A couple of days back, a colleague at work asked me whether I wanted to try out 'Waterfall rappelling' i.e. climbing down a waterfall using a rope. An adventure group, 'Yuvazhep' was organising a day trip to Vihi waterfalls, about 100 kms from Mumbai. The idea seemed very exciting to me as I had never done anything like this before. I decided to give it a shot. So on a Sunday morning I woke up before four with blood shot eyes and caught a local train to reach the pick up point at Borivali. After innumerable delays and a bus ride of four hours, we finally reached our destination. The location was fantastic with two waterfalls in series and a hundred foot gap with rocks and water flowing between them. The first fall was fifteen feet tall and thirty feet wide and the second one, a hundred and twenty feet tall and twenty feet wide with water flowing with tremendous force due to the ongoing monsoon. Surrounding this amazing place was a forest with lush green trees, wet and cleaned up by the rains.
I had seen videos of people rappelling down cliffs, buildings, waterfalls, etc. and always thought that there was not much to it. I was completely mistaken. Once the safety harness was in place, I was on my own. I had to first go down a slope of forty feet and then a drop of eighty feet. I am extremely terrified of heights, but before starting my descent, I made a mental note to look down every once in a while and see the plummeting drop below. I wanted to feel the rush. Although, there is no risk in slipping as there is a safety harness in place, but there is a chance that you might get hurt when you hit the wall. With moss growing on the wall, it tends to be very slippery and is tough to keep your footing right. The entire descent was an out of the world experience with the water falling on my head while I was hanging by the rope, concentrating hard and trying my best not to slip. Midway, with about forty feet to go, I lost my bearings and was left suspended by the 10 mm nylon rope. At this point, I remember saying to myself, 'I don't want this experience to end, but at the same time I don't want to keep hanging'. When I tried looking up, my vision was blurred by the rain and the falling water. After a couple of moments I regained my balance and was off again. The entire journey took me less than fifteen minutes, but it was one of the most exhilarating experiences I have had.
It does not end there. Once everyone was finished, we headed back to civilisation. I got down at Thane, and took the train to go home. By the time I reached the station it was one in the morning. As the train was slowing down, I saw the platform exit pass by. Any fifth standard kid will tell you that you should never jump from a moving train, and even if you do, always jump in the direction of the train. My clothes were wet, I was cold, my mind had switched off and I just wanted to be home tucked inside my bed. It was then, that I jumped, not in the direction of the train but in the opposite one (towards the exit). In the air, which was probably for a second or two, I knew I had made an incredibly dumb decision. I did not have too much time to ponder over it as I tripped on landing and hit the concrete very hard. I am sure, people watching me were just taken aback by my sheer stupidity. As I lay motionless on the cold platform floor for a couple of minutes, two gentlemen came and tried to lift me and it was then that I felt a shooting pain in my shoulder. My knee and elbow were bruised, but most importantly I was not able to move my arm at that moment because of the impact. I somehow got up, reached home, swallowed a pain killer and slept. I went to the doctor the next day fearing a hair line fracture but was relieved to find out that it was just a 'soft tissue' injury and no bones were cracked or broken.
All in all, it was an unforgettable day with me getting hurt while climbing down a train and not a 120 footer waterfall.
