River Rafting in Kolad

On the Saturday morning, we four friends, booked an Ola outstation and left from Pune. The road was through Mulshi Dam and Tamini Ghat, so the view was mesmerizing. We stopped couple of times to behold the beauty of the Sahyadri. It took around three hours to reach the rafting start point (Saje village). We asked locals for direction and they were very helpful and it seemed that 'Ravi Rafting' is quite famous.

Localities were selling Poha and tea there. We had our breakfast. The main instructor(Ravi) gave some basing safety tips and divided us into small groups and introduced us with our instructor. He was a young man, from Manali. He introduced us with the rafting facilities, showed us how to row and explained the basic commands. We were a group of nine people, there was place for eight people to row, so one had to seat in the middle and the instructor sat in the back.

Our rafting was in Kundalika river. The rafting happens only when water is released from the dam. We started our rafting with lots of enthusiasm. But we eight people were rowing in eight directions and the boat was going nowhere. The instructor stopped us, asked us to row in synch and told us to be SERIOUS. It was fun alright, but it was risky too.

After repetitive request from the instructor we started rowing in Sync. The current was good. The weather was perfect too, cloudy but not raining. After sometime the instructor asked us to stop and told we were going to play a game. The game was to hold the rope which was circulating the boat and to bent backward, put the head in the river. It was not easy. I was trying but couldn't reach the water, so the instructor helped me. One of my friend fell out of the boat while doing this. Don't get panicked if you fall into the river and don't know swimming. Your life-jacket will save you.

We started rowing again. Three major slopes came. It was really fun. Just follow your instructor's command and enjoy. Nothing will happen. After the slopes, there was not much current. We started playing that game again. We even stood on the boat.

The instructor told us we all can now swim in the river. I learned swimming in childhood and was out of practice for long, so I was not much confidant about swimming. My friends and I were deciding whether we should try it once or not, when the instructor pushed one of my friends into the river. We all jumper into the water after that. The water was very cold. After the initial fear was gone we started to enjoy. I realized, it is true that one can never forget swimming.

It started raining. What a perfect time! It felt awesome, floating in the river, looking up in the rain. I don't know how long we swam, it was probably 30-45 minutes. The last portion of the rafting was very tiring. We didn't have much energy left after the swimming.

It was already afternoon when we reached the endpoint. We went to a small resort for lunch. The lunch was buffet and the food was really delicious. We were very hungry too so we ate like apes. There were some activities too. We played with the darts and did some archery.

On our way back, we stopped beside one waterfall and bathed. There we saw a rainbow too. Somehow the mountains were looking more beautiful while returning. With all, it was a day well spent.