Aquafun - Rafting in the Kundalika

Rains are synonymous with aquafun especially rafting. True to our word we went back to River Kundalika at Kolad to raft once again. This time it was an even bigger group of rafting enthusiasts – our parents! We were a group of 24 people, most of them my neighbour families, my office colleagues and other friends and their friends. In this big gang of enthusiasts, there were just 3 rafters and the others had absolutely no clue as to what to expect. Nevertheless they were all game to try out this aqua sport called “Rafting” on my sole insistence.

We had zeroed down to a bus as our mode of transportation for this picnic to avoid our fathers getting hassled by the task of driving. We were to reach Dadar at 12 noon to board the bus. Since we had a lot of luggage Nilesh uncle decided to dump it all in his Safari, deliver it to the bus and then park his car elsewhere. The bus was a comfortable 2x2 deal with enough room to stretch our legs and be comfortable for the 4-5 hours drive. The odd hour of starting at 12 noon left us stranded in between breakfast and lunch. Nevertheless, Nilesh uncle decided to treat us all with hot samosas from the famous outlet “Shree Krishna” at Dadar. These were devoured with enthusiasm amidst shouts from others for us getting delayed by an hour in by the act of buying samosas. However, there were arrangements made for lunch en route (packets of yummy Biryani) by our organisers – “The Windchazers”. Windchazers is a group of 7 young people who earn their living by working in varied reputed companies but arrange for treks and adventure activities over the weekend for the sole purpose of spreading fun and enjoyment among their friends and their friends. Komal introduced me to them and we dumped our entire planning to them. Trust me it was for the better. When I had tried to do it on my own I had to haggle with the resort in charge, the rafting organisers get in place cars and / or a bus! It was a herculean task which I willingly gave up to the so called “pros”. Vincy, Nehal & Bharti were the 3 Winchazers who accompanied us for this trip.

Having finally boarded the bus at Dadar we set off for Kolad. The drive took us nearly 41/2 hours. Once we turned off onto the village roads, all we could see on both sides were lush green paddy fields. We reached Pooja Farms around 5.30 in the evening. Pooja Farms is located in a small village called Sutarwadi near Kolad. From Mumbai you can take the expressway up to the Khalapur exit and then drive through the village roads to reach Kolad. This route is very scenic with farm lands on both sides but the drive can take you a little extra time as the roads are narrow and winding. Alternatively you can take the Bombay – Goa highway and proceed ahead of Karnala Bird Sanctuary, reach Vadhkal Naka and turn off from there towards Sutarwadi. The village is indeed a village with villagers living in huts made of bricks with no plastering and tiled roofs. Typical “kutcha” huts with bamboo patching on walls & roofs and mud plastering. It is definitely not a place which attracts fancy tourists and hence the poor standard of living. The only attraction at Sutarwadi is rafting in the Kundalika which normally is a year round activity but more frequented in the monsoons and hence there are not many fancy accommodation options available. The moment we got off the bus we were being ogled at by the village kids as if we were aliens. However it was just the fact that these kids envy us the good clothes and other stuff that they saw we had on us. The road being unpaved, we had to walk half a kilometer with our entire luggage and no concierge service up to the gates of Pooja Farms.



The moment we set our foot on the property of Pooja Farms we sucked in a deep breath and held it in for long in awe of the beautiful surroundings. Wide open space, a soft green carpet of grass made so by the recent monsoons, the wide expanse of the river and the scattered accommodation.

Pooja Farms had an interesting mix of the accommodation options – 2 tents, 2 regular cottages, 2 glass houses, 2 machaans and 2 aqua huts. All of these were unique and pretty in their own way. We dumped our bags into our tent no 1, got our folks settled into the 2 cottages and set off to explore the back waters and the other accommodations. The tents were raised on a concrete base and had a permanent roof of cement “patras” to avoid any water leakage.

Hence you can enjoy a tent stay even in the monsoon. The tents could easily accommodate a dozen people. It had 12 beds lined up, 6 on each side. There was also a rack at one corner to stash your luggage, 2 fans and tube lights. It was totally clean and comfortable. But of course you had to walk out and across the tent to make use of the sanitation facilities which were also well kept.

The regular cottages where our folks were put up looked plain from the exterior however once you stepped in they had a real cosy feel with nice and high double beds, attached bathroom and comfortable chairs. They also had a long verandah which we utilized to the fullest (tell you about the HOW later on).

The view from the verandah was simply awesome. All you could see was the backwaters of Kundalika at their calmest mood! The weather was breezy and you could see the light ripples being made on the surface of the water.

The cottages had lovely big windows that blew in really cool breeze throughout the day and night. The glass houses actually had half walls made of glass. Up to about 5 feet from the ground there was brick and then from thereon till the roof it was all glass. Amazingly one with nature! But of course you had cane curtains for privacy. The machaans were in a state of repair and hence no one got a chance to enjoy a stay there. However we climbed aboard one and had a look around which again was spectacular with just water and green fields all around.

Aqua huts – wow! These huts had a 3 feet long walkway from the edge of the river to the hut which was erected on stilts within the river. Once in you could see the back door bang in front of you and beds to the right and left. The floor was wooden planks and had big holes in them to let the water pass through in case the river level went up and thus, avoid a flooding in the hut. You could open the back door and walk on to the narrow verandah which was just extended wooden planks of the same flooring and no railing of any kind. You could just sit down with your legs dipped into the river and romance the time away.

We enjoyed some tea & snacks on the makeshift raft that they had anchored to the edge. In cases of high and sufficient water levels, they would let it off in the middle of the river for a short distance.

Once fueled up we set out to enjoy some water games. The aunties needed no push and were splash into the back waters and urging us to come in right away without wasting any more time.

The water was not much deep just about a maximum of 6 feet deep. However beyond a certain

boundary it got extremely deep and hence we were warned well in advance to stay within the prescribed limits. One by one the rest of us started entering the water. Dhaval fooled around with Nilesh uncle’s waterproof Olympus camera.

Nupur – our youngest member was the one filled with most happiness on seeing the water. She just couldn’t stay away and kept wiggling in her mother’s arms to be let down into the water. Finally we dipped her legs in and oh boy she went berserk with happiness. We were simply ecstatic just seeing her happy face.

The next couple of hours were spent just soaking in the water and chilling out literally.

Some people enjoyed swimming some played volleyball in the water, some played basketball and a few enjoyed romancing in the waters! Come dark people got thirsty and in the mood to get in a few drinks and dance awhile. We were still waiting for a group of friends who were to drive down from New Mumbai in their own car. They had left rather late and were finding it difficult to trace the route since it gets very dark in the surrounding villages and you don’t have people or signboards to guide you the right way. However we decided to continue with our plans rather than sit idle and wring our fingers waiting for them to arrive. Tables were set by Nilesh uncle with a variety of snacks (chakna), glasses and the chief guest - liquor (whisky, vodka). It was the funniest sight of my life, our parents and other elders sitting up on the tables and we all so-called kids lined up at their feet to have a drink ourselves passed on to us by our folks!

How nice to feel our folks spoiling us for a change. Nilesh uncle was the unofficial bartender and must say he made some real mean drinks that night. Spirits lifted we set in for a round of filmy dancing and photo clicking. Everyone let down their hair and moved their butts if not the other body parts.

Finally our much awaited group of friends arrived who got a real earful from all around. They were too late for the drinking and dancing session and had to make do with a few spoonfuls of vodka. I guess it serves them right for being so pricey and coming in late.

Call for dinner and we headed out to hog. The food was simple yet delicious and we ate to our heart’s content. One thing be said, we had abandoned our footwear long back to enjoy the mushiness of the green lawns. Post dinner our folks decided to retire early for the night considering the early wake up call for the next day. We were all sleepy too but in no mood to sleep. We had 2 tents allocated to us and in one tent we had 2 aunties sleep with us due to space constraints in the cottages. We settled down to have our midnight chats all the while trying hard to whisper and keep our volumes low lest we wake up the aunties and they wise up to our nonsense talks and doings. The second tent was being sparsely occupied by 2 couples and 3 other friends. They were looking forward to enjoying the empty space but there were other plans – a stray yet pet dog who resides on the premises of Pooja Farms had taken up 2 beds looking forward to a peaceful night. As much as they would push it drag it wouldn’t budge and at last they had to give in and curl up in the other beds respecting the dog’s presence. Pradeep regaled us with tales of how they kept hogging and getting hungry again and again on their way to the resort and how they would lose their way and end up nosing the car the other way. Finally we decided to call it a night and get in a few hours of sleep.

The next morning came bright and early. Before the wakeup call we were up one after the other between 6am to 6.30am. It was already bright outside but no rains. We freshened up, got changed into our rafting wear which was basically shorts or capris or tights and tshirts. We had a good breakfast as we had to be on water for almost 3 hours starting from 9am to 12 noon. We went about 8kms by bus from our resort to the river bank where the rafting activity kick starts. Ideally there are 10 rafts with a capacity of 8 each but being the peak season, there was more rafts bought it hiking up the total to 17. And instead of the normal crowd of 80-100 rafters that day saw more than 115 rafters with many rafts accommodating 10 people. It was an amazing sight to behold with rafts lined up back to back on one side of the road and people scampering There and there in all their excitement. It was a mela out there. There was this guy Ravi who was the head of the trainers. He stood bang in between the clearing where we were all gathered and announced loud and clear for all to assemble in a circle around him. At his feet there lay a big tarp on which were heaped helmets, oars and life jackets – the quintessential things for rafting. He welcomed everyone by saying “Welcome to the festival of rafting at Kundalika” and yes indeed the mood was festive with people chattering and all. The air was vibrant and you could feel the enthusiasm of the people percolate your skin. Ravi gave out some general introduction to rafting and Kundalika and heartily welcomed us aboard to try our hand at this safe sport called rafting. We then attacked the tarp and got us one helmet, lifejacket and one oar.

The trainers moved around helping everyone suit up correctly. We divided ourselves into groups of 8-10 and got allocated to varied trainers. The rafting world is so small that you just might bump into your trainer from Dandeli or from an earlier rafting expedition in the Kundalika or from Hrishikesh. The trainers usually keep shuttling between River Kali in Dandeli and the River Kundalika in Kolad. They have a passion for this sport and this passion rubs onto you as well from the moment you start interacting with them. They are cool, calm, composed, confident, smug yet not arrogant and full of enthusiasm and purpose to run along with the river and not let go.
Our trainer for the day was Shankar and he made it clear that he likes to stay right ahead and go with the river. To warm us up we were made to hoist the raft up to the river’s edge. The next 20 minutes were spent going over the theoretical dos and don’t and the varied commands (forward, back, right back, left front, right front, left back, all back, all front, get down, hold on) were explained & demonstrated to us.

At precisely 9am the siren was blown and water was released from the dam. The river already

resembled a midway pregnant lady with the rain water having settled onto the river bed and the addition of the dam water made its tummy completely round and huge. Unlike last time the river bed was not at all visible pre release of the dam water. We could only see the increase in river levels and strengthening of the water current post release of the dam water. The main purpose of releasing the water from the dam is to provide water to the farmers for agricultural purposes. The river passes through kilometers of fields all having turned green with the recent onslaught of the monsoon. Sutarwadi, as mentioned earlier, is not a tourist spot. It is a village where agriculture is the prime occupation and thus, the vast lands of green fields. We did not research into the kind of crops that were being cultivated but we did catch glimpses of paddy and paddy during monsoons is a sight to behold! It soothes the eye like nothing else. So humble and swaying with the breeze it makes you feel totally calm and peaceful. Considering the number of rafts that were to be on river this time, it started getting crowded at the edge of the river and we wasted no more time in getting onto the river. We pushed the raft halfway into the water and splashed in one after the other.

Some people were too scared initially to enter the water but then having assured themselves that the others were fine they all jumped in. Shankar himself jumped off and made Vanita & Mamta float far from the raft without using the lifeline and just holding onto one rope. Ravi who was the trainer in my father’s raft, made them all stand up on their raft as a sign of victory that they had finally rafted down safe.

Little did they know that they were being had! The moment they stood up the raft toppled over and all were splash into the water.

One guy held on to Pops (my father) in a death grip and just wouldn’t let go. He kept thanking Pops profusely and kept pleading not to let go of him. Finally we were tired after almost 45 minutes of floating and got aboard. We rowed back to the river edge’s and were so pooped by the time we reached the edge that all we wanted to was fall onto a bed after a hot shower. But we weren’t to be let off that easily. We once again hoisted the raft and carried it slightly uphill to the jeeps that were to carry back our rafts.

We trekked up a bit on the kutcha road and reached our bus where we had chips, chocolates & juices to refresh us. Once in the bus we were all just dying to sit down when Bharti screamt to us to remain standing lest we wet the seats. This so called “friendly advice” of her was not at all well received and everyone grumbled big time on their way back. People were so tired especially our parents and the aisle was too cramped for all to be standing. Some had to keep their heads ducked down and stand at their seats; some sat with their butts half out the window. It was a bad ride that we are not to forget soon. Once at the resort we changed, fed ourselves and relaxed awhile before finally having tea and pushing off for Mumbai.

All in all, it was an extremely tiring yet an adventurous weekend. We came back with many memories. If not rafting, Pooja Farms will definitely tempt us to go back there.