As we were coasting along the water, we saw monkeys coming down to shore to have a bath and a drink of water. In addition to this, the Ganges is a holy place for Hindus. In fact, good Hindus do their best to be sure that their ashes are immersed in the River after they die. These facts and the general condition of water here in India made us a little timid about getting in the river.
In spite of all this, we still took several dips. Hopefully we didn't swallow too much water as we were splashing about. It was quite an adventure getting Dave out of the water, but we didn't snap any pictures. You can probably imagine how difficult it was by looking at the process performed on a sixth grader.
This first day of rafting brought us right into the center of Rishikesh. We floated under the two big pedestrian suspension bridges in town and saw lots of distinctive buildings on both sides of the river.
We had a lot of fun racing the rafts, splashing each other with our paddles, and jumping from raft to raft. Since our students were only 11 or 12 years old, we did not attempt any very difficult rapids on our trip. It was pretty tame and gave us time to try balancing on the sides and other fun activities. The guides were really good at keeping us busy between the rapid sections of the river.
The kids seemed to have a good time in and out of the water.
We were even able to see the temple complex where we had watched the aarti ceremony a couple of nights earlier.
After rafting, we made out way back to Camp Panther. The early afternoon was spent relaxing, or playing sports, or swimming in the pool. Mostly, it was just a chance to rest up for a couple of hours. After tea, we all headed over to the camp's climbing wall. It was about 28 feet tall and looked pretty imposing from down below.
Just about all of our students at least attempted to climb the wall. Some made it very close to the top and three of them actually made it all the way. The first two that made the summit were girls. This put a lot of pressure on the last sixth grade boy to try, but he made it up to the top in record time to safe face for his fellow guys.
All of the staff members gave it a try as well. This was the first time that Beth had been on a climbing wall since her fall in Germany. It was almost three years to the day after she broke her back in that climbing gym, but she was a trooper and gave it a shot. None of us staff members made it to the top, but we all had a good time.
As we said, this was our last full day of activities. The following morning, we did a second round of rafting. We didn't take our camera with us, but it probably looked quite similar. The rapids this second day were a bit rougher and we didn't go all the way into Rishikesh, but it was still very fun.
After lunch, we loaded back into the bus and made the trip back to Mussoorie. The students were generally disappointed that the week was over and they had to go back to dorms. We, and the other chaperones, seemed a little relieved that we got to get back to our own beds and relax for a couple of days before school started again on Monday. It was a great experience, and we're looking forward to the new adventures that we get to have during next year's activity week.
Dave and Beth
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