Every year during the monsoon season the Ganges rapidly floods and swells up the surrounding banks. Last year in particular, the strong monsoon caused villages to be swept away. The entire camp I am staying at now is under river water in the monsoon. It is one of the reasons there is no electricity and the only structure other than tents is a tandoori oven.
I have my own canvas tent, with two hard beds, a lock box and a sandy floor. It stands up well to the rain and deters the cows and monkeys. Sometimes in the night the wind cascading down the river valley is strong enough to blow open the entrance doors. I feel very comfortable in my tent. I feel very comfortable and happy in the whole camp.
On a normal day, the only people at camp are the guides, the kitchen staff and myself. This makes about 20 men and boys around. The best times are meal times when we gather around the tandoori for warmth and over 100 roti are made. Two boys produce all this bread, flattening dough and pressing it against the hot walls of the oven. As soon as the roti are taken from the oven with metal rods, they are snatched up by a hungry staff to eat with curried vegetables. The vegetables come from villages on the steep hills around us.
When guests come the food production and presentation is dramatically ramped up. I like the basic, oven lit intimate meals much more.
It's all Hindi spoken around the camp. Even when I think I hear English it's only phrases which have permeated into every day Hindi language (good morning, guide, raft etc...). A few of the higher level staff speak English well but normally I am quiet and don't disrupt the Hindi chatter and constant joking. I know a scattering of phrases now but my lack of knowledge of sentence structure and verbs prevents anything more.
I'm back in Rishikesh for a day off after a solid 3 days on the river. I have been safety kayaking and having a great time with it. Yesterday I was one safety kayaker for 7 rafts. Only one raft flip luckily, meaning that this guide needs to buy 2 small bottles of rum for the communal drinking pot. The section we run is big volume, non-technical and the water has been quite high for this time of year. This just means there are big waves (15ft and some bigger) to ride over and not a lot of consequences for flipping or swimming. The rapids are bigger and longer than what I've seen on the Ottawa and require the guide to be more active. It's a similar style of river to the Ottawa in that it is drop-pool, meaning rapids are followed by stretch of calmer water. I have a lot of respect for the guides at Aquaterra (one of the most biggest expedition companies). Some having been guiding on different rivers 11 months a year for over 10 years. Even the guides that are my age have much more time on water. I've had more of a deliberate, standardized training, but nothing compares to time on the water.
So though I don't know how much I'll be paid or how busy we'll all be, I'm really looking forward to my time at camp and on the river. We've had one large University group in from Delhi and 2 more to come soon. The students are well-to-do talk to one another in English. The girls are very entertained by the white safety kayaker. More than once I've seen them swim away from the raft and yell for me to come save them.
The other raft guides suggest that I should shave my scraggly, red beard so I look better, but there is no way that is happening.
I have my own canvas tent, with two hard beds, a lock box and a sandy floor. It stands up well to the rain and deters the cows and monkeys. Sometimes in the night the wind cascading down the river valley is strong enough to blow open the entrance doors. I feel very comfortable in my tent. I feel very comfortable and happy in the whole camp.
On a normal day, the only people at camp are the guides, the kitchen staff and myself. This makes about 20 men and boys around. The best times are meal times when we gather around the tandoori for warmth and over 100 roti are made. Two boys produce all this bread, flattening dough and pressing it against the hot walls of the oven. As soon as the roti are taken from the oven with metal rods, they are snatched up by a hungry staff to eat with curried vegetables. The vegetables come from villages on the steep hills around us.
When guests come the food production and presentation is dramatically ramped up. I like the basic, oven lit intimate meals much more.
It's all Hindi spoken around the camp. Even when I think I hear English it's only phrases which have permeated into every day Hindi language (good morning, guide, raft etc...). A few of the higher level staff speak English well but normally I am quiet and don't disrupt the Hindi chatter and constant joking. I know a scattering of phrases now but my lack of knowledge of sentence structure and verbs prevents anything more.
I'm back in Rishikesh for a day off after a solid 3 days on the river. I have been safety kayaking and having a great time with it. Yesterday I was one safety kayaker for 7 rafts. Only one raft flip luckily, meaning that this guide needs to buy 2 small bottles of rum for the communal drinking pot. The section we run is big volume, non-technical and the water has been quite high for this time of year. This just means there are big waves (15ft and some bigger) to ride over and not a lot of consequences for flipping or swimming. The rapids are bigger and longer than what I've seen on the Ottawa and require the guide to be more active. It's a similar style of river to the Ottawa in that it is drop-pool, meaning rapids are followed by stretch of calmer water. I have a lot of respect for the guides at Aquaterra (one of the most biggest expedition companies). Some having been guiding on different rivers 11 months a year for over 10 years. Even the guides that are my age have much more time on water. I've had more of a deliberate, standardized training, but nothing compares to time on the water.
So though I don't know how much I'll be paid or how busy we'll all be, I'm really looking forward to my time at camp and on the river. We've had one large University group in from Delhi and 2 more to come soon. The students are well-to-do talk to one another in English. The girls are very entertained by the white safety kayaker. More than once I've seen them swim away from the raft and yell for me to come save them.
The other raft guides suggest that I should shave my scraggly, red beard so I look better, but there is no way that is happening.
you should shave your beard!! xo nora
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