The tales of a adventurous soul

What makes someone dripping blood, who had gotten stitches a few hours ago, anesthetic still not worn off and a chipped tooth ask “When are we coming back?”

Or why a expert kayaker takes a trip with beginners? Or why one travels 7 hours on a bus through the back roads?

I don’t know what makes people keep coming back to the river. At the end of the day, bruised and beaten down, muscles aching, but always grinning, eager for the next trip. There are cheaper thrills elsewhere. Thrills which give a bigger adrenaline rush. Thrills easier to get to.

Maybe it’s because while the water flows under your boat, the river flows through your soul.

After an uneventful journey, we finally reach the Kayakers’ Bungalow eager to get on with the day’s activities.

We put in below a rapid called the Malabar express. Bhav took initiative and started flipping left, right and center on every rapid. Manik got stuck in a strainer himself. Manik exited the boat to empty it, and decided he hated the boat enough to send it downstream. We landed all the boats, Manik and Varun took a walk through the jungle looking for Manik’s boat.

At the next rapid, Bhav and I took the sickest line ever making the last move backwards. Indra, deciding that we weren’t having enough carnage, goes straight for the biggest wave he could find and flipped sideways, with an aerial move.

Bhav and I landed and got some sun, while Manik went chasing after Indra and his boat. While we were enjoying the scenery (we saw a Kingfisher), Varun and Manik show up and ask us to take a hike through the jungle, while they would paddle our boats down.

With a script straight out of an old Indiana Jones movie, Varun started giving us instructions. We had to swim for a few meters, catch the eddy, trek through the jungle till we see a big black rock. Beyond that there would be 100 mtr canal, then we have to pull a lever and avoid a big boulder, swing over the pit of fire, steal the medallion, dodge the arrows of the natives and fight off the dogs.

The group finally was together and ready to tackle the next rapid. Everyone flipped on it. I thought I had made it to the end, but there were two hidden waves right. Lesson learnt – never relax until you are in an eddy. I swam with the boat and paddle lost.

Finally, while having evening tea, I noticed blood on my left leg. It seems during the trek, a leech decided to taste some kayaker blood. So all said and done, we lived up to the reputation of blood drawn.