The Water Rats is what this group of intrepid
adventurers call themselves - a group so gung-ho they never
thought twice about taking on part of the Ganges no one else
had ever conquered before. Ondrej Krupka was part of the actual
kayak team, while Jana Blahoutova, a certified nurse, was part
of the support crew, who viewed the scene from the shore. She
said the trip was one of the most exciting she'd ever been on,
not least the experience of driving on India's roads.
"Even though all the guidebooks say that in India they
drive on the left, it's not really true: they drive everywhere!
Regardless of whether it's on the left or the right, or even
through ditches: when you want to pass another vehicle all you
do is honk. You don't wait, you drive, and wait for the other
guy to move out of the way. Basically, you just drive."
Still, the decision to take on the Ganges by white water kayak
was perhaps even more daring. Even if the boats' tough plastics
were perfect for the most unforgiving conditions: fast water,
fuelled by the monsoon season, it must still have taken a good
measure of bravery. Here Ondrej Krupka describes the start of
the expedition at the upper section of the river in the Himalayas,
where the Water Rats chose to begin:
"We were about 4, 000 metres above sea level. Rocks. Ice.
No trees. A deserted landscape, covered in mist and fog. In
the distance I could hear the sound of rocks - rocks grinding
against the bottom of the river. The river was so strong the
current was driving small boulders forward. If that weren't
enough, there were chunks of ice floating in the river from
the nearby glacier. Not all that inviting, really."
Sound like something that would make you want to just jump into
the river? Well, before you could your fellow members would
still have to scout sections of the river for dangerous bends.
Then you see the pictures or the film the support crew shot
while they were there: a kayaker tumbling in the water, or flying
off the precipice of a simply massive waterfall. There must
have been more than a few moments when members on shore must
have held their breath and, frankly, kept their fingers crossed.
"It's true that you don't really see everything from standing
on the shore, and it was only after seeing the material we filmed
that I realised what the kayakers had really faced in the middle
of several metre high crashing waves. When I saw some of those
shots it really made me feel acute panic. Even if it was all
after the fact."
Still, nothing cuts down the feeling of adrenaline achieved
in such an extreme sport. At least one thing displayed consistently
in the Water Rats' short film about their trip is the sharpest
of concentration on the part of all team members. In short,
the 'rats are professionals - they do their utmost not to be
caught with "their wet-suits down", figuratively speaking
- and cut down on any risks. Those are simply too real to ever
take lightly.
"I tried not to think about it. It is a risk - we try to
minimalise it but a couple times I did catch myself thinking
'What if one of us fails to come back?' What would we tell his
mum? But you try to push such thoughts aside, because in the
end you could be paralysed by fear, becoming incapable of making
the right decision when it counts."
Visiting a country like India, even to kayak, can never only
be about kicking around and riding over the rocks in the white
water: one aspect of the trip for the whole crew was discovering
the country itself. Being blessed by a local holy man to visiting
numerous historic sites, and just taking in the occasional quiet
afternoon appreciating being in nature. And then there was the
mysticism of the Ganges River itself. While not really a spiritual
man Ondrej Krupka admits he was fascinated by seeing hundreds
of pilgrims flocking to the Ganges' banks at the river's lower
levels. It made him think twice about the power of the water
which he and his team had explored.
"It is said that the water of the Ganges cleanses the soul.
When I saw the crowds of thousands headed for the river I had
to ask myself whether the peoples' belief itself did not lend
the river extraordinary qualities. I don't know, but who can
say? Perhaps it can have a positive effect on a kayaker passing
through. At an especially difficult junction, maybe it can suddenly
fill you with courage."
The group also travelled through a part of India that has since
been completely covered by water. They can remember or watch
the film they shot, but at least one village they visited no
longer exists.
"The dam began to be filled at that time, but in this one
village nearby there were still people selling their wares,
CDs and stuff. The village must be under water by now."
"They stood there by their shops, almost all of them old.
They stood there and you could tell they didn't have any idea
how to help themselves. It was clear that anybody who had, had
left long ago."
In the end, not a trip but a journey: combining a physical test
and extreme conditions with a touch of the spiritual and the
unknown. And a touch of sadness at the changes brought on by
the building of a massive dam.
India. The Ganges. And a bunch of crazy guys and their friends
who call themselves the "Water Rats". One has to envy
them, just a bit and wish once you could try landing a kayak
off a jump as if it took almost no effort at all
