Shall we Swim?

I have concluded that driving down for hours and hours with a group of friends is more fun, rather than flying to a particular destination and meeting up with them at the final dstination directly. I have always wondered what was so awesome about road trips…well now I know. It gives you the opportunity to get to know everyone better and develop a stronger bond. For all those people who are yet to opt for driving rather than flying to their group vacations, I’d say travell by road people...its worth it!!!

The height of my long weekend trip was White Water Rafting at Smoky Mountains. It was awesome. For a person who’s never done it before I think the experience surpassed all my expectations. The 2 ½ hr ride down the 8 mile stretch of rapids was tremendous. And what helped was the fact that once you reached downstream they had a van waiting to pick you up. Beats an 8 mile up-hill walk any day.

You know you’re having the time of your life when a team member gets thrown off the raft and instead of pulling her out from the icy waters your first reaction is “WOOOHOOOOO DO IT AGAIN”!!! ... hehehe.

It was pretty funny though…coz one moment I could see Prajakta sitting opposite me going all ‘Gung Ho’ trying to paddle the rapids, and the next moment all I can see are her feet sticking out from the water staring at us as if some arrow had been shot into a tree trunk or something…couldn’t stop laughing. Almost laughed myself overboard.

Ahem… after reading this, I take it nobody is going to want me saving them when they go white water rafting…hehehe.

I always thought white water rafters (‘sailor’ sounded too pansy a word) wore helmets to protect themselves from the rocks that they might hit, when thrown overboard. You wouldn’t want to be swimming in shit cold water only to be told years later that the current date is July 20, 2020 and you have been in a coma for 15 yrs…not cool.

So here I am wondering why would we need helmets…coz I figured all that a helmet would eventually do, is mess my hair. Apparently…and I found out the hard way…its to assist you in keeping your brains from splattering all over the raft when your team mates decide to swirl their oars around as if those fiberglass oars were a pair of Nanchucks and u were trying your best to impress your 2 month niece with your consummate skills in the exotic art of “Aaaoww That Hurt”.

They give you a floatation device (life jacket) coz it helps you float and also helps your team mates get a good grip on you to pull you out…once they’re done laughing, that is.
So point being…swimming was not that big a deal. But just to make sure all of us were on the same level here Joanne inquired if everyone could swim…yup…everyone could swim. But Arun, our man Friday has a smart question… “does it matter what stroke?”. She hadn’t thought it through…”No, not really…I mean u can dog paddle at least, can't you?”… Arun sheepishly informs us “ ...all I can do is the back stroke.”

Hmmm…picture this…our man being hurled down a ‘Class 3’ rapid doing his back stroke…and suddenly goes "THUMP" on a rock...hmmm...its never a good sound when u've gone white water rafting. Or better still...our man diving into the rapids to save one of us from drowning and swimming towards us doing a back stroke…only to go "THUMP" midway...WTF???

Everybody had weird rafting issues to deal with as we embarked upon this awesome ride…Arun had his “I know the back-stroke” issues…Ritesh had his “Do they serve lunch on the raft?” issues…Amit had his “so which way should we go…upstream or downstream?” issues…Joanne had her “Stay absolutely still will you. I’m trying to take a picture here” issues…Laurene had her "Oh, so the point is to avoid the rocks...Ohhhh...Okkk" issues...I had my “will I get my shoes wet?” issues…..basically a whole bunch of issues to deal with.

Midway during our rafting experience we got stuck on a rock. If nothing else works, the usual protocol calls for the captain to get out of the boat and push it free. The captain in this case was Arun, our back-stroke specialist. So Arun gets off the raft onto the rock and pushes the raft loose.

Ahem…ideally once you’re done pushing, it helps if you get back into your raft…Hmmm….Arun figures he likes his new found island and chooses to admire the view… Great, so now we’re short of a captain.

Eventually Arun did rejoin the group a few hundred feet downstream. No, he didn’t have to do the backstroke…it would have been stupid to swim in knee deep water.

The whole thing was such a classy experience…All of us were drenched to the core…shivering like crazy…but just one thought came to mind…WOOOHOOOO DO IT AGAIN !!!