At 21.00 local time we arrive at Delhi Airport. By our check-in in Manchester it became clear to us, kayaks are no handlugage, actually we were rebooked on another flight becouse Etihad doesn't fly kayaks. After paying an extra £500,- Emaritz was happy to take us with the 2 kayaks onboard. It was a big relief to see our kayaks sliding off at the luggage bands.

When we walked out off the airport to our taxi were getting bombed by a cocktail of impressions. The smels, lots of flys, people everywere, the noise, cars. The hot and moisty air is almost unberable. Welcome to India!

With clothes sticking to our bodys we load the kayaks on the taxi (with airco) which is going to bring us to Rishikesh, a 250 km drive up north. There cars everywhere, going everywhere, hitting there horns non-stop. Driving a car on the motorways can be described as is a slalom parcours, passing cars, bikes, horses, pedestrians, tuctucs, Trucks and motorbikes. In the middle of the night we arrive at our destination, Rishikesh, not soon later, we crash in a hotelroom.

Rishikesh

Rishikesh is a failry big place with lots of Hindi tempels and holy cows. Every year it has thousands of Indians and tourists from all over. Also the Ganges river is seen as very spiritual and holy water. There are yoga & massage centres all over the place and lots of westeners go 'big time' into this 'karma making yoga thing' waking around in traditional Hindi clothes.....(dont ask me why). And the Hindi people prefer to walk around in westener clothes. It's a funny world.

The holy water of the Gangas

In the large eddies of the Ganges there big waterbuffeloo, cooling down with their heads and horns just above the water. On the riverbanks there monkeys playing around before disapering off into the jungle. It's great to see all these wildlife entertainment whilst paddling. This river has BIG rapids (a flow of 1000cms) with 3-4 meter high waves and big crashing waves that can easy flip a raft but the lines to paddle are fairly easy. I don't like shallow rivers with stones I'm always afraid to hurt myself when opside down. The last few days I found out that I feel really well on big volume! It's great fun! The trips are long, on a daytrip we paddle more than 40km. Let the biceps burn baby!

Great, next time more!