comes to an end. We treated us to some really hot bhajis,
vadapavs , and tea. Later, lunch was
arranged for us by the organizers at a hotel.
Post lunch, we wanted to explore some more events, so off we
went for a round of zipline and river crossing. Zipline is where you are protected by
harness and the harness is connected to a rope above, and zooooopppp, you come
down the rope in the river and you are later picked up by a kayak.
River crossing you are taken by boat to the mid of the river
where a rope is tied extending to the river bank. You hold on to the rope and travel to the
bank bracing the river current. Both
were fun but got over in seconds and minutes and were not as thrilling as
rafting, nevertheless, we enjoyed it.
Other activities offered at Kolad are kayaking, Burma bride
and commando bridge crossing, speed bike water ride, rappelling among others.
Later we showered and changed and hopped into our
winger. Fatigue caught us and with the
lovely melody of 90s playing, we were slowly lulled into sleep. After a short nap, photos were shared and it
was time for tea. Very soon we reached Badlapur
from where we started. Then we caught
trains to our respective destinations, and thus an exciting, thrilling,
adventurous day came to an end.
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