Rafting down the Brahmaputra - a travelogue from pre-blog days
Once upon a time - in a previous century, an earlier avatar, I found myself at Leh, on the Indus , enrolled for a (whitewater) river-rafting course. [Why whitewater? Learn about river rapids here ]. And another on the Ganges at Rishkesh , a year later. And very soon - "You are the first Indian woman to raft down the Brahmaputra !"..exclaimed a colleague. Not possible...arguable, I said. Who cared? There was the Brahmaputra, and there were the set of six rafts and a couple of kayaks, and all around me were the team of 21 Americans and 6 Air Force colleagues. The mission? A self-contained, 12-day, 110+ km, self-contained Indo-US whitewater expedition on the Brahmaputra from Tuting to Pasighat . Team leader JB had a motley crowd of first and old timers to shepherd around, so did his Indian counterpart Sqn Ldr TS. Me? Oh a 'veteran' with a 'vast' experience of 4 days on the Indus at Leh a summer ago, and another 4 days on the Ganges at Shivpuri as a warm up for ...