Rafting on high rapids was long pending on my list, and finally thanks to my fellow adrenaline junkie Vaibhav and Swati step in and we locked the show July 11, Sunday morning. Vaibhav initiated and roped in two of his friends Aditya and Viraj to make the perfect rowing team. Kolad is the most sought-after adventure destination in Maharashtra located in Mahad region 100km from Mumbai. Since there is no train link and had to report 8am in the base camp we planed to go by my car, and started sharp 5am on Sunday morning picking them up on the way.
Soon after we begun and proceed towards Panvel rain started pouring so much that I hardly able to drove 40km+. Though it was an event to get wet fully, and rowing on rain sound extremely good, but not at that time while driving and having target of completing the journey in 3 hours. Rain played hide and seek with us in the entire journey and we delayed by about half an hour, but fortunately we’ve found organizers are still gearing up. The way to Kolad through Pen and Vadkal Naka is extremely picturesque and we enjoyed stunning view of hills, greenery and village life on rain and the colour of green cover was soulfully delighting. Many time on the way when we enter Kolad area the bunch of cows and goats of villagers blocked our car. The smell of evaporating soil after rain and fresh air blowing through the brunch of lush green trees along with the stray animals made me instantly feel why a concrete jungle can never be a paradise – it’s the village where life resides. With the joy we did talk hypothetically what if we’ve got our office here…hee hee he :-)
Organizer led us to the base camp, twisting and turning through narrow roads halted near a big dam and waited for the demo. We put on the gears, listen to the safety instructions and provided a captain to guide us through. Vaibhav and I took the lead seat that others will follow rowing in tandem w/us, we pulled our raft and get into the water – one kayak leaded all the raft and its just adrenal flowing fun after that. Kundalika River stretches over 10 kilometres and the water release from Mulshi and Bhira dam rave-up the water flow to get class 3 to 4 exciting rapids. White water rafting is all year long activity here but during monsoon Kolad experiences heavy rainfall making the water of river Kundalika flow fast and in abundance. This makes the rapids especially thrilling experience. It started raining and exactly what we wished for that spiked up the fun. In one spot, they name it ‘Johnny Walker’ rapid with full current the captain of the raft himself, just ahead of us fallen down and kayak rescued his raft while we picked up his floating row moving super fast in the current. There were total six to seven high rapid spots, post that moderate flow and the last stage was quite tranquil. To continue our fun at last all of us plunge in to the water and enjoyed swimming with the life-jacket for about half an hour. Worth to mention that, anybody irrespective of swimmers or non swimmer except weak heart’s can venture into this fun-filled sport in Kolad. They provide full safety gear.
We ended the show and carried the raft on our shoulder to parking area. Good experience since it was my first rafting expedition and didn’t really find it that difficult or stressed out relative to the trekking I do. This also convinced me that I am up for higher rapids next. We had our lunch booked at Pooja Farms so quickly enjoyed bada-paw and tea before moving and it was about 20 minutes drive from the rafting exit point. Pooja Farm a very well maintained resort located in a lake side, they even provided us a large tent for changing. We again jump into the lake water for sometime before taking bath, the buffet lunch was utterly delicious. I definitely suggest it’s a very good one day combination with rafting, one can eve stay here overnight to make the most of Kolad or another popular place Hans Adventure. They have lot many in-house adventure activities, and last time I visited with my office colleagues we enjoyed repelling, river crossing, Flying Fox and many more.
We started driving back around 3pm, lost the way a bit just after coming out of Pooja Farm but realized quickly before loosing trek inside the jungle much. Entering Mumbai was like leaving nostalgia behind and feeling was quite unbelievable that such a nature paradise does exists just a few miles away.
Nice post. Thank you for sharing.
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