Duration : 05 Days / 04 Nights
Day O1 :-
Arrive early morning at Haridwar. Drive to Rishikesh and check into a hotel. After breakfast we drive to Marine Drive which is the starting point of our rafting trip and like its namesake in Mumbai, it is a sandy stretch of a small but beautiful beach by the river. Today we raft about 20km to Rishikesh and get familiar with paddling and safety techniques, negotiating the best rapids on the Ganga, like Three Blind Mice, Body Surfing, Rollercoaster, Golf course and a few small rapids for about 3 hours and prepare ourselves to take on a more challenging stretch coming along in the days to follow. The day finishes back at Rishikesh where you can get back to the hotel to relax and later stroll around the city to attend the evening prayers by the river bank.
Day O2 :-
After breakfast there is a drive for 6-7 hours to Kaldubagarh wherein we would pass through the Hindu pilgrimage cities of Devprayag and Rudraprayag. This is a ‘no rafting’ day and we settle in for the night at a hotel or river camp at Kaldubagarh. A full briefing will be presented to you about the upcoming days and preparations are made for the rafting next day.
Day O3 :-
Today we cover the most challenging strip of the entire trip. An early start gets us to Chamoli, where at Putin we gear up our rafts, brief ourselves for the day to come and get set to start an adventure of a life time! Here we cover some outstanding grade IV and grade IV + rapids. Depending on the level of water we either walk around or actually face the rafting challenge posed by the ‘Hillary Falls’ rapids at Nandprayag. Once this exhilarating day on the river comes to an end, we call it a day back at Kadubagar. Take your rest, you will need it for the coming day!
Day O4 :-
Today we raft till Gauchar amidst plenty of grade III and IV rapids bringing us to the confluence of Pindar at Karanprayag. Here, the Pindar River adds more water to the already rapid Alaknanda adding more punch and zest to the rapids to follow. Finish the day at a sandy beach where you can romanticize nature with clear star gazing and bonfires.
Day O5 :-
Today is the day we like to call a ‘Pool and Drop’ day as it has plenty of grade III and IV rapids as compared to the start. After breakfast we get on our rafts and go all the way to Rudraprayag. Here you will come across what is often the high point of the entire trip- The Kakar Fall, a grade V rapid. Interestingly, this rapid is called so because the canyon surrounding it is narrow enough (15 meters) for a Kakar (Deer) to leap across. A detailed inspection of the canyon is made before we decide to either negotiate it or line up the raft to enter this spectacular narrow box canyon. The last leg of the trip is to cross another grade IV rapid-Holy Hole, after which we drive back to Rishikesh and then to Haridwar to board the evening train back to Delhi.
