Hrishikesh Diaries (The canyon swing episode)

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I boarded the bus to Rishikesh at 23:00 hours. It was really chilly in the bus and I ended up changing my sleeping position every fifteen minutes. The driver's rash driving made things even worse. As a result, I spent the entire night, without being able to sleep.

I reached Hrishikesh before dawn. It was so cold that I found it difficult to talk; so much so, that when some auto guys came to me, asking if I needed a ride, all I did was shake my head. I decided to spend my time at the bus stand till dawn broke. I stood for a while, walked around and finally sat down at a tea shop.

After dawn, I boarded an auto rickshaw to get to the office of Jumpin Heights. It was still early and very cold. Since I was tired, I sat down at the stairs and dozed off for a while. A while later, I was woken up by one of the employees. I quickly got myself registered and headed for the bus.

It was a beautiful walk across the Lakshman Jhula at that time of the day. The sun was just up, the breeze was cold and not many people were around. Across the bridge, I found the bus waiting for me. A few minutes later, we were off. I met my instructor Mike on the bus. Apparently we had some common interests; we spoke about travel, adventure and combat on the way.

After a long ride, we reached the spot. A lady observed my calm demeanour and asked me whether I had been there before.

I had my breakfast and reached the spot for the jump. The crew harnessed me up all nice.

Your state of mind before a swing is a bit different from what you have before a bungee. While in a bungee, you are able to stand upright, with no pressure at all, in a swing, the rope pulls you towards it, with its tremendous weight. It's not exactly easy to stand straight. You look down and see nothing for distance of 275 feet.

This time, since they knew that I was already an experience old, the treatment meted out to me was a bit different. So, the last time, before the jump the question asked was 'Are you going for it?'. This time it was simply 'Are you ready?'.

And yes, I was ready.

Mike shouted- 3-2-1 SWWIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!!!

I jumped and immediately got pulled down by gravity. Within seconds, I dropped down and was swung across hundreds of feet. I wasn't able to see much, since the speed was tremendous. Once the swinging slowed down, I felt free. I looked up and saw the mountains and the sky; I looked down and saw the waters. I liked the feeling so much, that I started humming a song.

A while later, I was down. Perhaps, that was the only thing bad about the swing; it ended too soon.

I trekked my way up the mountains and collected my certificate at the office. The bus then took me back to the plains. I had lunch at a dhaba.

There were no auto rickshaws to the bus stand available at that time. I walked for a while, boarded an auto rickshaw that dropped me at the market and continued to walk from there. After a while, I reached the bus stand and boarded the bus back to Delhi.

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