Having reached Dandeli at 10 pm, we were all set for the famous white water rafting the next day. We stayed at a comfortable hotel and got a good night’s sleep.
We were offered to go trekking the next morning but we chose not to. We headed straight for the river rafting destination. It was Holi on that day and what we did not expect was a bunch of multi-colored kids to block the road with bamboo sticks and throw colored powder on us. We reacted instantly by closing all the windows as if chemical weapons were being hurled at us. The driver was kind enough to get colored all over his face on behalf of us. After a 30 minute drive, we reached the river Kali. I was amazed by the serenity and the calmness of the river. We hired 2 rafts for the 15 of us. We were provided with head gears and life jackets. The rafting experts who accompanied us on the raft instructed us on how to row a raft and how to handle it. He told us to stay calm if at all we fell in the river while rafting. In order to demonstrate this, after we rowed away from the shore, he instructed us to get into the water as if he were telling this to a bunch of Olympic swimmers. We were silently dumbstruck. Some of us did not want to go into the deep river, but the instructor turned a deaf ear to us.He wanted us to go in there so that we don’t panic if we fall in the river while rafting. I wasn’t scared of the water but just a bit nervous about the river being deep and dark green. Allow me to present my theory on the color of water.
Blue water = Beach + crabs + weeds which feel like snakes + bunch of over-excited people + shells that you want to take home.
Green water = Large hungry crocodiles
Green water + humans = Excited crocodiles + A happy meal
I had to forget this theory to look macho and I jumped into the water with my life jacket on. I sensed a feeling of drowning initially. But I let go of all the nervousness and lay back on the water. The climate was cool and the breeze blew over my face. The blue sky spread above me and I could hear the wild birds in the forest surrounding the river. The water flowed around me. It seemed so effortless to stay on water. I also swam a bit and climbed back on the raft. As I was drying myself getting ready for the 9 kms of river rafting that lay ahead, I casually asked the instructor whether there were any crocodiles in the water. And to my disbelief he answered “Yes”!! WOW! My theory was thus proved! And now we were to row a raft in a river with crocodiles in them!