White water rafting at Kolad, Maharashtra

White water rafting at Kolad, Maharashtra

Activity: Water rafting in Kundalika River at Kolad

Base village: Rawalje village near Kolad, Maharashtra

Event coordinators: Travel Trikon
Date: 14th April 2017
Base Village coordinates: 🚩 Rawalje Village

Rafting map 

Kundalika is a small river in state of Maharashtra. It flows from East to west direction meeting Arabian sea in the west. There is a dam on this river called ‘Rawalge Dam.’ The Tata power company has a hydro-electric generators on this dam generating electricity. Every morning at around 9 Am, the dam doors are opened to let out water for irrigation needs along the river stream.  As the river bed do not have huge boulders, this river has become a hot location for water rafting in Maharashtra.

Every morning, when the dam doors are opened, there is gushing water which fills the entire river stream to its fullest brim. This is ideal time for rafting, when the river is full of water flowing at rapid pace in one direction that is towards west coast. After the dam doors are closed, there is only a small stream of water which is flowing throughout the day. One important thing to note is that Swimming is not necessary for rafting as it is carried out with life jackets.

As it was a long weekend in April, i had some plans for trekking. However due to hot climate, i dropped my plans for trekking and instead chose to go for water rafting, to cool my nerves.

Travel Trikon had a water rafting arranged at Kolad, which i chose the enrol. We along with 6 other trek mates’ started our journey from Dadar railway east in a Toyota Tavera at around 6 am in the morning.  To my surprise we had an lively elder person (60+) with us to participate in this rafting activity. So true is the saying

“It’s never too late to follow your dreams, and there’s no time like the present to start.”

We took Mumbai-pune expressway upto khopoli exit. From there we travelled on Mumbai- Goa highway to take a breakfast halt at Pali.

Our Transporter

 After a wholesome breakfast, we again started towards village. There we are hosted at a resort by Daivya Adventures on the banks of river kundalika. We all refreshed ourselves and then had few clicks on stream. The organisers has made all equipments ready along with our raft ready. We all were handed a life jacket, a rowing bar and helmets each.

Then the instructor after giving basic info of the activity gave us detailed working instructions. There is a technique in holding the rower bar, synchronisation technique without which the activity is not possible.

All geared up - Waiting for the siren

Then all geared up with equipment and instructions eagerly waited to hear the siren from dam. Siren is the alert sounded when they let out the water from the Rawalge dam on kundalika river so that all villagers near and on the river stream are alerted, and could stay far from river flow. Then around 9 am the was a siren and waited for waters to arrive at our stop. In few minutes gushing streams of water arrived, which converted the small rocky stream into a full fledged river flowing at a huge pace.

We were given our positions in the raft so that raft is equally balanced on both sides. Each raft accommodates 9 rafters 4 on each side and one in the middle to keep balance. There is a one guide with each raft who sits at the keel position. He provides guidance and gives directions for each side of rafters to steer raft in desired direction. Balance, synchronisation and team work are crux of the water rafting activity. The guide being a north eastern had a typical ascent. 

Hands on Instructions

Starting towards the flow

Then after some of still rafting we encountered one of the 3 grade rapids on this river. Rapid is point in river where waters flows at great pace due rock beneath or presence of crater in the river bed.

Each rapid has been given a names..i could not recall them all like Johnny Walker and Mini Mouse etc. At rapids the raft is heavyly tossed in any directions. Sometimes the raft can also be overturned throwing rafters in river flow. So at rapids at guides directions, every rafter has to fall inside the raft holding anchoring ropes at rim of the raft. It prevents raft from overturning. One can feel adrenaline spurt in our bellies facing each rapid.

Other raft - battling one of the rapids

Fellow Rafters

There were in all 10-12 other rafts at that time with us which were represented by different organisers.

Then we reach a point where there were trees half submerged in the river. To over surprise there were also mango trees. Our guide steered the raft to one such tree to pluck raw mangoes or kairies. He knowingly had carried masala and salt with him along with knife to cut mangoes. There we relished tangy mangoes with masala and salt.

By now it was around 11:00 am and being in month of April we had scorching sun burning us from above. We had fun splashing waters on fellow rafters with our helmets. We used to fill helmets with water and all got drenched in water to cool our bodies from suns heat.

Once rapids are done with one can jump into the river stream. One need not worry about swimming as life jacket takes care of that. As the river is fast flowing in one direction, one is carried along with stream. Life jackets ensure that you are always afloat. It was fun to enjoy swimming or stay calm when being drifted along with flow. It is one of the prime moments of the activity. One can feel the deep silence all around except sound of flowing water. We were left to enjoy the drift for almost an hour. We had no cameras to take pics due to water, nor anyone in my team carried a Go pro video gear, which would have captured that thrilling moments.

So around 3.5 to 4 hours from time we started rafting, covering around 13 kms of river stream the activity ends at place called Kamath, the end point for river rafting. 

Approaching end point at Kamath

Kamath - The end point of the rafting activity

Here our organisers were waiting for us to arrive and hence we have video here. The raft has to be carried from here to starting point by tempo or alternatively carried on car hangars. We along with our raft mounted on the Tavera reached our starting point at Daivya adventures. There we changed our clothes after a bath. There was buffet lunch including non veg awaiting us at the resort. We were very hungry after the activity. We gulped down the lunch till bellies full. After that we rested for some time under trees in garden. My other mates played dumb sheras while i preferred resting under tree. At around 3 pm we left the resort on our return journey. We took same route en route khopoli via Mumbai pune expressway ...Reached Mumbai by 7 pm. It was indeed quite a refreshing activity and promised to repeat it again next year.

Ideal time for rafting is in rainy season where river is flowing  naturally full to its brim. Winter season up to March also provides memorable experience to rafting enthusiasts. After which due to water scarcity, the dam authorities do not let out waters from dam suspending the activity.

About Travel Trikon:
The organisers Travel Trikon is comparatively a new adventure group formed by experienced trekkers. They provide entire Water rafting activity package which includes Mumbai to Mumbai transport, Water rafting activity, breakfast, lunch all inclusive in one package. 
Website: http://www.traveltrikon.com/
Mob: +91 9819021806

Cost:
This package costed me Rs. 2200, which was a small amount considering thrill and convenience it provided.

Happy Trekking, Keep Exploring!!!!