By Rafa Ortiz
They say happiness is only tangible when shared. Like good music that flies straight to your soul, a breath-taking adventure to the other side of the planet wouldn’t be as exciting alone. And I couldn’t imagine a better way to finish 2009, a year of hard sweat, than with my friend Daniel and both of our fathers on a weeklong journey down the mighty waters of the Siang River.
I’m not going to lie; I just couldn’t wait to see my dad’s expression when paddling into the 20foot giants of the Siang. Ever since my first visit to the furthest flung state of India, Arunachal Pradesh, I wanted to share the feeling of remoteness with my family. I remember looking at these emerald Himalayan-fed flows and imagining what my father would do in such awe. But as soon as I found myself on the water back then, the humongous rapids felt inconsiderable for a family trip. Nevertheless I knew we’d find the way.
Three years passed and my dad kept talking about the possibilities of the trip. By then my friend Daniel and his dad Jaime, were on board with us. On November 2009, a positive answer from my good friend Roland Stevenson, owner of RiverIndia.com, appeared on my Inbox. He assured me that the lower section of the Siang would be an outstanding run in our kayaks, as it is for the rafting trips he’s been delighting adventurous Americans and Europeans with for the past couple of years. So enough being said, we spun the globe around and left home in search for new stories.
When you sign up for a trip of this magnitude, you are in for a journey. Several flights and a couple days of ‘jeeping’ up the mountains spice up the trip like masala on the rice. And by the time you make it to the put-in town of Tuting, you are ready for the water.
The first splash on the face quenches the thirst for adrenaline and drips cold down the nerves. Setting off into the main flow, the four of us are reminded promptly that we are only particles of sand taken for a ride. The 30′000 cubic feet per second of this green monster come from Himalayan ice melt, and now run free into the Brahmaputra plains. As we pinballed down the first crashing waves, we started getting the experience that we all came for.
Apparently we had cut a deal with Indra, the Hindu God of weather, because we got to enjoy weeklong clear skies. Every night we cooked warm dinner at our campfire and relaxed: just laid back on the sand and sailed away into the deepness of a star-punctured sky. When you leave behind your watch, TV, phone, and go back to the simplest human basics, you realize none of these are necessary, but enjoying yourself, Nature and the good company.
Paddling finally calm water one exhausting day, we heard Pulsing rapid on the distance and felt an upbeat on our hearts. Expecting it as the biggest rapid on the run, we got out to look at it with our own eyes. A two-story high wave thundered right in the middle of the line, and many other big ones followed it. I looked at my dad, who assured us that the wave we were about to crash into was the biggest he’d ever seen. First would go Daniel and Jaime, followed by us.
Jaime is one of the very pioneers of kayaking in Mexico and a world-round tripper. Today his son and pupil Daniel would lead him down the spine of the monster, into the maze of whitewater. Watching them from shore, we got to experience our two great friends turning into ants on the flow, Daniel punching waves with Viking skills, then Jaime holding the right strokes and his teeth tight together. We eventually heard them shout in excitement and success.
And then was our turn. I looked at my dad. He looked back. I could feel he’s nerves and anxiety turning into concentration, so we silently walked towards the boats. Paddling upstream and into the flow we could hear nothing anymore, not even the roaring ahead. As we started taking the first strokes that sent us onto the right line, we took charge.
I couldn’t really stop looking back, as we rode down this beast. Seeing my dad’s expression made me feel the adrenaline of the moment through his nerves too. The first hit was wild. I came out with my heart at full-speed, to see my dad take an unexpected flip. The freezing water and the turbo-currents make the situation tricky. His right blade came out first. Then with a big jolt he managed to flip the boat around, and kept taking down the beast. Half a minute later we met at the bottom and then had to wait another half to get our breath back.
Six days and plenty of intense rapids later, we managed to reach the promised destination. After many nights lacking TV’s and phones, unfortunately you start missing the traffic and the chaos. Before we knew it, we’d be sitting again in our regular lives, with a slight taste of chai remaining in the very back of our mouths.
So if you’re mourning a damn controlled planet get over it, it will be years till they burst. You can keep working hard on building yourself a time machine to fly back before the damn era, or simply book a ticket to India and find yourself an adventure in a place where time doesn’t run that fast.
For further information visit www.riverindia.com , and find your own journey.
