River Rafting in Kundalika River at Kolad

After a lot of planning and co-ordinating we finally got the trip on the way. River Kundalika forms a class 4 rapids at Kolad. This happens at specific times when the Munshi dam upriver opens flood gates releasing a large amount of water which gushes through the narrows at Kolad. We started off at about 5.00 in the morning stopping for a quick breakfast at McD and then got lost twice on the way. No network on the mobiles didn’t help. We reached the rafting point by 9.30 and then quickly put on safety equipment and kicked off.

The river is beautiful in the monsoons with its turbid waters rushing past the hills churning up white froth at the rapids. After a quick set of instructions we decided Kalra and me would be the forward rafters powering the raft on. Rafting is like an orchestra where all the rafters perform in symphony, even one rafter out of place would jar the music. Unfortunately that had to be me, I was either too fast or too powerful, somehow I could never get in sync with the others. The friendly Garwali guide pointed out that the rapids have funny names and the one we were on was called Johnny Walker. The scenery was superb and it was raining/drizzling/raining all through out the rapids adding to the magic. After the rapids all of us jumped out and swam/floated along the swift moving waters. Some lazy floating and water fights later we finally got back on the raft and paddled back to the base camp. There was some garam masala Chai waiting for us which we gladly had and got back on the road for the long drive back to Mumbai.