Nearly Dying Experience in Rishikesh River Rafting || Marine Drive Point || Dangerous Rapids || Travelling Bot Blogs

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Before the covid era, all things are normal, so the travel. People make their travel plan often and so does we.

It was the month of April when the weather in North India starts to become hotter day by day.

I was in graduation and our exams were approaching and it was in May.

I knew it happens with everyone when you sit to study, random thoughts start to come to your mind like, let's take a nap first then I will study. First, make all arrangements on the table then I will start to study or if the exams are a month away, then you think let's do a one or two-day trip then I will start to study.

I know it happens with everyone (excluding extra bright students).

It happened with us and we made a plan for river rafting in Rishikesh. It was a random plan so we have budget constraints.

I think what happens with most of the students who live away from home is that their month does not necessarily start on the first day of the month, their month starts when they need to pay the rent.

As it was a limited budget trip, we decided to go with railways, as its fare is cheaper. We found a train that starts from Sarai Rohilla Railway Station at night and reaches Haridwar in the morning.

But we failed to get a reservation on the train. The departure of the train was around 9 pm. We think if we get to the station by 8 pm we can seat in the general compartment and the same happened with us, four of us gets a seat.

We reached Haridwar around 8 am and take a blue-colored auto to Rishikesh in Rs. 40 per person.

It was not our first time in Rishikesh for river rafting. We know a person who arranges rafting. His office was near Laxman Jhula.

We had a budget for a nearer rafting point (Shivpuri Rafting Point), but the person gave an offer for Marine Drive Point that we couldn’t decline.

We were in dilemma, which options to choose, we choose marine drive point, it was above our budget but we knew rafting prices increases every month in peak season and we will not be able to get this type of the deal in the future.

We reach the marine drive point in Tata Safari. We were 10 people in the raft; 4 of us, 4 people from another group, and 2 guides.

The guides told us that it is going to be 3-4 hours rafting. I was sitting in the left forward position. The temperature of the water was around 10-12 degrees Celcius and the temperature in the atmosphere was around 30-35 degrees Celcius, at that moment we knew we are going to be tanned.

The rafting starts and we cross 3-4 minor rapids and one major rapid. After our 5 rapids, the guide asks us if anyone wants to go into the water can go.

We were wearing life jackets and all the safety and emergency protocols were told to us by guides at the beginning of rafting.

All 8 of us come in water, we 4 are playing with each other, splashing water with one hand, and with one hand we grab the rope.

Only one person from our group knows swimming and the other three don’t. he left the rope as he was confident in his skills. He started swimming in the forward direction and ahead of us, there was a major rapid coming.

It was at some distance but as all eight of us were in the water, guides need time to pull us in the raft. The guides were doing their job and suddenly a sound come to us; Bachaoo Bachaoo….

It was our friend, he loses his control of the flow and started to flow with the river.

He was nearly 20 meters away from the raft. The guide pick a bag and threw it towards him, it contains a 25-meter long rope.

He was not able to grab the rope in this attempt.

He starts to get panic and starts splashing his hands in water and because of it, he started to flow faster with a river.

Guides asked to stop splashing his hands but he was in a panic zone, he can see the rapid and water was going down under the rocks, suction was created there and he was going towards it.

Now it's the responsibility of the guide to do something to save his life. One guide pulls four members in the raft but three are still in the water.

Guides show their experience and skills, one guide signals another guide on a different raft that we need help here.

That raft was 50-60 meters behind but knowing that we need help they started to paddle fast. Our guide told 3 members, who were in the water that to stay in the water and hold each other hands.

The raft coming behind will pull you up.

Our guides started to paddle the raft with four members in the raft, one guide threw the 25-meter long rope but missed.

I was in the raft, the guide was shouting, “hang in there, we will save you, don’t splash your hands, try to stabilize yourself”.

We can see tears in our friend's eyes. His face was showing that he surrendered to the water and he realized that he will not make it to the raft.

He was nearly 20 meters away from the rapid and water was flowing at a much faster rate now.

In the second attempt, he grabs the rope and starts coming near the raft, the guide lifts him just in time.

Now the rapid starts and we all take our positions, he was still not in his senses.

When the rapid was over, the guide was shouting at him for his foolishness.

We reached the Maggie point and he was still not in his senses.

We had tea and Maggie there and till the time we finished our rafting he was quiet.

We can see that through his face, what it looks like to sense the end.

We changed our clothes and take a bus to come back to Delhi.

It takes a week for him to get normal and two or three months to forget that incident.

Adventures can turn out to be sad incidents. The gist of the story is that never be overconfident in life, it can cause scars in your life which may not be healed over a lifetime.

PS: That friend got two backlogs in the exam because of that incident. 

If you make it this far, don't forget to respond below and comment with your feedback or similar experiences.

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