After surviving some serious rock falls on the drive up to Purola it was a relatively quiet drive over to the Tons Valley. The weather had not broken and when the clouds did disperse from the valley we could see fresh snow up on the mountain tops. We finally got to the border town of Tiuni after drinking a fair few warm, sweet chai’s along the way. Tiuni is a strange place, situated on the border of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh it very rarely sees tourists so when I arrived with Laxman we were the talk of the town and of course everyone wanted to come and see the latest attraction!!
The following day we had anticipated that the weather would break but again the cold front was stuck well above us. As we put-in people started to appear at the beach and by the time we ran the first rapid a huge crowd of people were standing on their rooftops watching and waving as we made our way down.
It was cold, dark and we were paddling constantly trying to keep warm. As it’s been raining for the past 48 hours the river had come up and we were kayaking some great pool drop pushy whitewater. The water temperature was not great and Laxman was saying he had not been this cold since he was up in Ladakh! The rapids continued, including the biggest drop of the day. The last gorge was absolutely stunning and as we reached the take-out the sun began to break through and the clouds started to slowly disperse.
By the time we tied the kayaks to the roof of the jeep the temperature was warming up and I looked to Laxman and said we should run this section again tomorrow. He looked as though I was crazy but with a smile on my face I explained that the weather had now broken, the temperature would only increase and the section was so good it would be worth the 3 hour drive back up to Tiuni.
The next day did not disappoint!!! The sun was out, the temperature had certainly warmed up and with feeling in my fingers I could finally open and close my camera dry bag.
It was a great day kayaking down to Minus, we managed to get some great shots and really enjoy the beauty of this river and the quality whitewater that the Lower Tons has.
Once we met up with our driver and we headed straight back to Rishikesh. Along the drive we saw just what the Himalayan roads can do with plenty of car wrecks along the way. After some 6 hours of driving we arrived in Rishikesh with the International Yoga festival in full swing…..
Kayak School Arlberg
Austria
www.gokayaking.at
0043 (0)676 5303878
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